39 weeks

How your baby's growing: Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, about the size of a mini-watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

How mom is changing: At each of your now-weekly visits, your caregiver will do an abdominal exam to check your baby's growth and position. She might also do an internal exam to see whether your cervix has started ripening: softening, effacing (thinning out), and dilating (opening). But even armed with this information, there's still no way for your caregiver to predict exactly when your baby is coming. If you go past your due date, your caregiver will schedule you for fetal testing (usually a sonogram) after 40 weeks to ensure that it's safe to continue the pregnancy. If you don't go into labor on your own, most practitioners will induce labor when you're between one and two weeks overdue — or sooner if there's an indication that the risk of waiting is greater than the risks of delivering your baby without further delay.

Most recent doctor’s appointment: Once again, nothing exciting to report. The doctor measured my belly but I didn’t ask its size, and she listened to the heartbeat and said it was 148. I’m dilated to 1.5 cm, which is great considering this week’s weather. I didn’t want to hear that I was 3 cm and she thought I could go into labor at any moment. Also once again, my weight went up by one pound, which was a pleasant surprise. I’ve been indulging since last week and using the end of my pregnancy as a bit of an excuse to not pay as much attention to my food choices. They’re obviously still showing up on the scale, just not quite as bad as I thought they would.

How I’m feeling: I really can’t complain much. I’m not THAT uncomfortable, but I won’t say that I love being SO pregnant. I’ve definitely been having Braxton Hicks contractions, and those show up as both a general tightening of the belly as well as period-like cramps. Fun stuff.

For comparison’s sake: The first picture is from November when I was about 26 weeks pregnant; the second is from Tuesday when I was 39 weeks (And 1 day, but who’s counting?).

Workouts: Pretty good until the weather shut down the city. I went to the Y on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday and we’ll see if I can motivate myself to do some weightlifting at home tonight in place of my usual muscle conditioning class.

Food cravings/aversions: Keep the protein; I want carbs, and the simpler the better. Chocolate, ice cream, chips, crackers, cereal, I can’t get enough. I wonder if it’s related to being tired and my body looking for a quick energy source.

Sleep: Pretty much the same: I fall asleep fast and hard and generally sleep well except for getting up once to go to the bathroom. If I go to bed before the McHusband, he typically follows me less than an hour later and I don’t know that I’ve woken up once when he crawls in next to me.

Movement: Still a fair amount of movement and considering how cramped the McBaby must be in there, it can’t be all that easy for him to wiggle around.

Belly button in or out: Out and proud!

Rings on or off: On and fitting fine, even almost slipping off when I’m cold.

Recent fun or interesting things: Well, the McHusband got the car seat bases installed in our cars, and I’ve been driving around with the car seat in my backseat. Strange to have it back there. For those wondering: I opted to have the car seat either behind me or in the middle. I chose that placement for convenience as far as me getting in and out of the car, but also because when I pull into the garage, I’m to the left of the McHusband’s car, which means there’s not a whole lot of room to get the car seat out on the passenger side. Sure, I could back in, but let’s save that desperate measure for if the current position doesn’t work. As for reaching the baby, I still couldn’t reach him very well if he were behind the passenger seat and I feel like it might be dangerous for me to try to do so while driving. With the baby behind me, I know I won’t even try and that’s safer for everyone (me, the baby, and my fellow road warriors).

Miss anything?: My normal winter wardrobe. I have a fair amount to choose from and it’s cute stuff! Now I feel like I’m just wearing the same stuff week in and week out. Yesterday’s outfit involved a tank top and short-sleeved cardigan. Not exactly appropriate for the weather we had, but I just had to mix things up a little. At least I wore a scarf.  Also, you have no idea how badly I wanted some wine when I got home after my four-hour-and-fifteen-minute drive home in the snow yesterday.

{The McHusband and I are enjoying a snow day at home today.  At least, let’s hope that’s what we’re doing rather than braving terrible road conditions thanks to an impatient McBaby.}