8 months/35 weeks.

wow it has been a while since i blogged. the school year wound down, and i was doing a LOT to prepare for my maternity leave at the beginning of the year next year.

i have been spending most of my time being an uncomfortable pregnant lady. i was sure the doctor was wrong when he measured my belly two appointments (three weeks) ago and said i was measuring small. everything i have read says that the size of the baby and the size of your belly are not necessarily related. at my next appointment (last week), the doctor was another doctor in the rotation, and instead of loosely and gingerly measuring my belly with a tape measure (yes), she squished around on my belly.

and she said sam feels a bit above average, "a pretty good sized baby." not that i want him to be enormous. i'm not a large girl...normally. but he FEELS like he is enormous, and i don't have a whole lot of room for him in my 5'2" body. (watch, he will be 6 pounds and i will look like a whiner. but the doctor said the mom's birth weight - and that of her family - is a big factor in the baby's weight, and i was just shy of 8 pounds and my brother was just shy of 9.)

sam doesn't move around as much now, because he is running out of room. of course. he still gets the hiccups and wiggles and kicks so hard my entire stomach shakes, but it doesn't happen as often as it did in the 22-week to 32-week range. (this is all new to me, and i try to describe it because it is nearly impossible to imagine how it feels unless you have done it and your pregnancy is similar to mine, as i hear they are all very different.)

another thing that is happening to me is horrendous heartburn and numbness/tingling. the heartburn is best tackled with baking soda and water, which is totally disgusting but it works. the numbness is from sam being heavy enough to rest on some important blood vessels and make my hands and arms stop feeling like they are fully functional - and sometimes my legs, too. sometimes it helps to change positions or get up and do some small activity, but other times it just hangs around.

starting next week, my appointments will be weekly and i will get checked for "progress" in the nether regions. they will also check to see if he is in position, which i am unsure of - i feel like he is sideways a lot, but today he feels head down. then at 37 weeks, if he hasn't decided to come yet, i am supposed to be getting an ultrasound to get a very general idea of how big he might be, just in case we want to adjust the birth plan accordingly for the health and safety of both of us.

last night we made our birth plan! and we also started packing our hospital bags, just things that we can do in advance. i can't believe we are so close. yesterday i cleaned and organized so much in the nursery while justin was gone to class that i passed out on the couch as soon as he got home because it was the first time i let myself sit down.

of course, we had my shower, and it was just wonderful. some super awesome friends put it on for me and they did a fabulous job. :) we got a ton of baby things and a ton of gift cards, which we have been slowly spending and are taking a shopping trip tomorrow to get more things that we need with them.

yesterday i put sam's booster seat in the dining room chair. i realize i won't need it for a while, but i needed a place to put it to get it out of his room, so i set it up...and then i cried. it is all so exciting, but still so unbelievable because of our journey to this point. it feels like it can't be real...even when he kicks me in the bladder and i swear i will pee right then and there. (i haven't, but seriously wow bladder kicks will let you know that you are not in ultimate control of your life.)

this blog feels a bit scattered, but that is an accurate portrayal of life right now. seriously, you should see the nursery. so i'm off to go work on that.