Week 37: Photo Journal
OK, we have finally arrived at Week 37, the magic week. At this point, if the baby arrives he should be well-suited for living in the outside world. Oh, I'm weighing in at 148 pounds today.
Common medical opinion is that the baby can come anytime in the next 5 weeks. Who knows when it will be?! Isn't that crazy and exciting? This might be the last bikini shot we get.
The baby is quite active - he stretches pretty frequently and when he does that, his feet stick out the left side of my belly. Not painful, but I'm glad there's a limited amount of time left for that experience.
In terms of symptoms, probably the worst these days is the swelling. Ugh. It's also more difficult to get up from sitting or lying down, or to roll over from one side to the other. In general, I'm more uncomfortable that I've been yet. However, I don't yet feel "over" it, for which I am thankful. I'm sure if this goes on for another three or four weeks, I will be!
Braxton-Hicks contractions are happening every day, some days more than others. Still nothing painful, they're all just "practice contractions."
I definitely have some worries about the upcoming events in our lives. I worry that the baby will have some problem that we have not been able to detect so far during the pregnancy. We opted against most of the pre-natal testing they offer because those tests tend diagnose your probabilities of having problems, not actual problems. However, neither of us has any indicators for the most common kinds of birth defects or genetic and chromosomal diseases.
I am also a little worried about the birth itself, though not as much. I've heard so many different labor stories that I am not planning too much in advance. I think keeping an open mind and not having hard and fast expectations is probably the best way to manage a scenario that you have so little control over. On the other hand, part of me intuits that because my pregnancy has been so easy and straightforward, so will my labor and delivery be. You can all laugh at me when you find out I'm wrong about that one. :)
Here's Billy spending some quality time with the baby.
Comments
hahaha. Don't worry honey. You guys are both so healthy and gorgeous and smart so you'll have a little healthy and gorgeous and smart baby boy soon! I dig your approach on everything. You've got the right idea. And that BillyBaby is quite a combo:)