37 weeks - Full Term!

How your baby's growing: Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

How your life's changing: Braxton Hicks contractions may be coming more frequently now and may last longer and be more uncomfortable. You might also notice an increase in vaginal discharge. If you see some "bloody show" (mucus tinged with a tiny amount of blood) in the toilet or in your undies, labor is probably a few days away — or less. (If you have heavier spotting or bleeding, call your caregiver immediately.) Also be sure to ask your caregiver about the results of your Group B strep culture. That way, if the result isn't yet on your chart when you get to the hospital or birth center, you'll be able to give the staff there a timely heads-up if you need antibiotics.

It may be harder than ever to get comfortable enough to sleep well at night. If you can, take it easy through the day — this may be your last chance to do so for quite a while. Keep monitoring your baby's movements, too, and let your caregiver know immediately if you notice a decrease. Though her quarters are getting cozy, she should still be as active as before.

While you're sleeping, you're likely to have some intense dreams. Anxiety both about labor and about becoming a parent can fuel a lot of strange flights of unconscious fancy.

How I'm doing: I'm excited to have made it to 37 weeks. The baby can come any day now. I still have 7 more days of work though (Tuesday, April 15th is my last day). I'm excited for that day to come because it means the baby is almost here but I'm also a little sad. It's going to be very weird to be off work for 4 months or so. I haven't been off work/school for 4 months since I started going to school in 1984. I'm sure I'll be so distracted I won't notice. And I'm sure I'll stop by a few times to show off the baby.

Speaking of work, my work buddies threw me a surprise shower on Wednesday of this last week. I knew they were planning something but I didn't know what or when. They planned it to take place during our regular weekly group meeting--which I kind of had a feeling it might fall during that time since we're all gathered then. BUT, it was much more than I expected. Lots of balloons, pink tablecloths, decorations, Sprinkles cupcakes, and personalized M&Ms. That and a lot of people focused on me for an hour. I was very overwhelmed with the generosity displayed. Baby Pope got a lot of nice gifts. A lot more books and clothes, her swing, cute and tiny shoes, lullaby CDs and a lot more. She's definitely a spoiled little girl already. Thank you to the "HSU" (which is my work group at the VA, the Health Services Unit) and especially to Amy, Rebecca, Alison and Katy who I think were the major conspirators. Apparently Scott knew about this for several weeks and was able to keep it a secret and even taunt me asking me if I'd looked at any of our registries recently. He's a better liar than I've given him credit for in the past. Thanks again, I'm really lucky to work with really great people.

We also had an appointment with our midwives this last week. We talked to them again about their "overdue" protocols since most likely I'll end up being late and not early unfortunately. Unlike a lot of prenatal providers, our midwives do not do regular internal exams until I'm 41 weeks pregnant (or 1 week "overdue"). A lot of providers will start to do exams at around 36 weeks. This is why some women can give updates about how dilated and effaced they are before they're actually in labor. The problem with this is that dilation and effacement don't really tell you anything about when labor will start. It's possible to walk around 3 cm dilated for several weeks and it's possible not to be dilated at all and go into labor later that day. So it gives people false hopes or unnecessary grief knowing this number. FYI- effacement refers to how thin or short the cervix is. The cervix needs to open (dilate) and shorten (efface) before the baby can be delivered. The cervix dilates to 10 cms and effaces to 100%. Our midwives will not start talking to us about induction at all until I reach that 41 week appointment. At that point, we'll see how the baby is doing and go from there. If my amniotic fluid levels are good, the baby seems happy and is not losing weight we'll hold out until about 42 weeks. Things start to deteriorate at 42 weeks so induction would be in the cards at that point. Hopefully we won't make it that far. The new hospital opens at 40 weeks 4 days. We don't want to have this baby during the transition. I don't really want to be wheeled to the new hospital while I'm in labor or shortly after birth.

My next appointment with the midwives is on Wednesday morning. I'm meeting with them weekly now until the baby comes. At this appointment I'll get my group B strep test done. Remember I'm hoping for this to be negative so I don't need IV antibiotics during labor which would make me more confined to the bed. But if I am positive this could mean a chance of some nasty things happening to the baby if I'm untreated so we'll definitely go for the antibiotics.

I've still been having contractions a couple times a day. Nothing really notable about that. I'm also still going to yoga twice a week when I can. This morning I went to water aerobics and yoga. In my water aerobics I got a lot of "advice" from an older woman who thought I shouldn't be doing anything but sitting at home I guess. Thankfully she didn't stay through the whole class. Just like anyone else I can tell when I'm pushing myself too hard and I don't do it. Exercising makes me feel better not worse. We had our last birth class this last Thursday. Technically speaking we should know how to birth this baby now. We'll see how much we learned sometime in the next month.