Full term

At 37 weeks as of Sunday (Sunday, March 21st), I am officially considered full term, or my baby is, I should say. So, if I went into labor today, chances are that he or she would be just as healthy as if I gave birth on my original due date. I get butterflies in my stomach every time I think about how close our baby’s birth day is!

It’s funny because at my last appointment with the doctor, exactly a week ago, I was proudly declaring how fantastic I felt. I was wearing regular shoes (with heels even), in my size, versus the last time when I was wearing slippers around my office and fuzzy boots around town by now. There was no swelling anywhere. Yes, my stomach was gigantic, but I was still able to walk fairly normally. The very next day, it was like my stomach got even bigger and the waddle appeared more often than not while I was walking. And for the last two days, my legs, ankles and feet have become tingly and have started showing the initial stages of swelling (although to most people, it's not real apparent, so maybe I'll get lucky and the swelling won't progress). The movie title Big Momma’s House comes to mind every time I look in a mirror or look down. My belly is in more pain too, not only from the protruding body parts poking me on the inside, but I am feeling it from the outside as well. Sometimes it feels like a really bad sunburn and sometimes it’s like my belly is splitting open, ripping apart underneath my clothes. Ouch! I keep thinking the feeling surely means some stretch marks are going to appear, but I’m glad that nothing resembling one has appeared just yet.

Jeff called me into Mirabella’s room the other night when he was changing her diaper to look at something strange, and comical. There were smashed up crackers submerged in her butt crack! It was so funny, until I saw the front of her and all the red marks and scratches. Poor girl had been eating crackers and they must have gone down her shirt and into her diaper…how uncomfortable! Then it came to me. That’s kind of how this feels on my stomach, like there are sharp, jagged edges of broken crackers (dipped in flames at their worst) stabbing into my belly sometimes. It hurts! Most times when I feel it, which is often, I find myself checking to see if finally a sign of a stretch mark has appeared. Still nothing, so that makes me happy and I think maybe the pain even subsides some! OK, doubtful, but I can stand it a little easier.

Sleeping is proving to be more difficult too and getting comfortable at night is nearly impossible. Trying to flip my enormous belly from one side to the other after my entire side has fallen asleep actually takes my breath away at times. I need a hoist. Why hasn’t someone invented a pregnancy hoist, a crane or something? Luckily I have a husband to pull me up from the sofa or push me off the sofa when I need it, which is regularly now, but what’s a girl to do when he’s out cold in a peaceful slumber (jerk!)? Right now when I lay down, I settle in on my left side with a pillow in between my legs (because why is it that the weight of one leg on the other now feels like Chris Farley found his final resting place?), a pillow or two to prop up my feet (since the swelling seems to be coming on) and a pillow to try and rest my belly on (which only makes me feel like I’m smothering my baby without giving me any comfort anyway so it usually ends up just being something I hold onto). The worst is when I finally get “comfortable”, it’s time for another bathroom break.

Plus, I’m convinced that I have no less than 50 dreams a night. Some are just totally crazy and off the wall, others are all too realistic, but both leave me waking up feeling like I haven’t slept. I always remember them when they wake me, but in the morning, most of the details that made them make some sense so I can explain them to Jeff have been completely erased from my memory, which I’m sure he is thankful for. We all know how fun it is to listen to someone else’s explanation of their dreams.

I’m getting sleepy again at this stage and I’m still annoyed with all the bloody noses I’ve been getting. There have been no migraines though for a long time, since whenever I last wrote about it, which has been awesome. I’ve been having Braxton Hicks contractions for quite a while, but they have been getting progressively more prominent the last couple weeks, sometimes stopping me in my tracks.

As anyone who has ever been pregnant can tell though, these things I’ve mentioned above are all extremely tolerable, especially considering what many have to go through. The last few weeks can definitely be the toughest, as is the case for me, but I’ve been so fortunate to have great experiences with my two pregnancies. I really enjoy being pregnant and I’ll very much miss many parts of it (even my mammoth belly…and even more so when my mammoth belly turns to mush!). Someone please remind me I said all this when my ankles become unrecognizable or when some stranger is forced to pull me out of a booth at Taco Bell.