36 Weeks!

Your baby is gaining about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He's shedding most of the downy hair that covered his body, as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Next week, your baby will be considered full-term. Most likely he's in a head-down position, but if he isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an external cephalic version, where she'll try to turn your baby by manipulating him from the outside of your belly.

I really want him to get out of this melon stage, I don't really like melon, except for watermelon, and he had better not get that big. We had an exciting web-cam baby shower over the weekend. My mom put it on from Michigan and it was really great. She gave us a really wonderful and fantastic stroller, more or less a jogging stroller-- I love it. I want Archie to be here so I can take him on long walks, Ben thinks I should just fill the stroller up with the presents we received and push it around the block. I'll post a picture of it later. Thank you so much to all who were so generous.

PS

Archie is due one month from today!

Baby Experiences

I wrote a couple of experiences and thoughts about my pregnancy for the baby shower that my mom threw for us. I thought I would post them here too.
Finding out:
Back in February I suspected that I was pregnant, but I was so afraid to find out, just in case it wasn’t true. My body was definitely freaking out inside… my boobs hurt, my back hurt, and I wasn’t cramping up like I normally would. I was playing on an indoor soccer team at the time. I am pretty sure it was February 11th when I broke my wrist. I was running down the field with the ball, and was tripped, came down on my hand and heard a small snap…. my wrist was broken and my season over. Good thing too, because this is what inspired an in depth look as to whether or not I was pregnant.
I told Ben that something was going on and that I was almost sure I was going to miss my period. We had decided previously that we wanted to start trying for a baby, but this would have been like making that decision and the next day getting pregnant… which for all we know is what happened. So I think he was a bit skeptical. We had a tight budget, and I didn’t want to spend $20 on pregnancy tests that were just going to tell me I wasn’t pregnant- so not worth it. So we agreed, after I missed my period by 3 or 4 days, to go to the dollar store. I figured if we spent a buck and got a negative result then no big deal on the financial end; if we got a positive result then great! Now we know for next time that we don’t need to spend a ton of money for a test.
We got two tests and some candy, 5th Avenues were on sale, they are Ben’s favorite. I had heard or read somewhere that peeing on the little stick in the morning is the best time- it has the most hormones of some sort to determine a positive or negative. I mustered all of my patience and waited till morning. I think it was a two day process, at least a two stick process, I couldn’t make out the first test, it had one line for sure that was pink, and a faint pink line next to it, but did that really mean I was pregnant? So the next day I tried again, and the same results stared me in the face. I wasn’t satisfied. I decided to go to an office where someone else in a white coat, or at least brightly colored scrubs would let me know for sure. I found a free clinic and with my newly casted arm, somehow drove myself and managed to undo my pants, shimmy them down, hold the cup, pee into the cup and not all over my hand, write my name on the cup, because of course I forgot to do it before there was liquid in it, wash, and pull up and button my pants again. I am sure I was in there for about 20 minutes—
I went to the waiting room- and waited. It seemed like a long time, I watched a little girl play at a table and thought about what it would be like to have a child, to be a mom, for Ben to be a dad, and then they called me in and told me I was pregnant! I smiled and said thank you. The nurse made sure that this was a happy occasion by asking me if this was really what I wanted, and I resolutely said “yes, I am happy to be pregnant”.
I went home giddy, and waited for Ben to come home. He knew that I went to the clinic that day, and I cannot hide my emotions. When he walked in the door, he asked what had happened, what did I find out—he can’t really hide his emotions either, he had a smile on his face as soon as he saw the smile on my face. We were pregnant and we were thrilled.

Mommies, Daddies and Babies:
Ben has been to every appointment that I have been to. He hasn’t always been excited to be there, but he wanted to be with me because he knew it was important to me. Now as it gets closer to the due date he has stopped asking me if I want him to be there, and he has started negotiating appointment dates with the receptionist based on his class schedule. I think it is exciting for us to feel more and more like a mom and a dad. We are a part of that category now; parents. He moves and we can see it, I can certainly feel him inside me and we love him. Whether or not he makes it past this very day, Ben and I feel like parents and have experienced a tiny bit of what it is to be a mom and a dad.