38 weeks, 4 days

My 38 week update is a few days late, and in just a few short days there will be a 39 week update. Sorry about that!

Our 38 week appointment was a good one, and more progress has been made towards our baby girl's debut. Most significantly, she has officially "dropped." This explains why it has been so dang uncomfortable to walk lately. I feel like if I move to much or too quickly, she's going to just fall right out. Come to think of it, wouldn't that be a much better design for birthing a baby? Walking, walking, walking, BABY!

For the past several weeks the midwives have been asking me if I've been having contractions, and I've always answered, "um...I don't know, maybe?" not really knowing whether the random pains and tightenings I'm feeling are really contractions. Early, early on Monday morning I awoke out of a deep sleep to contractions. BAM! - blinding, splitting pain - no mistaking it for anything other than a contraction. I did probably the stupidest thing I could have done - I laid perfectly still and tried not to breathe too loudly, lest I wake EZ. I figured that whether this was the real thing or not, he needed his sleep and it was far too soon to bother him. Instead I panicked and thought over and over, "oh my GOD, I canNOT do this! No one told me it would hurt this much!" After a while the pain subsided and I was able to drift back to sleep. When I awoke later I realized that I can do this and I will do this, and when the Big Day comes, the LAST thing I should do is lay still and not breathe. Duh. Confidence has been restored and I know that I Will Be Okay.

The nursery is done, the hospital bag is packed, the baby girl's clothes have been washed and put away, and we're fairly certain that we have a name (and no, we're not telling.) All systems GO!

And now we wait.