It's Go Time

I am 37.3 weeks pregnant today and officially OFF bed rest. I am off all medications and progesterone. These last few weeks have been long, boring, and uneventful. Lately I've been spending most of my days watching marathons of Law and Order: SVU and have started to learn how to crochet. Right now I'm pretty good at pot holders!!!

My 36 week appointment came and went and I was left disappointed when I found out that my body was no where near ready to have this baby. Baby girl has not dropped and my cervix was not even remotely dilated (t.m.i). For a brief few days the doctor even thought our baby was breech! But, after an ultrasound check we were thankfully relieved to find out she was not breech and is still resting in the head down position. Whew! I was so excited to have another ultrasound because our last one was at 26 weeks and we weren't able to get a good look at her face:( This time around, baby girl is in the exact same place she was last time, head still nestled into the placenta - which means little opportunity to see her precious little face! Ugh! So sad. But, she looks very healthy and is doing a great job at practicing her breathing (so cool to see those lungs working and ribs expanding)! At 36.4 weeks our little girl was 6.5 lbs and 19.5 inches long, putting her in the 51 percentile. Good numbers! Since babies are roughly putting on an ounce a day, if we make it to 40 weeks, our little girl will only be around 8 lbs. I can't tell you what a relief it was to hear that! Now no Debbie Downers to tell me that she may be bigger and no stories about how your ultrasound lady was off in the numbers. In this case, ignorance is bliss (I'm obviously well aware that she could come out at any size!).

 baby foot - and all 5 toes!

we have one pouty baby!!! check out those lips!

not the greatest shot, but we'll take it!!

So, right now Chris and I are in full "natural induce" mode. I have spent the last 37 weeks keeping our baby in there, now I'll be spending the last 3 weeks on getting her out!! Now, I know a lot of methods don't actually work and if I have to hear that 'the baby will come when it's ready' one more time I may start to pull my hair out! I'd like to think of myself as a very rational and realistic thinking person. Sometimes I say things in a joking manner (like the above statement) and start to get flooded with advice on how I shouldn't 'expect the baby at any time' or 'don't stress your body out'. I do not intend to put my body in any place of stress and I definitely do not have any false expectations about how this pregnancy may end up. But that doesn't mean I can't remain hopeful and try to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing. So please, don't take me so seriously :)