Baby Update: 37 Weeks

37 Weeks

*I'm moving to updating weekly instead of biweekly because I really want to document this last part of my pregnancy*

How far along? 37 weeks as of this last Thursday! I'm past the 37 week mark and it is now considered "safe" to have the baby with my midwife. 

Baby Size: About the size of a "mini watermelon."

  Total weight gain: 36ish lbs. I've stopped weighing myself at home and now just wait for my midwife appointments. 

 Maternity clothes? I just keep rotating through the few that still fit.

Stretch Marks? Still none, thankfully. My midwife mentioned that it could be because I've taking fish oil which really helps with skin elasticity. But it also could be genetics, because my mom didn't get any either. Although, there still could be four weeks to go!

Sleep: For most of the week, sleep was restless and interrupted. It's just so hard to get comfortable with such a big belly.

Best moment this week: Getting six crockpot freezer meals done and packed away in our fridge. And my friend coming over to help me put the last of the baby stuff away! I'm really starting to feel prepared.

Miss Anything? Being small.

Movement: Still kicking up a storm! Baby is moving so much and there have been so many more painful pokes and jabs lately because they are so strong. Baby also seems to like to flail all of its limbs at once and try to stretch itself out...

Food cravings: Fruit and sugar.

Gender Prediction: As my husband says, we feel it's a girl, but we think it's a boy. I really feel like it's a girl, but think most likely it's a boy (because of his family's track record with having boys!).

Symptoms: More contractions, but nothing falling into a regular pattern. My feet are hurting more also because of how much weight they're being forced to bear.

Mood:  I'm happy because of all the things we accomplished this week, like getting the carseat and buying the stroller, but I'm dreading this next week before it even begins because of all the things I have packed into it. I know I'm supposed to be slowing down, but instead it keeps feeling like I am squeezing "one last thing" in in many areas of my life. Yikes!

Looking forward to: Getting this week over. It may sound silly to dread it so much, but I have an appointment with my midwife's backup OB and I'm not looking forward to it. I hear he is an excellent OB but I don't look forward to going to a strange doctor's office where I know things will be so much different than the beautiful relaxed atmosphere of my midwife's office. I have to meet with him, however, in the case of a hospital transfer, so that I can go to a good OB instead of just being put into someone's random care. 

Pregnancy Update: 36 Weeks

36 Weeks

How far along? 36 weeks exactly today. For once I'm posting right on time!

Baby Size: About the size of a head of romaine lettuce.

  Total weight gain: 35 lbs. I think I will have gained 40 lbs. by the end, which is so much more than I thought I would! But I know it is still healthy and in the range of normal considering that I was small to start with.

 Maternity clothes? I have only two pairs of maternity pairs of pants that I wear regularly. And maybe 5 shirts. I'm so glad my mother bought me a bigger coat for Christmas because it's the only one I still fit and it's been very cold where we live recently.

Stretch Marks? Still none, thankfully. 

Sleep: Something happened this last week and I just stopped sleeping well for a while. I think it was mostly because of all the things on my mind that I felt I still needed to do before baby comes. Luckily, my mother stayed with me for the past three days and we got the majority of the things out of the way. I'm sleeping much better now. 

Best moment this week: Completing the nursery and having everything in its place. 

Miss Anything? Not going to lie, I miss being small. It's hard to be so large and keep bumping into things with my belly!

Movement: The baby likes to really let us know it's there! It's movements are so pronounced and it's fun to watch all the ripples and kicks on the belly.

Food cravings: Still wanting to eat healthy things mostly.

Gender Prediction:  I'm absolutely thinking girl. In fact, I almost wrote something about the baby on facebook using the pronoun "her" yesterday! All my dreams continue to be about a girl. It will be quite a surprise if it's a boy.

Symptoms: The baby dropped early this week. I noticed it first because I could sing in church, whereas before I could barely breathe. It's made it more comfortable in some ways, but I also have more pelvic pressure. I've noticed that my Braxton Hicks contractions are getting more painful, more frequent, and they don't just occur when I'm being very active.  

Mood:  I'm happy because things are in order at the house and I feel more prepared. Plus, I only have one week to go until I'm considered "safe" to have the baby with my midwife. 

Looking forward to: My baby shower on Saturday put on by my church! Oh, and getting my crockpot freezer meals put together next week with my sister-in-law. 

Master Bedroom Update and Nursery Reveal

Back in October, I had mentioned that our master bedroom was the last room that needed to be finished at our house. At the time I had a to do list that seemed like it would take forever. And it did take four months....but finally, the bedroom is pretty much finished and all the baby stuff is organized and ready!

My to do list now looks like this:

Hang black shelves over corner desk

Purchase nightstand

Purchase and hang shelves over hamper

Sell leftover wedding items

Organize under bed

Organize my closet

Organize my husband's closet

Purchase crib

The crib is ready....

The shelves are hung...

We really tried to maximize our storage because our space is so small!

I can finally relax knowing that we have the bulk of everything ready for the baby. I'm so thankful for my mother, because she stayed with us the past three days and helped me finish organizing everything. We washed all the baby clothes and cleaned almost the entire house. It is like a breath of fresh air knowing things are super clean, because I am definitely in that nesting stage of wanting to clean everything!

This Saturday, I have one more baby shower (put on by my church this time), and then I trust we will be about as ready as we can be!

Sprucing up Baskets

I've been trying to purchase baskets to hold baby stuff as the budget has allowed, and I had my eye on the ones that have those cute little chalkboard signs so you can label the contents. But because they are trendy they also seem to carry a ridiculously higher price tag...

At one place I looked, a basket with one of those tags was $15 compared to one the same size without it at $8. I didn't want to pay a premium for the chalkboard signs, so I bought baskets I liked at TJ Maxx (which has great prices on baskets--by far the best I've seen for the quality) and made the chalkboard signs myself. 

I bought little unpainted wood cutouts at Michaels for 30 cents each, painted them with chalkboard paint, and had my husband drill tiny holes on both sides. Then I laced string through them and attached them to the baskets. Voila! Chalkboard baskets without the price tag!