38 weeks

what's cooking? [new baby things]: babe grew to almost 7 pounds this week and nearly 20 inches long.  all of her little insides have continued to develop and will until [and after] she arrives.  i hope she's also currently devising an exit strategy.

gender: teeny tiny little girl! our mini, emmie collins.

movement: she has been a CRAZY mover for the past week.  today was the first day that she's slowed down at all.  she's still scooting around but is a little more chill today.  maybe the weekend wore her out.  update:  i spoke too soon.  she moved all night long.  all.night.long.  :) this week is the first time that she's really started to hurt me.  it felt a lot like if you had really sore muscles and then a tiny little person was punching those muscles over and over.  the pain isn't something to cry about or anything - just very uncomfortable.

momma developments: i'm still doing good.  i'm as tired, or more tired than ever.  basically the best timing to be able to be home i suppose.  i can sleep in a little later in the mornings and even take naps if needed.  i'm super excited about that.  i'm big and still can't bend of course.  the swollen feet come and go but haven't been so bad.  i'm pretty confident that either my stomach or intestines are on top of my ribs now - so that's pretty sick.  i still haven't had the dozens of 'bad' pregnancy side effects that are so common so i know i cannot complain one bit.  no stretch marks [yet], no heartburn, no headaches, etc.  we're so blessed & i'm real thankful for such good health.

total weight gain:  34-35 pounds so far.  i haven't gained anything in the past few weeks.  i'm not really sure how that all pans out since i know she's gaining weight but it may be that i can't eat that much at a time anymore.  she's taking up too much room for me to be a bottomless pit these days.

maternity clothes: yes ma'am!  bump-tastic.  there is no way you could squeeze me into normal clothes now! i'm even getting too big for a lot of my preggo clothes.  who even knew that could happen?

cravings: not much really.

anything hard? 

a few days were rough this week. my mood was real strange.  a little irritable and grumpy and tired and i just couldn't shake it.  i hated feeling like that.  i had a good cry in a buy buy baby parking lot and that helped.  embarrassing but helpful.

never forget:

itty bitty emmie, this week we took you to your 38 week dr.'s appointment.  everything was just fine but again your heart rate wasn't what they wanted it to be.  it was about 108 as a baseline and they want you to be above 120.  so they hooked us back up to a monitor, just like the week before.  they said that you have beautiful acceleration and movement so they aren't real worried about your baseline being a bit lower.  we're praying hard that you're alright in there and that it doesn't point to any problems.  we have another appointment on tuesday to check on you which makes me feel excited and puts me more at ease.  any time i can get a glimpse of what's going on in there - i'm thrilled.  we are also getting an ultrasound just to take a peek and double check every little thing.
 

this week you got to celebrate your little baby cousin, cormac's first birthday!  i'm pretty positive that you were in love and especially drawn to the little gentlemen theme.  i'm sure you will appreciate a good gentleman someday.  i hope that you and mac grow up to be friends & i cannot wait to see the two of you running around the house together, building forts at family gatherings, etc.  because you had a family gathering and your other grandparents live right down the road, you were actually able to see all your grandparents this week.  treat!

this week, like usual, you were pretty busy.  you got to have multiple lunches with friends.  you were able to have a special lunch with the ladies at work to mark your last week at the office and you got to visit with the margrave's, including your future bff, evie.  you all have matching headbands.  i can't wait until you rock them together.  she's only about 6 months older than you so hopefully you'll catch up soon & she can show you all about ruffles.

as i mentioned here, i had my last day of work which i've been counting down for quite some time.  little mini, i am so excited to be your mom and spend my days at home with you.  from other mommas i hear that some of the days are going to be hard and long.  i'm ok with that.  there are so many things that i'm excited for us to do and learn together - i'll take the good with the bad.  and when your pop gets home from work or we have those sacred weeks off in the summer together, geesh, be still my heart.  i mean, i just cannot picture anything i'd rather be doing than being home & adventuring through life with y-o-u.