37 Weeks Pregnant - Full Term

Yes friends, I'm 37 weeks pregnant today and can't believe it! I'm full term and I can't wait to meet this sweet sweet child. But for sanity's sake, I am anticipating that I will go past 40 weeks, beyond my due date of December 21st. So, although I'm prepared to go into labour at any time, I have no expectation of that happening for another 3 weeks.

When Stevie and I decided to start our family almost a year ago, I didn't think being pregnant would be as difficult as it has been. Even with very open pregnant friends giving me the uncensored lowdown, I had yet to understand just how unique every pregnancy is.

In my first trimester, I was POOPED. I couldn't read or watch TV without falling asleep and regularly had more than one nap a day. I was also nauseas. I know that's kind of a given, but it was different than any nausea I've experienced before. I don't even know how to describe how it felt or why it was unique, all I can say is that it was hands down the worst part of the entire pregnancy (so far :) ).


I was also frequently dizzy and out of breath. My heart would beat so fast and hard that I could easily see it in my neck and through my shirt. These dizzy spells lasted through both the first and second trimester. I even fainted at one point while at Dairy Queen with my friend, Mary. I'm ever grateful that my skirt didn't fly up and expose me to the winding line of customers (who, by the way, didn't seem to notice or care that I fainted).

Nana, mom and I the day I told my family and my first Mothers Day with a child.

Another unexpected effect in my pregnancy has been anger. Yes, anger. Until now, I'm not sure I've ever really experienced being angry, at least not consciously. But in my third trimester, I have experienced the fast, powerful surge of emotion that has formerly seemed so strange to me. It happens when I break something (a common phenomenon for me) or when someone says, or more accurately, texts, something that upsets me. It's not that these things wouldn't usually bother me. They would. The difference is that usually, I would feel sad, not angry. A friend suggested maybe it was because I am carrying a boy and it's the higher testosterone levels inside me. I'm not sure. But whatever it is, I've decided I prefer anger to sadness. Each time I've felt overwhelmed with anger, I am able to recognize it, rationalize that it's not worth being angry about and snap out of it quickly. The same is not true when I experience sadness, so it has felt sort of like a little break for me.

... I thought I was showing...

Heartburn. You visit virtually every day and night. I can't wait until you pick on someone who eats spicy foods and greasy indulgences - someone who's asking for it. Leave this poor, pregnant, already uncomfortable woman alone.

NOW I'm showing. But I hadn't swelled up yet as evidenced my rings fitting on my finger. 

Hunger. I had been waking up every night between 2 and 5am in a panic, starving. I have never felt this hunger before. It would tear me from my sleep and send me running down the stairs to the kitchen for something. Anything. Often, I chose cereal. But then I came up with the perfect solution: muffins. I would bake one or two dozen muffins and keep them in the freezer. Every night I would bring a muffin up to my bedside table, just in case. Every night, I would wake up in a tizzy, reach over, consume the muffin and return to sleep. Other than the crumbs I would find the next morning, It was the perfect solution. Until one day at OB appointment. She looked at the sticky note with my weight written on it and then up at me with concern in her eyes. If she were Horatio from CSI Miami, this is where she would slowly tear her [sun]glasses from her face, eyebrows raised, and break the disturbing news.

"You're gaining too much weight, too fast. Is there anything you can think of that's causing you to gain so quickly?"
The muffins. Darnit. I'd been found out. I told her, about my perfect nighttime hunger solution, smiling and joking to cover my shame. She wasn't smiling.
"You know that's just cake right?" I looked at my feet, succumbing to the shame of it all. "Your body can't handle what you're doing to it. Why don't you try nuts instead?" As it turns out, nuts are no comparison to muffins. I'd take moist, buttery applesauce muffins over dry, raw, unsalted almonds any day. But the muffins were indeed replaced. So now, when I wake up in a hungry stupor, I open my bedside table drawer, plunge my hand into the almond-filled baggy and shove the whole lot into my mouth. I usually fall asleep chewing, often finding pieces of nut in my cheeks the next morning. At least she stopped commenting on my weight... Although I'm pretty sure that's the rule when a woman is  swiftly approaching 200 lbs.

Well there are so many more pregnancy details I could include, but many are either unpleasant or just boring. So here are some pictures of me today, at 37 weeks.

The view from my belly button.

Until next time!