36 weeks

Almost there!! I am hoping this is one of my last updates ;) I could do with 2 or 3 more, maybe...haha! Anyways, things are going great and I really can't believe I am so close to meeting our little girl! I am getting SO anxious and excited to meet, hold and love her, see what she looks like and watch Liam as an older brother. He is going to be great! He LOVES LOVES LOVES babies (I have so many cute stories of him loving babies that I should write down soon) so he will be in little boy heaven when he gets his very own. 

36 weeks

Things are going good! I am hurting still, but I found out why and that makes it sooo much more bearable! It's a couple things...1. My doctor explained at my last appointment that because I am so small and had such a huge baby, my hips have spread sooooo much more than they did or would for a normal person. So because they spread so bad before and my pregnancies are pretty close together, my hips are taking a toll. 2. I dropped with Liam a week before I had him, but our little princess dropped and engaged in my pelvis a couple weeks ago! She dropped pretty early so that makes my body hurt because she is so low. In fact at my last appointment when he checked me, he said that she is as low as she possibly can be!

No wonder I hurt!! 

So I had my 36 week appointment last week and everything looked perfect! Her heartbeat was perfect, my weight gain is right on (in fact I am on track to gain less this time), blood pressure was low/perfect and he said she is still head down and incredibly low. In fact as he was checking me, he said that she was so low that she bumped his fingers with her head! Crazy...But I also found out that I am (well a week ago) 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced! That is more progress than I had with Liam when I went to the hospital after hours of contractions 3 minutes apart! So her being so low for so long and me being on my feet constantly sure has made me hurt, but it is paying off! The doctor said that I could either have her early or I could stay at 2 cm, and have her on my due date (he won't let me go further so I don't have a 10 pound baby). But I have had a lot of regular contractions, some of which hurt, so it really could be any day. That is why we have gone crazy on baby prep, just in case. I am not getting my hopes up I will go early, but I am preparing for it. 

I am a little worried about going longer because I can tell she is getting big. She takes up my entire torso! I can feel her as low as she can be and then at the same time she is kicking my ribs! That is how it was with Liam right before I had him...O gosh. But who knows, she could be a little petite girl like I was! I can't wait to see :)

In other news, we have decided on her name!!!! Well, we actually decided a couple months ago, but now we are more sure and I just forgot to mention it. We are going to keep all of you in suspense for 2 reasons. 1. It's so fun to announce their name when they are born (it's another element of excitement) 2. Even though we totally love the name and feel really good about it, we want to make sure it fits her when she is born. We knew what Liams name would be before he was born (William is Richards middle name so our first son was going to have that as his first name) so that is why we knew as soon as we found out he was a boy. So get excited to hear her cute name when she is born! It has a cool story behind it too and I will share that too after she is born. We love it :) 

Well that is it for now! I have another appointment on Friday when I am 37 weeks so I might be annoying and post how that goes (hey, this is our family journal :) ). 

I am in complete shock that I will be full-term in 4 days!!!!! 

And I have to say the other thing I am in complete shock about is that my little handsome prince is 

18 months old today!!! 

I am going to write up an official 18 month update soon.

Man I love that boy more than I can possibly express...