38 Weeks

I just went twelve days without writing a blog post. You might think I had a baby in that time. I did not. See, still pregnant at 38 weeks and 2 days:

At my appointment on Wednesday  (just 2 days shy of 38 weeks) I was dilated to a 3 and about 80% effaced. My brother came into town that night, and I used his visit as an excuse to make a good Southern meal - fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, mashed potatoes (and Swiss chard so Eric wouldn't feel like he was about to keel over of a heart attack.) That night I noticed a lot more contractions while I was on my feet. Then the next night I tried to get my kitchen tidied up after the previous night's overzealousness, and also I cooked a carb-loading meal for my brother (he was prepping for a marathon for the coming Saturday), and I again noticed a fair amount of contractions. Both nights, by the time I settled down so did my uterus.

Then last night after going to the Relief Society broadcast, I was watching a movie with Eric, and I was having a lot of very noticeable contractions - also some that were hardly noticeable at all. This was different than the other nights where the contractions were going on while I was busy and on my feet. I really began to wonder if I was in labor. I even made Eric pack my hospital bag while I sat on the bed and timed contractions. Ultimately I was having contractions about every five minutes, usually lasting for at least a minute, but they didn't seem to be strong enough to merit going to the hospital. Plus it was late and I was tired and didn't want to harass a neighbor to watch Ike for what might ultimately be a false alarm. I decided to go to bed. If I was really in labor, then the contractions would wake me up.

I woke up many times during the night, but only to use the bathroom. No baby yet. And that's fine, because I really want him to have an October birthday, and now he will.

Also, in case you were wondering, I am measuring very small. This is for two reasons: (a) the baby is very low, so he's just not in my belly area as much and (b) he's just measuring kind of small in general. At 37 weeks the doctor was a little worried after measuring my belly and seeing it was small, so he did an ultrasound and measured Felix's head and femur. Based on those measurements it looked like he was measuring about the 18th percentile for babies at 37 weeks.