Week 38

Dear Ellison,

You are 38 weeks old now!  You are weighing in at around 6.8 pounds and are about 19.5 inches from head to heel.  You have a firm grasp and your organs are mature enough for life outside the womb.  The last bits of vernix caseosa and lanugo are shedding from your body.  Your head is about the same circumference as your belly and you could have an inch or so of hair already!  Here are the little details of the week...

How Far Along? Thirty Eight Weeks...14 days to go!

Weight Gain?  According to the scale at the MD office, we're right at about 35 pounds.  My OB said that at this point, it doesn't really matter what the scale says because it's a hard read since I'm swelling a little.  She said a lot of the weight I'll gain from now until Ellison arrives will probably just be fluid.  She said as long as my blood pressure looks good (which it does) and as long as there's no protein in my urine, that weight gain at this point isn't an issue.  Sounds good to me.  Pass the cookie.  :-)
Sleep?  Eh.  It's OK...nothing to write home about.  I still fall asleep pretty quickly, but am up about 4 times through the night.  I have had a couple of nights that were really terrible...just tossing a turning and waking up at every little noise in the house.  My OB told me today to try some Tylenol PM to try to get a little more sleep before baby comes. 

Miss Anything? Mostly just being able to comfortably do simple tasks like putting on my shoes, getting out of bed, shaving my legs...
Movement?  She's still very active.  Her movements are very big and I can feel her curl into balls and stretch out...both of which are awesome and uncomfortable all at the same time!

Food Cravings? Same old stuff really.  Fruit still sounds great and I'm pretty much always up for Asian food.

Any Aversions? Definitely still eggs, but I have gotten a teeny bit better about chicken lately.

Gender? It's a GIRL ~ Ellison Gray.
Symptoms?  Definitely having contractions...and to be honest, I have no idea whether they are real or Braxton Hicks.  How is anyone supposed to really know that?!  They are pretty consistent, but not very frequent.  Ellison has definitely dropped too...I seriously feel like she's about to fall out.  I feel like I need to hold my arms under my belly and lift her up!  I called out of work last Friday because I woke up unbelievably nauseous around 4:00 am and was up and feeling crummy for a few hours.  I think it was very likely something I ate though and not baby related. 
Best Moment this Week? Our appointment went really well this past week.  Things are still looking good, and Ellison and I are still happy and healthy albeit a little uncomfortable (I'm sure she's getting pretty cramped!).

Looking Forward To... We will see our OB again this week for our 38 week appointment and see if we're making any progress toward having this baby girl.  I'm also looking forward to a "cold front" coming through!  There's been a nice break in the high temps lately, so maybe I'll actually feel like getting out and walking around the neighborhood.  Maybe that will get little miss moving a little bit!