38 Weeks: Ready, Freddy

Well, here we are... 38 weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't be doing a 39-week post, but I know it's very likely that I will.

I'm just READY.

Plus, living in anticipation is killing me. I'm a planner; this not-knowing stuff is hard for me. Will my life be the same tomorrow, or totally and completely different? Will I be at work next week? On Friday? Tomorrow?

38 Weeks Pregnant

More than anything, I have this feeling like the baby will come when he/she should. Like things will work out how they are supposed to. The biggest thing is that my mom travels every week for work. Most of the time, she's gone Monday through Friday. She's afraid she's going to miss the birth, and frankly, I'd like her to be here, too! So, well, that leaves the weekends. OR... this week. You see, because of the Labor Day holiday, my mom is scheduled to work in town all this week. So, you know... that would be convenient, right?

Still, I know the baby will come when it's time. I just wish I knew when that was going to be!

I'm starting to get all the phone calls/texts/e-mails/Facebook messages asking the same things--how am I feeling, is anything different, what was the latest at the doctor, when is my next appointment. I honestly don't mind the questions, but it does help fuel the anticipation a bit.

At my doctor's appointment on Thursday, I was 1.5 cm dilated, 60% effaced. This was just a little bit of progress from the 1 cm, 50% effaced I was the week before. What was really weird is that the doctor told us she can feel the top of the baby's head. Um, WHOA. That right there is a reality check.

In other news, my belly was still measuring small, but my weight gain has been good--I'm up a total of like 25-26 lbs. so far. Of a little bit of concern is the fact that my blood pressure has apparently been "creeping up" over the last 3-4 appointments. My doctor showed me a graph that showed the rise in blood pressure. Weird, since no one had mentioned it to me prior to last appointment. I typically have a really low, healthy blood pressure--in fact, at 32 weeks, I posted about how great it was that it was still hanging out at 100/68. My doctor didn't tell me what it's up to (I'm stupid, I should have asked), but she said that it's not quite at an "abnormal" level yet. I guess since I started off low, it had room to "grow" and remain within normal range. Still, she told me to closely monitor my level of swelling, and to call if there are any big changes or if I experience any headaches. I think they're mildly concerned about the possible development of pre-eclampsia, but my urine is still clear of protein so for now we're OK. I'm curious to see if there will be any change at my next appointment on Thursday of this week.

I've also been experiencing some minor contractions, but they're nothing of significance yet, unfortunately. Hopefully they're making progress for me, though, because I'm anxiously awaiting the "real thing"!

I'm having trouble sleeping. Sometimes, when I wake up in the middle of the night to pee (still consistently getting up 4-5 times per night), I have trouble going back to sleep. Or I'll be completely exhausted but still can't drift off. I guess it's a bit of insomnia. I slept like total crap on both Friday and Saturday nights this weekend, but finally got what felt to be a good night's sleep last night. But somehow, I still feel exhausted today. *sigh* Such is life.

Last week, we dealt with 90-degree temperatures every day, and then, starting Saturday, the temperature plummeted like 30 degrees and it's been feeling rather fall-like out. It's perfectly fine by me, as I think it's quite comfortable now. However, I HAVE NO CLOTHES. I seriously have like two long-sleeve shirts that fit over my belly. Everything else is short-sleeve since I've been pregnant all SUMMER. I have no idea what I'm going to wear to work tomorrow; I'm not prepared for this "fall" shit!

We've started all of the "tricks" to try to induce labor. I'm not doing anything crazy, but all of the little things--walking, spicy food, etc. Last night, I got hot sauce on my burger even though I would normally never do so, and tonight my mother-in-law made eggplant parmesan for dinner. (She actually had no idea that eggplant parmesan was supposedly a labor-inducer; it was just a funny coincidence!) So far, nothing has done the trick.

We also finally packed the hospital bags. I'm still going to need to do some last-minute throwing of things in the bag, but we pre-packed everything that we could, and made a good list for everything else so we wouldn't forget anything.

We are ready. It's time. I keep telling the baby to come on out of there! The outside world is a lot of fun! :)