Peanut Tracker: Week 37 Update- Stick a Fork In Me!

15 days until Charlee's due date! Which means: she is welcome to come any day now!!!

At this point, every day is becoming more and more of a struggle. I am sore, exhausted, and beyond ready to meet my baby girl! I am definitely entering the nesting phase in a serious way. Last Sunday night I found a sudden burst of energy when I was already in bed at 10pm and decided to clean the house. By the time Eric got home I was so tired and sore that he had to bring me a snack and help me get in and out of bed! I learned my lesson and will be making sure to take my time when I clean from now on!

Nerd-o-lantern

This week we also finished the nursery, Eric cleared space in the garage, I finally treated myself to a mani/pedi (I don't want people touching my monster feet without a pedi), and we made sure to spend some time together. I've made some great progress on the toddler blanket I've been working on and finally found more tulle to finish the rest of the tutu I've been working on for the peanut's newborn pictures. Last night I finally cleared out a pumpkin, boiled and froze the flesh, and even made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Eric carved it into what I am referring to as the "nerd-o-lantern". But in all seriousness, he did a killer job carving a Darth Vader jack-o-lantern. Today I went grocery shopping, made beef stew, and am in the process of cleaning the house. And I mean CLEANING. I have cleaned the windows, the refrigerator, and even cleaned the washer and dryer! Hopefully we can work on maintaining this work so I won't have to do any more major cleaning until after the peanut comes home!

Lula Belle

This week we did have some sad news. Eric's pet rat, Lula Belle, passed away. He woke me up at 6am Friday morning to tell me he was going to Walmart to buy a shovel to bury her. She died of natural causes at the ripe old age of 1 1/2 ish. When Eric went to bury her in the backyard, he accidentally cut the cable and internet line and caused an outage for us and a few of our neighbors! Time Warner said it would take a day for someone to come out and fix it, so Eric took it upon himself to fix it. Which he apparently did perfectly according to the tech who inspected it yesterday.

We had our 37 week appointment on Tuesday and everything went well. My blood pressure and weight gain  were great and Charlee is measuring perfectly. They checked to see if she is head down and she is!!! I wasn't dilated yet, but they said I was really soft and could start dilating at any time. We have our next appointment tomorrow and I can't wait to find out if there has been any change! We have already tried hot wings, Indian food, and physical activity to get her to come out. Short of chugging a bottle of hot sauce, I'm not sure how else to speed things up!

I have been experiencing some interesting new symptoms over the past week. My Braxton Hicks contractions haven't been coming as much as the week before, but I do have some mild cramping from time to time. Due to my exhaustion lately, I have been attempting to sleep more, which means more lying on my side and more neck, shoulder, and hip pain. My arms and hands also fall asleep after a little while, which is really annoying. Today I had a sudden onset of nausea and vomiting that was very different from the morning sickness that I have been experiencing throughout the pregnancy. I have also had my first experience with Pica and have been craving the smell of rubber. I think about it all the time and want to smell car tires so badly. But, I have been fighting the urge just in case it's harmful to the baby. The doctor checked my iron levels last week, so I assume they are ok, but I'm going to mention this to the doctor just in case I have some other sort of mineral deficiency.

 37 weeks 6 days

At this point the peanut is continuing to develop her brain and nervous system, which will continue to develop into her teen years. She is also producing more surfactant, which is a substance that prevents the air sacs in her lungs from sticking together when she breathes. She weighs about 6.8 lbs and is almost 20 inches long (about the size of a leek). My big girl could make her appearance any day now!

Current cravings: peanut butter, chocolate, beef, rubber

Current aversions: uncooked tomatoes and onions