36 weeks, I am getting close!

11/12/08

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement. At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. She has been head down for several weeks now, and it ready to go!!

George, Owen, and I went back to see the midwife, Beth, on Monday. This was our regularly scheduled appointment. My blood pressure, urine, and weight gain were all fine. I have now gained a total of 30 pounds. I think a lot of that is fluid. I am holding onto way more fluid this time around. The baby's heartbeat was strong, and around 150 beats per minute. Beth checked the position of the baby, which was head down.

We have completed our birth plan, and will give it to Beth at our next appointment for her to look over. For the most part, it is the same plan we had with Owen, with just a couple of additions. We added that we wanted George to catch the baby, and announce the gender. I am getting so excited for this part!!!! We also added that I wanted to have a labor tub available, since that is an option at Clark Memorial that we didn't have at Baptist East. We want to delay the baby's bath so that he/she can stay with us longer in the room. When they give the baby a bath, the baby's temperature almost always drops, and then they won't let the baby leave the nursery until the temperature has gone back up. George and I were discussing when they did the bath last time, and neither of us can even remember. George said he remembers following Owen to the nursery, and showing him of to all our family members that were in the waiting area, and then he can't remember what happened next. After being in that labor and delivery room for 4 days and 3 nights we were both so exhausted a lot of the delivery and right after is a blur. I hope to get lots more pictures this time, and feel like I am actually present, and not just in a daze. Is this baby a boy or a girl? The suspense is really getting intense!

Well, Owen has finally done it! George and I were wondering when this day would come, and it happened yesterday. I put Owen down for a nap, and as soon as he fell asleep, I was planning on taking a nap myself. I was listening to the monitor, and had the video part turned off, when I heard his door open. At first I thought, I didn't get the door latched all the way, and one of the dogs pushed the door open. I was thinking, "I am going to kill that dog because they are going to wake him up!" Well Owen was already fully awake, and came walking around the corner saying "mama, mama". Yes, that's right he climbed out of his crib, opened up his door and came out to get me. Once George got home, I put Owen down for a nap (since he still had not had one all day), and we watched him on the monitor, hike his leg up over the top of the side rail (about 15 seconds after we shut the door to his room). He had his hands on the top of the front rail, and with his leg over the side rail, he pulled up the rest of his body. He was then sitting on the top of the rail with one leg in the crib, and the other leg out. George then went running in the catch him. Well, he didn't need to be caught, he just lowered himself into the glider rocker beside the crib, and then climbed down to the floor. This whole process took less than one minute. Now that he knows he can do this, he is going to do it every time we put him in there. The mattress is already on the lowest setting. His crib does convert into a toddler bed, but I know that he is not going to stay in there to sleep. He will just continue to climb out of it over and over. What are we going to do with our little monkey?!?!