week 35baby grace

I know, I know. I skipped a week. I am now officially 35 weeks. While five more weeks seems like an awfully long time, I keep reminding myself that it's a little less than three weeks if she comes as early as Moriah, and am conveniently not thinking about that it's still seven weeks if she follows Haven's pattern. I am having braxton hicks contractions that are like my regular births. When I think back to Haven, I realize I never had very many. The three week "plan" is definitely helping with the cooking-cleaning-nesting motivation, so that's been nice.

Now for the details...for those of you that care :o)

My indigestion is better. Not gone, as evidenced by my almost barfing all over Glen a couple of nights ago, but much better. My midwife (and others) have commented that the baby looks lower, so I think that has helped.

The downside to a lower baby means I have now entered the walking like a cowboy stage, feeling like something is wedged between my bones. Oh yeah, I guess there is.

Susie (the midwife) came for my appointment last week. When she walked in, she got all bug eyed and started quizzing me about my dates and asked if I was absolutely positively sure about them. Good sign, huh?

I was having a lot of upper back pain that a visit to the chiropractor completely took care of. My other complaint when I went was my sciatic nerve on my right side, which I always have problems with in pregnancy. For anyone who suffers from this in every day life, my sincere sympathy. Unfortunately, so far, the chiropractor visits haven't gotten rid of it, and only helped slightly. I do think my doing more around the house is probably exacerbating the problem though, so I don't really think it's his fault :o)

And as much as I am looking forward to holding her, and being ready to be rid of these pregnancy annoyances, I finally realized that means I have to go through labor. Oh yeah. The whole labor thing is really weird for me, because I always kind of look forward to it and anticipate it, and when I finally first realize this is it it's such a neat feeling, but then I remember the whole transition-pushing part and well, you know. I also realized I was conveniently forgetting about the pushing part, seeing as how I seriously didn't have to push at all with Haven. I was really imagining the birth as contractions only. So anyway....you can pray for me :o)

On a brighter note, as a birthday gift, my husband has let me have someone come over to help me get some cleaning done!! My good friend Tracey cleans houses sometimes on the side and she graciously agreed to come clean for me. I'm so particular about what and how I want things cleaned before I give birth, I'm sure I could keep her busy for awhile :o) I pretty much like to get the entire house cleaned meticulously, meaning baseboards, table and chairs scrubbed, vacuuming really well where the wall meets the floor....I could go on and on. In past pregnancies, it's usually taken me about a month to get it all done on my own. Knowing that I don't think I'm quite up for that this time around, Tracey is helping. Yay!

I did do some cleaning, organizing, and cooking finally. I washed, cleaned out, organized, and inventoried the basement refrigerator and freezers. I organized our storage pantry. I finished my stocking up. And yesterday, I made four chicken casseroles, five meatloaves, shredded 10 cups of chicken for the freezer, and browned 15 lbs of hamburger for the freezer. (For those of you that I told ten, I remembered I had five more. I'm not exaggerating for the blog :o) It was a very long day. I still have quite a few meals I want to make, but I'm having to just see how I feel and what I think I can accomplish and adjust my priorities. Organized bookshelves and dust-free laundry room....or sesame chicken in the freezer?? Hmmmmm. I know what Glen would choose :o)

So, overall, I am beginning to think I may just get more accomplished than I was thinking a few weeks ago, but am also realizing that some things I'm probably just going to have to pretend are finished let go of. I do wonder how much of when a woman goes into labor depends on her "allowing" herself to feel ready. When I think of my first five births, I always felt ready. Everything on my lists was marked off, and I was ready for the new baby. With Haven, since it was the last month of school, for my kids and for my aunt who hadn't yet retired from teaching we depend on to help me quite a bit, there was one thing after another that made the timing inconvenient. Haven just kind of hung on until all that was past. I think that theory is kind of interesting. I guess we'll see...