38 Weeks

Thursday past marked 38 weeks. There really haven't been any big changes going on either :-) I had a doctor's appointment that morning, and was finally able to see my own doctor again! Everything is still looking good, with Baby Girl's heart beat right in the 150s. Although I had called earlier in the week, it was still good to hear that the blood test for the Fifth Disease came back negative. I was nervous for a minute when my doctor asked me if I was infected or exposed; apparently my chart had gotten marked 'Infected' which concerned her since she specifically signed off on the negative lab results. So she removed that little bit of misinformation from my chart! The only thing I can think of is that perhaps they preemptively marked the chart infected in case I went into labor before the blood work came back? Who knows.... The doctor also told me that I don't have any antibodies for the Fifth Disease, and it actually has a short half life (contrary to Dr. Google's information) so I can still contract it as an adult. Since Thursday, I have experienced a few contractions, or strong Braxton Hicks, it is so hard to tell these days! But nothing regular or painful, just a bit intense.

My next appointment is tomorrow afternoon. I asked the doctor if it made sense ot have them so close together, but she said it wasn't an issue. Of course, she said, "Well, you'll be 39 weeks then!" to which I replied, "Nope, just hit 38 today...." Retrospectively, I should have scheduled it for a later date after learning the office had already moved it from morning to afternoon. I didn't want to reschedule my clients, but ended up having to anyway. Mornings are not good for this thinking woman's brain. Oh well! They also cancelled my appointment on the 22nd, so I will reschedule that tomorrow too. The doctor's office doesn't typically do this much rescheduling, but since they've hired two new practictioners in these past 9 months it has changed their scheduling a bit! That's what I get for trying to schedule my appointments early to avoid frustration at work.

I also learned today that my OB may not let me go past 41 weeks, and this whole time I've been thinking I've got until 42. So that is definitely up for conversation/discussion tomorrow! Trip doesn't understand why this bit plays mind games with me. He's confused about why I'm so convinced I'll make it to 42 weeks. It's been hard to explain that I don't necessarily expect to make it to 42, but I know I won't make it past - so anything before then it just a pleasant surprise. I can't not plan and do thing prior to then, I would go batty!

Progress continues to be made in the nursery, but has slowed down at this point. Thank you to my mother-in-law, Reva, who has helped get things washed and organized, and also to Katie who helped me visualize wall spaces (we forgot to send you home with that frozen lasagna!). Trip hung the finished mobile last night, and it looks great! He needs to hang some shelves, and Baby Girl's hair bow board, but is working this weekend so I don't know when that will happen. We also need to pick out/order prints that are a present from Jay and Carrie. The prints are animal alphabet themed, and I need to decide if I'm going with initials, animals I like or what. Obviously going with initials I will need to wait until Baby Girl has arrived! Other projects in the wings for the nursery are finishing the butterflies for the walls (thank you to Reva for helping me cut some out!), and making a book sling or two. Determining where the book slings and alphabet prints go is waiting for the arrival of our glider. Hopefully I'll hear something about that in the next week! I will try to take some updated pictures later as a break from writing work notes.

I know many of you are getting antsy about finding out Baby Girl's name. And the question you probably ask to yourself a lot is the same that I hear from my clients and co-workers on a regular basis; "I know you're not telling, but you've at least picked something out - right??" The answer to this question is tricky. We have our top choice name, but we have different feelings about it. One of us loves it and the other likes it but isn't 100% committed. So while we have a fairly good idea what her name will be, we really don't know for sure. We don't even know initials of our strongest contender since spelling is under consideration as well! And in the end, even if we DID know with 100% certitude, we still wouldn't be telling anyone else. :-) This is one of the first 'rules' that Trip declared about the pregnancy journey way back in June. I didn't even find out about it until he announced it to his parents (thankfully it was already somewhat the norm for me since both of my brothers and sisters-in-law had done the same thing). We remain just as committed to enjoying this special moment of meeting and naming our daughter together today as we did back then.

Again, I will try to take more pictures of the nursery today, and will either post today or tomorrow after my appointment. Have a great rest of the weekend!

PS: Thank you Blogger to auto saving this post!! I was trying to write/upload from Picasa, which gave me an error. I was frazzled for a bit thinking I had lost everything! Whew.... Okay, on to writing my notes.