36 Weeks

How far along? 36 weeks

Weight gain: 50 pounds

Baby is the size of a(n): Honeydew…but I found out yesterday he weighs 7 pounds 4 ounces already

Food cravings/aversions: Milk and ice still. Water, surprisingly.

Sleeping: Adam has left the building bed. He's started sleeping on the couch because I'm just too loud with my snoring and breathing. :( I'm getting up 2-3 times per night to use the bathroom, but am usually able to go right back to bed. Still lots of crazy dreams.

Milestones: I'm 9 months pregnant! Also, if I were to go into labor now, I could go straight to the BirthCare Center at Wesley, and not have to go to the hospital.

How I'm Feeling: Lots of pressure down low. Most of yesterday it was hard to even walk, but I seem to be doing better so far today. I'm still in shock that I've gained so much weight and it's hard to swallow. I'm trying to keep telling myself that I only have 3 more weeks of this and then it's over forever…but 3 more weeks of feeling this huge and heavy seems like a lifetime. I'm getting so excited to meet this baby. I know that there will be struggles (breastfeeding, lack of sleep, transition to 2 kids), and while those things still scare me a lot, I'm just very ready for him to be here.

Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: This may be a bit long, but my doctor's appointment yesterday was very interesting. I went in for a sonogram to check his size, and much to my surprise, Baby D was breech. That wasn't even something that had crossed my mind as a possibility since he'd been head down at my last sono. My only worry thus far had been his size possibly forcing me into c-section, but I thought I'd have options when it came to that. When your baby is breech, I know you generally can't deliver vaginally. So I left the sono a little unsure about what to think/how to feel.

My appointment with my doctor was next and he confirmed that this baby was very big…weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces at just shy of 36 weeks. But he said based on that, he thought this baby would be around the size Sutton was at birth - just over 9 pounds. Big, but do-able for a vaginal birth. I said, "But what about him being breech?" My doctor double-checked his notes and said "Oh. Yeah…that's a problem." I started trying to decide if I was going to cry at this point. I'd just gotten the good news that I could likely deliver him vaginally based on size, which had been my worry up til this point, but then I hadn't yet been told exactly what all being breech meant.

Doctor started feeling around on my belly. He went to demonstrate the movement that he would use later on to try to turn the baby if Baby hadn't turned on his own and all of a sudden, he took his hands off my belly, looked at me in disbelief, and said "Well…he just turned! Whoa! That's never happened to me before." Apparently the slight jarring he'd used to demonstrate what they'd do later on had coaxed Baby D to turn around and he was now head down. My doctor couldn't get over it. The nurse in there was in disbelief too. Doctor said that no one would believe him when he told them that had just happened. And after my appointment was over and he left the room, I heard him telling the other nurses and doctors what had just happened and him asking his nurse "You saw that, right?"

So…in conclusion :) baby is head down for now, but as easily as he turned yesterday, it makes me think that he could turn back the other way as well. My doctor said he'd do a quick sono himself next week to check positioning. I'm not dilated or effaced at all at this point either, but they'll check that again next week as well.

During my sonogram, the technician was super friendly and laughing at how smushed Baby D seemed. So she switched the view over to 3D at one point, which we'd never had done with any of our pregnancies. So neat to see the little dude in 3D! I could definitely get a feel more for what he's going to look like. Here's a 3D photo of him all smushed in there:

And his crazy brother...