lucky number 8...to 8.5?

so today was my 38 week doctor's visit. i am 38 weeks and 2 days to be exact.

she started out by measuring my stomach. usually the centimeters correspond directly to the weeks. so she measures me and says, "ok, so youre 37 weeks now?" and i said "no i am 38.5 actually...so does that mean he is small for his (gestational) age?" and she said "um yeah, you wish." so i asked how big he was right now (i had been told before that if i went all the way to 40 weeks he could be 8 pounds) and she says that he is 8 or 8.5 RIGHT NOW! holy crap. omg. wtf. so i was thinking maybe the upside of the hugeness of baby is that it means he's almost ready to go.

then i get the beloved pelvic exam. i was ready to hear about being more effaced, (i was 30% last times) more dilated, (i was "fingertip" last week, not even 1 cm) and judah being lower (he was really high last week). she asked me before she "went in" if i wanted her to try to strip the membranes of my bag of waters because that can sometimes speed things up "naturally"and i told her that would be fine but the doctor i had last week (i visit-and love-them all since they rotate their on-call schedule) said he couldnt even get to the membranes because judah was up so high. she said she would check today. about 3 seconds "in" she was like, "yeah, no way can i get up there, he's still really high," which means the whole membrane/bag of waters/baby is still really high too, too high to strip for sure. and i am no more dilated or effaced. suck-bummer!

but since she couldnt get "up" to him she said she wanted to do one more ultrasound to make sure once and for all that he was head down in preparation for evacuation. i kind of couldnt resist since we havent seen the little (ha, not) guy in 19 weeks. holy crap, he is really huge. the 20 week ultrasound was like a little perfect baby doll floating in a black background. well, there is no more background! its all baby. you couldnt really even make out anything because he is all squished up on himself with not much room. well, you could make out his head and the fact that his is still very much a boy. we got two very clear shots of his boy-ness and i swear that junk is bigger than his whole head was last time. it was a little intimidating to be honest. of course jesse was VERY proud.

so fatty is going to stay in a little longer at least. honestly, we always thought he would be a june birthday boy, so this isnt devastating or disappointing by any means. i am uncomfortable at times but not miserable at all. i sleep great and my feet dont hurt as bad as they did a few weeks ago. i dont have heartburn or hemorrhoids or even stretch marks on my stomach. sure, i am VERY bored since i have all these nesting hormones raging through me telling me to prepare and get ready, but we seriously cannot arrange or organize his room any more than it already is and we have read all our birthing and newborn books twice each. so its not so much that i am ready for this part to be over as it is about just being ready to start the next part WITH him. i am really thankful that i have had a super easy pregnancy and that we have a baby that is definitely healthy and will be able to do well out here whenever he decides to join us.

the size of him is kind of scary considering we are wanting to do this unmedicated, but like our awesome birth teacher said, its not like the difference between a 7-pound baby and a 10-pound baby is 3 pounds worth of pure head! and lets be honest, its really the head that i am focusing on here, its all slippery and squirty and downhill from that point on (at least it looks that way in the MANY videos we have seen). anyway, it would be a shame to let my massive pregnant hips go to waste, so maybe big baller will put them to good use finally (i mean good use other than streching out pants and lowering self-esteem). i just hope he isnt such a behemoth that he skips all of his newborn clothes and diapers. that would SUCK since we have some seriously cute clothes for lil' fella.

here are some recent pics to help pass the time with

this was at 35 weeks and 5 days at our friend chris tisons PhD graduation party. the new doctor's advice for getting judah out was "vodka and jumping jacks" he is NOT a pediatrician thankfully.

prenatal nerd-training for judah at 36 weeks 4 days. double date with our favorite young couple, garrett and alyson. judah is living long in-utero and prospering nutritionally

at BFF marisa's bday party. today is her actual bday and although she really wanted to have the same bday as judah, it looks like it wont happen. so, consolation blog-shoutout and picture...love you mursa!

jesse practicing giving judah his bottle. 37 weeks and 5 days.