Each week I wonder how many more of these I will actually write!  Hopefully still a few more, but you never know.

How Big is the Baby?

All of my pregnancy apps and emails that tell me what fruit/vegetable my baby resembles each week have officially given up.  Either they are repeating themselves, or they are all just comparing him to a watermelon.  So I think it’s really just safe to say, at this point, he’s BIG!

For a while I was actually consistently measuring ahead at all of my appointments (which explains the giant belly), but as of today’s appointment I am now right on track for 37 weeks.

How I’m Feeling

Pretty much the same.  I don’t really feel like anything has changed, other than the fact that it feels great to officially be “full term” and through that milestone.

I haven’t really noticed any physical changes this week, but I’ve continued to gradually gain weight, so I assume the belly is bigger!  Speaking of growing bellies, make sure to check out the pregnancy page this week – I updated it with photos from each week so you can now see the progression of growth all the way from weeks nine through today!

The only symptom I’m experiencing in late pregnancy that is new is some minor swelling.  It usually happens after I take a walk or if I’m on my feet for a long time.  By the time I finish my 3 mile loops at Greenlake my fingers look like small sausages!  Surprisingly enough though, even at 37 weeks I can still wear my wedding rings.

I’m finding myself to be pretty emotional as the end of pregnancy draws closer.  Through all the ups and downs, and I have truly loved being pregnant.  And while I know I will love being a mother as well, it’s strange to think that this part of the journey is coming to an end.  It has been so long since I thought of myself as just “me” and I wonder what that will feel like again.  I’m also trying not to focus too much on my specific date, or drive myself crazy thinking “this could be the day!” as each one passes. 

Getting Ready for Baby

With the nursery all finished and ready to go, now we’re just kind of hanging out and waiting for him to get here.  I feel as prepared as we can be at this point!  I’m holding off on buying anything else until we see what he likes and needs, so I don’t end up wasting money on things we won’t use. 

I did however run into Baby Gap this weekend to return a few extra things we had, and discovered that all of their sale clothes were an additional 50% off.  There were a ton of really cute onesies that were only $4 a piece with the extra discount, so we snatched up a bunch of them in some bigger sizes that we are still pretty low on.

I only got one thing in the 0-3 month size – this adorable pair of striped pants for $4 – too cute!

We also snagged this soft winter coat for $10, and it should fit up to at least 6 months!

I’ve been working on trying to get the house as ready as possible – just doing small organizing projects, stocking the pantry, keeping up with cleaning and laundry, etc.  All the small baby clothes are now washed, folded, and organized.

I haven’t done much cooking and freezing of meals, simply because we have a really small freezer.  But we have had some very generous Seattle friends offer to help with dinners after the baby arrives, which will be a huge help to us during those first few weeks!

What I’m working on the most these days is just feeling mentally and emotionally prepared now.  I am doing yoga, listening to lots of relaxing music, and just generally trying to feel really peaceful and calm going into this process.  As a naturally anxious person, my instincts are to worry and obsess over details, but I’ve worked really hard these past nine months to overcome a lot of that and just live in the moment as it happens.  I can honestly say that I feel more calm and excited than I do nervous or scared. 

I’m also trying to listen to the wisdom of all those experienced moms who have done this before me.  I wrote a fun Babble post collecting advice on what moms would tell themselves if they could go back to before they had their babies.  A lot of their advice made me cry (damn hormones!).

Odds and Ends

• Total weight gained:  28 pounds
• Approximate weight of the baby:  6.5 – 7.1 pounds
• Gestational age:  37 weeks and 4 days
• Days until due date:  17
• Doctor’s appointments left:  1

Fun fact: I have been pregnant since very early in January. That means I have basically been pregnant this entire year. You don’t realize just how long 40 weeks is until you are counting them down!

For more pregnancy related posts or previous weekly updates, check out my pregnancy page. 

This week’s Babble posts:

• How to Not Go Crazy in the Last Few Weeks
• Ready for Baby: A Nursery Tour
• If You Could Go Back In Time, What Advice Would You Give Yourself?

While I have shown you plenty of glimpses of our nursery as we’ve worked on it throughout this summer, now that it’s ready to go, I thought it was only fitting to give an official tour!

You might remember back when it looked like this, earlier this summer when my sister was using it as her temporary summer bedroom…

While I am sad that Sarah is no longer living in the nursery, it is definitely looking much better these days!  Let’s begin…

The first thing you see when you walk in the door is this full length mirror.  It was already in the room when we moved in (in a different spot), and I decided to leave it up since I know babies LOVE mirrors.  I can’t wait to hear him giggling at his own reflection – too cute!

The inside wall has our antique dresser, scored at a farmer’s market earlier this summer.  I cleaned up the inside of the drawers by lining them with cute striped wrapping paper, and then added IKEA spice racks to help it do double-duty as a bookshelf!

Hanging above the dresser are a few family pictures I wanted to include so that our little guy always feels surrounded by the people and dogs who love him so much. 

I really liked these frames since they were a good price and perfectly matched the wood on our crib, but they only came in this 8×10 size.  I thought 8×10 photos would be a bit overwhelming, so I ordered 5×7’s instead and used the leftover wrapping paper from my drawer project to make a striped backing for the pictures.  I think it turned out really well!

On the far side of the room, we have the crib and the glider.  I bought these yellow “thermal blackout curtains” at Target to help keep the room dark during nap time.  Doesn’t seem like much blacking-out is actually happening, but I like the yellow color and am too lazy to return them. 

I talked about picking out our crib and artwork in a previous post, and I’m really happy with how it all turned out.  We are crossing our fingers and hoping to be able to have several more kids, so hopefully this can all be used for many years to come.  I tend to prefer gender-neutral colors anyways!

One of the very last things we did in here was decide where to hang our wall art.  Even though the chance of something falling off the walls is so slim, I was really nervous about hanging something directly above the crib.  Casey came up with a great solution, and used L-brackets to literally bolt the pieces to the walls.  Now they aren’t going anywhere!

We ordered the glider way back in July and it finally came in a few weeks ago.  Now that I have a place to sit in the nursery, I have been reading in there on the weekends and enjoying how peaceful it is (for now!). 

Our nursery is pretty small and has limited wall space, so in order to maximize what we have, we decided to open up what used to be a double-door closet.  Inside, we have our second dresser (for storing diapers, blankets, etc.) with a changing table on top.  There are storage bins up top so that I can stay relatively organized, and I repurposed some old green curtains I already had to hang down the sides.

On either side of the dresser/changer, I have some extra (messy) storage hiding behind the curtain panels for hanging clothes, extra diapers, a laundry basket, etc..  For a small, sort of awkward room, I’m pretty happy with how we were able to make the space work to be efficient and useful.

View from the back of the room, which shows off my favorite feature – our awesome wall decal!

And from the other side of the room, you can see the doorway that leads into the nursery bathroom…

I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do in the bathroom at first, but when I saw this shower curtain on sale at Target, I knew it was perfect.  A little girly perhaps, but I think he will forgive me.  I love how the trees look almost identical to the ones in the nursery wall art!  (The paper flowers on the windowsill are from our wedding!) 

Inside the tub, we have an adorable whale bathtub for shower time until he is big enough to use the real thing.  My sister gave this to me, and asked me to be sure to let him know that she lived in the nursery before he did.  :)

Whale spout cover, so that he doesn’t bang his head on it once he is learning to stand and splash and play.  Safety first!

And that’s our nursery!  While I know all a baby really needs in the beginning is food, sleep, and a whole lot of love, we have had so much fun putting this room together and dreaming of rocking him to sleep, changing his little diapers, and singing to him.  And when he is older, he’ll enjoy looking in his mirror, picking out bedtime stories, and splashing in his bathtub.

Now we just need to him to come enjoy his new space!

For more pregnancy posts and weekly updates, please visit mypregnancy page.