Full Term

Today I am 37 weeks pregnant.

You know what that means?  It means I'm officially considered full term.  It means that if labor starts today, nobody's going to try to stop it.  In fact, they'll probably encourage it.  It means that Nerdlet will do just as good outside of my belly as he/she is doing inside of my belly.  It also means that we're going to be meeting little Nerdlet -- soon! 

Nerdlet is still looking fantastic in there.  I had an appointment yesterday where we saw breathing, heartbeat, movement, and blinking!  This baby passes every biophysical profile with flying colors - and even my amniotic fluid levels have fallen back into place with 11 cm measured at the last two appointments (a vast improvement over the 6 we were looking at before).  Last week Nerdlet had flipped transverse which was both uncomfortable and a little alarming, but this week we're back to being head down and cooperative.  In fact, in a rare show of cooperation with the ultrasound tech - we got one of the best pictures of Nerdlet's little face yesterday (it's a picture of a picture -- so not the greatest quality - but I still think you can pretty clearly make out that little face):

COMING SOON!!!

I can't stop staring at it.  Those little lips and nose -- I just want to squish them! 

My own body's tolerance of this pregnancy is starting to wane.  I'm pretty uncomfortable by now.  My back has begun to protest and I am finding it impossible to get comfortable in any one position for very long.  I can't sleep for more than two hours at a time, and last night I had my first experience with pregnancy induced insomnia.  It didn't last long, thankfully.  I think Nerdlet was just hungry.  One piece of pizza later, and I was blissfully snoring away again (until Daisy licked my face around 6:30 this morning). 

My blood pressure has been slowly but fairly steadily climbing in the last couple of weeks.  At my appointment yesterday they were concerned enough by that, plus the increase in fluid retention I've been experiencing, that I was rewarded with a 24 hour urine collection to check for protein.  My understanding is that if I fail this test, Nerdlet is coming much much sooner than later.  Like days, instead of weeks.  Like maybe even one day.  I don't even know how that would work, so I'm spending my time sending positive vibes to my urine (which believe me, is not a sentence I ever thought that I'd write) that we pass this test.  However, regardless of this test - we found out yesterday that they will not allow me to carry this baby past 39 weeks.  So - whether we meet Nerdlet tomorrow, or 2 weeks from tomorrow -- this baby is coming SOON.  Before Christmas!  We are as prepared as we're going to be from an organizational standpoint.  The challenge now is to wrap our brains around it. 

For so long it seemed like I wished this pregnancy away. We spent so much time reaching for the next milestone, holding our breaths until we hit it, and then setting our sights on the next one and now, suddenly, it's HERE. And oh my gosh - this is a game changer! We are beyond excited -- and scared, and nervous. whattoexpect.com tells me that Nerdlet is about the size of a watermelon right now - so...that's fun to think about!  We've been given a lot of support, education, and good advice - but the bottom line is that when it's something you've never experienced before there is no really effective way to prepare for it.  Like every major life change - you just have to dive in and do it.  So - that's where we are.  Enjoying these last days when it's just the two of us, and readying ourselves for this major cliff dive into parenthood. 

SOON!