37 Weeks

Now we are for real full-term.

It's time for me to start really relaxing.

And walking up and down stairs to encourage labor.

And putting my feet up.

And going for walks to stay active.

It's kind of a contradictory time! Relax, but stay active! Sleep, but stay busy!

My pelvis hurts. It has been a pregnancy symptom that I've dealt with for a few months now, unlike most of my other symptoms that pop up for about a week and then go away (acid reflux, insomnia, pregnancy hives, and even the swelling in my ankle is almost non-existant). And the pain has kind of intensified over the past week. It's kind of like when you went for a super-long bike ride and your crotch hurts the next day. Right on those bones. But more of an achy feeling as opposed to a "bruised" feeling. It hurts most when I have been standing or walking for too long and when I am getting up from a laying down position.

Let's see, what else...I still have the stiff fingers in the morning. Most mornings I can't make a fist (they are puffy and painful) until I've been up for a little bit. 

Still have flatulence. That's been a symptom since first trimester! :)

I still rely on my daily fiber snacks. Couldn't live without those!

I get sorta antsy at night because I have run out of ways to stay comfortable. That's usually my sign that I should just give up and go to bed. I am still getting good sleep, but sometimes it takes me awhile to get comfortable after getting into bed. Ava has to adjust, and then I have to adjust. Having her little head on the side makes this difficult for us both! 

I have a really hard time getting up the in morning - I am still so tired! I still have a few random early mornings here and there, but most of the time I'm not getting out of bed until around 9 and I still feel exhausted.

I like to take little cat naps during the day, usually around 15-20 minutes long. Some days I don't need one, and some days I take 3!

My weight gain. Let's talk about that for a second.

I think I've always weighed more than people think. I carry a lot of weight in my curves, so I've never really been a "numbers" girl, because I feel how you look (and your overall health) is more important than what the scale says.

But man, it is so hard to see how fast that scale creeps up...

I am thankful for the automatic 10 pounds or so I will lose during delivery!

Of course, the weight gain is all for a wonderful and beautiful reason!

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I had a few doctor appointments this week. The first one was a check up, in which the doctor was able to literally move Ava to a head down position! You can read more about that appointment here.

A few days later I went in for another growth scan.

We learned 2 very important things.

Ava has hair!!! It's not very easy to see in the images we were given, but when the tech was measuring her head circumference, one whole side of the outline of her head was squiggly - which means hair!

In this image, you can see a bit of hair on the top (the squiggly lines) and her little hand right up by her face.

And this is another image of her profile...

...and she's still head down!!!!

We were completely shocked! I thought for sure, without a doubt, that she had rotated back to transverse after Tuesday's appointment. When I have my Braxton Hicks contractions I can feel where her body is, and I felt the usual 2 lumps on each side. Well....either she is moving back and forth between transverse and head down, or I have no idea what I'm feeling anymore! Or it could be both! She may have just gotten in a more comfortable head down position and moved around a bit, making me think she was back to transverse.

I am clearly not an expert!

I would love to have my own ultrasound machine to just see where all of her body parts are on a daily basis! She's got us so confused!

Her head is not right on top of my cervix, so she still has a bit of adjusting to do before she is exactly where she needs to be.

So it looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of walking to encourage her!

We will get an update about her kidney at my next appointment in a week.

We did the Pre-Admission paperwork! Ahhhh!!!

We decided that we would spell her name Ava Mckenzie, not Ava McKenzie. No capital "K".

I got my parking pass for the hospital! Isn't it fancy?!

People. Can we please get this apostrophe thing figured out?! Drives me nuts!! Or should I say, "nut's", haha?!

So, Ava, we shall see you in 2 weeks!

Or in 3 weeks!

Or if you're late, maybe even 4 weeks!

Ava, you'd better not make us wait 5 weeks.

I am going to ask at my next appointment if they will let me go past the due date. Or if we could induce (assuming she is still head down) instead of a c-section on the 27th. I suddenly feel like I have a lot of questions!

I think the stripes in this dress created an illusion - my belly looks way smaller in this photo:

This doesn't even look right. I mean, how is there a 6+ pound baby in there?! I don't get it.