Getting close!

I'm 37 weeks today. Very exciting milestone. That is considered term, and while it would be better if baby stayed in a couple more weeks, he would do fine if he were born now. I don't feel ready at all to have this baby, but I am getting more excited at the idea of seeing him and holding him. I wonder what he looks like, what kind of baby he will be, what kind of mother I will be, what unique challenges we will have, and who he will grow up to be. It is such a weird idea that I am going to be a mother soon, and have this little life to take care of. And that I am going to go through childbirth myself, and be the person having a wet screaming baby placed on her chest. I have been the one to put the baby on mothers for so long, instead of being that mother.  Hard to imagine.  When I would see ultrasounds it was weird to think that was my baby, instead of one of the random babies I look at all day.

Some more pregnancy insights:

It is extremely difficult to pee in a cup, like they ask you to do at every doctors visit.  I'm not going to explain why, it just is.

Doing dishes is very difficult. My belly is so big it is hard to reach the sink, and hurts my back to bend in a way that I can- I'm not just trying to get out of doing them...

You kind of forget what it is like to not be pregnant. This has become my new normal, and it will probably be weird to put on shoes easily.

Most of the day my thoughts are about this baby: either excitement, worry, planning, etc. Sometimes though first thing in the morning I forget I am pregnant- until I try to get out of bed that is.

I don't sleep well enough, or for long enough periods anymore to have crazy pregnancy dreams. Those happened earlier on. Still haven't had any about childbirth though. Interesting.

I had been pacing my weight gain for the end, when baby would put on weight like crazy. However, my appetite has decreased and I can only eat small amounts because there is no room.  So it actually has gotten easier to keep the weight under control lately.

Here is  a picture of me from about a week ago. Big belly! Hopefully not a gigantic baby though.