weeks 33-37

37 weeks

 36 weeks

35 weeks

 34 weeks

33 weeks

I cannot believe how close we are to meeting our baby!! We are getting really excited! a week ago our neighbors and good friends, danny and emily chamberlin had their baby. we had the opportunity to go to hospital and take pictures for them, and it was such an exciting thing! i will be delivering at the same hospital, so it was so neat to get a feel for what it is going to be like for us! 

 i feel like i have been super lucky throughout my pregnancy. yes i write about the changes and the uncomfortable things that have been taking place, but most of the time i feel great! i sometimes even forget i am pregnant. but i feel like i am starting to get to know this baby inside of me, just by the way he moves. and it's fun to see how excited luke is to have a baby in the house. we get pictures and videos from dave and court (luke's brother and his wife) of our niece sally (the only niece we have) and it makes us so excited to get to have a baby too. I'm sure we'll be exhausted when the little bean actually comes, but for now, we're excited!

so this is what has been happening....

•  sleeping has become more difficult just this last week or two. I have been waking up more during the night and having to use the restroom...and then i am thirsty afterwards! so i have started putting a water bottle by my bed so i don't have to keep going to the kitchen in the night. plus, the cockroaches like to hang out in the kitchen at night, so i don't like going there in the dark.
• my legs and feet get cramps in them. i will be lying in bed, totally relaxed and all the sudden my calf will cramp, or my toes will cramp and get stuck in a weird position. it doesn't happen that often, but it's just funny.
• walking is sometimes more difficult. the other day i think i was actually waddling...like a penguin. i had been feeling good that day, and so i did a bunch of cleaning....and afterwards i was really tired and kinda stiff. and then the baby decided to change positions so that he was putting a lot of pressure pretty low. we were at walmart, and i had to lean on the cart at times for support. but besides that, the baby has been sitting pretty low more often, and so that just makes walking uncomfortable.
• when i lie down at night, my lungs sometimes feel really tight, and i have to take deep breaths until i feel like i can breathe normally.
• at my last appointment on thursday (36 weeks 4 days) i measured 33 cm for my belly and i have gained a total of 14 pounds so far. and the doctor said the baby was pretty low (he has been head down at every check up since 28 weeks).
• baby is still moving a lot. his movements are very strong. he still likes to stretch out his legs, whether it be to the side or straight into my ribs, but thankfully mostly to my side...usually the right side.
• acid reflux. last time i said it had gotten better...well, it got a little worse again shortly after writing that. it hasn't come back full force, but i definitely still get it. i have woken up a couple times in the night with my throat burning, and have had to sit up in bed til it calmed down. i have been taking Tums...which seem to help. sometimes the acid reflux doesn't affect my throat, but my stomach...so there have been a few times where i have had stomach aches from it.

what is crazy to me is how different everyone's pregnancy is. when i talk to friends who are pregnant i have experienced things they never have, and i will never experience things that they have. i have been asking my mom a lot recently about her pregnancies, labors, and birth experiences. they say you are a lot like your mom, and so far that has proven to be true. 

when it comes to labor and delivery i am feeling pretty good. i have read quite a bit, and am hoping that i can be flexible with my plan when the time actually comes. I do not want to be induced, i want the baby to come when he is ready. but if i really need to be induced for safety reasons i am ok with that...(we are thinking baby will be late). also, i would like to labor naturally for as long as i can handle it. i have no idea what my pain tolerance will be, so that will be interesting. but i do plan on receiving an epidural when it's time to deliver. so we'll see how things go!