36 Week Appointment

Yesterday was our 36 week appointment and sonogram.  Baby Caitlyn is currently weighing in at 5 lbs. 4 oz. and measuring 17.9 inches long.  She's a little small for her age (25th percentile), but not so small that we have to worry.  Their estimate could be off by as much as a pound (it's more like a guesstimate based on her bone size).  So much for my uterus measuring ahead of schedule.  At least my worries of an abnormally large baby seem to be invalidated.

Caitlyn's heart beat was 157 bpm and she has gotten quite active the larger she gets - although not to the point where she is hurting me or waking me up in the middle of the night.  My stomach is rolling around like a carnival ride pretty consistently and she gets the hiccups about 3-4 times a day.  Cute the first 10 times, but pretty annoying the 100 times thereafter.  At the appointment, Brian got a peak of her launching her bum in the air when I was laying on the table (imagine what looks to be a large fist popping out of your stomach).  Shock, amazement and some disgust was on his face - he is still a little skeeved out by the whole thing.  Thank goodness my belly button hasn't popped yet.  He can't even talk about that without getting completely grossed out.

The sonogram was pretty hard to figure out - she is so big now we only got peeks at individual body parts versus her whole body.  A tummy here, a foot there...  We did get a picture, but it's so blurry I'm debating even scanning it.  It's really difficult to tell what is what but she did have her hand in her mouth.  The tech was also able to show us her hair!  Yes, Caitlyn will have a nice full head of hair, much like me when I was a baby.  

For all you men reading this, proceed with caution and consider yourself warned, what follows is a labor update.  I had my cervix checked and as the doc said, it's "high, tight and long".  Translation: chances are this baby isn't going anywhere until our scheduled due date of April 24th.  A relief to Brian since his first trial begins next week.

It's really hard to believe that we only have 17 days left until Caitlyn makes her arrival.  We are incredibly excited but also nervous about the challenges that lay ahead (any parent to be that says they aren't is lying).  I'm frantically trying to get everything perfect, although that second burst of nesting energy has yet to come.  I find myself exhausted just from sitting on the couch and have even been taking naps.  Outside of my first trimester and now, I take maybe 3 naps a year.  So it's very unusual for me to be so spent.  It takes several hours to work up the gusto to get anything accomplished and even then I don't get all that much done.  I would say I'm looking forward to getting my energy back once Caitlyn is here, but therein lies the cruel irony.  I will be feeling like this for a long time to come.