36 Weeks

(All photos are clickable) (Above photos courtesy of http://www.babycenter.com/)

Baby:

- We've reached the last month/block on our baby-gaga counter at the top!!
- Baby now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon -whatever that is) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long.
- He is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day.
- He's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin during the nine-month amniotic bath.
- At the end of this week, he will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.).

Mom:

- This week has been quiet eventful. I stopped taking the Procardia last weekend and what happens on Tuesday (the day I turned 36 weeks) TONS of contractions! Not just the painless Braxton hicks kind either, these were definitely different and painful!
- The painful contractions continued ALL DAY on Wednesday too. There was no real pattern to them so I didn’t do anything about them and just kept on working. Funny thing about the contractions is they seem to come when I’m sitting/resting and go away when I am more active. I always thought it was going to be the other way around.
- He is still moving around like crazy. Sometimes his movements are so strong they are actually a bit painful.
- I’m still not sleeping that well (or much at all) even though I’m not waking up every few hours to take the medication. It’s quite difficult to get comfortable and to switch sides and to try and stay off your back.
- The swelling in my feet is getting pretty painful now. It feels like the skin on my feet is stretching so much I can feel it tearing (graphically disgusting, I know) and I have little red, painful stretch mark spots on my feet. ewww
- My weight: 159lbs at my last doctor appointment on 8/19.
-Blood pressure: 118/76
- Baby’s heart rate: 148 bpm
- Measuring 37 weeks