39 Weeks

Only one week until the due date!!

Obviously, I am not having a csecton today.

Ava has remained head down, and I am half a centimeter dilated and 50% effaced!!

Not really big stats, but I guess the feeling you could say that I have is that I am "proud" of Ava for being able to do what she needs to do in my heart-shaped uterus. Even though she is head down, she is still not able to lay "normally" in there. I still have two lumps on each side when I have Braxton Hicks contractions - her butt is on my left side and her legs and feet are on the right. Ordinarily, babies would just be butt up in the middle with their legs tucked beneath. So she's a little sideways!

Despite feeling a tad disappointed that we aren't meeting Ava today, we were encouraged to hear that things are happening!

My pelvis has been hurting like crazy at night when I'm trying to roll around in bed. I have woken up many times, on my back, with my legs bent and knees resting on the pillows on each side of me. This is clearly the only way my pelvis feels good. I think I wake up because it's time for me to roll back to my side. And then I wince in pain because that movement of opening and closing my legs hurts so bad! I try to move my legs with my knees together, but that's not always possible with little miss watermelon in my belly.

My bowels have become...looser....which I have read is a good sign that labor is coming.

I feel little tiny back aches once in awhile, and they are not from being on my feet too long. I'll just be hanging out on the couch and it will ache. I also have had a few tiny moments of a crampy feeling in my lower belly. I immediately googled dilation and effacement when I got home from the appointment, and I read that these symptoms can be due to the fact that "things are happening down there". So these are good little pains to have!

I also have read in multiple sources that only 5% of babies actually arrive on their estimated due date. The majority of babies arrive in the week prior to, or the week after the due date. So the window is officially opened! My doctor said she will not let me go past 41 weeks. So I can finally say, for sure, that Ava will be here in 2 week or less!

It was a pretty quiet week. I was trying to stay calm for the potential of a csection delivery today. I've about read up on all I can on csections. But now that we will be waiting around for labor, I suddenly have a lot more to look up, haha! It was a very emotion-filled and exciting/nerve-wracking day yesterday, and it gave us a lot to process! I plan to repack my hospital bag now that we will be going through the labor process instead of just showing up for surgery.

It's so exciting!! And scary!!

I haven't really had a lot of changes this week. Just taking things a day at a time!

Ok, so there is one new thing. 

My teeth.

From one day to the next, my bite never seems to be the same. I can tell they are a bit misaligned because some days my chewing makes my jaw hurt and my teeth touch each other differently than what I'm used to. I didn't realize that teeth were affected by pregnancy! That hormone relaxin is responsible for the looseness!

I am down to a very limited wardrobe.

Dresses.

I don't like anything with a stupid belly panel (Ava can hardly be tucked into it anymore) or a waistband. I can tolerate it just fine the first half of the day, and then I have to change. Chris always calls me out on it on the days I put on shorts and he asks, "Why are you wearing that? You know you aren't going to be comfortable"

And he's always right. :)

Lookit how funny this is - it's not a maternity dress, so I look like a fat cow on the left! I look like I'm 20 pounds heavier without holding my dress back!