35/35

This week not only marks the milestone of hitting my 35th week, but it also means I only have 35 days left to go!! This day is known as 35/35 and since I advance a week every Sunday (today is Thursday) I only have 31 days left to go!!!! With each passing day I get more excited to meet our little girl, but I also get more nervous. The nervousness comes more from the fear of the unknown: not knowing when she will decide to come, how difficult it will be to get her out, and how Chad and I will manage once she is here. My biggest fear is labor and delivery because that is the one thing I cannot prepare for. I keep hoping I will be one of those women who has an easy labor and pushes 3 times to get her out, but realistically, I doubt that is going to happen.

Luckily, there are a lot of other things Chad and I can prepare for and we have been busy doing a lot this past week. Tuesday we had our first labor and delivery class. We learned all about what we should pack for the hospital, which I need to do this weekend. Two of my biggest questions were also answered in the class. I found out we will have a private room for our entire stay and I will have Internet access in the hospital!!! I am very excited that we will be able to get pictures of our little girl out to our friends and family quickly. Wednesday we had our second babycare class which covered illnesses, medicine, vaccines, and clearing an airway. Thursday was our one and only breastfeeding class. This is probably the one area I had the most questions about and I definitely asked many of them at the class. The teacher was very good and covered a lot of important information, but she seemed to be in a rush to leave. Luckily, I will have lactation consultants at the hospital I can talk to about any of my remaining concerns.

I also scheduled Baby H's newborn photos this week. They are tentatively scheduled for 4 days after my due date, which may have to be switched depending on her punctuality :O) As part of the photo package I signed up for, Baby H will have a year of memories done. This means she will have photos taken at birth, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Chad thinks it is a bit of overkill, but it is my first baby and I want to do it!

We also started to prepare Nutmeg for the baby this week. We had a dog trainer come to the house to evaluate and work with her. To no surprise he said she has a lot of energy, excitement, and curiosity, but essentially no attention span. Our biggest goal is to calm her down and decrease her curiosity, especially when it come to the baby. He worked with her a lot as soon as he came in because she was jumping all over him and licking the air, which we found out is not good because it shows she is over excited. His goal was to get her calmed down by touching her pressure points. Well each time he got her to lie down she was right back up (no attention span). His biggest suggestion is to get the energy out of her so I have been walking her for 30 minutes a day (yeah at 9 months pregnant) and we sent her to doggy daycare on Tuesday. Having her run around at daycare definitely helped. She was so tired and less distracted that she was better at listening and easier to work with. We plan to continue to send her, but we have a lot of work ahead of us still. Just today on our walk she jetted out and grabbed a rock in her mouth. She often does this when I walk with her and will not give it up no matter how hard I try to get it out. For the next 15 minutes she walked with the rock in her mouth and only dropped it right before coming into the house. It is her little way of saying she still has control of me. Well, like our trainer suggested I put her in a time out. She sat and eventually laid down and was calm, but we will see next time we go for a walk if it actually helped:O)

How far along? 35 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 25 pounds.

Maternity clothes? Yes, although I prefer to spend my days in sweats.

Sleep: Yes, but my daughter is already interrupting my sleep by forcing frequent trips to the bathroom and stretching into my ribs at night.

Best moment this week: Our dinner at Table. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of food. I only wish we had gone sooner since now we will need to find a babysitter to go out.

Movement: She is still going strong despite everyone saying babies sometimes slow down at this point.

Food cravings: Chocolate Milkshake this week

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: None

Belly Button in or out? Is flat a choice?

What I miss? NJ :O(

What I am looking forward to: Our ultrasound on Tuesday. I am so excited to see our little girl again.

Milestones: The car seat is installed in the car.