Nine Month Update - Month 9

36 weeks

Your baby is gaining about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy hair that covered her body, as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Next week, your baby will be considered full-term. Most likely she's in a head-down position, but if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an external cephalic version, where she'll try to turn your baby by manipulating her from the outside of your belly. (www.babycenter.com)

I feel like time is going at a warp speed, so I thought I'd take a moment and write all that's been going with me, my body and other stuff - since baby could come at anytime. However, we really want to get through this week without any issues because once 37 weeks hits then baby will be considered a full-term baby! Yay!

What's happening?

Nursery is done
This was so fun to do! I'm going to put up a separate post on this with lots of pictures but the nursery is finally done. Clothes, toys and blankets have all been washed in Dreft. Everything has been set up (seriously how many cardboard boxes can we fit in our recycling bin) and is in place and ready to go. We are ready for you Baby Koester!!

Fun little nursery

Life insurance
Karl and I looked into getting more life insurance as most soon-to-be new parents would do, which means we had to get all those fun blood tests (again). Karl's came back with elevated cholesterol and mine came back with elevated bilirubin. I thought only babies got that (jaundice). So of course I ran to the mirror. I wasn't seeing any orange coloring in my skin or eyes. So I'm not sure what that's about. Glad we have our doctor appointment tomorrow and I can ask if I should be worried. I'm not drinking alcohol so I don't know how my liver could be overworked...

The leg cramps keep getting crazier and more intense

I picked up a bottle of cal/mag from the gym hoping this would help with the leg cramps I've been getting in the middle of the night. I've been on them for about a week and have been taking them in the morning and at night. They did help when I wasn't pregnant and playing sand volleyball - the foot cramps stopped. Well, last night I had another round of brutal, throw-me-to-the-ground charlie horses, but this time in BOTH shins. Yowsers! They were so bad and painful I couldn't even get my brain to tell my feet to move. And it's hard to maneuver around with a big ol' belly and a bladder ready to burst, so I crawled to the sink and drank three glasses of water. I don't know why I did that. I think it's because I couldn't stretch or move and I thought water would help me think? To my surprise in a matter of minutes, my cramps just disappeared. It was the weirdest thing. So to me that means I'm dehydrated. Nuts since I've been drinking close to 90 ounces of water a day. However, I work out and sweat... and have a baby inside me.

Tailbone pain
Holy ouch! I'm sure it's the weight gain and sitting all day at work, but man does my tailbone HURT! I need to replace my chair with a fitness ball. Just a few more weeks... I can do this!

Pregnancy Pics
We had our friends Sam and Shannon come over and take some belly pics on Sunday. I'm excited to see how these turn out.

Celebrating Karl's bday
Friday was Karl's birthday and we went on a little fun date to Woolley's at Embassy Suites (where our wedding was). The food is always fantastic and they're always so good to us! Karl even got his own cake! It was fun just the two of us hanging out and enjoying a night out together. We don't do this very often. We honestly don't go to movies or get all crazy downtown. We just love staying in and being with each other. We had his parents and sister over on Sunday for burgers and they checked out the nursery. Then we walked across the street to try out the new yogurt bar, Cherry Berry. I can see this being verrrry dangerous for me.

Baby Movements
I was lying down in bed and looked down at my stomach as Karl was coming up the stairs. "Come quick!" I yelled.

He immediately raced up and looked down at my stomach. "Oh my God! It's like an alien is inside you."

Not the best picture but baby will shift his/her entire body from right to left

The baby had completely shifted to the right side of my stomach and we could see the entire outline of the baby's back and rump. He/she looked so tiny! The left side of my stomach was flat like I used to remember. From that point on, the baby has been shifting his/her entire body from the right to the left and I've been trying to capture it the best I can.

We just can't get over how we can feel this baby's feet and elbow move across my entire stomach. It's the craziest thing. Karl keeps trying to grab at his/her feet!

Weekly doctor appointments
Now is the time we'll be really bonding with our doctor. Good thing we like him so much. Our appointments have moved from every other week to every week! Tomorrow I'll get swiped with a swab for Group B Streptococcus and the doctor is going to see if I'm dilated at all. I'm thinking I won't be. I thought I'd go early, but now I'm starting to think I'm either going to be on time or be late. Or maybe that's just my brain not being ready to accept I'm going to be a mom. I'm sure Jessica Simpson and I will have babies who share birthdays and we'll become BFFs or something. It'll be awesome.

Ready to go
I've feverishly been writing lists of things I need to get done before baby arrives, not just at home but at work. I'm sure my boss thinks I'm crazy. I just like to be prepared and don't want to leave anyone hanging. I honestly can say, I think we're almost ready. Like I even have made up return address labels (with ultrasound pics of baby Koester) and labels for the baby announcement cards and set up an email template so Karl can notify everyone that baby has arrived! All that's left is to get both car seat bases installed in our cars correctly. I was going to do that and take it into the police station by work just to make sure I did it right. Sure, there are little things that still need to be done, but nothing that I'm too worried about.

Pregnancy is an adventure
Kind of getting sick of hearing all these stories about how painful and dreadful labor is. Or how I have no clue what the definition of sleep deprived is. Some guy told me last night that I can talk to him about that when I go two weeks with getting four hours total of sleep. On my drive into work this morning I decided I'm done worrying. I'm done freaking myself out or being fearful of everything. Karl and I are going into this together (wouldn't want to go in it with anyone else) - and I want to make the best of it. I want to be able to laugh about it, and enjoy even the hard parts. This is only going to happen ONCE. Me, Karl and baby. Not saying we're only having one kid, but we're going to only experience this first time stuff once. Why not make the best of it and enjoy the ride? I'm sure we'll have some great stories come out of the experience. And thank God for this blog because it's going to help me get through it all!