Full Term

Yesterday marked another pregnancy milestone.  I am 37 weeks pregnant.  Full-term.  I'm grateful to have made it to the point where our baby will now more likely be able to easily adjust to life outside my body.  It brings me much relief.

At 37 weeks, I'm having weekly appointments with my OB.  Yesterday's appointment confirmed that my cervix is still closed.  I'm feeling some mild cramping throughout the day - not quite Braxton Hicks contractions, more like menstrual cramps.  I'm continuing to sleep pretty well, am peeing ALL the time, and between heartburn/nausea and my stomach being pretty compressed, I'm having a hard time eating.  Still trying to get through with small meals and snacks throughout most of the day.

I feel huge.  Now when I rub my hands over my hard belly, all I can feel is limbs.  Baby body parts, pressed up tightly against the sides of my gigantic uterus.  When the baby moves, I feel less of a kicking motion and more of a hard poking.  Sometimes my belly looks lopsided.  It's kind of hilarious to envision our little one all cramped up inside.  It makes me think about our almost 5-year old godchild, who arrived two weeks past his due date.  When you ask him why he came out so late, he says, "it was cozy in there!"  I hope our little one is feeling cozy, too.

I'm starting to imagine what it will feel like to look at our baby for the first time.  To feel his or her skin on my skin.  To hear him or her cry.  I wonder what it will feel like to hold our baby.  I've always felt uncomfortable and nervous holding other people's babies, but I have no fears about holding my own.  I think I will be able to do it with some degree of confidence.  I'm eager to kiss our little baby's head, to rock him or her in my arms, to feel the little hands and little feet.  Until now, these things have all felt pretty theoretical.  They still do, in some ways.  But our baby shows up in my imagination more concretely now then even a week ago.  I'm starting to feel ready.