Our little blessing at 37 weeks, 4 days

     Sorry this is late, but we are officially full term now! So now we have +/- three weeks to go. I had my weekly doctor’s appointment last Friday. Not much to report from that though. I weighed just a little bit less than the week before and my blood pressure was good. The results from my Group B strep test came back negative so I won’t have to have antibiotics given to me during labor to make sure the baby isn’t affected. They did not do a pelvic exam this week because I haven’t been having contractions and they doubt that I have progressed any. Otherwise, here is what’s been going on this week.

How far along? 37 weeks, 4 days

Baby’s size?  The baby weighs a little more than six pounds and is about the length of a stalk of Swiss chard at a little more than 19 inches long. The baby is now considered “full term,” even though his due date is three weeks away. If I went into labor now, his lungs would likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb.

Sleep? Sleep is not good anymore. I have trouble getting comfortable at night and falling asleep unless I am really tired. If I have a nap during the day, it makes it hard to sleep at night. And I get up to use the restroom about every hour or two.

Food cravings? This week I’ve been loving frozen green grapes, orange juice, and ice cream, particularly soft-serve type ice cream like that in Dairy Queen blizzards.

Food aversions? No aversions this week.

Symptoms? Still having some pain in my pelvis due to stretching ligaments as my body gets ready for the baby’s birth. I've been having some heartburn lately, which is no fun. 

Best moment this week? One of the best moments this week was when Tim read some of the baby’s books to my stomach. It was really cute to see him get into it. And the baby responded with a few kicks, so he must have enjoyed it too.

Movement? Movement has slowed down some because I think it's getting pretty cramped in there. Some days he’ll move a ton and then the next day he’ll be a little more subdued as if he wore himself out the day before.

What I miss about not being pregnant? I miss being able to get up and down off the floor/couch/bed like I used to. It’s easy for me to lose my balance sometimes when I try to get up as fast as I used to be able to. Also, putting on shoes and socks is really hard now.

What I’m looking forward to? Still waiting on the baby furniture. Unfortunately, the owner of the store called and said the company that makes the furniture will not send a truck out to deliver it until they have a full truck of merchandise, which she doesn’t expect will happen until mid-April. She is estimating we’ll get the furniture at the end of April. We’re both really disappointed. We had hoped to have the nursery completely finished before he was born. Otherwise, I’m really excited to finally meet the baby and see what he looks like and to be able to start that next step in being a parent to an outside baby.  I’m also looking forward to our families coming out to visit in the next two months! 

Just for fun

     Waiting is starting to get old. Go to the link below to guess our baby's stats (when he'll be born, weight, hair color, eye color, etc.) Just for fun. This site allows folks to guess the stats and then awards points based on how close you are to the actual birth stats. The winner may or may not get a prize. 
     Tim and I have already put in our guesses. But don't base your votes off them. We don't know any more than you do. The doctor's have not guessed his weight or length and they seem to have no idea when he'll come because I haven't progressed any based on my last pelvic exam.
     Here's the link. Have fun and good luck!

A sneak peek at Baby Rumely

     We still have +/- three weeks until we finally get a look at our baby. But by using a handy tool on TheBump.com, I morphed pictures of Tim and me together to get an idea of what Baby Rumely could look like. I took a picture of Tim from a couple years back and a recent picture of me (they had to be straight-on shots of our faces without sunglasses or hair in our face) and these are the results.

 

     The results are pretty creepy. He has gigantic ears, which neither of us have. He will apparently have my eyes and some strange morphing of our noses. I'm also pretty sure he got one each of our eyebrows-Tim's on the left and mine on the right. Not so sure about the hair color, which matches neither of our shades of brown and it kind-of looks like he's already balding. Baby Rumely's got swoopy bangs like Tim, but his daddy parts his on the opposite side. I do spot what looks to be a cowlick on one side, so maybe the website knows what it's doing after all. 

   I wasn't ready to give up yet, so I tried one more website, to see if we could get a cuter kid. I went to the website MorphThing.com and tried again. This time I put in the two pictures and had to place little dots around our features. I guess this helps the computer program identify them in the pictures better. Anyway, the results were much more realistic-looking (though I'm not sure what happened with the hair.)

     Anyway, we'll just have to see in about a month. But just for fun, here are some pictures of Tim and I as babies so you can just use your imagination to come up with what you think Baby Rumely will look like. First off are pictures of Tim as a baby. 

 And some of me...

Menu Monday

    Here is our menu for this week. Quite a few brand new recipes this week. I'm getting tired of most of my old stand-bys. Though as you can see, taco meatloaf is making an appearance since it's Tim's favorite. Plus, I'm still working on freezing food for after the baby is born. I've already frozen four quarts of soup, two quarts or spaghetti sauce, and two loaves of zucchini bread. I plan to freeze a meatloaf and a couple casseroles this week. 

Monday: Chicken spaghetti casserole. This is a recipe from the blog Pioneer Woman Cooks. Whoever this woman is, she is really funny and makes a lot of easy- and tasty-looking meals. Freeze extra in disposable aluminum pans. 

Tuesday: Dinner with Jim and Amanda from our church small group. 

Wednesday: Taco meatloaf with black beans and corn. Make an extra to freeze.  

Thursday: Eat out before small group. 

Friday: Cajun chicken pasta. This is also a recipe from Pioneer Woman Cooks. 

Saturday: Bratwursts. We found a huge package of them for sale at Costco for really cheap. We'll freeze some of them because there are a lot. 

Sunday: Beef tamale pie. This is a recipe from a blog I found called Freeze Happy! I was doing some research into freezing meals and discovered this site. This recipe seemed pretty easy. I plan to make two and freeze one. 

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

     While researching recipes to freeze for after the baby is born, I happened across a recipe for blueberry zucchini bread. I've never made or even eaten zucchini bread, but I've always wanted to try it. And when Tim saw me looking at the recipe, he encouraged me to give it a shot. I ended up baking three loaves, two of which I froze for after the baby is born. That way we can have a little treat at some point and have something besides cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. The bread ended up tasting very good. I think it would be even better during the summer with fresh blueberries and zucchini. 

     I used some of the extra shredded zucchini in the spaghetti sauce we had Friday night. I froze two quarts of it for after the baby is born. You can't even tell it's in there, but I wanted to make sure we were eating plenty of vegetables after the baby comes and not a ton of fast food and unhealthy stuff. 

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pint fresh blueberries (I used frozen)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans (I used three slightly larger pans).
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared loaf pans.
3. Bake 50 minutes (mine took closer to an hour, so check often) in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

The blueberries and little flecks of green zucchini skin make the bread look really pretty when it's sliced. I made it on Friday and we've almost demolished a loaf already. So try out this recipe sometime if you like to bake. Or tuck the recipe away until spring when zucchini and blueberries are in season. You won't regret it.

Our little blessing at 36 weeks

     Things are going well on the baby front. I had a doctor’s appointment on Friday, the first of what will now be weekly visits. The baby had a heart rate of 134 beats per minute, which is lower than it has been, but the doctor said that was normal as the baby gets bigger and can't move around as much. My stomach measured 37 cm, which is on track for where I am in the pregnancy. It should be anywhere between 36 and 38 cm according to the doctor. So the baby is not measuring too big or too small. The doctor also did a pelvic exam and I am not effaced or dilated at all. They will continue to check my progress each week. 

How far along? 36 weeks

Baby’s size?  The baby weighs about the same as a Crenshaw melon at almost six pounds and about 18.5 inches long. He is packing on the pounds at about an ounce a day. He should begin shedding his vernix caseosa and lanugo hair in preparation for his birth.

Sleep? Sleep is okay. I’m kind-of worn out from the time change and from how busy we were this week with hospital tours, birthing classes, small group, two church functions, and some other stuff I’ve been up to this week. I get up to use the bathroom a ton still and Tim told me that I woke him up with my snoring the other night! I’m not normally a snorer, so I hope this is just a pregnancy thing.

Food cravings? Orange juice has been particularly refreshing this week. I’ve been craving a milkshake for the majority of this week too and finally got a small one from Sonic today! Yay! 

Food aversions? No aversions. I pretty much like everything I liked before I was pregnant.

Symptoms? My pelvic muscles have become sore as my ligaments stretch to allow my pelvis to open up in preparation for the baby’s delivery. It hurts to get up from bed or the couch and sometimes when I’m walking around. My doctor said it is completely normal though. Other than that, I haven’t really had any pregnancy symptoms.

Best moment this week? Finishing our birthing classes this week and touring the hospital and pre-registering was great. It’s nice to cross more things off our baby preparation to-do list. And having a better idea of what to expect when I go into labor has helped ease some of the uncertainty about it.

Movement? The baby is still moving a lot, more so in the morning and evening. He still gets the hiccups about once a day, which is fun.

What I miss about not being pregnant? Nothing much.

What I’m looking forward to? I’m still waiting for the baby’s furniture to be delivered. I can’t wait to be able to do some more work in the nursery. We had some art framed for the room this week and I can’t wait to hang it once we get the furniture in. 

Here's a view from the side. It's amazing that I still have a month left. 

How much bigger can I get? 

Here's a shot of my bellybutton. As you can see, it is pretty much flat now. We'll have to see if it will become an outie. 

Still no stretch marks though!

Menu Monday

     No new recipes this week, so I'm not going to post any pictures. I'm also starting this week to make extra of some of our meals to freeze for after the baby is born. This week, I'm going to make extra soup and spaghetti sauce to freeze. 

Monday: We're having burritos tonight. Quick and easy before Tim goes to play basketball at the church.

Tuesday: Ritz cracker chicken, sweet potato fries, and steamed broccoli. 

Wednesday: White bean chicken chili. This is a recipe that I got from my friend Jodi. I make it a little bit different from the recipe she uses by adding a few different seasonings and using shredded chicken instead of ground chicken. Mainly because ground chicken was $4.99 a pound this week. I will freeze some of it to have after the baby is born. 

Thursday: We'll eat out before we go to our small group. 

Friday: Spaghetti with salad. I'll also freeze extra of this.  

Saturday: Grilled chicken breast, roasted red potatoes and some vegetable. Because Tim requested that I let him grill this week. 

Sunday: Lemon pepper shrimp scampi. One of Tim's favorites. This is a recipe from Cooking Light. I've made it many times before.