HaleyThough I have felt like it for months, I can officially claim that I’m 9 months pregnant. Hitting that 9-month mark just allows me to breathe a little easier, knowing that baby boy is so close to being full term and fully developed. I’d like for him to bake roughly two more weeks and make his entrance into the world sometime between 38 and 39 weeks.
Of course, I say that for selfish reasons because the past couple weeks have been intense between constant Braxton Hicks (maybe even slight contraction that have me breathing heaving through them), sciatic pain and pubic symphysis pain. The good news is I’ve hit that point in pregnancy where the nerves and anxiousness of delivery has dissipated and I’m just ready for this baby to come because I think being on the other side of delivery will be easier for me at this point rather than being super pregnant.
It is said a picture is worth a thousand words, accordingly, my shirt in the image above says it all. The past week, I literally feel as if my stomach may pop like a balloon at any moment. It is stretched so taut and hard the majority of the time that it’s actually pulling on the skin of my upper back along with the muscles when I stand.
And though I’m am experiencing all the uncomfortableness of being 9 months pregnant, I can’t complain too much because baby is healthy and I am healthy as well. We still haven’t nailed down a name, though I had a lot of comments on my post about my favorite southern boy names. I have narrowed down my list of first names to four that I keep coming back to over and over, but middle names are so hard sometimes. I just want a good flow.
OB Appointments
35-Week Appointment
I took all three kids with me to my 35-week OB appointment. And just my luck, it was a 45-minute wait to go back to a room. By that point, the kids were bouncing off the tiny 10×10 foot walls, despite games of I Spy and the lure of popcorn as a snack (which they spilled all over the floor, by the way).
So for my 36-week appointment, I opted to leave the boys with my husband since the appointment was first thing in the morning and it would involve another ultrasound to check on baby boy. He felt super crammed so the doctor wanted to check his size, and I’m sure other unsaid factors such as my fluid and placenta location. I wasn’t about to argue with another chance to make sure all was OK.
36-Week Appointment
My appointment kicked off with an ultrasound, which revealed baby boy is measuring two weeks ahead. Now I know what some people say about these measurements being inaccurate, and I’m not saying they are 100%, but I do know how I feel and I know this baby will be my biggest yet. The tech estimated he currently weighs 7 lbs 6 oz at 36 weeks, which is the same weight as my largest baby at 40 weeks. So it will be very interesting to see how big he is when he arrives. I’m guessing somewhere in the mid-8 lb range.
I’ve gained 26 lbs so far, which is on par with weight gain with my first baby. Of course, with all my other babies I stopped gaining weight the last month and even dropped weight. But this baby sounds like he just wants to get bigger and bigger. The good news is I’ve heard that the bigger the baby, the earlier they sleep better. So that would be a huge plus for this advanced-maternal-age mom.
At 36 weeks, I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. That is tracking a little ahead of my other babies, but you never know how slow the progression will be from week to week. My blood pressure was a bit high today but nothing was said about it. Hopefully, it’s a fluke and will be back to normal at next week’s appointment.
Scarlett was over the moon to get another roll of pictures of her baby boy. I tried pointing out his features on the live screen but it was too much for her to make out. She prefers the printouts instead. The technician did show me the baby’s hair. My first had a rim of dark hair around the base of his skull, but the next two babies were mostly bald.
He is still head down but off to my left side, with his booty up in my left ribs. But I had read (and my midwife confirmed) that later babies may not drop until labor begins. At the suggestion of my chiropractor, I’m staring a Spinning Babies move called the Forward-Leaning Inversion a couple times a day that will hopefully keep him head down and help to straighten him up while creating more space for him to eventually move down.
Nesting
Besides a weekly OB appointment schedule, a lot of nesting has been happening at our house. In case you missed it, I just posted about tips for nesting in the third trimester since I’m in the thick of it now at 9 months pregnant.
Cleaning
Despite the awkwardness of cleaning with such a large belly, that’s what I’ve been doing the past couple weeks. I’m cleaning doors and windows and cabinets and closets. I’m minimizing by throwing away trash bags full of stuff. James Michael caught me cleaning out the playroom last week and broke out in tears about the toys I was trashing. Of course, most of the items were broken or missing pieces, but I got rid of two trash bags full of playroom junk. I feel like I just cleaned out the playroom a few months ago, but getting rid of more stuff felt so liberating.
Cooking
I’m really hoping to dedicate a whole post to this, but I’m slowly but surely stocking away a couple freezer meals a week. This past week, I cleaned out our deep freezer chest, taking out all our food and trying my best to reorganize to make room for any more meals I can muster up these final few weeks. Instead of cooking (or halfway cooking) meals then freezing them, I’ve earmarked several recipes for freezer packs from New Leaf Wellness that will be much faster to throw together at the last minute. I’m hoping to put some of these together next week while my boys are in a nature camp half the day.
Hand-Me-Downs
I’ve also been so fortunate to get hand-me-downs from my sister and two friends. Of course, I passed down my boys’ clothes to my nephew, which means that some of the clothes I’m getting back are very very used. But regardless, I have a great stash of clothes for this baby. And since I don’t know how fast he will grow, it’s nice to have varying size options for every season. Because of his belly, Beau was fitting into 12-month clothes at not even 5 months old. Then tiny Scarlett, who was in the 5th percentile for the longest time, weighed the same at a year old as Beau at 4.5 months old. You just never know about kids’ sizes.
Nursery
The nursery is nearly finished. We set up the crib a week ago and I’ve got the diaper changing area ready. The last thing on my to-do list is finish up a simple nursing station. Scarlett has had a grand time trying out all her baby dolls in the crib, rock and play and bouncy seat. Nearly every day she asks if this is the day her baby boy will come.
See my past posts about being 9 months pregnant: baby 1 (38 weeks), baby 2 (37 weeks), baby 3 (36 weeks). And looking back on all the pictures, goodness gracious is my bump by far the biggest this go round!.
