36 weeks - getting closer!

"Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of his first bowel movement. At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely he's in a head-down position."

Here is a pretty accurate picture of how he is right now. He loves to shove those feet up in my ribs - I swear this week he's actually been hitting bone. Ow!

This picture was taken on Friday - so pretty close to 36 weeks. A couple of people have commented that they think he's dropped. I don't know if he officially has, but he's definitely moving lower. I can breath easier and there is more pressure down low.



I had my 36 week appointment today and all went well! I'm measuring at 37 weeks, which is just fine. She said if I continue to measure further ahead we may do an ultrasound in a week or two to check his size. The cervix is softened (thank you braxton hicks!) but no dilation yet. (Also, right what we expected for this week.) I switch from lovenox to heparin today and got to talk to Dr. B about it for awhile. (Ok, so I actually cried about it - it's just nerve wracking!) I take it every 12 hours and the hope is that by the time I want an epidural it will have been 12 hours since my last shot. We'll know more as things progress, but if I think I'm going into labor and it's time for a shot, then I'll skip that one. They also don't want to let me really go past 40 weeks so someone is supposed to be calling to schedule an induction for then, just to have it on the books.

I feel like I've been losing my mind lately - Luke is sucking up all of my brain cells. Some examples: I wore a shirt to work inside out and didn't realize it for about 2 hours, I shut off the light in my boss's office - right as he was walking into it, I put a put holder away in our telephone book drawer, I tried to put sour cream away in the pantry, and today as I was trying to ship something via fedex, I put the fedex label in the inside of the envelope. Oops.

We found out this week that Jason won't have to use vacation time for his week off - he gets a week of paternity leave! Thank you Chase bank!

And to finish off this post - here is a picture of my snack today. A piece of nestle crunch, dipped straight into the peanut butter jar. Can I continue to eat snacks like this when I'm not pregnant? :) (And in my defense, my main snack today was pineapple - I didn't completely fill up on this!)