Week 36: One Month To Go!

We officially have less than one month until our due date! This is also my last week without an appointment, since things can change quickly in the coming weeks. I am going to be a parent soon! It is actually beneficial to not have stats this week since I have a million other things to blog about. It has been a busy week.

I am definitely inclined to agree that the last weeks of pregnancy just get harder and longer. I have all sorts of fun pregnancy symptoms.

This is from the beginning of Week 36. A lot of belly growing this week!

While the swelling in my feet completely went away, today I felt the need to take my wedding rings off. I have been checking them most days since I was in Nebraska since I had some issues there, and today I couldn't get my rings off without soap and water. So they are now worn as a necklace, at least for today. It is probably safest to just leave them that way. 

My general body feels like it is getting worn out. My hips hurt for at least the first half of every day. So I am pretty funny to watching getting out of my chair, or off the couch...  I have had longer and stronger (but NOT closer together!) braxton hicks contractions. As he is slowly moving down (hopefully!), the little man has been hitting my nerves that go through my groin and outsides of my legs more often. Super delightful. I had to tell my coworker I sit next to that I apologize for any awkward faces I make in her direction.

With my puppies :)

He is definitely getting huge! While he is still a shy mover for others, he has his crazy days. He has had a lot of hiccups recently. He had them at 5:30am the other morning, which was the first time he has actually kept me awake. Not too bad considering it has been 8 months! Dylan got to feel a set of hiccups last night and said that he feels bad for the baby since hiccups suck. I said I don't think it is so bad since they are floating in fluid and it is pretty normal for them. While the movements had been a little slower for a while, they picked up big time the last couple days and he will do a lot of movement for a solid 45 minutes and they are getting stronger. Babies at this age are working on their muscle and fat development, so it makes sense for him to be moving so much. I can't believe how much bigger he seems to be!

Monday of Week 36

My belly is definitely huge, if it gives any indication of his size. I have been holding off on mentioning my stretch marks that started a couple weeks ago, but they are definitely multiplying. Sigh. They were mostly on my love handles, but started on the bottom of my belly now too :( I can tell it is from my belly growing so much since week and a half ago I could wear a lot of my shirts totally fine and then suddenly I had two inches poking out the bottom of everything.

I am definitely getting my butt kicked by this pregnancy at this point.

But it isn't all the time. While I am definitely more tired and have some fun moments per above, I am still doing really well and enjoying being pregnant. I feel like I still have my "glow" and am getting super excited about the growing boy inside me.

Me and my Grandma from my shower this weekend. Yes I wore the same dress for this shower... :)

Now it is just a matter of when he will arrive! If you haven't seen it, I started a betting pool for when baby Otley will arrive here.

My girls and I at my shower.

Dylan and I were chatting about the pros and cons of if he comes sooner or later.

Benefits of coming sooner:

• I get less fat and get less stretch marks
• Less waiting. I'm still working on this whole patience thing.
• Generally a lighter/smaller baby (theoretically easier to deliver)
• More time to adjust to baby before our trip to Montana
• No worries about having him while my mom is on vacation (June 7-13)

Benefits of coming later:

• Fuller term baby, better for health and brain development
• Waiting for the weather to be nicer so I have the real summer weather while on leave
• I won't have to go back to work until after Labor Day, and will have time to get work done before leave
• More time just Dylan and I before our lives change forever
• More time to do final touches and organize.

In the end, he will come when he wants to!

The completed closet! I am so excited about how much better it looks!

I had my second baby shower this weekend, and had so much fun eating delicious food and seeing people I don't get to see that often. We got a lot of really useful stuff! I started organizing it all last night and feel really good about what we have and what we still need to buy.

The current state of the closet. The clothes are sorted by size.

Just an FYI, nesting is not necessarily a good thing. It makes me especially snippy at Dylan since I apparently feel like the house has to be entirely clean all the time. Fortunately he is understanding and he has stepped up and ended up being super productive this last weekend. He installed the closet organization and has been working really hard on yard work too.

All the toys and blankets!

We also had a chance to look at another daycare this week. We liked it a lot, but felt the first one was a better fit for us. We paid our deposit and first week's day care fee on Friday! It really is nice to have a place we feel good about, although when we have to drop him off the first time I know it will be rough.

From the last day of Week 36

Finally, we added a new name to the list! I absolutely love it, even though it bends our "not too popular" rule. I still really like the other names on our list too, so his name still won't get decided until he arrives. It makes me so excited to meet him so we know what he looks like!

Thanks for those of you that stuck with me through this long post! I don't have nearly enough energy to write more than one post a week it seems. Be sure to enter your bet!