The final stretch

(Rewind several weeks with me if you will)

I haven't written much.

This pregnancy, and certainly this final trimester have been a completely different ballgame from my pregnancy with Rory. At this point in my pregnancy with Rory, we were a few weeks away from moving to Utah, I had stopped working and had nothing left to do but sit by my parents pool and have my mom paint my toenails.

I couldn't set up a nursery, I didn't have any house projects to do. I was by all accounts...bored, and dealing with a bad case of sciatica and (by 39 weeks) a severely bruised tailbone.

This pregnancy couldn't be more different. I'm two weeks to my due date, and in no hurry. I mean, of course there are days where my body is exhausted, and I'm always excited to meet my baby but every day is so full and insane and my check list will never be checked by the time he arrives so I'm just trying not to think about how little time we have left to prepare.

In some ways I've felt a lot better a lot longer this pregnancy. But I'm also just so much more tired this time around. I have a three year old with constant needs and a household that requires keeping and a million projects to do and also a wedding to help plan. (did I mention my brother gets married four weeks after I give birth?)

I've also had experienced a lot more Braxton hicks and just general contractions than I did with Rory but it's so hard to tell whether that's because I'm better at recognizing when they're happening or if they actually are happing more frequently.

Aside from that, I've had some weird symptoms that I had formerly only read about but never experienced. Numbness in my hands when I work with them up for too long or fall asleep in the wrong position, and swelling in my feet when I'm on them for too long or on them for a full day at all.

At 36 weeks I was not dilated at all, at 37 only to a 1, and at 38 weeks I'm still only a 1 (though I'm 60% effaced, so it looks good for if I have to have another induction!)

I will say, however, that today the doctor offered to strip my membranes which is the first piece of hope I've had of this baby coming anytime before 40 weeks. I'm currently trying to be as prepared as possible and trying not to get my hopes up too high but still remaining hopeful that I may go into labor on my own.

In other news, Rory is the sweetest future big sister. She hugs and kisses and rubs my belly all day long.

So here's to all the pineapple I can eat, all the lunges my pregnant body can handle, and apparently several date shakes (that everyone seems to swear by) in hopes to get my body doing this thing on it's own! And if not, we will wait a few weeks and meet baby boy then.

As an added update, all that extra preparation and work trying to get him out didn't seem to be for nothing. I lost my mucus plug, Cooper dropped (Rory never did before her induction), and the membrane stripping may have worked had I gone and worked out a little harder afterward because the contractions were serious for several hours.