Progess

How far along? 37 Weeks – full term! J Eeeek!
Total weight gain: 27 lbs, damn…
Maternity clothes? Yes.
Stretch marks? Nope. Praying my skin holds on the short time until Petal is born!
Sleep: terrible, as per usual of late.
Best moment this week: setting up the Christmas tree last night, cuddling with J and talking about our baby’s arrival and life with her… life before her.
Miss Anything? Not much has changed – sushi, good red wine,
Movement: All day and night!
Food cravings: Sushi, frozen yogurt with fresh fruit (wishing we had a Pinkberry in MN!), rotisserie chicken salad and corn bread from Red Stone in EP. Sigh…
Anything making you queasy or sick: all of the venison my husband has brought home/processed in our house – for a second time!
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: I’m dilated 1+cm, the baby has dropped and I’m 75% effaced! Eeeeeeek! J ANY DAY! C’mon Petal (well, any time after Wednesday, I’d be happy).
Symptoms: Lots of aches and pains at this point, feeling slightly swollen in general.
Belly Button in or out? Flat and weird looking! My stomach hasn’t grown or changed too much, which is a good thing.
Wedding rings on or off? Band – on, engagement ring – off.
Happy or Moody most of the time: pretty even keel this week, with the exception of my meltdown towards Jeremy about not helping me clean the house, hanging out with his buddies instead. J
Looking forward to: Christmas. Petal’s arrival. Jessi, and Aubrey’s arrival in two days!

A couple things I should note:

1. I cut my hair. 3 inches gone. Feels very strange, but it was needed. (baby prep!)

2. I’m exhausted. This lack of sleep, pain in my hip (thorn in my side, Paul?) is terrible. It is adding up. It’s strange, but I feel like I sleep best from 4/5 -10 AM. Wish I could sleep these hours daily to catch up on good sleep – starting to feel delusional. I laugh at just about anything, especially Jeremy (who gets super annoyed – he told me I was going to put myself into labor two nights ago… I began laughing because I scared him. Then, I thought about teaching Petal to scare her daddy in a couple years which brought me to laughing again… I suppose it’s been than me crying about everything?)

3. I’m dilated!! YAY! 1+cm

4. I’m 75% effaced!

5. Petal has “dropped”. She has little space to go any lower (I’m not waddling – yet – so people tell me. Thank God!).

6. So, that means I could have Petal anytime… or still go another 3 weeks. I’m aiming for Thursday and beyond. Tomorrow I have a baby shower given by my coworkers AND I just got passes to an advanced screening of Mission Impossible. Could this be our last movie without kids?? That’s how our conversations revolve nowadays – is this our last night without a baby? Is this our last weekend before we have kids? Is this our last…? It’s not a sentencing, or anything. Although, to some it might feel like it! We’re excited for the change ahead – beit a big change.