37 Weeks

Monday afternoon and evening I felt a lot of tight contractions after going several weeks without many contractions at all, just a lot of baby rolling around.  When I went to see the doctor today, I mentioned that I hadn't felt the baby moving around much the past couple days.  Those magic words "decreased fetal movement" trigger a non-stress test (which of course showed a LOT of fetal movement) and an ultrasound to check amniotic fluid levels (which showed plenty of amniotic fluid).  It was reassuring to me, since of course my mind had started to tell me horrible things when I didn't feel the baby moving (probably because all I could feel were the contractions).

And now that I've said those magic words, I'll have a non-stress test every week (thankfully it's only once a week...my doctor is so wise!) which is only not INconvenient because it's right before my regular weekly appointment AND I have a babysitter who is quite flexible to come earlier.

The doctor said he didn't think the baby would come this week, but next week is a good possibility (based on my previous history of 38- and 37-week babies)...but of course the baby could still come at any time, early or later.  I now know when my doctor is on and off duty at the hospital, so we can pray for the baby to be born when he's on duty.

Thanks for the kind comments on how good I look with this pregnancy.  I'm only posting those pictures because, for the first time, I also feel I look good pregnant!  My three previous pregnancies, I was really huge.  The other night we watched home video of Thanksgiving right before Natalie was born and yes, I was much bigger than I am now.  Note to self:  do not watch videos of Natalie's birth right before giving birth to a baby...I think we did this before Konrad's birth too. (!)  It's not a happy birth video...I'm glad we have it, but it brings back too many hard memories of that time, and this is not the time to re-live those memories.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that if you feel huge on your first three pregnancies, by your fourth, you'll be a "normal size."  ;)  Hey, it worked for me!