Only 1 week left?! I hope!

My due date is officially 5 days away, counting today. I totally thought I'd already have this baby by now. Gunther is waiting until he/she feels ready, I guess! 

Here's what's happening...

At my dr appointment, the dr excitedly announced that I had changed from last week! I was now 1-2 cm. Uhh... that's what I was last week! Needless to say, I was disappointed. I thought for sure I would be more. I guess walking is number 1 on my agenda for the week! 

But he also did an estimate of how big the baby is. He said 7 lbs 9 ounces. That sounds good to me! However, if Gunther stays in any longer, he/she will just get bigger, so I'm perfectly fine with labor starting any moment now! 

We are officially ready, now. For a long time, we could not decide between two boy names. We have our girl name locked down, but we really liked these two boy names and thought we'd wait until we see that cute face to decide.... then we realized it probably won't be that easy since most babies look the same as each other. LOL So we looked up info on both names- meanings, popularity, how people felt about their name that were named the choices we had, we even tried yelling the names like he/she did something wrong haha! ....well we did it! We are ready for a boy or girl to come into this world and have a name. 

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We've now come to birthday week's end. My birthday was Monday, my mom's was Tuesday, and Derek's was Thursday. We had hopes for a March 21 baby so we could link all those birthdays together, but that didn't happen. This little one will have his/her own birthday week, now! 

38 week update

How Far Along: 38 weeks 2 days 

Size of baby: Well.. the doctor scared me and said, "It feels about 9 lbs!" When he was measuring/feeling my belly. Then he said he was kidding and it feels very average, about 7 lbs. Thank God. But, my apps say it's about the length of this leek: 

Total Weight Gain: about 35 lbs. Oye! 

Sleep: Starting to get harder... Just the waking up to pee all the time! 

 Symptoms: Same old Braxton Hicks... nothing more really. They're getting a little stronger I suppose. 

Cravings: Still nothing. Lame! 

Gender- who knows?!

Movement: Moving like crazy! I swear I can feel toes at the top of my belly sometimes. 

Maternity Clothes: Same

Best Moments this week: Writing in the new baby book from my work baby shower! 

What I'm looking forward to: Finding out what this baby is! 

Milestones:  I'm 1-2 cm dilated and 50% thinned! Wahoo!

To Do List: I guess just packing the rest of my bag and deciding what baby outfit to bring him/her home in. We also need to put the car seat in the jeep. 

Getting close to the end!

At this point, I should really be grading papers and making plans for the coming weeks just because this baby could come at any point, really. Instead, I'm on the computer... the best place to procrastinate. 

Last night we had our diaper party. All of Derek's friends, some uncles, cousins, dads, and my brother all came over. I wish I would have taken pictures! It was definitely the most full our little 1,100 square foot house has ever been! We were full to the brim. 

It was so fun and nice to have everyone here, though. We have great family and friends and everyone seemed to have a great time. It's amazing how many diapers we got. 

Don't mind the table- it's exclusively a beer pong table we borrowed from Derek's friends. But holy cow, we got a lot of diapers. Of course, while Derek was at work today, I organized them into piles of sizes. And I loved every minute of it. 

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So today I realized, as I was in church, that I have to actually have this baby. At some point in the coming weeks, I will have to deliver a person out of my body. I'm freaking a little. Then we will have this baby FOREVER. 

Don't get me wrong, I am more excited for this baby than I can even express, but wow, our lives are about to change like crazy! 

Now I know...

Well... I was so excited to find out if I was dilated at all at my appointment on Thursday. I got there, the nurse took my blood pressure, told me to pee in the cup and said the doctor would be with me shortly. I was surprised she didn't bring me a gown or anything, but thought she was the nurse, she knows better than me! 

A few minutes later, the doctor comes in and says, loud and proud, "Oh! Looks like we aren't checking you. I always know if someone wants to be checked when I come in and they have pants on still. Since you do, I guess you don't want to be checked!" Then he talked a mile a minute about all kinds of other stuff and I never got the chance to say that I wanted to be checked. Insert super bummed look here. 

Anyway, he did say that next week for sure I will be checked out, so I suppose I'll just be patient. I had a crew of disappointed coworkers this morning, though, who were eager to find out if I was progressing at all. LOL I love them. 

I am really happy to say that I haven't gained any more weight in about 2 weeks. I thought that was a little weird, but I looked it up on Dr. Google and found that at the end, you might stop gaining all together. The belly sure is getting bigger though. Weird! Gunther must just be eating all my fat. I'm officially 2 lbs over the high point of my goal as of now, but either way, I'm proud of how I ate throughout pregnancy. I think I only had fast food twice the entire nine months. I don't usually eat it, but I wondered if I would more as a pregnant person. 

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On another note, I told my students today that I could actually have this baby any time. They keep updating me on how many days are left until the baby comes. I realized today that they might surprised if I don't come to school one day because I had the baby early. They were really shocked and I had to explain that babies don't always come right on time. They were also in shock that I will be gone for weeks and not days. I felt bad, but I know they'll be in good hands while I'm gone. 

I have to take a picture of the poster they started with baby names and boy/girl guesses. They're hilarious. They know we have names picked out and are so impatient and wanting to know what it is. :o) I want to know, too! 

2 weeks and a lot of change!

HOLY COW! I had to post the comparison. Two weeks sure made a difference! 

I'll post more tomorrow after my 37 week dr appointment where maybe I'll have something interesting to say. :o) 

We've built our last baby item that we will use right when the baby comes. At this point, the nursery is finished, the bassinet is in place and freshly sheeted, the swing is built... everything is ready except for the baby! 

Today was a particularly impatient day. I can't even count how many times I told Derek that I want Gunther to be here already. He seemed a little impatient, too, even though he did keep telling me that Gunther isn't ready and I just need to wait. But at moments, he would ask my belly when it was ready to come out. :o) I love him. 

Pregnancy memory of the week: 

I realize it is March and I wear shoes and socks at just about every moment of my life right now, but I can't stand naked toes. I took off my barely there nail polish and had planned on painting them later that day and never got to it. So for days, I had completely naked toes and felt awful every time I got in the shower. So, after my shower, I took a deep breath, literally, and began painting those tootsies in the living room. (Because I can put my feet on the coffee table in hopes that it'll be easier than reaching all the way to the floor.) It didn't go quite as easily as I thought and a thinks-he's-funny Derek laughed at me the whole time I painted my left foot. 

Now, for some reason, painting my right foot has always been much harder than the left, so at this point, I was out-loud dreading the next moments of my life where I would hold my breath, paint a toe, take a breather, and repeat. So Derek said the unexpected and offered to paint my other foot! 

Needless to say, I accepted and it was hilarious. It was his first time painting any type of nail and he had the weirdest technique- sideways??! I tried to sneak a picture of him on the job, but he snatched my phone before I could take a picture.... obviously he wasn't focused enough on the task at hand if he noticed my completely sneaky photography.

My toe skin around the nails looked just as beautiful as the nails themselves... and since it is too hard to reach to clean up my toes, I let nature run it's course and now no one would notice Derek's sideways technique- partially because the only time my toes are exposed is while sleeping and showering, haha.