Thirty-Four Weeks

I cannot believe I am in the final stretch! Today marks 34 weeks of pregnancy! WHOA! Where does the time go...6 week or less before I am a mommy.

I am definitely in full nest mode and have given my husband a nice, long "honey do" list now that he's on winter break from school. I am praying the crib will be fully assembled by tomorrow. To be fair it's a crib with 5 drawers and takes a lot to put together. My honey has been pacing himself so his frustration levels with instructions that only have drawings to demonstrate assembly have been kept within reasonable bounds. We also still need to install the car seat bases in each car and the car seat into our CRV.

I have started packing my hospital bag...for some reason I feel like my little one may be anxious to make her debut in mid-January, so I want to be prepared. Speaking of which, I am on strict orders from my mother that Libby cannot be born until after January 16th. Turns out that my brothers surprised her last week with round-trip tickets to visit them for the holidays in California. She won't be back until January 16th and is so worried she may miss the baby's birth. I promised her that if we checked into labor and delivery before then that we'd call her right away so she could at least try to fly back here in time. Personally, I'd like for Libby to come after that date as well as that weekend is my last big meeting before her due date and I'd really like to be there for it.

So what's new? My discomfort grows with each passing day. I am not sleeping well at all and the other night I only clocked four hours of broken sleep. And I actually fell out of the bed in the morning! Good thing my "nest" of pillows fell before I did, so I had a cushy landing on all fours. Not a pretty sight! I just cannot get comfortable at night...between the achy hips and back and stuffy nose and acid reflux, it's all too much. Basically I have to pass out for sheer exhaustion. That said, I do think the baby has dropped a bit because I feel her less under my ribs and I also feel like I can breathe a little better. The downside is that I feel her more on my bladder and that means potty breaks on the hour. Even in the middle of the night. I am now convinced that God makes us miserable in the third trimester so that we are so desperate to not be pregnant anymore we are willing to put up with sleepless nights with a newborn, poop blow-outs, colic, sore nipples, etc.

But I am also starting to feel I may miss some aspects of being pregnant. Like feeling her little jabs and kicks on the inside. And loving the fact that my nails and hair have never been stronger or ever grown faster. And in a weird way, I feel more in tune and accepting, even appreciative, of my body and what it is capable of doing. It truly is miraculous!

Tomorrow I see the OB for my 34 week appointment and also see the endocrinologist for my four week follow-up since starting insulin. I also will have another non-stress test...most likely on Christmas Eve. Which is fine by me, since I will probably have a better chance of being seen in timely way. Last week, I couldn't get in on my scheduled day, Thursday, and finally got in on Friday night. I arrived at 5:30 p.m. as they requested and got in the room at 6:45 p.m.! I was out by 8 p.m. and was told that it was really busy because of all of the year-end inductions and scheduled c-sections. So much so that I saw a woman, clearly in labor, wait in the waiting room for 45 minutes for a room. Apparently they are so booked with scheduled deliveries that didn't have room for someone who spontaneously went into labor. Yikes. I am hoping that doesn't happen to me. We plan to labor at home as long as possible, so when I get there, it should be close to go time. That's the plan at least. Only time will tell at this point what really will go down.

For now, here's a peek into Libby's world this week, according to BabyCenter:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.