Pregnancy: 36 Week Update

This post will be short and sweet. I had my 36 week appointment today. From now on I will be going to see my doctor weekly until this baby girl comes. 

At 36 weeks I have gained 26 pounds. I still feel hungry ALL THE TIME, only even more so now. I could eat everything I see, and still be hungry. My feet have started to hurt but so far no swelling has started (not in my feet, face, or hands). Sleeping has become increasingly difficult. There's been the pregnancy insomnia which only strikes every few nights but it keeps me up for long stretches, about 3-6 hours each, during the night. Then there are the frequent trips to the bathroom at night, coupled with the discomfort of my ever-growing belly. So yep, I'm not sleeping very well at this point. On the one hand I desperately wish I was sleeping because, HELLO, we are going to have a newborn here in a few weeks and we really won't be getting much sleep then.

But on the other hand the sleep deprivation seems like good practice for the lack of sleep we will experience after Lizzie arrives. It's almost like I'm being weaned off of my good sleeping habits beforehand. 

At my appointment today they did the strep B culture and my first internal check. I have been having pain in my lower uterus and thighs for about five days now, and I don't remember experiencing that at all with Joey so I made sure that they knew that. It turns out the pain I am experiencing is completely normal especially for when the baby starts to drop. After the internal check, Dr. Majors told me that I'm about 1.5-2cm dilated and 80% effaced. He also said that he touched her head, which at the time was resting on my cervix. He seemed pretty excited/surprised about that. 

He told me that, on average, most women are not dilated at 36 weeks and so he thinks I will go into labor before my due date. But the doctor told me that with Joey too, so I'll be prepared and ready to go if labor happens sooner but I am not going to expect anything to happen before my due date.

In the next week or so I need to pack our hospital bags and Joey's diaper/overnight bag. We also need to finalize Joey's childcare arrangements and my birth plan and get Joey and David a whooping cough vaccine.

It feels like there's so much to do! But hopefully I've still got a little time left to get things done. We are so excited and can't wait until Lizzie is here.