Final Month!

36 weeks pregnant and we're into the final month (hopefully) of this pregnancy!!!  In some ways I can't believe how fast it's gone and yet 4 more weeks seems like a lot!  AJ should be the size of a crenshaw melon this week, whatever that is.  My guess is that he's already closing in on the watermelon sized full term baby!  No weight estimate this week, but odds are he's about 1/2 lb more than this time last week, so he's probably 7 lbs 4 oz by now.  Just 1 lbs, 3 oz more than his big brother weighted at birth!  If he puts on weight at the rate of 1/2 lb per week (and if he's born around his actual due date) he might weight around 9 lbs 4 oz!  WHEW!  We'll see!

My body is still taking quite a beating at this point.  The hip and pelvic pain has gotten really bad, especially when I first get up from sitting or lying down.  I'm walking around work fighting a grimace a lot of the time!  Also on Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30 am with a horrible charlie horse in my left calf, followed by waking up at 7:00 am with an identical one in my right calf!  The muscles are still really sore!  Ah, late pregnancy :)

This week I met the second of three OB doctors at the office I go to.  They like to schedule each patient with an appointment with the other two doctors during the last month of your pregnancy so that you are comfortable with whoever happens to be on call during your labor. She was nice, but I felt a little rushed, so I didn't really get the chance to ask questions.  She didn't even mention what I was measuring.  I was at the OB's office almost 3.5 hours today, but my NST and BPPs went great and AJ looks good and is still head down, though not engaged yet.

So we're plugging along!  AJ does lots of rolls and I feel him high and low--he's really stretching out in there and running out of room!  He gets the hiccups a lot too!  I even think sometimes I can see him practicing breathing as my tummy rises and falls--it's too quick to be my pulse, too slow to be his, so I'm guessing it's his little chest rising and falling!  Sunday my mom and sisters are throwing me a small baby shower, so I'm excited about that.  I'm getting very anxious to meet my new little man!!!

Two miscellaneous things I wanted to mention...Though I'm reaching the end of my pregnancy and obviously pretty removed from my infertility struggle, I have not forgotten what it was like.  Although it was more documented in my countdowntopregnancy.com blog, it was mentioned here and I have shared some of that journey.  That struggle has opened me up to an huge online community of forums and blogs.  I am an avid reader of at least a dozen blogs of woman who are or have struggled with infertility.  One of those dear women suffered a devastating loss last week. So here's a tiny shout out to Sometimes.  My thoughts and prayers are with her.

Finally, I can't post on this particular date without acknowledging it.  Eleven years ago the world changed forever.  That day and in the days since, our country and the world lost thousands of innocent people.  Today my heart goes out again to the people effected by the events of that day and the war that has ensued.  For my "where were you" post, go here.  God Bless America. I will never forget.