38 Weeks: She's big. (But not TOO big.)

Another torpedo baby--sticking straight out front @ 38 weeks!

Friday we went to the doctor to take a peek (via ultrasound) at our baby girl and see if she was too big to be allowed. (Like Charlie. And Hagrid.) At 38 weeks, the average baby is around 6lbs 12oz (my birth weight!) and Juliette is an estimated 7lbs 9oz--just about the same weight that Gracie was when she was born (which was at 38 weeks). So she's big, but not too big.

Her bigness does mean that we now have the option of scheduling an elective induction. Woot woot! So when I go in for a follow-up this Friday, I can tell them we'd like to have a baby please and they will say okay. :)

Blurry selfie--but you can TOTALLY see the belly in full form! 38 weeks, 1 day.

That said, we may not have to wait that long. My Braxton Hicks had kicked up the night before the appt (on Thursday) and I kept waking up to cramping and back labor, too. Actually, on the ride over to the doctor the next morning, I had trouble catching my breath. In the back of my mind I had this worry that I would get in there and they would say, "Okay! Go to the hospital, you're in labor!" Ahh! There were so many things left on our baby list! But instead they just checked my weight and BP (my blood pressure, even though I was stressed, was, as Steve put it, "almost too low" haha) and since I'd had all that cramping I asked the doc to check how I was progressing--3 cm dilated. So not bad! (But it is also Tuesday now and she hasn't come, so I guess we've still got some work to do.)

Here are the doctor's visit stats:

Weeks pregnant (for visit): 37 wks 5 days
Pre-pregnancy weight: 113 lbs
Current weight: 148 lbs
Net weight gain: 35 lbs
Doctor visits: 13
Ultrasounds: 3
Cups peed in: 12
Blood draws: 4.5
Baby's heart rate: 162 bpm
Baby girl's produce size: Pumpkin (@ 37 weeks)

ALSO--this is important--Steve weighed himself while we were waiting for the doctor to come in, and discovered that he weighs enough that I shouldn't be able to catch up to him within the next two weeks. :)

If she doesn't come on her own this week, we will probably have an induction next week sometime. Either way, I looked at the expiration on our milk yesterday and realized that our little bun will be born before it expires!!!

Other than that, we are trying so hard to get ready for our girl to arrive. Steve had three days off this weekend (which was FANTASTIC, especially on MICU) so he put up shelves and tidied with me in her bedroom, hung out with Charlie while I got a haircut, enlisted the kids to help clean up the entire downstairs and part of the upstairs, and we also did laundry, worked on freezer meals, set up a little baby-zone in our bedroom, and made a huuuuuuge trip to Costco to hunker down for baby-hibernation.

And since I am huge, I got three separate comments from women at Costco yesterday about the belly. Luckily, with only one exception, everyone who has talked to me about being preggers has been very sweet and/or complimentary. It makes SUCH a big difference this far along, looking as large as I do! I'm not sleeping or moving that well, I pant half-way up the stairs, and switching from my right side to my left in bed at night is an experience. (When we were both half asleep the other night, Steve told me I am like a tectonic plate! Ha! Aren't we such nerds?) So some nice stranger telling me that I look cute or that they are wishing the best for our delivery really perks me up. :)

Symptoms! I am still obsessed with ice. OBSESSED.

You can totally see my popped belly button!

I eat it all day, with water or apple juice or whatever. I would almost rather have it than dessert. It is that weird. I've heard (from another preggo) that the Sonic ice is fantastic. I keep thinking about it, like the mom in Rapunzel and her rampion craving. (But not quite that bad.)

I'm still Braxtoning and cramping and back laboring--yesterday I timed them at 5 minutes apart for JUST under an hour and then they started spreading out again. A couple of them hurt enough to wake me up last night. But today has been relatively quiet in the contraction department.

Steve figured out a solution to my nausea problem! Remember how Unisom saved my life in the first trimester? Well he got me to try it again a few nights back, and I have been feeling much better since then! And it helps me sleep better, too! Yay! I love sleep. :)