Esther Pending: 34 weeks

"O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever"

Psalms 118:1

A friend of ours, who is going to be a great dad some day, recently asked me if I spent a lot of time rubbing my belly during the day. He looked genuinely excited when he asked. What I wanted to say was, "Yes, I spend a lot of time rubbing my stomach each day. I love playing with her little feet, and cradling her head and cute little bum in my hands. I rest my hands on my belly to comfort myself and when I sing to her. I want to hold and take care of her, and rubbing my belly is as close as I can get to that right now." But instead I said, "not really," and then I told him I spend most of the day crying or sleeping! What is wrong with me?

Now, I do break into tears a lot lately (happy tears!) and I definitely spend way too much time sleeping, but there is so much more to my day, to my pregnancy, and to my relationship with my unborn daughter than crying and sleeping.

I'm crazy excited for this friend and his wife to have kids. They will be amazing parents! I want to be able to share real, meaningful, and special things about this pregnancy with friends like them so they have more to look forward to with their own upcoming experiences.

They'll hear enough about how pregnancy sucks for some women, horror stories, and lame "get used to never sleeping again" jokes/advice, etc. I want to add to the stories they hear about the happiness and beauty that's involved because that's the best part, and there's a lot of it.

This week, I received a wonderful diaper bag, a super soft lavender blanket, and baby bibs in the mail. None of them came with a letter or name/address so I don't know who sent them. If it was you, I love them! I would love to send you a thank you card, or thank you in person, so please, if you sent one of those items let me know.

Seriously, the generosity everyone has showed us the past few months is amazing. Y'all have taken great care of us and really spoiled our little one. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My mother-in-law and Kevin's grandma got me a rocking chair which we set up this week. I have spent a great deal of time sitting in it holding a baby blanket or rubbing my stomach while fantasizing about what it will be like once Baby J arrives.

Eeee!

We also put the crib together! Now all I need to do is put some sheets on it, figure out where we're going to put it, and have a baby.

Love, love, love!

Our little miss is running out of room.

Her movements have stopped being isolated kicks, punches, and rolls for the most part, and turned into big stretches that affect my entire stomach. Sometimes I think she's sick of not having much space because her movements seem desperate or aggressive. I still love it, but it feels really weird, and it gets painful.

Most often, she'll stick her butt out on the right, and push her feet as far out on the left as they'll go, making my stomach take on a really odd form. I'll use both hands to try to squish her back in a little because it hurts when she stretches like that, but she'll only stay that way for a couple seconds before returning to her previous position (along with a couple hard kicks to show me how she doesn't appreciate my method of asking her to move).
Her most common position is to have her head down low, her body laying against my right side, her butt pushed up under my right rib, and her feet and legs over on the left. I often feel like a hammock because of how she is laying, only one that also folds you in half, hah.

Baby J has found my belly button which I dislike. Anything she does that involves my belly button hurts bad. Sometimes it will send a sharp pain from my belly button all the way down and makes me jump.
She also gets the hiccups a lot, which I love. Baby hiccups are wonderful.

She's not just running out of room either. The clock is ticking and my due date is fast approaching. I have six weeks left and can officially say I am due next month.

Six weeks still sounds like a long time, to me at least, but two friends who were due only three weeks before me gave birth this weekend, and one friend who was due two months after me gave birth last week!

Since I hit the third trimester, my OB has been saying she can come any time now, but that didn't mean anything to me until the ladies due around the same time as me started having their babies.

Little Miss, I love you to pieces and I cannot wait to finally hold you, but please, please, please stay in there until at least 38 weeks!

How far along: 34 weeks. Only 42 days left!

Maternity clothes: Some.

Wedding ring on or off: On.

Sleep: I sleep so much. I get about 10 hours a night and nap for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.

Movement: Lots.

Cravings: Nothing in particular, but possibly grilled chicken salads?

Symptoms: Heartburn, nausea, I'm even bigger/rounder, and I can't stop sleeping.

Belly button in or out: In, but it has definitely been stretched this week, and still has plenty of time to pop out.

Signs of labor: No, only more fake contractions.

Worst moment of the week: While peeing Thursday morning, I started feeling sick. I thought, "I better lay down when I'm done," but as soon as I got up I knew I wasn't going to make it. I leaned over the bathroom sink and started throwing up. Now, puking isn't all that bad by itself or in the morning when you don't have anything to throw up yet, but I didn't just throw up. I also wet my pants! Not a little bit either. All the way down both legs. I had used the restroom less than five minutes ago! How did I have that much urine left? I had just done laundry and showered the night before too. Lame.

Best moment of the week: Alone time with Kevin and Baby J. Also, Kevin got to feel her feet today and I just about melted. I love our little family.

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Size of baby: Our little miss weighs roughly 4.75 to 5lbs and could be 18-20 inches long already. Her fruit this week is a cantaloupe, which sounds really good right now.

Milestones: She is still putting on weight and her skin is smoother than ever. Her central nervous system and lungs are continuing to mature. Her tiny fingernails have probably reached her fingertips by now. Babies born between now and 37 weeks who have no other health problems are generally fine. Some may need NICU time and have short-term health problems, but they tend to do as well as full-term babies in the long run.

Now, for some photos: