Pregnancy Post: 36 Weeks

Just 28 days until our sweet girl is due to make her arrival. In one month, we will have another human being to take care of. Forever. Nope. Nothing scary about that at all.

She is roughly the size of a papaya now (or a honeydew melon if you go by my other pregnancy app)! She should be weighing in at around 6 pounds. She still moves around a good bit, even though I can tell she has a lot less wiggle room. I’m 99% sure I can distinguish her tiny feet when she pokes them into my left side. Kyle felt one of her big kicks and was really surprised by how strong it was. It was sweet to hear the shock in his voice. Buddy, my ribs have been well aware of our daughter’s strength for quite some time now…

I have a checkup tomorrow, so we’ll see what her position is now! Last time, the midwife told me that her butt is right below my ribs on the right side. Her legs kinda stretch diagonally across my belly down towards the left, which is the only place that I feel her little kicks these days. She is head down and has been for quite some time! I think she’s pretty much in the exact same position. At least, that’s what it feels like. I’ve had Braxton Hicks a few times. Those are not so fun. They like to sneak up on me in the middle of the night or in the very early morning and rob me of sleep. Nothing regular enough for me to time, though. No bleeding or back labor, and I don’t believe I’ve ‘dropped’. Looks like it’ll still be a while until she graces us with her presence.

Stretch marks are just something I’ve come to expect at this point. They aren’t bad, but they are definitely there. Sometimes my belly feels a little itchy, which tells me I should be expecting some more soon. My weight gain is still on target, even though it went up a little quickly between my last two visits. I’m attributing that to our trip to Louisiana and possibly indulging just a little too much in some good, home-cooked food. Since my blood pressure is still normal and I’m not having any crazy swelling, they aren’t worried about preeclampsia. I just have to behave myself during these last few weeks. No cravings lately really. My appetite seems smaller than usual, but I’m guessing that’s just because my stomach (along with nearly all my other organs) is currently squished up into my ribcage by my ever-expanding uterus. As a result of this, donning maternity pants and ‘eating for two’ at our Friendsgiving dinner was kind of a disappointment. I didn’t even go back for seconds. However, this DID leave us with a ton of leftovers for the following week (which means mama doesn’t have to cook as much – score)! In other news, my wedding rings still fit and so do all my shoes. I pray that I continue to be this lucky!

Kyle was supposed to leave for some time in the field today. We were both dreading it. Long story short, his chain of command decided they aren’t going to leave until Sunday now. What a godsend! The idea of spending nearly two weeks alone this far into my third trimester was a little scary. Now it’ll just be four days next week. That’ll give me time to clean every square inch of our house before we find ourselves in the hospital. Speaking of the hospital, I’ve slowly started packing our hospital bags. I have travel sized bottles of all of our toiletries, ready to go. I’ve washed and folded the clothes we’re bringing. I just have to go around and collect chargers, tablets, the camera, snacks, etc. I’ve ordered a diaper bag and installed the carseat. Now we wait!

We’ve entered into the final countdown. It doesn’t seem real. I can remember pacing the living room with my mom on the phone and saying, “sooooo…I think I’m pregnant…”. That was eight months ago. I vividly remember sitting on my bathroom floor and staring at the positive tests. I remember testing every single day for a whole week. Now, as I sit here writing, I can feel our daughter squirming away in my belly. I can’t wait to see her little face and hold her close. Just a few more weeks! At the rate I’m going, I won’t remember to write another blog post until after she’s here. I promise I’ll try to update before then!

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