Practically 39 weeks

Sunday, September 22nd

Seeing my pregnant body, or waddle, or something, makes people look at me with pity. They'll tell me how miserable I look. I'm not trying to look miserable. I've really tried harder to be more positive, but today at church I got several of those looks that just say "your poor thing".

I'm practically 39 weeks along. I think I'm 38 and 5 days officially. Easier to just round up at this point. As of last Wednesday, I am barely dilated to a 1. Baby has dropped, I haven't noticed except my back pain has changed.  She continues to be head down and is still really active. She's constantly stretching her legs or elbows. It's pretty wild to see it sticking out of my belly when she does. It hurts! Definitely times like this when I wonder how the heck I ever had two babies in there!

 I finally feel like I have a light at the end of the tunnel. The doctor I saw on Wednesday agreed to induce me if I reach 40 weeks and am still not dilated. They will induce me at 39 weeks, but I have to be dilated to a 3. With my 2 previous pregnancies, I have never reached a 3 until I'm in active labor. And at the pace I'm moving right now, I really don't expect major changes. So we've got October 1st on our mind as the last day of being pregnant. That's 9 days away, we can do this!! I try to resign myself to the fact that I've still got quite a bit of time, but then moments like last night when contractions were coming every 10 minutes for an hour and a half happen, and it just gets false hopes up.

Everyone keeps asking if we have a name picked out. Marc and I like to wait until we see our babies to make the final decision. We have a very short list of names. We know that the middle name will definitely be a family name, but we'll know for sure when we meet her. Plus, I don't like to have people weigh in on my name choices. Too many people think it necessary to give their opinions on the names you've chosen when it's really none of their business. I don't want to have my "favorite" name critiqued and feel like I can't use it anymore just because someone else put it down.

 I think we're pretty much ready to go to the hospital and delivery this baby when it eventually does happen. I packed my hospital bag this weekend, I have people on call to watch the kids when we do go into labor. We have diapers, clean clothes, clean blankets, new batteries for the freshly cleaned swing, a scrubbed and size-adjusted car seat, anxious siblings, sterile bottles, new pacifiers, and fully-charged batteries for the camera. All we need is this little one to decide it's time to come meet us, because we sure can't wait to meet her!