36 Weeks

How your baby's growing:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

Feeling better than this morning. Tired + cranky = not good for blog posting. I'm hoping tonight will be a better night :)

As for everything else, I probably feel as any pregnant woman would at this stage, like it's never gonna end. I know I only have (approximately) 4 weeks left, but it feels like it's gonna be the longest 4 weeks of my life. It's true what people say, as the due date draws nearer, time slows down quite a bit. I'm almost convinced someone added a few extra days to the week at this point. And maybe even a few hours to each day. Those sneaky time alterers...

I have a doctors appointment Wednesday with a not-my-normal doctor, and then I'll start seeing the regular one every week from here on out. Maybe one of these appointments will be interesting. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Brandon and I are going shopping this weekend, so I'm looking forward to that. My lack of metro pass for the month of August leads to me not getting out as much, so even a trip to Walmart is exciting. We just have little things left to get and then we'll be all ready! Well, as ready as we're gonna be.

And then, it's just the waiting game...