notes on pregnancy: 36 weeks

first of all, this past weekend i was given the most beautiful and thoughtful baby shower!

i'm tremendously blessed with generous friends and it was the greatest gift just to see them all!

it was a ton of fun and i'm just sad it's over!  perfect memories though, the day meant the world to me.

for now, some rambling.
it's such an odd thing, watching the world turn leafless and cold while waiting for the baby to arrive!  odd because this fall is the beginning of so many things for us.  obviously, adding an addition to our family is the biggest, but also m is defending his dissertation soon (yay for him!), our basement is hypothetically going to be completed, and our schedules and responsibilities will be drastically different in a month.  to be honest, i'm pretty gitty thinking about it all!  it's been the longest wait for christmas morning ever!

i'm almost 36 weeks now and feeling super great!  there was a month there when i didn't.  at the beginning of the third trimester, i felt so tired, big and had lots of nerve pain in my back and legs, and i was pretty fearful that the rest of the pregnancy wouldn't be as joyful as it's been.  lately, i've been lucky to have energy and i'm thinking the baby has dropped because my bump has shifted downward and i can breath just a bit;)  the goal line is in sight!  i do think i'll miss my baby bump though, so i'm appreciating it while i have it.

oh and at my 35 week 3D ultrasound, the baby looked like a baby (whew!  although m tends to disagree!) and was 5.7 pounds, so they're estimating her as a 7.5 pound baby, whether that's accurate, who knows!  she's super, super active, kicking and rolling near always, even this late in the game.  the ultrasound was funny because it was pretty difficult to get images because of her squirming.  and she's in the 40% for length, so below average like me;)  last time we'll see her on screen!

now, i'm getting anxious about how the baby will come in the world.  this is such a normal fear, i realize, but considering i have yet to experience labor, it's scary.  i think it's healthy to be nervous about it, so i try to not worry.  but it's weird to be so so so excited for something and be so leary at the same time.  so far i've been totally surprised by fitting into every pregnancy stereotype, from belly button pop to waddling.  i've given into the process, how seriously cool it is, so i have to feel the same about the end of it, right?  and if all else fails, there's drugs...  haha.  no seriously;)

in the mean time, we're making progress on the nursery!  teddy manages to get cuter and cuter and we're starting to really get ready for our arrival.... so much so, i did my first load of laundry today that was all baby related;)

next week the baby will be considered full term;)