37 Weeks & Full of Baby

Wow. I can't believe I'm already 37 weeks! Seems like this pregnancy just started, but I'm definitely ready to meet this baby and find out if it's a boy or girl!

Since I forgot to do a post back at 32 weeks when I took more belly pics, I'll start there! 

37

We had an ultrasound at 32 weeks and according to ultrasound, baby is around 3 lbs. and 15 oz here. And apparently, baby has lots of hair! Oh how I hope that is true (especially if it's a girl!)  I'm also drinking 3 cups of red raspberry tea a day which is supposed to help tone your uterus for delivery. It's so gross. I've resorted to making one big concentrated cup and gulping it down between gags instead of the 3 cups a day. Bleck!!!! 

At the ultrasound office, the lady told Evie she could take the baby magazine home. My baby obsessed daughter has been pouring over this magazine ever since! She is loving talking about all the babies, strollers, pacis, and "babies hanging from Mommies necks" (as she said about the slings). HAHA! 

One night, I went to tuck her in and this is what I found. It's like a whole new world of babies opened up seeing real babies and real baby items in a "book" instead of cartoon-like things in storybooks. Who would've known a baby magazine could be so all-consuming. It's currently sitting on the shelf above her bed for her nightly reading. (And no, I did not pose this picture in any way. This is exactly how I found her, leg propped and all)!

32 Weeks

Baby O's profile. He/she was opening and closing his/her mouth. Puckered lips here! Maybe it's a girl with lips like Evie. Oh sweet goodness.

Picture of hands in a fist. 

Fingers up top with face starting to roll downward on far right. Can see eyes, nose, and blurry lips on bottom right. This baby was moving EVERYWHERE!!!

She got an action shot of baby kicking me. Flat part of foot is hitting my belly up top, and lower leg straight down from there.

We've been doing lots and lots of things around the house to get ready for baby's arrival! At this time, we have 3 bedrooms in our house so Mekonen and Evie both had their own rooms. I really love having a nursery, especially during the first year with the different eating and nap schedule of a baby. So we moved the two bigs together in our largest bedroom and are setting up the nursery in Evie's old bedroom. Eventually, when the baby is bigger, we'll gender split out the rooms again. But for now, these two are together and so far, they think it's so cool. :) They each have a little light on their bed to read their books with for a few minutes each night, and they fall asleep listening to an audio book. Well, Mekonen falls asleep. Evie, that's another story. It's taking her a little longer to get settled in a new bed and room, and she has been waking up a lot again. All their toys have been moved in together and they love that! 

I truthfully LOVE Jon's version of nesting. We finally have doors on the bottom cabinets in our kitchen! Yippee!!! I hope we don't have to wait until baby #4 to get the top done too! :) But for now, I'll certainly take this! We also got our 2nd bathroom "finished." By finished I mean that it now has a toilet and sink and is no longer the catch-all storage room. When we gave our kids a bath we had to roll out 15 things to get to the bathub. It's not finished in the sense of how we want it to be long-term decoration-wise, etc. But it's functional and decent! 

Baby things are coming out of the attic and Evie is in her happy place. She's been carrying the car seat around with her little baby diaper bag. She can barely lift the thing and carries it on the crook of her arm like she obviously observed somewhere. Hilarious. (Since then, we got her a baby doll one for her birthday and she loves it! Wants to take it everywhere!)

Evie and I went on a special date to pick up some things we needed to get ready for baby's arrival! She was in heaven! We went to an actual "baby store" (Buy Buy Baby) and she had the time of her life. She thought the baby needed everything- bottles, bibs, sippy cups, etc. We didn't need all these things, but I let her pick them out and put them in the cart, while I took them back out when she wasn't looking. So in her mind, we bought the baby everything! She was chatting away to me about all the baby stuff and a lady came around the corner and said, "I've been listening to her for like 10 minutes. She is such a riot." Oh lady, if only you knew! 

I was so, so blessed by a great group of friends who had a surprise shower for me (although I ended up finding out about it beforehand. haha). Since it's the 3rd baby and there isn't a ton of things I need beforehand, especially not knowing the gender, they showered me with fun things for me! Aren't they awesome? I got all sorts of goodies- things like gift cards, massage certificates, babysitting coupons, lotions, candles, aromatherapy, new pajamas, new super soft bathrobe, and lots of other fun stuff! I sure was spoiled! :)

We also played a few games and this one was a contest for the best decorated onesie (which I had to choose the winner). Here were my top two. The one on the left was by my friend Julie, which is hilarious because my kids actually say this, and the one on the right was by Kara (the winner) because it's so fitting for our life right now. Although she did add, " But you can't feed this one from the door of your van." HA!! So true. (Post about our chicken life will come at some point!).

Just a few more weeks of snuggling her on her special belly seat. It truthfully makes me a little sad that she will no longer be "the baby" of our family. She has been extra clingy and emotional lately. I think she's catching on to the fact that her little life is about to drastically change. Poor thing got booted from her room and her place as "the baby." Oh she brings so much joy to my heart, even her feisty side. 

And finally, where we are today! 37 weeks! So crazy. 

37 weeks has brought on major nesting and major symptoms. :) I've been going like mad cleaning and organizing our house, which has probably caused the major symptoms such as terrible leg cramps and exhaustion. I get the worst cramp in my upper left leg/hip and it's literally debilitating and causes me to yell out or gasp no matter how hard I try not to. At first, it scared my kids to death, now they just keep right on talking to me, as if nothing is wrong, while I'm doubled over and unable to move for several seconds. This is especially embarrassing when it happens in public, as most people see my belly, panic, and think I'm going into labor or something. But equally funny is the fact that my family looks heartless as they just continue on their way while I'm slumped for a few seconds waiting for the cramp to subside.

Evie wanted in on the picture. "Mom, can I pat your baby?!?!" As she often says. :)