37 Weeks

3 more weeks until my due date! Come out, come out wherever you are! My belly button still hasn't popped and at this point I really don't think it will. This bambino is having a field day in my uterus - it's constantly pushing body parts out and recently started punching or squeezing my bladder. What a lovely little baby. I'm getting a little tired of carrying around the extra weight and am anxious to meet this baby. I've probably jinxed myself now and won't have the baby until the very last day - January 30. AHHHH!!! If I go by Peter's weight guess, the baby will be at least 11 pounds by then. Ouch!

I should start walking and eating spicy foods and doing all of the other natural induction methods. One of my co-workers suggested jumping jacks because he thinks gravity would help the baby get out. Believe me, you won't see me doing jumping jacks or other aerobics until 6 weeks post partum.

Here's what the baby's been up to this week according to WhatToExpect.com:

With just three more weeks to go and at about six and a half pounds (though weight and height vary from fetus to fetus), your baby is doing just fine. You can expect weight gain to be about half an ounce per day. (Boys, though, are likely to be heavier at birth than girls. And here's a bit of boy baby trivia to back that one up: Moms carrying boys tend to eat more than moms carrying girls — a foreshadowing of teenage refrigerator raids to come.) Since your little one is considered full-term at 37 weeks pregnant, if your baby was to leave the wet nest this week, he or she would likely thrive. That's because Mother Nature and you have done such a fine job.

So what's keeping your little one busy while waiting it out until D-day? Practice, practice, practice. Your baby is simulating breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, sucking on his or her thumb, blinking, and pivoting from side to side (one day you feel the tushy on the left side, another day it has swung around to the right side). All these are skills needed for his or her next gig — starring as
newborn.

Here's an interesting fact: Your baby's head (which, by the way, is still growing) will, at birth, be the same size circumference as his or her hips, abdomen, and shoulders. And guess what's making an impression (literally) these days on those shoulders and hips: fat — causing little dimples in those cute elbows and knees, shoulders and hip, and creases and folds in the neck and wrists.

And the weekly pictures:
TheBump.com (formerly TheNest.com) - the last fruit/veggie!


WhatToExpect.com - Except my child has its foot in my right rib cage, it's butt sticking out of my left side and its little claws around my bladder.

Sorry for the psychotic eyes - the cat was interrupting my picture and I didn't feel like retaking it.


So tired after a day of work.