35 week update!

So here we are with only 5 weeks left until d-day or 34 days and only 2 weeks until I am full term at 37 weeks! Wow. I am really starting to feel the crunch! The last 3 weeks have FLOWN by and if I am not careful, the next 3 weeks will also fly by and I won't be ready! All I have done so far is wash all of our newborn and 0-3 month old clothes. This baby will be the best dressed one in town! We had 6 FULL loads of clothes to wash...And that's not counting the clothes we have for him when he gets older! So needless to say, I still have a lot to do and that is my project for the next couple weeks! I am way excited to do it, but I am hoping my body will not make it too difficult!

So at this point, I am starting to feel more anxious to get him here. I want to see him SOO bad, but also starting to feel the pain of him growing. Before I go much farther, I want to make it VERY clear that I still absolutely LOVE being pregnant! ;) But as he gets bigger, my tummy feels really stretched and his movements are starting to really hurt. The other night while we were watching a movie he was hitting my cervix REALLY hard with something and I finally just laid down in bed to get him off my cervix. The ribs and hip shots hurt, but nothing like the cervix hits I was getting the other night. I was seriously worried he was going to make me start dilating or something! This little fellow sure is STRONG! Also, in the last couple of days I can tell that he is starting to drop and I have adopted the all-so-lovely pregnancy waddle! I can't really help it though. It's the only way to walk that doesn't really hurt. Also, I get heartburn when I lay down no matter if I only drink water. LUCKILY, tums make it go away so it is still manageable. As it should, I have also started to have more braxton hicks (aka: harmful, practice contractions). Before anyone freaks out and worries, it is TOTALLY normal for those to pick up right about now. It's just my body practicing and I am actually really happy I am having them because girls who have braxton hicks usually have quicker labors! YES! I told my doctor just in case today at my appointment and all he said was "good!" and told me it's nothing to worry about. Also, with my belly really growing, it's getting hard to get comfortable in bed because I have a huge belly, a big body pillow and 2 pillows to manage. It's hard to get situated and then once I do, I have to pee! haha. O the joys of pregnancy! :) But feeling my little boy grow and get bigger makes all the uncomfortableness TOTALLY worth it! And I have to say that for being 35 weeks I am still pretty comfortable and not too miserable yet! yay!

So for my favorite story: there are several times that he does something really cute like today when he was kicking the magazine that I was resting on my belly while we were waiting for the doctor to call us back at my appointment, or how he goes crazy when he hears music or me sing, or how he gets the hiccups like 3 times a day, or how he likes to run his feet back and forth along my ribs, or how he is constantly kicking and I get 10 kicks in less than 10 minutes for kick counts every night or he moves so much that it's almost embarrassing as my belly writhes constantly...

But since it was Christmas recently my favorite story comes from Christmas morning. He is usually active around 7am and sure enough that is when the kids at my brother-in-laws woke up to open presents! As soon as I sat down and the kids started to open their presents little Liam started going CRAZY kicking, bouncing and moving around. It was almost as if he knew it was Christmas morning and he was just as excited as the little kids opening their presents! It was adorable! It made me realize that next Christmas we will have a 10 1/2 month old experiencing his first Christmas and I got SUPER excited! That will make next Christmas be my favorite for sure!

So before I write about my doctors appointment today, here is my belly at 35 weeks!

As I was looking at this picture last night I realized that I have a very odd shaped belly. It comes to a point!! But it's because I am short so the only place he has to go is out, which is exactly what he is doing! :) So much for those cute perfectly round tummies!

Today was my 35 week appointment and once again everything looked perfect! My weight gain is right on track, his heartbeat was loud and perfect, my belly is measuring right on, he's head down (YAY) and he's starting to drop! That made me really happy! I wasn't surprised though because I have definitely felt him dropping and the increased pressure as a result. I told my doctor about how I am feeling pressure and a lot more uncomfortable down there and he just smiled and said something to the effect of "just wait". haha :) I love my doctor. We also talked to him about our concern that he will be really big (with Richard's family history of 9-10 pound babies) and he said that he definitely expects him to be bigger than average and might start checking his weight via ultrasound to make sure he never gets too big. I am way smaller than the women in Richard's family so it could be harder for me to have a really big baby than it was for them. I REALLY REALLY don't want to risk an emergency c-section because he is too big for me. I was really glad he didn't blow off my concern and instead addressed what we were worried about and gave us an action plan of things he wants to do (like the ultrasounds etc) to meet our needs. I really do love my doctor!! So my next appointment is in 2 weeks at 37 weeks than the weekly appointments start! CRAZY!!!!

Here is a quick word from thebump.com about this week: "From now on, baby's growth is mostly in the plumping up department -- though he won't get much longer, he'll put on a pound or more of baby fat before birth. (He's about 15 percent right now and will be about 30 percent by full-term.) His hearing is totally developed (tip: baby responds best to higher pitches), and if he really is a "he," his testes have probably completed their descent." All the pregnancy sites agree that he is about 5.25-5.5 pounds which is so crazy to me! He's getting so big! :)

My goal in the next 2 weeks is to get Liam's room totally set up and ready so that it is ready by the time I am full term. I will definitely post pictures when I get it finished. I am really excited! :) I can't wait to see what this little boy looks like!!!!!!!! I hope I can be patient enough ;)