Great Expectations: 39 weeks

How Far Along: 39 weeks 

Fruit Size Comparison: watermelon

Weight/ Clothes: No further weight gain, which makes my midwife pleased with me. Things are fitting much the same as last week and the week before. I did buy my first true pair of snow boots this week. Don’t want to risk any falls when it’s snowy out, so good traction seemed key.

Cravings: Pancakes... This is a returning craving from a few months back. I’ve had breakfast for lunch a couple times in the past week. Once at my friend Jess’s and once with Adam. I actually made pancake mix from scratch since I’d run out of box mix. They were pretty good. Adam laughed when we were at the grocery store and I made sure we picked up more pancake mix just in case. 

Movement: Peanut is doing his thing moving around as usual...an elbow here, a foot there and his bum traveling from side to side. 

In terms of my own movement, it’s gotten harder to get around since the baby has dropped and his head is putting new pressure on things. The other day I had trouble getting into the car even because it was tough to pick up my leg. Now that was strange. These challenges come and go though because today I felt pretty limber tidying up around the house. Also, I’m finding it much harder to get up from our couches or from bed these days. I’m looking forward to having my abdominal muscles back. Adam is probably looking forward to this too since I often need his help   propelling myself up these days. Oh and while I’m talking about getting Adam’s help...he’s been ever so kind helping me with my boots lately whether it’s getting them on and tied or pulling them off, I’m not sure what I would do without him coming to my rescue. 

Symptoms: My eye continues to twitch....sometimes both. Talk about distracting! 

The heartburn continues even though the baby isn’t sitting as high these days, in fact it got worse this week because I ran out of Zantac briefly and was only relying on Tums. 

Congestion...I don’t have a cold, but I’m pretty stuffed up most of the time especially when I lay down to go to sleep. Blowing my nose can sometimes help, but I think it’s just all part of the territory that is pregnancy.

I have occasional sciatic nerve pain now too...again I think this all has to do with the baby sitting lower and adding pressure to my lower extremities. 

Mental State: I am feeling ready for this baby to arrive...or at least as ready as I can feel since I know there are many unknowns when it comes to having your first child. It’s not that I’ve reached the point of utmost discomfort because my discomfort really comes and goes, but I’m just excited and I’ve knocked everything off my to do list including the final bits of nesting. We’ve picked up the last few items we wanted to get ready for the baby. Adam installed our new car seat in the car. My house is clean. Our doula is on call. My calendar is pretty much open and I’m ready to embark on this new adventure.

Appointment Updates: My weight gain has stalled right at 40lbs gained, which isn’t too bad since I was told 35lbs was a-okay. My blood pressure also continues to be nice and low and the baby’s heart rate is still in the 140s. 

I had my first internal exam this week at my appointment because I’ve been having some new pressure mainly involving my bladder and I was wondering if I was imagining things or was the baby’s head in fact really low. My midwife checked things and I am not crazy. She said the baby is extremely low, which would explain why my movement is impeded from time to time and why I feel so much pressure. She also said I’m 1cm dilated and my cervix has shortened and softened, which is all good news. She also said she didn’t think I’d have this baby much beyond my due date if beyond at all, so that’s encouraging. Guess we’ll see when the time comes.

Best Moment of the Week: Getting to check in on baby boy at my weekly appointment and getting the last few items we wanted for the baby, so I can feel as ready as possible.