As I mentioned in the last post, I suspected baby girl had moved into a head down position. That was confirmed by the doctor. So now she is in the right position for birth, and I hope she stays that way. My biggest fear is that she'll move into a breech position, but honestly I don't think there is enough room for her to move back.
I had my last 2 baby showers during my 35th week: my Houston family and friends shower and one at work. My dear friend Laura made the wreath below ~ isn't it amazing?! I can't wait to take a picture of baby girl in front of it when she gets here! We got lots of goodies at the showers and I'm still working on organizing them into the nursery. Both showers were beautiful. I am so spoiled by my friends and family. I will post some baby shower pics in a future post.
Basically at this point, baby girl is packing on as much fat as she can and her lungs and brain are finishing their development. Everything else is just about ready to go! It was reassuring to make it to this point since babies have a high survival rate if anything were to happen and she had to be born early.
Over the past 3 weeks we finished all of our baby classes. We took infant CPR, the hospital birthing class, and a breastfeeding class. They were all really informative and we had great instructors. I feel a little bit better about how everything is going to go with this new knowledge! :)
Now that I'm down to the last month, I have to start visiting the doctor every week. It is crazy how often it feels like I have dr appointments. At 36 weeks she checked me and I was not dilated - not surprising.
At my last doctor appointment (37 weeks) the doctor checked again and I am 1 cm dilated! (So exciting, haha.) So technically that means I am in the first stage of labor. From what I learned in birthing class, women can be in this stage of labor for over a month. It really doesn't mean anything until active labor starts. Marty loves the idea of telling people that I am in labor already. He is so silly. :)
I love the shirt I'm wearing above. It says "Tis the season to be pregnant." It would get a good amount of chuckles whenever I wore it. It's a bummer the holidays are over, because it was one of my most comfortable shirts. At 37 weeks, I am technically at full term, although the next 3 weeks are still important for baby girl's brain and lung development.
Eek ~ as of yesterday, I am 38 weeks and only have about 2 weeks left! It is unreal how fast this journey has gone by. I'm still comfortable for the most part and am not in any rush to start labor, ha. I got a labor prep massage last Friday with my doula. It helps open and loosen the hips to facilitate easier passage for the baby. My doula said that my hips are tight and that I really need to work on loosening them before baby comes. So I've been doing different stretches on my exercise ball each night. I have another labor prep massage this Friday, so hopefully I have good news that my stretching has made a difference. Having looser hips will help labor go faster, so I want to get them as loose as possible! :)
I know I promised nursery pics in my last post, but we are not quite done yet and I want to finish up the last couple of things before posting pics. We are going to try to finish it up tonight, and if we do, I will have pics for you tomorrow! I'm so excited to share it with you!
One last thing ~ some of you have asked if we have picked out a name yet. We have a couple that we like, but have not decided on one yet. We are probably going to wait until we see her to make the final decision. So, you will find out her name when she makes her debut!
Past Pregnancy Posts:
Weeks 31 - 33
Weeks 29 and 30
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