Baby Bump News: 37 Weeks!

The last Baby Bump pic of baby girl before she graces us with her presence in 11 short days!

The comparison photo: 37 Weeks with Austin!

This will be the last edition of the Baby Bump News for this baby and although I have loved being pregnant and journaling about it, I am soooooo excited to meet this little girl!

Oh. My. Goodness. Talk about nesting!!!

I caught the nesting bug pretty bad this time around. I am the proud owner of an entire closet full of nursing supplies, feminine supplies, diapers, blankets, and lots and lots of adorable baby girl clothes! When I was pregnant with Austin we didn't have a home of our own quite yet so I wasn't able to nest properly, and to be quite honest, it was my first baby and I had no idea what I would even need to buy anyway! I knew babies needed clothes and diapers, but after that, I was clueless. Luckily I had two AMAZING baby showers that filled in the gaps.

I am carrying baby girl much differently than I did Austin. Austin carried high and I suffered from extreme back pain if I sat down for too long. When I say too long, I mean a half hour. So I found myself walking around a lot and I was unable to do anything that required sitting, like church or the movie theaters. Now with baby girl I have the opposite problems! I'm carrying her low and instead of pain from sitting, I have extreme pain from walking! I get shooting pains down my pelvis that leave me immobilized until it resolves itself, and when I walk it feels like the baby is falling out of me..... I now understand the waddling jokes!

However different the pains might be, the cravings have been the same lately. Fruit and chocolate (mainly strawberries)!!

It's funny how with each pregnancy you get a glimpse of what your baby's personality is going to be like. Austin was all over the place! He moved constantly and was always stretched out, not wanting to be restricted in any way. When I laid in bed, thinking about my baby boy, I always got the feeling that he was going to be blonde, adorable, stubborn, and was going to have a unique personality that would give us a run for our money! OH HOW RIGHT I WAS!!!

With baby girl I have gotten completely opposite feelings. I already know she is going to be so sweet. She moves around, but not too much. I can only think of one night when she kept me up all night with movements. This was a nightly occurrence with Austin..... She has been so much nicer to me as far as symptoms go like nausea/vomiting, and acne. I could be totally wrong about this, but I imagine her looking just like her Daddy. The Scandinavian genes run strong in my family (blonde hair, pale skin, and light eyes) but I think this little beauty is going to be dark like Josh and his Native American ancestors. I guess we will see!! I also already know she is gong to love being swaddled. Austin HATED it and would kick off any blankets we tried covering him up with. Baby girl, however, always seems to be curled up in a ball, rarely stretching or making me miserable. At her 20 week ultrasound she was all curled up with her hands up to her face, making it hard to get a good picture. I think she is going to be the perfect baby for the Solly Baby Wrap I bought to carry her around in! I think she is going to be the silent, intelligent type whereas her brother is the loud, intelligent type. She's going to love watching Austin and will get a kick out of his craziness! I could be totally wrong about all of this, but I guess we will find out very soon!

I am counting down the days to April 21st when our sweet baby will be delivered by C-Section and I can spend the next three days in a hospital bed being waited on by the nurses (finally a role change!) just snuggling, nursing, and smelling her sweet baby scent! I think that's why I have loved nesting/preparing so much. It gives me a glimpse of the beautiful miracle that is about to happen! And when I say miracle, that's exactly what this little girl is! It's a miracle that I somehow got pregnant with her. It's a miracle that she survived the first trimester while I miscarried another baby and then proceeded to bleed and be put on bed rest once the doctor figured out that I was somehow pregnant again! It's a miracle that she continued to survive all the craziness and drama of my life and that her brother's karate kicks to my stomach haven't somehow damaged her. I thank God every day that I am still pregnant and that I have made it this far. You don't even think about these things until you lose a child. Once you know what that pain feels like, you find yourself grateful for every little thing you experience, painful or not, because it means you have not yet lost another one.

Up until this week the baby has been measuring small. Never small enough to cause alarm, but on the very edge of the growth chart kind of small. I haven't stressed about it though because Austin was the exact same way and he turned out just fine. Then, at this last doctors appointment, the fundus of my stomach grew 2.5cm in one week and she is in the normal range now! In case you didn't know, they measure your stomach at every doctor's appointment the last trimester and it is normal for a baby to grow 1cm per week. The measurement should be equal in centimeters to the number of weeks you are pregnant, plus or minus 2. Anything out of that range is abnormal. So for her to grow 2.5cm in one week and suddenly jump to the normal range was quite a surprise! Must have been all that chocolate from Easter???

Austin loves petting my stomach and he calls his baby sister, "circle." Close enough, right?! He also loves kissing my stomach and it makes me melt when I imagine how sweet he is going to be with her! 

Enjoy your last two weeks in heaven baby girl because life on Earth is going to be quite the shocker! But I promise no matter how hard it gets, or how painful that "owie" is, we are going to love you more than enough to make up for it!