39 Weeks and an NST...

Holy hell. It is fucking hot.

But before I get to that, let me tell you about the first scare Eric and I have ever had with either pregnancies.

James' pregnancy was a cakewalk. His heart beat was always great, my blood pressure was always great, and every check up was always routine with nothing new or exciting to report.

Yesterday, the nurse laid me back, greased up my belly and put the heart monitor on and listened. And listened. And listened. Then stupidly mentions that baby's heart rate is pretty low.

What?

Normally, Baby Girl has a pretty steady rhythm between 140 and 155. She was reading in the lower 100's. Which means, cause for concern.

So the doctor comes in and checks me, asks if I have questions and immediately I want to know what the nurse said about Baby Girl's heartbeat. So the doctor ordered an NST to make sure all was well.

Long story short, of course as soon as I was hooked up, Baby Girls' heartbeat shot back up to the 140's and the nurse mentioned that she might just have a low base line for her heart beat, meaning when she's at rest, it beats pretty slowly. So all is well. It was an interesting couple of minutes though, where I thought, "Oh my God. We're going to have to have this baby today. And we're not ready!" So needless to say, I have a list of things I would like to accomplish this weekend, which includes finishing packing for the hospital and packing for James to stay with Christy! Yikes...

But all is well and Baby Girl is still sitting in her cocoon, just chilling and waiting for the right moment to make her entrance!

So back to the fact that it's fucking hot...

Yes, that is my first thought. It's not being 39 Weeks pregnant, or even the thought that in less than a week we could be holding our baby girl. It's the fact that Mother Nature's mood swung the other direction and it is currently 84 degrees at 8:30 p.m.

So what am I doing? Laying in bed, blogging, in a tank top and my underwear, in the dark (lights create heat!) with the windows wide open, the ceiling fan on high and and oscillating fan on high two feet from my swollen body.

I can only imagine how this looks on the outside. But it's one of those things that makes me thankful for the days that I have had leading up to this. Last week at this time, I was wearing skinny jeans, boots and a jean jacket because it was a whole 63 degrees and windy. A cold wind too, not a nice southerly wind. Ugh.

All in all, it has been a great week. I was thinking earlier today how horrible this pregnancy was in the beginning. Not necessarily the pregnancy itself, but all the illnesses I contracted thanks to my low-functioning immune system. How lucky I am that these past few weeks I have felt pretty good.

All in all, I'm ready. I'm ready for this pregnancy to be over. I'm ready to handle two children and a house and a marriage and a cat, for God's sake. I'm just ready to be done.

So with that, onward!

How far along? 39 Weeks. Where has the time gone?
Maternity clothes? Yesterday and today, I was able to get by with non-maternity, empire-waisted dresses. It was nice to be able to wear some normal clothes again!
Weight gain? Last week, I was shocked when I stepped on the scale. I thought for sure it had to be the fact that I was wearing boots and a jean jacket. And maybe those bowls of ice cream at 9:00 p.m. But four pounds? So I stepped on the scale this time around and guess what? I lost four pounds. Even the nurse said, "Was there something wrong with the scale last time?" I mentioned I was wearing boots and a jean jacket with my pockets full of crap (I'm a teacher, what can you expect?) and she said even so, it should not have been that great of a difference. So to celebrate the possibility of no weight gain in approximately 2 weeks, I am going to have ERic make me a bowl of fricken ice cream. Because now that I'm in bed, there's no way I'm getting out!
Stretch marks? Nope! Thank God!
Best moment this week? There have been several. James has been relatively awesome. I was able to go out with my bestie on Friday night, and even though I'm nauseous in my last weeks of pregnancy and she's nauseous in her first weeks of pregnancy, we managed to have a great time. It was nice to go out with her, without our kids, and reminisce the way we used to drop $400 on a shopping trip. Needless to say, this time around, I only dropped $30.
Miss anything? There is a ton. However, I'm trying really hard not to miss it as I know as soon as I get it back (in less than 2 weeks for sure!) I will miss being pregnant. For right now, I'm really just trying to enjoy the moment. Even as I sit here, sweating my ass off, with swollen feet and ankles and fingers and body...
Movement? Less and less. However, when she does move, it's pretty slow and deliberate. It's been fun watching my students' faces when she moves as they can really see it happen now. I always exclaim, "Look, it's the miracle of life!"
Food cravings? Salad. More particularly ranch dressing and sharp cheddar cheese. Delicious.
Anything make you queasy or sick? Not really!
Labor signs? The doctor did a quick check and I was 2-3 cm dilated and about halfway effaced. The effacement seems to be the contention between doctors, but the dilation is definitely a good sign that these contractions are starting to work!
Symptoms? Being pregnant. That's my symptom.
Belly button in or out? Out.
Linea nigra? Barely there, but there. But barely.
Wedding ring on or off? On until this morning. We slept with the windows open last night and it was very muggy. I'm guessing that led to some swelling. I was shocked as 99% of the time, my ring slides on easily. But nope! Not this morning. Couldn't even get it over my knuckle!
Happy or moody? Pretty happy for the most part. This weekend was a little tough, for both myself and Eric, but for the most part, I feel good so I'm pretty happy.

Looking forward to: Giving birth! :)

Here's to 9 weeks left!