holy crap.

my midwives say 8 days, but i say 7. 

7 days….more or less.  sometimes i think more.  sometimes i think less.

last night as we were settling down for the night, my huz said, “we made it to 39 weeks!  remember when we were at 9 wks?”

at 9 wks we were visiting with family in the hills of tennessee.  i remember when i told my dad that week that i was pregnant again and a flash of excitement crossed his face, rapidly followed by a worried expression while saying, “how are you feeling?”  obviously he was happy for us and worried, too.  just as we were…but by that point, we’d seen and heard her precious little heartbeat pounding away for the first time…something we’d never seen in our previous pregnancies.  i remember worrying back then about every little thing…now i just worry about every other little thing.

i was worried about flying.  about going through the security screening machine thingie (which i refused and opted for a pat down instead…whether or not this pleased the security staff).  i worried about eating enough antioxidants.  i worried when i’d forget to drink my herbal supplement.  i had a horrible time sleeping through the night, especially falling asleep in the first place.  i made a million trips to the bathroom every night.  and we had fun too, believe it or not. 

at 9wks, i thought 39wks would never come.  back in august, march seemed an eternity away.  yet here we are…facing laboring and birthing…preparing our hearts and our home to welcome this little wrinkly pink wonder into our lives…practicing with the moby wrap…and, of course, my huz’s continued practice burping of our cats.

what a difference 30 wks of healthy pregnancy has made in easing our anxiety levels…and yet, many days there’s still plenty of worry to go around.  but not yesterday.

yesterday, at my 39wk-ish midwife appt i learned:

fundus height is 39cm (perfect!)

bp is 124/66 (lovely)

no protein or sugars in my urine (yay!)

baby’s heart rate is in the 150’s (strong and beautiful)

her head is “very low” (getting ready to labor and birth!)

and, finally–though i knew this already and did not learn it at my appt–i have no (pregnancy induced) stretch marks to date!!  this is perhaps the most shocking news of all to me.  i once read that if you have stretch marks from adolescent growing or extra weight, that you’d get them in pregnancy; if not, you won’t.  doesn’t matter if you use creams or not, etc.  well, i am living proof……(so far)…….this isn’t true.  so, if you’re pregnant and feeling some burning or discomfort as your belly grows, i highly recommend applying burts bees belly balm liberally morning and night!  and i do mean liberally.

that’s all i know for now…39wks and counting.  i’ll keep y’all posted!