Pregnancy #3: Weeks 36-37

36 weeks

Time is flying by. I'm now 37 weeks. Full term and cleared for a home birth. I've been on maternity leave for a week and it's AH-MAZE-ING! Not to brag, but I'm kind of a kick-ass housewife. I cook, I clean, I organize, I try to send my husband out the door with a healthy homemade lunch. And I've been taking the kids on all sorts of adventures and finishing up projects that I'll post about later.

At my 35 week appointment I measured ahead, about 40 weeks. My midwife wasn't too concerned and said if I measured so far ahead again she'd like me to have an ultrasound just to check things out. At 36.5 weeks I measured 41. Ugh. Blood pressure, urine, baby heartbeat and all that other stuff was perfect. I basically follow the diet recommended for gestational diabetes anyways (high protein, low/no sugar/grains) so that wasn't really a worry. My midwife is on vacation until July 5th so the appointment was with her backup who said I was probably just going to deliver early, or have a huge baby. I'm not worried about having a big baby. I don't think my body will grow a baby too large for me to deliver, but I reaaaally don't want to have this baby until my midwife comes back, and even a week or two after that would be nice. I'm super excited to meet this little girl, but I'm also trying to really savor the time I have alone with the boys and finish up more of my to-do list which is just so much easier while #3 is in utero.

Anyways, after the appointment I had a little pity party then decided to do some things I've been putting off like washing the newborn and 0-3 month clothes, and ordering the remaining birth supplies. I also picked out a first outfit and a spare.

I also ordered a birth pool. For the last two births I've rented the midwife's Aqua Doula tub for around $250. This time money is tight and I decided I was just going to use this fishy pool:

It's 24 inches deep, lots of people recommend it for a birth tub, and it's only $30. Jerad really likes the Aquadoula tub because it has a heater, but honestly I've never had it filled long enough to need or use the heater. With both boys it basically finished filling right when I was ready to get in and push. Plus the sides and bottom are hard and the inflatable sides of the fishy pool are supposed to be more comfy to hang over or lean on. Even though both boys were born in the water, I'm not stuck on the idea of a water birth so if it doesn't work out I'm fine with that too. I'd so much rather use the extra $220 towards a house cleaning... or having the windows washed... or just in the bank.

The ultrasound went fine. The baby is measuring a little ahead (38.5 weeks) and they're guessing 7lbs 12 oz. Ultrasounds can be off by a pound and a half, but that's probably fairly close since the boys were 8 and 8.3. I also had extra amniotic fluid, but nothing crazy. The two combined plus the way she's positioned are just making me measure ahead. The good news is she's head down and in a good position for delivery. I've never had an ultrasound this late in pregnancy before. The baby looked so CUTE! Like a chubby little baby, not like an alien.

She looks so much like the boys. Especially Miller, he had that same little wrinkle in his nose.

I'm having weekly chiropractor appointments which I loooove. I'd been having trouble sleeping and waking up about 4 times a night. At my last adjustment she said I was really rotated to the left and did all sorts of special  chiropractor ju-ju and brought out some weird tool thing to roll on one of my legs and then I slept through the night the next two nights in a row.

37 weeks.

To be honest, I'm getting pretty uncomfortable. Especially at night. I usually wake up once or twice and its quite the chore to get out of bed and waddle to the bathroom. My vagina pops when I stand if I lay down too long. I'm sure it's not actually my vagina, it's some sort of ligament down there but its suuuper awkward and scares me every time like something is breaking. The last 3 or 4 days I've woken up to slightly painful contractions around 2am. Jerad is usually still awake working on drawings or bids on the computer downstairs and I usually have a little panic attack and think "crap, if this is labor I should tell Jerad to get some sleep ASAP... or maybe he should stay up and finish all his computer work so he doesn't have to do it when he's even more sleep deprived with a newborn... or maybe we need to blow up the birth pool and make sure there's no problems... or get the birth kit down from the attic... or figure out what we're going to do with the kids...or clean the house..." then I make myself go back to sleep and so far, no baby.

My plan is to actually do some of the "must happen before the baby is born" things over the next few days like go through the birth supplies, organize them, buy what we still need, make a post-partum care basket and a breastfeeding basket. I'm not really feeling like labor is imminent, but when it does happen I don't want it to be a hectic scramble to get things ready.

During the day I do okay doing chores and chasing the boys, even in this 113 degree heat! I have been sneaking in a nap most days when they take theirs which helps me last through the dinner/bath/bed routines which I've been doing solo most nights as Jerad tries to finish up all the projects he has going on. Then by 8-8:30pm I'm mentally and physically done, usually having braxton hicks contractions about every 5 minutes and just get in bed. I watch TV or listen to my Hypnobabies tracks and go to sleep early. I'm actually feeling really rested! Besides my body feeling like its 41+ weeks pregnant, I am enjoying this time. This isn't my first rodeo and I'm trying to really soak up and be thankful for this time instead of impatient for the baby to come. She'll arrive eventually, and in reality caring for a newborn (and an 18 month old... and a 3.2 year old at the same time) is much harder than some aches and pains and vagina popping.