35 Weeks

Baby Nate is 5 1/4lbs. and 18 inches long. He's a honeydew melon this week! His kidneys are fully developed and his liver can even process some of the waste products. Most of his basic physical development is complete and he's now just putting on the weight.

I had another doctor's appointment today. This one went much better than the last one and I think I'll be requesting this same doctor for the remaining weeks of my pregnancy. I gained another couple of pounds, which is fine, because it's less than the 4 I gained last time. My blood pressure was fine and I'm measuring at 35 cm. I got the strep B test today, which I was completely unaware that I would be getting. All I can say is that I'm glad I shaved my legs! The doctor decided to go ahead and check me after he was done swabbing me for the test. I'm just under 1cm dilated and "still thick" as he put it, so I'm not effaced at all. I told him the last few days Nathan has been quite as active. If I don't feel him for awhile I'll really start paying attention and I'll feel him but his movements haven't been as strong. He said that he's getting bigger and he's sleeping more now so I might not feel him as strong but I should still be feeling him 4 times an hour when I'm really paying attention. When I told him I didn't think I felt him that often he decided to do a non-stress test. I think we both thought it would be fine but I'm glad he decided to do it so it would put my mind at ease. I knew there was a reason I liked this doctor! The nurse strapped me up to the monitors and probably about five minutes later I became really hot and sweaty and felt short of breath, like I was going to pass out. I didn't want to move because of the monitors but I felt like I really needed to sit up. She came in then and noticed I wasn't doing well. She had me sit up and gave me some sprite. I felt better soon after I sat up so we resumed the test on my side, and that went much better. She said some women just can't be on their backs like that. I think he was cutting something off. The doctor came in and checked the results and it all looked good, which I figured it would. Usually they would start having me come in weekly but since I'm at the beginning of 35 weeks now, I won't go back for a couple of weeks and then I will start going weekly. I was a little disappointed with that because now that I'm starting to dilate, I would like to get checked every week and waiting two weeks will be hard to do. He also said that if I go into labor this week that they will try to stop it but any time after next week they let it go. He also said he was head down, and I had thought that he felt different last week, so I must have been right, he must have dropped, at least some. That little foot doesn't seem to be digging into my ribs quite as badly anymore (he still makes some jabs at it but doesn't really dig it in and keep it there). So that pain is better. I've been getting up in the middle of the night/early morning unable to sleep the last few nights. I'll get up at 3am wide awake and so I'll just get up and do things around the house or play around on the computer. I keep wondering if it's my body's way of getting me ready for all those sleepless nights.

Jaime and Landon came up today and so after my doctor's appointment we had lunch at Red Lobster and then went shopping for the rest of the baby stuff that I need. And even though I thought that all the stuff cost much more than I had anticipated, I was so excited to get all of it and bring it home. Jaime and I looked through everything I got at the shower and today again when we got home. I'm so excited to get it all ready and put everything in it's place.

So now that I have basically everything I need for Nathan when he comes home and I'm almost a centimeter dilated, it's making this all much more real. It's weird because while I know that I'm pregnant and there's this baby growing inside me, just knowing that it really won't be long now and I will have this little baby, just really makes it real. I set the bassinet up last night and I just stared at, picturing little baby Nate in there. I'm so excited and in such super baby mode, and as much as I want to meet him and not be pregnant anymore, I would like to still go to full term and have Michael home for his birth. So let's hope he stays in there 5 more weeks.