Weeks 35 & 36

Week 35
7/30/2012 - 8/5/2012
Wait, what?  It's August already?

Milestones: My birth blanket is finished!  Some fabulous girlfriends came over one night and did most of the work.  Despite lots of war wounds from trying to poke needles through 2 sheets, 1 blanket, and a layer of plastic, we had quite a blast.  Thanks ladies!  (Note: A birth blanket is basically visqueen and a blanket sandwiched between some sheets. It can be picked up and moved around the house, depending on where I end up laboring and birthing. It protects the carpet and/or furniture and then can be wadded up and thrown away afterwards.)

Size of Meatball: My fundal height is back up to over 5 weeks ahead.  But this type of measurement has a huge margin of error, so the important part is that things are still growing consistently.  Consistently large, but still consistent.

Baby Position: Little girl is head down and has been that way for over a month.  She has been ROT (right occiput transverse) at the last two appointments, meaning she is head down with her head facing my hip, and with her butt up in the top right of my belly and feet sticking out towards the left.

Labor Signs: No signs of labor yet, thank goodness.  Just some minor contractions every once in awhile.  Typically at night when I'm trying to sleep, of course.  The midwife calls it a crabby uterus.  I'm crabby too, so I don't really blame my ute one bit.

Symptoms: My belly is soooo ITCHY!  Damn stretch marks.

Exercise: Things are really slowing down on the exercise front.  Only 3 walks and 1 swim this week.  No strength training because it's too hot to do TRX in the garage, and well, I'm too lazy to drive the 1 mile to the gym to use their weight machines.  Oh, and one exhausting day at the river playing with friends and trying to stay cool.  Oh yes, I'm giving you another preggo bikini pic.  Be glad that the bottom half is underwater.

Weight gain: I really don't know why I keep this category in here.  For the sake of honesty, I'll admit that I'm up a total of 28-30 pounds now, depending on how swollen I am when I step on the scale.  This heat is a bitch, yo.

Other random crap:

- I got up to pee 6 times one night. SIX TIMES.

- Baby girl loves her some hip-hop music.  I have regular dance parties with her (well, me and my belly) all the time.  Her current favorites include Eminem, Pitbull, Nicki Minaj, and of course a little bit of Kanye.

Week 36

8/6/2012 - 8/12/2012

Milestones: Nothing.  Although I did hit up the Nordstrom sale and splurged on some comfy jammies for the post-partum period.  I know that's not really a milestone, but it's been on my "to do" list for awhile.  I LOVE crossing things off my list.  Other things I crossed off this week, with assistance from the husby:

- Organized all of the homebirth supplies

- Detailed the cars

- Installed the carseat bases and carseat

- Sewed burp cloths

- Started getting a "just in case" hospital bag together

- Wrote a "just in case" birth plan for the hospital

- Finished up the baby room - pics coming soon!

- Lots of random cleaning and organizing

There are still a handful of items on the list, but it's getting smaller.  And if baby showed up today, all the essentials are taken care of.  What a great feeling!

Size of Meatball: Supposedly over 6 pounds and around the length that she'll be once she's born.

Baby Position: I didn't have a midwife appointment this week, so I'm not quite sure.  She's either ROA or ROT.  She's definitely still head down with her little tushy pushed into the upper right corner and her feet kicking into my ribs on the left side.  But despite my best poking around, I can't tell which way her head is facing.

Labor Signs: Still not much.  The Braxton Hicks are gaining strength and are almost painful at times.  The cramps/contractions are still coming on occasionally, and mostly at night.  People keep mentioning that it looks like baby has dropped a bit, but honestly, I can't really tell.  Maybe a little bit!

Symptoms: Wow, the bloat monster made an attack this week.  I could hardly even get my flip flops on one afternoon.  The round ligament pain is pretty brutal too.  Sometimes I'll forget that I'm pregnant and try to hop out of bed or something, and holyhellf*%ingcriminy, I'll get these sharp shooting pains down low.  I also learned a new term this week - ECP.  It stands for Evil Crotch Pain.

Exercise: 2 swims, 2 walks, 1 strength, and one marathon day of nesting.  I think I might be done with spin class until after baby is here.  Maybe I'll try it one more time, but the thought of smooshing my bits onto the bike seat with my knees smacking into my belly around doesn't sound very appealing.

Weight gain: Nothing really this week.  Holding steady at a total gain of around 30.

Other random crap:

- An older dude said to me "I feel your pain.  My wife carried twins during the summer too."  You'll recall that there's only one in there, so the only pain he was about to feel was his gonads being relocated into his stomach region.
- My sincere apologies to the checkout gal at Joann Fabrics who was on the receiving end of a gushing fountain of angry pregnancy hormones.  It was probably justified, but I'm still not proud.
- FOUR weeks until my estimated due date!!!!