35-36 Weeks

Although Lacy’s weight seems to have leveled off somewhat, Addie is still packing on the pounds at the rate of about an ounce a day, Addie now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long and is running out of room to move around. Because she is running out of room she is less likely to work on her gymnastics simply because the gym is getting smaller. She is still staying flexible and it seems she has moved back to kickboxing because the kicks and punches are still very hard and frequent. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. She swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, which will form the contents of her first bowel movement, poor girl. I’m sure she will be happy to get that out of her system and I wonder who will be the lucky person to get to change that first poopy diaper? My vote is for Momma, or Mimi, or Nana, or Susu, or a nurse, or anyone not named Nick. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on some more weight.

Thanks to some hard work from Lacy, Susan, and Lemy this weekend, the nursery is 95% ready. The only thing left to do is to put the dresser together and fill it up with all shades of pink and purple. We picked up the dresser this weekend and it is still sitting in the garage staring me down. It wasn’t actually supposed to be here until March 3^rd, so maybe this is a sign that everything will happen a little sooner than expected… the same thing happened with the crib and changing table. I had every intention of putting together the dresser this weekend but we got caught up in cleaning out all the boxes and trash from everything else that had accumulated and also taking care of some other things this weekend. I’d say I will get to it one night this week and then we can put some pictures up. It’s a relief in itself just to be able to walk around in the nursery without tripping on a bag of gifts or toys. Lacy says it even smells like a nursery too.

Lacy is beginning to have Braxton hicks contractions more regularly, although they aren’t on any kind of schedule, aren’t overly frequent, and aren’t painful. You can definitely feel them when they are happening though. She is starting to get heartburn more often. She is snoring like freight train. Her ankles are swelling. Her hips ache. Her lower back aches. She really is pregnant, ha. I think she would agree that she has had a great pregnancy, but it is getting more and more difficult by the day. It’s starting to feel like Lacy has been pregnant for at least 2 years, these past few weeks have gone by so s  l  o  w. Who knows how much longer it will last??? The official due date is March 22, so sometime between now and the next 30 days (hopefully for Lacy’s sake) we will have a baby girl. I think she will come early but how early I have no idea.  We go to the doctor on Thursday and Lacy will be “checked”, so this might give us an early indication, or it might be too early to tell.

31-34 Weeks - The slowest weeks yet......

The last 4 weeks of the pregnancy have been the slowest by far. We are simply playing the waiting game. Even though we know it's still a few weeks before Addie will arrive, it feels like it should be any day now. Lacy bought the carseat today and gave me a tutorial on how to properly use it. It's actually sitting right in front of me staring me in the face right now. The nursery is still lacking the dresser, but we foung out today that the backorder deliver date has moved up to a sooner date. It will now be here February 22nd, exactly one month before Lacy's due date. Once we get the dresser here we can start putting away all her clothes. Speaking of clothes, once Addie gets here she may not wear an outfit twice for at least 6 months, every high school girls dream, that's how many outfits she has already. Once we get the nursery all put together I will post pictures, but right now it looks like a pink bomb went off in there.

Addie weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. Babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. Obviously we want Addie to be healthy, but we are getting very anxious.

Addie is rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. The bones in her skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for her to fit through the birth canal.  These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as her brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Lacy is still feeling good, and growing by the week. She is still working out often and "sometimes" eating healthy. Yesterday, after she had gone to work out, she came in with a  huge bag from Cracker Barrell for dinner. I knew it wasn't for me because I had already eaten a sandwich, but it sure looked like enough food to feed a family of 4. Pancakes, bacon, hashbrowns, toast, eggs, etc. She will probably kill me for writing that, but it made me laugh because she said she ordered it while walking on the treadmill, haha.



A look back.... Lacy at 10 weeks.



Even though the picture is smaller,
Lacy is definitely BIGGER.
34 weeks.