37 weeks

well, tomorrow I will be. That means, Thundercats are GO! ;) It can happen any time now. I've been trying to be a little bit more active, but with more activity, comes more swelling to my right leg. I walked a mile the other day with my girls when the rain stopped. I definitely felt pressure during the walk. I'm also still doing water aerobics. I try to be extra jumpy. ;)

Today we had our appointment with our midwife. She said the baby is low, but still has room to go lower. She did not check my cervix, because as one midwife explained to me, it doesn't really tell you much. You can be 4cm and not go into labor for a while, and you can be 1cm and have the baby that same day. It is essentially, not worth the pain. I am, however, curious to know what my cervix is up to.

My midwife told me today that they usually don't like people with gestational diabetes to go too much past their due date. I knew this already, because usually babies are a bit bigger if their mom had GD. So, that might mean I will be getting induced at the end of this month. If I can't coax him out on my own. ;)

Work.

I'm still going to work. I was thinking of stopping early and making Friday night my last night, but I realized that we need the money, and though I'm hopeful I'll have this baby early, it rarely happens on its own. If I leave early, then I have to go back earlier than I planned. And I might just miss being around this little guy, so I'd like to spend as much time as I can with him. Work, however, is sometimes very rough on me. The last shift I worked wasn't too bad. I was assigned an appropriate assignment: one with very few turns. The shift prior to that I had a dependent turner, which means I have to ask for a lot of help at least every 2 hours. I can barely reach the patient with my big ole belly; besides the fact that it really isn't good for my back to be lifting at this point. I hate asking for a lot of help. If I keep having decent assignments, where I have an appropriate load and don't have to move too fast, I'll be able to go to my planned date of the 19th. I have 8 shifts left, or less if he decides to come early. ;)  I can do it...

I added a couple more things I won't miss to the previous post, check it out.

Ready to go

While I am not too terribly uncomfortable all the time, there are things that I am looking forward to once the babe is born:

1. Normal sized legs. I would love to see my right ankle bones again. I usually get to peek at my left ankle bones. Some days it is so bad I can barely put on my shoes. (I can't fit in my Saritas (similar to a Dansko) unless I only wear the left one...
2. Heartburn that is rare. I'm sometimes concerned if I don't have heartburn at this point. Tums are a lifesaver most of the time. But the other night I ate last at like 1830, went to bed at 2230, and by 2345 I was worshipping the porcelain god.
3. Being able to bend over. At work nowadays if I drop something, I leave it on the ground. Unless it is something gross that I feel guilty for leaving. But I drop about 5 gloves a shift, because you can never take out 2 gloves in a box without others trying to escape. They are clean, so I don't worry my little self over picking them up. A couple people I work with follow me around cleaning my messes. ;) They really do, just a few minutes to hours later. 
4. Being able to sit normal in the car. I have been ridin' like a gangster for a while now, with my seat reclined back. It makes it difficult to check my blind spots, but otherwise I feel like I'm going to wet myself, or I start contracting, or both if I leave the seat in my normal position. 
5.  Some things in the bedroom are a little different right now, if you know what I mean. I'm looking forward to having a bit of my flexibility back again. Enough said.
6. Eating carbs again. I am thankful that I do know how to eat now, and that it will allow me to lose baby weight. However, there are things I miss, like ice cream, and french fries. You don't realize how many things have a high carbohydrate content until you can't eat them.
7. Drinking alcohol. It's not like I drank a lot prior to getting pregnant, but once I found out I was preggo, wine sounded good to me. I have seen several different types that I've wanted to try like Apple Wine, and a couple others that I nearly bought for later. But decided that since I hardly ever drank wine before, it might just sit on the fridge for several years before I break down and try it. I can't wait to be able to go wine tasting in Prosser for my first time. (But next time I'm flying in. ;) Is there even an airport?)
8. *NEW* Kayleen made a good point. I also miss being able to sleep in whatever position I like. Either on my back, or on my stomach. I am finding that in the last couple weeks I can only sleep for so long before my hips are sore and my body is angry. Which means that I can no longer sleep. Previously pregnant women warned me about this, but I didn't believe them since I haven't had any problems with sleep...until now.
9. *NEW* I too, miss having my baby girls in my lap. They make their way up on whatever lap they can find, but it usually ends with them standing or stepping on my growing belly. Which, as you can imagine, does not feel too good. I think Bella is going to miss my belly. She likes to rest her head on it. I've tried getting pictures but they never really turn out right. Picture it in your head, and know that it is cute. ;)
10. *NEW* I will not miss having a melon with arms resting on my bladder. Not only do I think he might take up soccer, but I believe he'd like to be a boxer as well. He enjoys punching at my bladder. On pretty much every ultrasound he has had his head resting on my bladder like a pillow. And ever so often I feel him move and jab at it. Thus far I haven't lost control, but it has been very very close. I will not miss needing to find a bathroom every hour (or less) only to trickle a small amount of pee out. There is definitely a lot of pressure down there.

I'm sure there are many more things I won't miss, and when I begin thinking of baby #2, I'll have to read this post to make sure I really want to go there again. ;)