Ups and Downs at 36 Weeks

Today marks one month exactly until my due date, and I'll be officially 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow.  I had my 36 week appointment today, and it's been so hard to be patient.  At my last appointment at 32 weeks, the ultrasound showed that Baby Girl was breech, and I was told that they'd schedule a c-section for me at 39 weeks.  I was both worried and semi-looking forward to a c-section - worried because it's major surgery and sad I would never get to experience spontaneous labor, but looking forward to having a date on my calendar that would only be three weeks away from today.  And for the past four weeks, I have been certain that she was still breech.  I've been feeling most of her movement on my lower right side. I was fully prepared to hear that March 2nd would be her birthday.

Anyway, the nurse practitioner did an internal check and when she couldn't feel the baby's head, she asked her medical assistant to bring in the ultrasound machine.  To my surprise, the baby is, in fact, head down, just way up high.  Her spine was along my right side, which means that she must have just turned over because as I mentioned the kicks were, until recently, down low on the right side. I haven't felt any on the left side yet.

So given the fact that she's head down but not anywhere near engaged, and nothing is happening regarding dilation, I'd say that we're probably headed to a late due date.  On the other hand, I'm measuring exactly at 36 weeks and everything else looks great in terms of blood pressure.  And despite feeling like I've been eating horribly, I only gained four pounds in the last four weeks, so I'm happy about that.

The nurse practitioner gave me my documentation to start my disability leave on Tuesday, February 21 (got to take advantage of being paid for President's Day), which means I'm all set to only have one week of work to go.  I'm feeling much better than I was four weeks ago, but I'm still looking forward to having some time to decompress before the baby gets here and the newborn craziness ensues.

We've also got a lot of things planned to get the baby's room ready before her arrival.  The room is painted. We've scheduled an appointment to get a custom closet built in both the baby's room and Charlotte's room for February 28th (it will be so much better than the current wire shelving).  My mother-in-law sent the crib bedding she made, and it looks amazing.  We've received our wall decals and the beautiful mobile I ordered from Etsy should be here any day.  The one thing that won't be ready by early March is a new glider for the baby's room.  The room has two windows in the far right corner, and because of their size and height, we didn't want any furniture underneath obstructing them.  A low glider will be the perfect thing for that space, but it won't be ready until early April.  Although the glider won't be here in time, I'll be sure to take pictures once the mobile is here and hung up and all the wall decals are in place.

Other than that, I just got word that my dear friend is being induced tonight for her first baby, so I'm excited to meet Baby Berry's future playmate. I hope all goes well for them!