Bump Watch: 39 Weeks

Thirty-nine weeks! Who knows, maybe this will be the last bump watch for Eggi... Or we could have one or two more of these to go. (At least we know that my OB's policy is to induce labor at 10 days overdue -- so I'm sorry, John, but despite what you wished on us in our baby pool, there's no way this baby's staying inside until February 25!)

So here's me at 39 weeks, 1 day --


People are starting to worry that I'm going to "pop" right in front of them... My office is right next door to the corner office of one of the firm's biggest litigators, and every time she sees me, she's surprised I'm still around. She's jokingly instituted a new policy for if my water breaks in the office, most of the steps of which consist of her hiding in her office while other people take care of the crisis... She's a fierce one in the courtroom, but apparently, my pregnant belly can reduce her to a quivering mass of fear! :)

For most of the pregnancy, we've been assuming that I'll go late. Statistically speaking, most first babies are born after their due date. Plus, there were two other pregnant women in our Tuesday night small group, both due before me, and both went several days late. So we'd been setting that as our default expectation, and up until a week or so ago, I was totally cool with that.

But now? The discomforts of late pregnancy are really starting to get to me, unfortunately. It hurts to walk, and every time I get up from a sitting position, it takes several long, painful seconds for the tendons and muscles in my abdomen to equilibrate to the shifting weight of the baby. And Eggi has started doing what feels like practice assaults on his planned escape route -- it's wonderful that he's head down and ready to go, but the head-butting really hurts!

I actually think all of this is another measure of God's grace to pregnant women. I've been so thankful that pregnancy is nine months long, because it's really taken me that long to start to get used to the idea of becoming a mother. And now, I'm thankful for the ways all of these discomforts are making me even more eager to just have the baby and move on to the next stage. :)

Still no contractions or other signs of labor, though. And at my 39-week appointment, I was still at just 1-2 cm. But apparently, my mother didn't have any contractions with any of us until after her water broke -- so maybe that's the pattern that I'll be following? (And she was 2-3 days early with all three of us, too...)

At any rate, here's the weekly blurb from BabyCenter.com --

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

We've made it to the watermelon stage! And Eggi is certainly well-developed enough to make it on his own out here in the real world! How exciting, and terrifying, and wonderful all at once!