38 Weeks

What a week!!! My goodness.
Monday night we went to the birthing class at the hospital. It was incredibly informative. We were sent home with a packet, that we actually went over during the class. It includes the birthing positions they allow, pain management options and techniques, and a very long list of pros and cons of medical pain management! We will have to bring our own ball, but that's no biggie. We also can use the shower during labor as well. Here's to hoping we can do this as natural as possible! I'm certainly much much more nervous than I was, but part of it is the anticipation. During the class they also passed around forceps, a vacuum, and internal monitors. My husband was pretty horrified by all of them. He also kept giving me the "haha, what a loser" face when the videos would show a man verbally and physically supporting his partner during labor. That was pretty annoying, but I know that's just him trying to appear tough when he's probably pretty freaked out about seeing me in pain like that. Afterwords, the nurse leading the class took us on a tour of labor and delivery and again gave us some pretty great information. The hospital does not have a regular nursery, so unless there are medical complications, baby will always be with us! Yay! What I found most exciting is they we will be in the delivery room for 4 hours after birth! I LOVE this because that means I not only get my hour of skin-to-skin, I get three more hours to have just my husband in the room with us for all of the stuff I want just US to experience. It's great to not have to worry about family/friends barging in on our moment for a while.

Tuesday was trivia night with my alumna chapter. It was the last one I will be attending for a while. They brought a couple little gifts and we had a great time (not to mention coming in second place, woo). I'm so thankful to have them here!
Wednesday I basically went crazy nesting. I've been struggling to sleep in the mornings and already had plans to hit the grocery store. That turned into coming home and going organization crazy. It felt great haha The trend continues throughout the week....and will probably keep going this week!
Friday I had my 38 week appointment (four days early, of course). I saw a doctor I've never met as compared to my usual midwife. She was incredibly nice, but her nurse wasn't my favorite. Anyway, since I had been told at my prior appointment that I would be able to be checked if I wanted, she went ahead and tried (afterrrrrr a debacle with her nurse that almost had me in tears simply because I hate being lied to and then guilt tripped, especially by medical professionals). Well, she went to check me and her eyes about popped out of her head. (That wasn't scary or anything.) She said baby's head was very low, like zero station low! She struggled to try and get to my cervix and eventually gave up. She said the combination of his head being so low and my uterus still being pretty posterior made it very hard to reach my cervix. So, no idea on possible dilation but she said I felt soft and like I was thinning out. Of course this really means nothing about when baby will come. I just wonder if that means things can happen pretty fast. The nurse asked me how much pain I was in when sitting and standing up. I seriously wanted to laugh in her face, but I explained my "crotch lightening" situation and that I was in pain......a lot. Haha.

I had told my husband to not make any plans for the weekend so we could spend it together, as a couple, without anyone else. Ya know, try to do the whole spend our last weekend together as just us? Well it sort of worked. Atleast I tried. Saturday morning I had planned for us to go to the carshow at the Rivers and Spires festival downtown. The moment I stepped out of the truck, I had shooting cervical pain with every single step for a good 10-15 minutes. How weird. So with that, my husband decided he would try and walk the baby out of me. We went a couple more places and headed home. I was still getting the pains randomly. Sunday I lost my husband to going fishing for a bit. I would've gone if it would have been just us, but of course that couldn't possibly be the case.
This week I've really struggled to sleep. My husband will easily fall asleep around 8pm and I'll be up until about 10pm. Then I'm up about 4 times to pee throughout the night. My husband's first alarm goes off at about 4am (even though he doesn't actually get up then UGH)so, I'm easily awake until about 5:30...then up again about 6:45am for the day. I don't get naps, so the struggle has been rough. This means I'm caving to caffeine more and more often. Oh yea, also this week my boobs decided it was high time to start leaking. This realllllly makes me want to consider pumping/expressing some colostrum to save just in case. (In case: medical intervention keeps him from being allowed to nurse, he has low blood sugar, he has bad jaundice like my husband did, etc.) I've really been debating this. I'm term, so if it caused contractions it wouldn't be the end of the world. I have braxton hicks throughout the day, every single day anyway. Plus, last night it felt like he was literally trying to get out. He was pushing off of my ribs, straight down. It was incredibly painful.
I like to hope and think that things are on a rough decline because little man will be here soon!!!