40 Weeks: "Due" Today!!

How far along: 40.0 Weeks!! "Due" today!! 

How big is baby: The size of a jackfruit (a what?!) Last week My doctor estimated Chubby would be about 7 lbs. I feel like Chubby grew a lot this week. I really hope s/he doesn't get too big!! I can do 7lbs. 8 or 9 scares me.

Weight: 160 at last week's appointment. Again, the other clinic scale. Not sure why they're so different. Or I suppose I really could just weigh 160.

Sleep: I've been super tired. I have trouble staying away during the day but I alternate between not being able to go to sleep early at night and sleeping like a log.

Clothes: Just trying to wear all sorts of things I haven't worn yet or worn very much. It's fun to get dressed and I'm ready at any moment to go to hospital. I guess if I'm at least dressed I'll look very put together while I'm laboring and pushing. Haha.

Food cravings/aversions: Nothing special. I still like cookies. I like chicken salad sandwiches. I like Joe making me food. I've made some juice and a few smoothies lately. At this point I'm trying to eat "clean" foods so that my GI system isn't overly bogged down by indigestible crap. Except the double stuffed oreos that somehow made it into the cart yesterday...

Symptoms: I still pee A LOT. Chubby is very low. I have a lot of instability in my hips and nerve pains going down the front of my legs and my sciatic. I haven't fallen again but I'm very slow to move into different positions/sit/stand up. 

A little emotional, but not too bad. 

I really haven't gotten much swelling. I could still wear my wedding ring but I'm not just in case. 

The heartburn is still really bad. With Lincoln it got better near the end. This time it can still wake me up in the night. 

Gender: I went and had some "me" time last night and got my toes done again. Different girl. I have no idea if it's because I handed her tiffany blue nail polish, but she said "so you're having a boy?" When I said we didn't know she affirmed that it looked like a boy and the lady next to me asked if I was carrying the same as I was last time. For someone who's held so much entertainment in these old wives tales for the last 40 weeks, I'm really unenthused by people's rationals for why a baby would be a boy or a girl from the outside now. It all obviously comes from SOMEWHERE, but WOW people really really really strongly believe in the basketball/watermelon, high/low ones.

Movement: Still lots of movement but I can definitely tell Chubby got a lot bigger this last week. The feeling has dramatically changed to pressure and angles of limbs shifting. 

Belly Button: All stretched out!! Shiny. 

Signs of Labor: I FINALLY have had some decent contractions. Yesterday afternoon they started so I went to the nail place to have my toes done. I figured they could give me a leg massage and help things along, right?? They didn't stop coming throughout my lovely hour-long pedicure- though nothing was really countable, just tight, crampy, and lots of back soreness. I got home and started actually timing them around 8:30. I timed until 11:30 when we went to bed. I was every 3-5 minutes for around 30-60 seconds. They got stronger when I walked and I hung out on our exercise ball for awhile 'cause it's really comfortable. I figured if I went to bed I'd either wake up in pain or sleep and they'd go away. My guess was that they'd just go away and pretty much the minute I got in bed I was out like a light and they were gone when I woke up. This happened for the week before Lincoln was born too. I was essentially admitable to the hospital, but I just didn't have the feeling that it was real yet. I've always been told if you have to think about or ask yourself if it's real labor or not, it's not. And with Lincoln I knew when it became real. Just waiting. 

Best moment of the week: We've been very productive this week on the house. And getting my toes done was nice. I had a whole hour to just sit and relax by myself and feel good.

What I’m looking forward to: Meeting Chubby! I just want to know what day it's going to be. 

What I miss: We had a camera-tastrophe a few days ago. After taking the lovely photos you've recently seen of us outside in the desert, the camera's LCD screen smashed on a rock. The camera still takes photos on auto, but if you know me at all, you know I HATE auto. So after grieving for 5 seconds because S&*T happens and it was a total accident, I got online and started researching my options. Repair and rental is practically the same price as a new camera these days, so I opted to upgrade - though I'm not sure what upgrade means when you're me and all you do is hobby photography. So I combined my desired options and price point and I went out that night after moving some money around and taking a "loan" from our savings and bought a Nikon D3200. I've had a Nikon D80 since 2007. The pictures you see of today are the first from the D3200. This could be a mixed blessing though because the ISO on the D80 only goes up to 1600. The D3200 goes to 6400. I may be very grateful for the improved sensitivity to light when at the hospital and trying to take photos indoors at home. Right? Make me feel good, people. I've been considering a new camera body for about a year but, the D80 has been a GREAT camera so it deserves some remembrance. 

Next appt: Thursday the 19th!! Chubby will get a biophysical profile and we'll know if it's safe to continue on or if Chubby will be born on Thursday. Part of me says at this point let's just wait until the 22nd since it's Joe's favorite number. We were hoping Lincoln would arrive on the 22nd and he went all the way to the 28th, just before his due date on the 29th. I think the 22nd is my limit. You have until then, Chubby.