38 weeks!

Whew!  Hard to believe 38 weeks is here (well as of today, my due date is only 10 days away)!  Praise be to God that Sydney and I made it to a healthy delivery date!  I love the song we sang at church this morning--Have Your Way.  It was very emotional for me to think back to singing that song after my transfer in church and to think all the way to now and see what He had planned so far.  I am grateful for His grace and still hope to continue to trust God's way in my life.

Well, the big, uncomfortable stage has arrived, especially in the evenings, but definitely continuing into the mornings some now.  Late in the day I can feel a shoulder I believe in my left hip and some feet in my right ribs.  I can feel her almost head butting my cervix area at times.  (My midwife doesn't do internal exams due to risk of infection and really it doesn't tell you much... dilated or not, labor will come on it's own time.  Though I really can't help but wonder what is going on down there. =) )  I can't get comfortable sometimes and just have to move around to sitting to laying down to leaning over a beanbag.  Thankfully, my bed is still comfortable, and I can still sleep through the night with only one bathroom visit.  Well, I do wake up to turn over, too. 

My hands and feet have some mild swelling, but enough to make them sore and puffy.  My arms go to sleep often now in the shower or laying down, etc.  My blood pressure at my appointments has been great though.  My 90s/50s has risen to 110s/60s in the last few weeks, but still very normal for me.  My midwife at my 37 week appointment checked my hemoglobin for clotting and it was 15.9.  She likes for it to be from 10-16. =)  She also just checked my glucose for the fun of it since she had already "stuck" me, and it was 95, a "like fasting number".  And I had just eaten about 2 hours before the appointment.  Yay!  When she is palpating my belly to feel the baby's position, she always comments how tight my belly is.  That would be the constant Braxton Hick's that I seem to have.  Though none of them have gotten worse or rythmic yet.  Other than that, I still seem to have a good appetite and have not seen any impending signs of labor.  TMI warning: No mucous plug or bloody show.  I have been having loose stools off and on for a month now, so that is not a good sign of impending labor for me either.

Oh, I should mention that at 36 weeks, before Sydney dropped, I had an interesting side effect of heat and a full cramped stomach.  We were celebrating Mother's Day a week late at my brother's one Saturday night.  I ate a little bit of everything and was really full.  They hadn't turned the A/C on in their house yet (newlyweds pinching pennies) so I think it was about 78 degrees or so.  Normally that would not bother me, but my pregnant self just got a little too hot.  On the way home that night, I felt a little nauseous.  After getting ready for bed, etc., then laying in bed it hit me, and I emptied my stomach multiple times.  It was so weird!  I don't think it was anything we ate, because I was the only one that got sick.  I then slept just fine and ate like normal the next day.  Interesting to note that Sydney then dropped the following Tuesday after eating our anniversary dinner.  (Yay, we celebrated 8 years together!)  It was a definite, whoa she just dropped down, and now I don't feel as full and my belly was way lower.

So now at 38 1/2 weeks I am wavering between I can't wait until she is here, to I love feeling her moving inside, to I don't feel like being pregnant anymore, to when and where is labor going to start and will I be able to handle it.  But I don't want her to come until she is perfectly baked and ready!  So I patiently wait... and then our life will never be same (as a bajillion people keep reminding me). =)