Holy crap it is December already! How did that happen? All I know is I am officially considered “full term” as of today. 38 weeks. WOWSA. Oh and to make things even better, my friend Katie who was due on the same day as me, actually had her baby girl on Wednesday. Crazy.

Being the planner that I am, I decided I should look ahead at my calendar and check to see when the next full moon is because I know that tends to result in lots of births. Wanna know when the next full moon is? It is on Tuesday. Yep, December 5th. So just in case, I am clearing my schedule for that day. Oh and here is my 38 week belly shot:

And the close-up:

Nope, no baby yet. (I think I am going to get use to saying this one quite a bit!) Sorry to worry you guys. Things have just been really hectic. I am finishing up my last week of work and I gotta admit it cannot end soon enough. Then Simeon and I were out of town for a couple days for Thanksgiving (the few pictures I took can be seen here). And finally I spent the rest of my weekend in bed with a horrible cold. The worst thing about pregnancy has got to be the fact that I cannot take any medications. I just have to ride this cold out til the bitter end.

Anyway, on to the more important info:
I had my 37 week doctor’s appt this afternoon and have this to report back:

Urine: Normal: no protein, no sugar (yea!)
Weight: no weight gained or lost since last appt (holding on at 6 lbs total gain!)
Blood Pressure: Nice and low
Baby’s Heartbeat: Normal, in the 150s
Measuring: right on schedule for 37 weeks
BPP: 8 out of 8

Basically, things are going great. We had another ultrasound to check the biophysical profile. Apparently I am now having these once a week until delivery, general around the same time as the appointments with my OB. Fun times. But I must admit, it is nice to see that everything is going well in there.

Alrighty, back to the task at hand, here is my 37 week belly shot:

And the close-up:

What else? Oh yeah, over the weekend Simeon and I finally broke down and bought our travel system. He was a little worried that I would go into labor and we wouldn’t have a car seat in the car and would therefore have to leave our newborn daughter at the hospital, since they require you have a car seat to allow the baby to go home with you. So we bought (that was delivered quickly by zego van courier service), assembled the stroller more so than the car seat and installed as needed and are now ready to have a baby! Or at least drive her home and see how things go from there.

It was cute how excited Sim was to have the car seat and stroller. He practiced putting a stuffed animal in the car seat and even took it for a test drive around the living room. Then once we got the base and car seat in the car, you could totally see the Daddy in him come out. I just love how excited he has been and know he is going to be a great father.

Oh and before I forget, I finally got around to getting all the pictures from my friends baby shower up loaded. I have such amazing friends, who really take great care of me. You all know who you are, and I couldn’t do any of this without you! I love you guys! Thank you so much!!

Ok, well I am off to bed. This cold is still kicking my ass. Add that to being 37 weeks (37 weeks, 3 days to be precise) pregnant and I have no energy for anything else. My next order of business is packing my bag for the hospital and finding a pediatrician. But I will tell you more about all that tomorrow. For now, good night!

I had my 36 week doctor’s appt this afternoon and have this to report back:

Urine: Normal: no protein, no sugar (yea!)
Weight: gained 3 lb since last appt (back to 6 lbs total gain!)
Blood Pressure: Nice and low
Baby’s Heartbeat: Normal, in the 150s
Measuring: right on schedule for 36 weeks
BPP (Biophysical Profile): 8 out of 8

We also had an ultrasound to check on the baby’s growth (just a gestational diabetes precaution). It was wonderful to get to see her again! Just watching her squirm and wiggle, while I can feel it at the same time, blows my mind. Plus she had the hiccups again, which was just lovely on my very full ultrasound-ready bladder. Here is her profile picture, in which I am sure she was mid-hiccup.

Since room is a little tight (that is putting it mildly) inside my belly, ultrasounds done this late in the pregnancy aren’t as accurate as the earlier ones. Mostly they just wanted to check things out and see how we were progressing. According to the ultrasound, my due date should be on or around December 3rd (they said not to trust this, but to go with our conceptual due date of December 19th–but I still thought it was interesting enough to share) and the baby is currently weighting in at about 7 lbs 8 oz…let me just let that sink in for a minute. Seven and a half pounds…at 36 weeks! Since babies tend to gain about a half pound per week in the final stretch, we are looking at one good sized baby!

While we were in there looking around, Simeon and I asked the ultrasound tech to double check the sex for us. If I have to exchange all the pink girly things we have acquired, I wanted to know before I go into labor. So she wandered down to that area and got a lovely and very reassuring view of our daughter’s private region. Whew! Still a girl!

And since we are sharing pictures, I thought I should toss in my 36 week belly shot as well:

And the close-up:

Yesterday my boss, with the help of several fabulous ladies in my office, threw me my first baby shower. It was the nicest thing. To see all these people who I see on a regular basis in a very professional and conservative manner discussing diapers and midnight feedings while cooing over all things frilly and pink is enough to melt anyone’s heart. So as far as I see it, an emotional pregnant lady didn’t stand much of a chance.

I convinced Simeon to take a long, late lunch and come to the shower with me. Once I mentioned there would be cake and coffee, it didn’t take much more to convince him to join me for the celebration.

Overall the shower was a wonderful time. Thankfully my car has plenty of room so we could take home the mountain of gifts we acquired. I am so excited to go through each and every present again as I put things away in the nursery. This has truly helped me to feel more prepared for my little girl’s imminent arrival.

All the pictures from the shower, taken by my co-worker and friend Sandra (who actually had the foresight to bring her camera), are here.

Do you know what 35 weeks pregnant means? It means that in just three short weeks, I will be considered “term.” As in the baby could come and everything and everyone would be just fine. Three weeks! I have no idea how time has gone so quickly. Although in 3-5 weeks I am sure the hours will draaaaag by as I learn about fun things like sleep deprivation and being covered in another human’s bodily fluids. Ahhh well, all in due time. Until then, here is the 35 week belly shot:

And the close-up:

I’ve had a Flickr account for awhile, mostly to sign in as a “friend” and see other people’s pictures. I have never really done anything with it personally because the site is blocked by the firewall at my work which is where most of my blogging takes place. But since I am not going to be working there much longer, that firewall can kiss my ass. I wanted to actually get familiar with the site a little and in doing so I found Flickr Toys. So I made this:

Pretty cool, huh? The pictures range from 17 weeks (when I finally thought I was showing enough to warrant taking a photo) to 34 weeks. Kinda interesting to see all the pictures together like that! It also makes me realize that what I wear really does impact how pregnant I look! Go figure.