38 Weeks

("You still have 2 more weeks?!? And there's really only one in there?!?" - random person at the grocery store. Apparently being on maternity leave doesn't rescue me from all the comments. At least at this point, I'm supposed to look just about ready to have this baby :) )

Thankfulness: I am so thankful for the wonderful year I had with my students. It was harder than I expected to say goodbye on Friday, and to let go this week and trust that they will be fine. It has been so, so nice to be able to take a good nap each day, and check much needed things off of our to do list, and I feel very thankful that I am able to take this time before Evan arrives to prepare both our home and myself for this big transition. 

How Far Along? 38 weeks. Only 2 weeks until our due date! Even if Evan is very overdue, he will still definitely arrive within the next month. 

Size of the Baby? Again, it's all a little variable now, but he should be close to 7 lbs and 20 inches long. Ed predicts that he'll be nice and tall. 

Sleep: The insomnia nights have be fewer this past week, which is lovely. I've generally only been getting 6-7 hours, with 3-5 wake-ups during the night, but I'm able to fall asleep pretty easily. And, now that I can take 1-3 hour naps during the day, I'm feeling pretty good. 

Eating? This heartburn has really been giving me a run for my money. I am going through a ridiculous amount of milk, since it seems to be the one thing that really helps tone it down. Still loving my smoothies, though I have had eggs and bacon a few mornings, when Ed is willing to cook. We've stuck with still having pretty healthy dinners, but with some treats thrown in. 

Exercise: Now that I'm on leave, I have a goal to go on a walk and do yoga every day. It's so liberating to not have to worry about contractions, though it is a bit frustrating to feel how much my fitness has dropped in the last few months. Still, I am loving getting to enjoy our beautiful weather. This weekend, we kept it low key, since all the packing and moving out of my classroom definitely also counted. 

Sometimes I take our beautiful riparian preserve for granted, but it was the perfect choice this Sunday. 

We were super excited to see all these sweet ducklings. Ed tried to be reassuring by commenting that if that Mama duck could birth 10 babies, I could have one. Of course, it doesn't quite seem the same, considering ducks lay eggs, instead of having live births. 

I'm very much looking forward to the saguaros blooming, which should be happening soon (as you can see from this saguaro). We're planning to visit the botanical gardens next weekend, and I'm hoping that we'll get to see some blooms.  

The prickly pear cacti were also blooming.

As were the beautiful palo verde trees. They may be my favorite desert trees, especially this time of year.

Best Moment? I'd have to say my last day of work, even though it was definitely bittersweet. Just soaking in those sweet faces for the last time, packing that last box, and moving on was such a surreal but lovely feeling. I also got lots of sweet baby presents from students, and lots of sweet comments from them. 

Milestones: Obviously, being on maternity leave is a huge one! I've been looking forward to this for such a long time, and it is lovely. It's also letting me accomplish some other important things. I finally went through all the baby presents and sorted them, which was a task unto itself. All the rest of the clothing is now sorted, though it still needs to be hung up. 

I tackled all the cabinets in our bathroom. They are now perfectly organized and can fit the baby items that need to be in there. It was definitely a task that I'd needed to do in a super long time, so it felt great to accomplish. 

Mommy Update: Overall, I'm doing really well. I'm really appreciating being able to rest when I need to after last week when I was really overwhelmed with teaching, testing, and packing. Ed was wonderfully helpful, but we were still spending multiple hours after work getting things in boxes and into the car. I'm not sure I can adequately describe just how tired I was. In not so great news, I did test positive for GBS (group B strep). This really isn't a big deal (about 30% of women have it), but it does mean I'll need an IV of antibiotics every 4 hours during labor, once I arrive at the hospital. With the antibiotics, there's only a 1 in 4,000 chance that even would contract GBS, but they will keep a closer eye on him after birth, and we may need to stay at the hospital a little longer. In terms of complications, I would much rather have this than diabetes, high blood pressure, etc, but it still doesn't turn off that little voice of worry. My midwife was very reassuring that this shouldn't affect my ability to have a natural birth or really change much of anything, so I'm trying not to worry too much. 

Baby Update: Evan seems to be growing a lot and is so much fun when he moves around. It's so fun to think he's more or less ready to come out and we'll get to meet him soon!