Pregnancy: Week 39

Apologies for the delay in posting...my computer has had a meltdown apparently caused by the motherboard so I have limited access at the moment. Anyway, today is officially my due date and the beginning of week 40, but we can catch up on week 39 since I am still pregnant and we are still waiting for baby girl to arrive.  According to my emails, at week 39, the baby weighs over 7 pounds and is over 20 inches in length, the weight of a mini watermelon.  She is almost ready to come out but must still be working on her lungs since she is still in there!

This picture was taken Wednesday, my last day of work.  I was able to wrap everything up and transfer my cases and at a certain point it seemed saner to have a last day instead of going in and having people say, "you're still here?", stating the obvious in the nicest possible way...So we are trying to keep busy and enjoy some down time before baby girl's arrival. I am continuing to feel good and get my workouts in, and trying to sleep in when I can since I know my days are numbered.

We had a quiet thanksgiving together and I was able to have apple pie, which I was worried I would miss if I was in the hospital on thanksgiving--yum!:

I have also been sewing to stay occupied and made some more decorations for the baby's room:

 I made these flags with the leftover fabric from the bird mobile and we hung them so the baby can see them from her bed...it is nice to have some more color in the room.  We are very excited to meet the baby but trying to be patient for her to arrive when she is good and ready!

Pregnancy: Week 38

We are really getting close now! This is day 5 of week 38, meaning we are less than ten days away from my due date.  Of course, that means she could come after that too, but it is still exciting. At week 38, baby girl is now 6.8 pounds, a larger watermelon compared with last week, and is over 19 1/2 inches long, like a leek.  She is still putting on weight and working on her lung development although she is getting closer and closer to being ready for life outside.

I am still feeling good overall although the baby seems to be dropping slowly day by day.  I was a little more dilated at this week's appointment but I am not having any significant pre-labor or early labor symptoms.  I am still managing to work out three times a week and doing okay.  I am wrapping things up at work and it is hard to believe that I will be leaving soon, at least for a few months.  Now that the nursery is just about finished, we are making sure we are as ready as we can be for our little girl and trying to be patient.  But we are so excited to meet her!

Nursery tour

While the nursery has been nearly finished for over a month and may still have a few tweaks along the way, it is basically finished and ready for our little girl to arrive whenever she is ready. So we thought you might like to see a tour of the space we have been getting ready for her.

Here is the view from the doorway. You can see our ikea bookcase and the lovely glider that was a shower gift from my parents:

Once you enter the room and turn to the right, you can see the dresser, which is on the opposite wall from the bookcase.  The curtain is an old piece of fabric I bought while I was in south africa from nuns in zimbabwe. I used to wear it as a wrap skirt but don't any more. To make it into a curtain I just took out the darts for the skirt and added ribbon tabs at the top.  The animal pictures are from an old calendar.

Turning to the right again from the dresser is the bed.  We chose to do a floor bed instead of a crib and used some decorations from South America to make the space more interesting.

Above the bed is the big decoration project I have been working on--a bird mobile:

Here is an up close view of the birds.  I sewed them by hand using the fabrics I bought and mentioned a while back, and then stuffed them.  JP cut off a branch of the grapefruit tree on our back patio and sanded it so it would be ready to live inside.  I sewed the birds onto the branch and then we made our way through trial and error to hang them up this weekend.  I am really happy with how they turned out!

From the bed area, here is the view looking back towards the wall with the bookcase.  I love the wall decal tree that we got from our registry and how well it fits the space we have.  The bookcase is full of all the treasures from our shower and we look forward to being able to use everything once our little one shows up!

In this closer view of the glider, you can see the great blanket that JP's grandma made for us and the pillow cover that I made with the leftover fabric from my bird mobile project. 

I do have one more small project I am working on with the rest of the leftover fabric but it will be a minor addition to the room once I get it done.  For now it is keeping me occupied while I rest on the couch and be patient waiting for our little girl to decide to make her entrance. I will be sure to share pictures when it is done.

Triathlon!

Last weekend we made the trip up to Casa Grande for JP and his Mom and Step-Dad to compete in the Casa Grande triathlon.  This was JP's second triathlon after the one he completed in Rocky Point this spring.  We got up at 4:45 so that we could leave by 5:30--in the dark! and cold!--to make the drive.  Saturday happened to be the coldest day this fall so it was tempting to skip the trip, but it felt more appropriate to be awake once the sun came up as we approached Casa Grande, which is a little over an hour from Tucson. 

The triathlon consisted of a 400 meter swim in the pool, a 10.3 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run.  The intrepid competitors got their transition stations set up and then went over to the pool, where the swim was done serpentine-style.  Tom, JP's step dad, jumped up near the front of the line but JP and Mary, his mom, stayed back. This was the scene at the pool:

Look at all those people in line!  At least the pool was heated.  Here is Tom on his swim:

You can see that the pool is somewhat crowded but not terrible.  Finally, JP got in and started passing people (the first picture you can clearly see JP in his gray swim cap in the middle of the picture; the second one you can see his gray cap again approaching the wall):

It obviously got a lot more crowded as the time went on...And here is Mary near the end of her swim:

After the swim, the racers had to run/walk barefoot back to the transition area, where they hopped on their bikes and went out on the route.  I didn't follow them so I don't have pictures. Instead I went and waited near the finish line to welcome them after they were done.  Here is JP crossing the finish line:

And here is all three of the successful competitors at the end of the race:

Yay for everyone!  Here is JP and me (it was cold so I had to break out a ton of layers):

We went into Casa Grande and had a yummy brunch before splitting back up for the drives back home.  JP did a lot of training for the race and everyone was pretty happy with their times. What a success!

Pregnancy: Week 37

The clock is ticking as we are now well into the second week of November and week 37 of this pregnancy!  The baby is now officially full term.  She is now weighing in a 6 1/3 pounds and is over 19 inches long.  According to my email, this is as long as a stalk of swiss chard, or the weight of a watermelon. She probably is still working on her lung development but would likely be healthy if she came anytime!

I continue to feel pretty good although I definitely now feel that the baby has dropped. I can't tell if you can see it in pictures, but I can feel it with increased pressure in my pelvis and the sense that more of her is below my belly button than above.  Luckily I am still feeling good, continuing with workouts, etc., and wrapping things up at work.  With the weather getting cooler I am having to get more creative with maternity clothes and my maternity jeans have been in heavy rotation this week.  Today was warmer so I was able to wear my other thrift store maternity dress (above) with a cardigan. Dresses are so comfortable!  The doctor continues to be happy with where things are and doesn't see any major signs of impending labor, although you never know. We will continue with weekly visits, or as she says, "Either have the baby or come back next week!"  This week I was definitely hoping that she would give me a little more time to wrap things up but we are really pretty ready to welcome her anytime. We are getting more and more excited to meet her and wondering what day she will decide to meet us and if she will have hair etc.  It is hard to believe there are only a few weeks left!

Pregnancy: Week 36

I blink and another week has gone by--tomorrow will be the beginning of week 37, which means according to the doctors this baby can come anytime and be considered full term!  According to me it would be nice if she stayed put for another week or two so I can get things finished up at work, but we could make it work whatever she decides.

This week, week 36, baby girl is now the size of a crenshaw melon, or about 6 pounds and 18 1/2 inches long.  She is shedding the body hair and waxy covering that has protected her skin in preparation for life on the outside.  She seems to have settled into a head down position, which is also a good step in getting ready to come out, and seems to prefer to have her torso slightly on my right side, so I get more kicks and punches on the left, although she is still pretty mobile.

I am still feeling pretty good, although I am starting to get a little soreness in my lower abdomen from the weight of the baby.  I am still working out and getting around pretty well, so it is not a big deal.  As my belly stretches a little more, my non-maternity shirts are getting a little short, so I have been able to compensate by bringing back my bella band to cover the maternity panel in my pants (as pictured above) and make people think I have a tank top on underneath my shortening shirts. This should be enough to get me through the next few weeks I hope!

Some people at work are saying the baby dropped more and might not make it to her due date, while JP continues to be convinced that the baby will be late.  Our doctor reports that things looked the same at this week's appointment so no major changes are on the horizon yet.

We also commemorated Halloween this week with a JP-carved pumpkin:

But we were disappointed by the small turnout of trick or treaters.  Sadly, we had to eat some of the leftover Halloween candy and give some away.  Scarily, the pumpkin looked like this earlier today:

And has now found a home in the dumpster...it was fun while it lasted!

JP is doing a triathlon tomorrow in Casa Grande, about an hour from here, so we are bracing ourselves for an early wake up and a cold day--the weather is going to go from high 80s to low 60s between now and then, so send him some warm vibes!