37 weeks---full term baby!

woooohoooooo!  i am sooooooooo happy and relieved!  i had my last final today so my quarter is officially over, as well as my second year at UW.  i feel enormous relief that i can have a few weeks (probably) in which to get myself ready for this baby---physically, emotionally, spiritually.  materially we are all set, we have everything we need.  as far as i know.  but i'm excited to use this time to exercise consistently (i have just not been doing this at all throughout the pregnancy and i can feel it), i'm pretty sure that i'm going to go swimming.  i just checked the schedule for the pool which is about 1/2 a mile down the road from me.  so i can probably start going on monday.  until then, i have some easy pregnancy exercises and stretches to do.  to prepare emotionally i feel that reviewing my birthing class material, practicing my breathing and re-reading some of Ina May Gaskin's book will help prepare me.  and spiritually---here is the more challenging part.  i'll be going through some of the Bahai writings and prayers.  i'd like to choose a prayer or two that i can memorize that will help keep me focused during labor.  also, i'll use this time to put together some music playlists that include some prayer set to music as well as a playlist that is soothing and one that is more upbeat.  i have a whole list (naturally) of things to get done that i've already started checking off--yay!  one of the first things (after cleaning out my drawer that i keep school related stuff in and my backpack and my purses) that i want to do is finishing packing my bag for the hospital.  i've read some online recommendations of what other mamas packed, and also asked some of my trusty friends what they used, what was worth packing and what wasn't.  yay for friends that have gone through this before me!  so, anyway, this will be a great next few weeks.  one of the things i did today that i've been meaning to do for awhile was wash all my towels in vinegar and then run another cycle with baking soda.  i saw this on pinterest and it's supposed to get the musty smell out of towels.  so i tried it, and it worked!!!  amazing!  i'm so excited about this, i want to try it with some of our sheets that smell a little musty.  so, yea, that was good.  and to celebrate the end of the school year, me, hubby and one of our friends went to one of our favorite restaurants called senor moose.  i.ate.all.the.chips.  they make their chips homemade, they are delicious and salty and they serve them with homemade salsas.  mmmmmmmmm!  so of course i got the carne asada because that is what i always get, and it's incredibly delicious.  after we stuffed ourselves to the gills we decided we needed to then have a treat.  mollie moon's it is!  if you live in seattle and you haven't been, shame on you.  this ice cream is phenomenal.  we all ordered the same; a seasonal flavor called sasquatch which is their melted chocolate ice cream with a caramel ribbon and homemade granola.  we walked down to kerry park which overlooks seattle to finish our ice cream and perhaps burn off a few calories.  back home for tea, and relaxing.  great night! 

my delicious meal at senor moose

 

view from kerry park, kinda hard to see the little city in this iphone pic, but it was a beautiful night

nothing else super exciting happened this week because i spent all my time studying for finals.  but, there were a few mildly interesting things:

my mint is coming back full force!  i love making fresh mint tea from this stuff

my super finicky orchid is growing again with a few new leaves and shoots.  do you know how hard it is to make these things grow and bloom?  this one is on its third bloom now, which is the longest i've been able to keep an orchid not only alive but also growing.

i grilled steak and tomato kebabs, balsamic asparagus and made a dublinger cheese sauce, and it was delish

i made salmon...mmmmmm

yea, that's pretty much it.  so, preggie stuff---i am feeling very big and getting uncomfortable.  i am eating a ton, and in fact i read that moms carrying boys tend to eat more than moms carrying girls.  huh, well i am certainly doing my part to contribute to that piece of data.  it's hard to sleep, it's difficult to get comfortable when sitting or lying down or standing or walking.  my pubic bone feels like someone is stabbing it with an ice pick whenever i move, there is a lot of pressure on my back and pelvis area.  i can tell this lil man is getting squished, too, by the way he moves.  it seems there's less of the kicking and jabbing movements and more movements where he's trying to shift positions by moving his back or butt from one side of my belly to the other.  also, nowadays my belly is mostly a strange oblong shape rather than a nice round shape because of the position that he is in.  often times i wake up in the morning and it seems his entire body is curled up on one side of my belly.  it's a very strange feeling.  and we have now come to the point where his feet or something get jammed up under my ribcage.  that is also a very weird sensation.  i don't think he has dropped yet, but my abdomen is very long so maybe he has a lot of room.  i still have cankles and swelling in my feet and hands, i am getting more physically tired.  i'm hoping that regular exercise will help with that, but generally i think i'm just experiencing all the normal end of pregnancy symptoms.  and still thanking God that there are no complications!  i am very grateful for that.  i think baby is still head down because when he hiccups the spasms are very low in my pelvis.  so, that's a little about what's new.  i'll probably post a little more frequently since i will have spare time!  i'm sure that this post is getting quite long enough so i'll end with the weekly pregnancy update:

How far along: 37 weeks!!!

Size of baby: the size of a winter melon and the length of swiss chard, he's anywhere from 18.9 to 20.9 inches and 6.2 to 9.2 lbs.  that seems like a pretty large range.  i'm sure he'll be tall-ish since hubby and i are, but he'll probably be pretty average in weight (i'm hoping!), his systems are all pretty much developed and functioning, and he's practicing skills he'll need outside the womb like inhaling, exhaling, sucking, griping and blinking.  he's just getting stronger and more healthy from here on
Total weight gain:  35-ish lbs
Maternity clothes: for sure.  and now that i'm home i can lounge around in yoga pants and hubby's shirts
Gender: boy
Movement: lots of moving his bum and back across one side of my belly to the other and jabbing his feet (i think) under my right rib cage, he has been responding to our prodding so now we play poke the baby, we poke and he kicks back.  it's so fun to be able to interact with him!
Sleep: not super great
What I miss: laying on my stomach, i wasn't much of a stomach sleeper but right now my hips and shoulders are so sore from constantly sleeping on them that lying on my stomach would be a nice break
Cravings: still lots of fruit, otter pops (damnit!), but mostly fruit.  i want to eat blueberries, nectarines and peaches all the time
Symptoms:  i listed lots of symptoms above, pretty much all the usual 3rd trimester symptoms
 Best moment this week: i got to spend some time with a friend i haven't seen in a couple years, finished the school year, celebrated with hubby by going to one of our fave dinner spots---happy happy happy!