38 Weeks

I am 38 weeks pregnant today! I weighed in at 164 lbs. this morning. Hopefully the doctor's scale won't be any more than that when I go this morning. I have still been having a lot of cramping and it is really painful in my lower abdomen when Jax moves around. I have noticed that he seems to be calming down a bit. I notice that he is sleeping at different times during the day now which is good. He does still seem to be pretty active at night. He has had the hiccups several nights this week. I am still retaining fluids, but not any worst than last week. Sometimes I feel like I could go into labor at any moment and then other times I feel like I could still make it to the 12th. I am really hoping for the 12th. I haven't been able to time any contractions yet, but this being my second one everything could go a lot faster and come on all at once. It is so hard for me to put my shoes and socks on and get myself dressed and then I have to turn around and get Christian dressed after me. All that takes a lot out of me! Then you put going to work on top of that and I am about to die. I only have 6 more days and only 3 of those I have to work. After Saturday I will be on the downward slope of things. My cough is starting to do a little better, but I still have coughing fits some. I am hoping that this will clear up soon. Christian ended up with pink eye, a cold, and an ear infection this week and we got him on medicine starting Monday and he is doing much better now. He still has a little cough, but other than that he is doing good. I am just hoping that everyone gets better in our families before I go into labor. I can't wait to see what the doctor says today when I go. I am curious if I will have to go in the night before for them to ripen my cervix. I am hoping not, but I don't know how ripe they want it to be before they start inducing. I have a nice little plan and schedule of how I would like to see things go if I make it to the 12th. I really want to be able to take a shower and put my make-up on before I leave in the morning. I know that sounds silly, but I feel so much more refreshed when I am all put together and have more energy and because there will be lots of pictures, so I don't want to look back and hate the pictures because I was to lazy to put on my make up. I have been trying to decide when I should get my mani and pedi also. Part of me is thinking to go on Sunday and then part of me is saying to chance it and hold off until Tuesday, since I still have to work on Monday and doing colors and shampoos will ruin my nails. It really isn't that big of a deal either way and chances are I will not even make it to get them done before I go in. I have been thinking of silly little things like this trying to keep me from freaking out over some bigger things right now. I sat down yesterday and made out a list of all the different pictures I am wanting for Jax's newborn shoot and where I am going to put all of them and what sizes I will need and if I want them to be horizontal and vertical. I am not completely insane in doing this. I did this with our maternity pictures and it made things go a lot more smoothly for the session and Alisann was able to have ideas ready knowing ahead of time what I wanted. Plus there were some specific poses that I wanted and then she was sure to get those. Sometimes when you are all wrapped up in a shoot you tend to forget what all exactly you had in mind for your house as far as pictures go. I don't tell her how I want to be posed or anything, because that is her expertise. I just say I would like a family picture of us standing and a family picture of us laying down and then she can do the creative stuff on how she poses it. I also tell her what size and where I am going to put the picture, so that helps her visualize what will look goo in our house. I made the list out yesterday and I need to email it to her today, so she will have it. I am hoping to finish laundry up today and get my mini dvds all finalized and organized. I also need to finish my Fall 2010 photobook. I got a good start on it Monday and then I have slacked off the last couple of days on it. I am so glad I have the day off today to catch up and rest. This past week I have had a couple of cravings but nothing to big. I still have been craving chocolate chip cookies, but I haven't been eating very many. The other night/early morning I had a craving for cherry coke. The craving was so bad I about got up and went to the gas station and got one, but I didn't. I have still had some cravings for pasta, but not any that I am going to die if I don't get it kind. I have also started craving salmon and more fresh and healthy things like salads and fruits and vegetables. I guess that is a good thing, not that I have been eating healthy the last couple of days, but it is a start. I am really trying to be more positive in this last week of pregnancy, but I can't help and just be so ready to not be pregnant anymore. I feel like I have been pregnant forever and I am ready for the next stage. I really hope that my recovery is a lot easier than last time. They say with a second one it is, but everyone is different. I just really want to enjoy the newborn stage more and not be so stressed over everything like I was with Christian. Everyday I feel more anxious and excited to meet Jax and less nervous, so that is a good sign. I will post back after my doctor's appointment today and then I am going to continue to do my daily countdown at night. I am hoping to do one more weekly post on Tuesday even though it won't quite be a week. I may not make it that far though, so this could be my last weekly update. I will miss doing these every Thursday morning. I look forward to it! I think I am going to maybe do a weekly post every week up until my 6 week check up to record my progress on recovery and loosing weight, but I may not have time for it with a new born so who knows. I am glad I have done this every week, because I know I will really enjoy looking back and reading this one day and if we have a third child it will be nice to be able to compare the pregnancies. It is so hard to remember all the little details of everything and how you felt different times throughout the pregnancy. I wish I would have had this when I was pregnant with Christian, but I think I did a pretty good job of including a lot of what could remember in this blog!