37 weeks down....3 more to go!

Every week when I get ready to do an update for this blog I get nervous all over again realizing how close the birth of our baby girl is. It's so unreal to me. It feels like a dream to think that we'll be bringing a baby home in just a couple of short weeks. As of today we only have 17 more days until she's due! AAHHH!!!! It's so strange to get to this stage of pregnancy and still feel this much anxiaty about becoming parents. I guess I thought I would feel ready by the time she was due, but I SO don't. I feel like the same exact person (with a much bigger belly, mind you :) and I just don't feel like a Mom. But then, I guess that comes with the experience and not just because I'm carrying a child.

This week is jam packed with appointments. Monday I had my full doctor's appointment and everything still looks good. Dr. Van de Castel didn't see any sign of progression to labor, so maybe our little girl will stay put until Mom gets here. She flies in just two days before the due date, so it could be close.

Of course I had another ultrasound to check everything. Dr. Van de Castel was able to capture a couple of pictures of the baby, but these weren't quite as clear as the others we have. Her cheek actually looks mashed, like it's getting a little tight in there :) Very briefly I actually saw her blink and open her mouth! That was very cool! It's just unreal how much detail you can see with an ultrasound. Like I said, these aren't the best ultrasound pictures, but I'll post them anyhow. You can see how her little cheek looks pretty smashed.

Baby Thompson at 37 weeks

My hands have been hurting alot through the joints and wrists. Most of the night they ache and go numb. I think it's just from the water retention, but it's a bit of a nuisance. Anyhow, I mentioned this to the doctor, so she had me go back yesterday for some more screenings. I still have to go back again on Friday for another fetal monitoring. That will make 3 doctor's appointments this week along with two birthing classes and a baby shower Friday evening. Makes for a full week for sure.

Yesterday morning we went to our second birthing class. That one was called Stages of Labor and was very interesting. A midwife from Boblingen hospital was there to answer a lot of the questions we had about the German system. It really was a great class with lots of good information.

Throughout the entire pregnancy I've avoided dwelling too long on the actual birth of this baby because there's just no getting around it. I don't think any woman wants to go through that pain, but I figure lots of women have gone through it and have even gone through it numerous times, so I'll deal with it when it happens. I just haven't seen any reason to get too scared about something that I have no control over. Well, thanks to yesterday's class, I had to look it straight on and came to the conclusion that watching a movie of someone else giving birth does nothing to set my mind at ease. Actually, it probably just made it seem that much worse. So, I'm still ignoring the fact that I'm going to have to go through that very same process in the next few weeks. I'm back to playing ignorant about the whole thing and planning to just deal with it when it happens. Of course, I'll do what I can to be prepared, but I'm just not letting myself think too much about the pain of childbirth.

Speaking of doing what I can to be prepared...this morning we had another birthing class to attend. This one was called Comfort Measures and dealt with the different non-medical things we can do throughout labor to help deal with the pain. They told us to wear comfortable clothes today because we would be practicing with our "coaches". That's what they're calling the Dads, which seems a little funny to me since he's expected to "coach" me through something neither of us have been through before. Should be interesting :) I'm not sure how well I'll take the "coaching" in the midst of pain, but I've told Sam to please just not take anything personal during labor. I've never been through it and have no idea what I'll want or how I'll be. That's my disclaimer before we even get to the hospital :)

I mentioned that we had bought a stoller a couple of weeks ago, but until now it's just been sitting in the box because we've had other things going on and didn't figure there was a real rush to get it together. So, Sunday afternoon Sam pulled the box into the living room to start pulling all the pieces out and realized it wasn't the same color that we had wanted. We asked for the charcoal grey and pink stroller, but the one in the box is green and tan. Granted, it's not a bad looking stroller, just not the one we wanted. We already had to go back to the store last Saturday because we were not given the sale price on the stroller...something I didn't realize until I was going through our receipts. The difference was about $50, so certainly worth the trip back to the store. It's just too bad we hadn't bothered to put the stroller together at that point so we could have exchanged it at the same time. Anyhow, that's another thing to add to our "to do" list

This Friday evening I'll be going to the baby shower being given by the ladies at church. It's such a nice gesture on their behalf and I certainly appreciate their thoughtfulness. I am a little nervous though because I just don't like being the center of attention.....UGH!

Well, here are the weekly photo updates. This is from Sunday. I was 37 weeks and 1 day.

3 more weeks!!

One more thing before I sign off...I just got a phone call from the PX at Panzer saying that the baby's crib is in!!!!! Yeah!!!! I'm so happy about that! The other pieces have not arrived yet, but this gives me hope that they may not be far behind.

Well, I better get busy on cleaning the house. I haven't been home hardly at all this week, so it's in need of some help.