Update

In the hospital.  Getting ready for the epidural.  Baby should be here by early tomorrow morning!

1 More Week!!

I go today for my last week of doctor appointments!  Yay!  We should schedule the induction today for next Tuesday.  February 24,2009 to be exact.  I'll have more details when I get back from the appointment so hang out about 2 hours for that update.

The nursery is all ready.  We brought the cradle over last night.  We have decided to keep that in the nursery and not in our room.  I want the baby to be in his/her own room when we get home.  Everything looks really good.  We have some pictures hung around the room which looks really nice.  And all of the bedding turned out great!  Mom is so talented.  I'll take some pictures and post them soon.  We need to go pick up the glider and I guess we still need to paint the knobs on the dresser haha.  We'll do that this week for sure.  Clothes are all put away, bumpers are on the crib, oh, and we need to hang the curtains too.  I am loving the way it looks.  

I can't wait to be a mom!

36 Weeks

Your baby's skull isn't the only soft structure in his or her little body. Most of your baby's bones and cartilage are quite soft as well (they'll harden over the first few years of life) — allowing for an easier journey as your baby squeezes through the birth canal at delivery (and less prodding and poking for Mom along the way). At 36 weeks pregnant, the skull bones are also not fused together yet so that the head can easily (well, relatively easily) maneuver through the birth canal. 

So your little bruiser (who you've now learned won't be bruising you all that much with those soft bones) is now about six pounds in weight and measures slightly more than 20 inches in length. Growth will experience a slowdown now, both so your baby will be able to fit the narrow passageway to the outside and also so he or she can store up all the energy needed for delivery.

By now, many of your baby's systems are pretty mature, at least in baby terms — and just about ready for life on the outside. Blood circulation, for instance, has been perfected and your baby's immune system has matured enough to protect him or her from infections outside the womb. Other systems, however, still need a few finishing touches. Once such notable example: digestion — which actually won't be fully mature until sometime after birth. Why's that? Inside his or her little gestational cocoon, your baby has relied on the umbilical cord for nutrition, meaning that the digestive system — though developed — hasn't been operational. So your baby will take the first year or two to bring that system up to speed.

34 Weeks

Your baby could be as tall as 20 inches right now and about five pounds. Need a visual? Hold a five-pound bag of flour in your arms and imagine it's your soon-to-be-born baby (cradle it, and you'll only get strange looks in the baking aisle). Then stack three such bags one on top of the other (and get ready for some more strange looks, maybe from the same clerks who saw you grinning and holding that one-pound box of sugar a few weeks ago). That's how tall your baby is at 34 weeks pregnant. (Now go bake some oatmeal raisin cookies with all that flour!) 

If your little doughboy is, well, a boy, then you'll be pleased to know that this week his testicles are making their way down from his abdomen to his scrotum. (Some baby boys — three to four percent — are born with undescended testicles, but they usually make the trip down sometime before the first birthday.) 

Your baby's fingernails now reach the end of the fingertips and may even curl over the tip, making a manicure one of the first things you'll need to do for your little bundle

Only 2 1/2 weeks to go!!  We can't wait!  Well, I can't wait.  I'm really sick of being so itchy all the time.  Everything else I can deal with but the itching is really getting old.  I've gained 21 pounds as of Tuesday and I have another appointment tomorrow so I'm sure that number will change slightly.

I am also a little sick of the same questions over and over and over again.  So for those of you (I think Hannah is the only one who reads this thing) who want to ask.. I'll just go ahead and give you some answers.

1. I am due the last week in February.

2. NO!  We don't have a set date yet, we won't have one until the week before.

3. YES! I am being induced.  NO! I am not having a C-section.

4. NO!  We don't know the gender and never intended to find out.

5. It's more fun that way.  Trust me.

6. I've only gained 21 pounds.

7. YES!  We think it's a boy too.

8. YES!  I am coming back to work after the baby is born.

9.  It will only be part time in the mornings but I will be coming back.

10. NO! We are not putting kiddo in daycare.  James will stay home in the morning and we will switch at lunch.

11. The baby's room is green.  Not pastel green.  Kelly green.

I'm sure I will think of more but right now this is all I've got.

33 Weeks

Only 4 more weeks for us.  They definitely want to take kiddo at 37 weeks!  I have another appointment tomorrow morning and then one again on Thursday where they'll do our last ultrasound (unless they do one the week I deliver but I doubt that).  James gets to come to that one too.  Fun fun.  He'll just get to see the NST that they do which are terribly exciting.

Here's what's going on with baby:

This week your baby may be anywhere between 17 to 19 inches in length and weigh more than four and a half pounds. At this stage in fetal development, your baby could grow a full inch more this week alone — especially if he or she has been on the shorter side. Weight gain can range from a third more growth to a full doubling before the big debut. 

The level of amniotic fluid in your uterus has reached its maximum at 33 weeks pregnant, making it likely that you have more baby than fluid now. That's one reason why you're probably feeling lots of nudges and pushes — there's less liquid to cushion the blows. (Of course that means you're even closer to your baby now!) 

If your uterine walls had eyes, here's what you'd see: your fetus acting more and more like a baby, with his or her eyes closing during sleep and opening while awake. And because those uterine walls are becoming thinner, more light penetrates the womb, helping your baby differentiate between day and night (now if only baby can remember that difference on the outside!).

And good news! Your baby has reached an important milestone about now: The development of his or her own immune system that (along with antibodies from you) will be able to provide protection from mild infections.

32 Weeks

This week your baby weighs almost four pounds and could be up to 19 inches long. And though that's a head-to-toe length, your baby is actually back to a curled-up position (you try standing up in those cramped quarters!). At 32 weeks pregnant, you're likely feeling tapping and squirming instead of your baby's signature rocking and rolling. That's because, while comfy, your baby is a bit tight for exercise space right now. Your baby has also probably settled into the head-down, bottoms-up position in your pelvis in prepartion for birth. That's because the fetus's head fits better at the bottom of your inverted, pear-shaped uterus. It also makes it easier during childbirth if your baby comes out head first. Fewer than five percent of babies prefer the bottom-down (or breech) position by full-term. Don't worry if your baby hasn't assumed the head-down position yet. There's still a good chance he or she will flip head-side-down before birth — even in the tight confines of your uterus. 

While your baby is still getting nourishment through the umbilical cord, it won't be long before you'll be bringing on the breast milk or formula (and soon after, the mashed carrots and peas). In anticipation of that momentous transition to mouth feeding, your baby's digestive system is all set and ready to go. 

And because your baby is accumulating more fat, his or her skin is finally turning opaque (like yours), which means those see-through days are over. Though weeks away from D-day, your baby's looking more and more like a newborn. 

And speaking of that big day, hope you're resting up for it — because your bambino certainly is. In preparation for that big first date with you, your baby is sleeping like a baby — with sleep cycles of 20 to 40 minutes long (which would also account for the decrease in movement you're likely feeling these days).

31 Weeks

As far as growth goes, your baby's still on a roll, measuring an impressive 18 inches and weighing in at more than three pounds. At 31 weeks pregnant, you can still expect your baby to gain at least three to five pounds, possibly more, before you two meet.

Your baby's brain is working overtime these days, developing faster than ever. Connections between individual nerve cells are growing at a frenetic clip, and your baby can now perceive information from all five senses. Sure, your baby can't smell anything right now, but that's only because he or she is still submerged in amniotic fluid and needs to be breathing air to get a whiff of anything. Lucky for you — and your baby — yours will be one of the very first scents your baby breathes in, a scent that will quickly become his or her very favorite.

So what's your little dove doing all day while you're busy feathering your nest for his or her arrival? Making faces, hiccupping, swallowing, breathing, pedaling with little hands and feet along your uterine wall, and even sucking his or her thumb. In fact, some babies suck their thumbs so vigorously while in the womb that they're born with a callus on their thumb (what a little sucker!).