Beginning today, and for
the next five weeks, you are officially considered “full term.” In five weeks or less, we will finally get to
meet! Your Daddy and I get increasingly
excited with each passing week.
At our appointment with our
midwife this week, we found that my body is showing less than stellar results
as we near the end of this pregnancy.
While things are acceptable for now, Robin is keeping a close eye on us,
to be sure you and I continue along in a healthy manner. So I ramped up prayers for you, and asked
multiple people at church to be praying specifically for my body to reduce its
not-so-great symptoms, and stabilize in safety.
I have worked so hard during this pregnancy to take care of us both, and
I really need it to pay off. Our
naturopath also gave me a new batch of vitamins to help my body sustain both of
us here at the end. I hope the vitamins
and prayers have a significant effect this week!
The good news is that you
are doing such a beautiful job of being in the right place for birth. You are still in the left occiput anterior
position (head down, spine to my left, feet to my right), in a curved “C”
shape. After feeling your body inside
your house, Robin said you are most likely already at “zero station”, which
means your head is positioned between my pubic bones, “engaged” and ready for
labor to begin. This was good news, to
know you are waiting in such a perfect position for you and I to have a good
labor.
Depending on how I am
sitting or laying, I frequently feel pressure on my left hip bone. Robin said that is your shoulder! Throughout the day, you still shift your
weight, and move your feet and knees around all the time. You are such an active kiddo!
I asked Robin to guess
your size and arrival, just for fun. She
said if we get near term (three more weeks), she would expect you to be around
8 to 8.5 pounds. She also guessed that
you will arrive during spring break (March 10th - 17th). She said her size guesses are usually off not
more than a half pound!
If I could choose a date
for you to arrive, it would be March 13th, because your Daddy and I
were engaged on June 13th, and married on October 13th,
so it is a special date for us. Of
course, you will come when you are ready, so we will be patient to see what
happens!
This week I sorted
through all the baby clothes we have been given. I organized them into ages / sizes, and put
them into labeled bins under your crib.
There were two bins of boy clothes, and nine of girl clothes! If you are a girl, you have more clothes than
you can wear. You would get to wear two
or three outfits each day and possibly never wear the same outfit twice! If you are a boy, we will probably get more
hand-me-downs from good friends, so you will still have plenty of clothes to
wear.
Everything newborn size
through three months is now washed and folded.
As soon as our dressers are finished this week, I will stock them with
clothes and diapers. Your Daddy helped
wash and fold some of them, and he couldn’t get over how adorable everything
is! He will have fun picking out cute
things and dressing you, I’m sure.
Our to-do list before you
are born finally has an end in sight. It
had seemed to be growing bigger each time we crossed things off, but it is
finally beginning to grow shorter. This
is good, because I am starting to feel more and more like just resting and
being lazy! I think that is a sign my
body wants to gather strength in preparation for the hard work of your
delivery.
All of our supplies for
your birth are in bags and clearly labeled for the midwives. In order to “waterproof” our bed, we bought a
large plastic tarp from Home Depot and wrapped it around our mattress. The first night it was on our bed, your Daddy
and I couldn’t stop laughing, because every time we moved, it sounded like we
were rolling on bags of chips! There are
other not so “crunchy” waterproofing solutions, but this was the cheapest
effective one we could find!
According to averages,
you are now about nineteen inches long, and weigh over six pounds! It almost feels silly to state average length
and weight, because by this point, you are so unique. You could arrive at forty weeks and only be
six pounds, or arrive at forty weeks and be nine pounds! Babies vary so much that averages become
pretty unreliable by now. Regardless, we
know for a fact that you continue growing and gaining weight, which is really
what we want. For you to be healthy,
strong, plump, and ready to meet the world.
The Lord has promised to
keep you safe, and I know He will also keep me safe. The prayers supporting us are strong, and I
know He hears.
“Yet if you devote your
heart to Him and stretch out your hands to Him,
if you put away the sin that is in your hand
and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
then, free of fault, you will lift up your
face; you will stand firm and without fear.
You will surely forget
your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.
Life will be brighter
than noonday, and darkness will become like morning…
You will be secure, because there is hope;
you
will look about you and take your rest in SAFETY.” (Job 11:13-18)
“Whoever listens to Me
will live in SAFETY
and be
at ease, without fear of harm.” (Proverbs
1:33)
