37 Weeks

From Baby Center:

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Braxton Hicks contractions may be coming more frequently now and may last longer and be more uncomfortable.

It may be harder than ever to get comfortable enough to sleep well at night. If you can, take it easy through the day — this may be your last chance to do so for quite a while. Keep monitoring your baby's movements, too, and let your caregiver know immediately if you notice a decrease. Though his quarters are getting cozy, he should still be as active as before.

While you're sleeping, you're likely to have some intense dreams. Anxiety both about labor and about becoming a parent can fuel a lot of strange flights of unconscious fancy.

Note from Jen:

Wow! I can't believe that I am full term and that he could really come at any time!

On Monday I had my doctor's appointment and we waited in the room for over 2 hours before we found out that she was at the hospital doing an emergency c-section and wouldn't make it. They tried to tell us just to come back next week, but I reminded them that we needed to find out if Van was still breech and they rescheduled us for later that day at 2:00 pm.

Despite our best efforts to turn the little guy, which even included going to a Chinese herbal shop last week and picking up Moxi Sticks (dried & rolled mugwort plant), he is still head up and the doctor said he is so far up it doesn't look like he will turn.



We are still doing the acupressure treatment of moxibustion (burning the moxi sticks by my toes for 20 minutes each night... they STINK! I have pictures I'll post later... moxibustion is too funny!) as well as other exercises, but it looks like we need to pick a birthday for our little guy. The doctor suggested 7-10 days before the due date. We are torn between scheduling the c-section before the due date or waiting it out until 07-08-09 and seeing if he decides to turn at the last moment. The only problem with waiting is that I could go into labor and then risk more of an emergency c-section than if we have it planned earlier. We need to figure this out soon!

Anyway, on Sunday we went to La Jolla and Sheree took pregnancy pictures of us. They turned out great and I am so glad that we have some good pictures of the pregnncy and not just our every two week photos.

Monday was my last day of work and because of the doctor fiasco, I ended up only working about 3 hours that day! I am now off on maternity leave/ disability. It is nice to be able to get things done at home during the day and not have to try to fit it all in after work. We are pretty ready for Van to arrive... we have the car seat and stroller, his room is pretty much all set up and all his clothes are washed, folded and organized. Now all we need to do is pick a date for our little guy to arrive :)

Here are a few pictures from our photo shoot on Sunday... I still need to edit them, but hopefully I will get the rest posted soon!