37 Weeks... and Counting

Today we've officially hit our 37 week mark. In the pregnancy world, that means we're technically "full term," even though my due date isn't for 3 more weeks and I may have as many as 5 weeks to go. Like Most pregnant women, I'm hoping that the munchkin comes sooner rather than later, but I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I need to be patient - not an easy feat for a type A personality!

I am noticing some signs that I won't be pregnant forever - a little more pinching pressure when I walk or run sometimes, a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions (some that wake me up at night), and the bump just keeps growing. Baby is still head down. We're hoping that he/she stays locked that way until it's go time!

Last weekend we had our final baby shower before Baby comes. Between that and making one last big trip to Target, Babies R Us, and Baby Grand, I think we have all of the "essentials." I'm sure there will be things that come up that we never knew we'd need, but for now, we're feeling ready. We've got the swing set up, the car seat installed, and everything washed and put away. My MD asked Steve and me if we are ready at my appointment this week. I think she was a bit taken aback when we told her that we feel like we're good to go. I felt the need to explain that we've had a number of friends who got caught off guard. We don't want to be one of those couples.

So that starts to answer the first question we get asked a lot lately - Are you ready? Physically, I think we're ready. Mentally, I'm as ready as I can be. I'm sort of treating the labor/birth process like going into a big race. I know I've prepared myself as much as possible. I think about it occasionally, but for the most part, I try to push it out of my mind. It uses too much energy, and having a specific vision about how things will go is impractical. I'm just going to have to listen to my body and make adjustments based on what "race day" brings. Of course I know that no race I've ever done, including Ironman, will likely be as demanding or as long as labor, but for now, that's how I'm looking at it.

The next question I get asked is, "How are you feeling?" For the most part, I'm feeling OK. When we had a couple of warm days last week, I was sweating for 2 days straight. My main complaint is that I really don't sleep well, but honestly, I'm not sleeping any worse than I have been in the last few months. I realize we've got a way to go, though. I have different aches and pains than normal, especially in my SI joint where things are definitely loosening up. Steve's been really liberal with the backrubs which definitely helps at the end of some long days. In general, I'm feeling pretty lucky. I'm not swelling up, I'm just a little more tired than normal, and even though I keep packing on the pounds, I don't feel like a heifer on most days. I attribute most of these things to still being able to exercise at this point.

... Which brings me to the last question I get asked a lot lately, "You're still running? Really?" My answer is pretty consistent. I'm not running fast, and I'm not running far, but I'd like to keep it up as long as I'm still feeling OK. My max has dropped to just over 5 miles. Any longer than that and I get a lot of SI pain afterward. I sometimes have to stop and walk, but not all of the time. To a lot of people, it seems really late in the game to be running, but since I've been doing it the whole time, it just seems natural to keep going. It helps that I have so many mommy role models out in the blog world who have done or are doing the same thing. It has also helped to have fellow blogger Abigailius meeting me for weekly or twice weekly runs. We met this morning for a rainy run. As usual, I had so much fun talking to her that our 40 minutes were up before I realized that I was soaking wet. I brought Steve along to snap these pics before we ventured out into the rain:

Ready to run with a whole lotta rain in the background.


We had to do the 5th grade back-to-back pose to really get the effect of 2 full-term preggo bellies :)

My preggo workouts landed Baby and me in our local paper this weekend. Here's the link to the article Can you tell I'm starting to run low on maternity running clothes? I do have a couple of pairs of shorts, but that requires a lot of body glide, and I don't risk it on rainy days.