Almost Full-Term

It occurs to me that I really haven't done justice to Baby #2 in my blog posts. I realized this last week when I got back from the doctor. I had been experiencing an unusual amount of discomfort (even pain) since going to the Zoo on Rachel's birthday, so the doctor did an internal exam a week earlier than normal. During the exam, she discovered that Baby's head is very low. She also determined that I was just shy of 1 cm dilated. So I went back to figure out (from blog posts) how far along I was at 35 weeks with Rachel. That made me realize that I haven't been nearly as descriptive about the pregnancy with Baby #2. So I will have to try to make up for that in the remaining however-many weeks I have left!
To start, I had my mini-shower for Baby #2 on June 25th! My friends Kim, Lawrene, and Jen (also my SIL) organized this for me and I can't thank them enough! I had such a good time and got some nice things I needed for Baby #2. I had started a registry for Baby #2 with various small things (and a couple bigger ones I intended to buy myself) that you have to re-purchase when you have a second child. My awesome family and friends were so generous that I really don't have much left to get! I even got enough gift cards to get the glider I want. With Rachel, I always used a rocking chair, which was okay, but I remember being very uncomfortable at certain points, and I thought it would be really nice to have a more comfortable chair for the late nights with Baby.

The shower was a lot of fun. It even included a game centered around the gender of the baby. Apparently most people think this baby is a boy. I still waiver back and forth, but my inclination is leaning toward boy. I don't have a reason really, other than the difference in how I am carrying this pregnancy. I have gained less weight (28 lbs so far as compared to 39 lbs by this point last pregnancy), and the majority of it is in my belly (36-week picture posted below). But I have talked to a few moms who had this happen with babies that ended up both being girls, so I guess this doesn't hold much weight (no pun intended).

So anyway, as I mentioned, I have been in some pain since June 23rd. The best way I can describe the feeling is that it feels like I imagine a guy would feel after getting kicked in the balls, after the initial sting has worn off. It just feels sore and achy, like I pulled a muscle. The doctor seemed to think the baby being so low contributed to this feeling, and chalked it up to normal discomfort.

I was still feeling this at my 36-week appointment on Tuesday, and the nurse practitioner mentioned that if I am in a lot of pain at 37 weeks, they can try to strip my membranes to induce an earlier labor. It isn't guaranteed to work, but she said it might help. I haven't had any contractions that were noticable, and I didn't progress past the <1 cm from week 35, but I don't know if I will ask for the membrane stripping or not. I am in no real rush to get Baby out -- I guess I just hoped to make some progress from week to week to encourage me that the pain I was feeling had some purpose. My main goal was to get past this Saturday (July 9th) because we are having Rachel & Owen's birthday party that day. Once I am past that, I have no plans to do much of anything, so if Baby makes an early debut, I am fine with it. I have work in a pretty stable situation...the only issue is in a promotion I am hoping to interview for something this month. That's a whole other story though.

I feel pretty good about where we stand with baby-readiness though. I washed the carseat cover and installed it in my car. I ordered the extra carseat base using some gift cards we got for cashing in rewards points. I washed the bottles, the cover for the swing, the crib mattress pad, and some smaller gender-neutral clothes we had from Rachel, and the nursery is fairly clean. I even pre-paid the majority of our hospital bill.

Tune in next week for the latest news on Baby #2. I hit full-term on Sunday!