37 Weeks Today

Amniotic fluid holding steady at "9.2" -- whatever that means. 50th percentile, which is good.

Baby's heartbeat was 152 this morning.
Weight gain: 31 lbs (was 32 lbs last week, so I'm assuming that means I'm holding steady, and the fluctuation is due to fluid retention, etc. Some women actually lose weight in the last few weeks of pregnancy).
Blood pressure: 110/60. Woo hoo!
Group B Strep test results: Negative. Yay, no penicillin I.V. during labor!

This morning I had an ultrasound and got to see The Boy making hand movements and lots of breathing movements. The tech said this means his lungs are probably mature, which makes sense, because the baby is officially considered "full term" today. Oy! We could have a baby any day now -- but please, not until after this Thursday.

Most of my fingers are numb and/or tingly now. I never heard back from the physical therapist's office about my carpal tunnel, and I don't necessarily care to. What are they going to do, tell me to do the stretches that I already know how to do? To ice my wrists and hands at night, which I already do? To give me a wrist brace, which I've actually already borrowed from a coworker? All that just to burn up more sick time, of which I have precious little to spend right now? No thanks. I'll just bitch about it continuously instead.

This is what's frustrating. I thought a few weeks ago that I had no motivation to be at work. Now, I have about 100 times less motivation than a few weeks ago. I can't sleep at night, so I wake up exhausted. My hands bother me, and I have a desk job, so writing or typing are very uncomfortable. I am hungry all the time. I am cranky most of the time. I just want to stay home and clean my house and get ready for Murky.

A couple of interesting pregnancy-related observations:
1. The ice packs I've been using for my wrists were actually included in the free "goodie bag" that was given to us at our first prenatal visit, lo those many months ago. They're industrial-strength ice packs...are they for my boobs? Because they're from Enfamil. Is Enfamil trying to tell me that breastfeeding will hurt? Or am I supposed to keep bottles of formula cool with them? Mental note: buy a head of cabbage soon; cabbage leaves from the fridge are supposed to soothe painful nursing boobs. But will it make my milk taste like cabbage?
2. My belly button sticks out (along with most of the rest of me -- my boobs, my ass, my stomach, etc.). But hey, the upside of this is that, since it's now convex instead of concave, the inside of my navel has never been cleaner!

As usual when I lie down in bed at night, Murky has the hiccups :-) Tonight at dinner I made the dog bark (by scolding the cat -- this dog has a hyped-up sense of justice when it comes to cats). My hand happened to be on my belly, and I felt the baby jump. So I made the dog bark again -- and there was another itty bitty baby startle jump. Then I put Mom's hand on my belly and made the dog bark -- another jump! We could go on the road with this show, I swear! It's nice right now, because the dog can startle the baby all he wants, but the baby can't cry yet.

Yesterday was my "coworkers" shower at a colleague's beautiful home. We ate, we talked, we shared stories, and, of course, I opened presents. I can't even begin to say how much baby stuff we've received over the past couple of months -- people are way too generous and sweet. I would have been happy just getting together and eating food and talking to people!

I must say that (knock wood) we've pretty much been "textbook" thus far in the pregnancy...*WARNING: "TOO MUCH INFORMATION" ALERT* -- right down to today's helpful reminder on babycenter.com that I "may be experiencing increased vaginal discharge." Yeah; that's definitely true. (And sorry if that's too much information, but there's really not a lot of dignity involved in the whole pregnancy/childbirth process anyway).

I have several "profile" shots of Murky from the past few weeks, but they are all sucky pictures. They're like when you're lying on the grass in the summertime looking up at clouds, and all of a sudden someone is like, "Hey, look, it's President Lincoln on a unicorn wearing an apron and playing the bassoon!" Yeah, right. Today the ultrasound tech said "See, he just moved his hand!" That's his hand??? Or, "that's the bottom of his foot." WTF? Is he a duck?? All I can say is that ultrasound technicians are either extremely underpaid or extremely overpaid for what they do.