36 Weeks Down, 28 Days to Go

The other night, Corey and I packed my bag for the hospital. He is also going to throw another smaller bag together with stuff he might need, including camera, batteries, etc. Since we live only a mile from the hospital, it will be easy for him to run home to grab something we forgot, but we both know it's going to be hard for him to leave my side at some points during all of this.

Corey's good buddy from high school and college, Nancy, is due to give birth any day now to her second daughter. We have been swapping e-mails on our progress, and have gotten a lot of valuable advice from her on everything from communicating with your obstetric team to getting a baby to sleep. Good luck Nancy - we're thinking of you and can't wait to hear the good news when the new little one arrives!

I am getting lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions (they don't hurt) that make my belly feel unbelievably tight and almost numb to the touch. Despite Charlotte running out of room inside there, she is not slowing down with the movement at all. Just stay head down there, kid! Here's what BabyCenter.com says about little Charlie this week:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

Another valuable piece of advice from Nancy - try your hardest to work it so the hospital nurses change the meconium diaper! Not a bad thought...