37 Weeks Pregnant – Size of a bunch of Beets

37 Weeks Pregnant!

First full week in the new house and things are coming along. My family is awesome! My father-in-law has flown in from Holland for a whole week just to help us get settled in. My mom practically lives with me now until further notice. Baby Sandee moves to her little heart’s content, and we are just waiting to meet her at this point!! I really do feel like my belly can’t get any bigger each week but according to midwife visits it continues grow! Nesting in full mode right now, catching up on “lost time” spent during the move.

The baby is apparently as long as 19 inches now, and well over 6 lbs, so she can show up at any time. She’s really the size of a bunch of swiss chard, but this is as close as I got to it (nowhere to be found here in Missouri!) It’s all good, and close enough! Plus I’m a big fan of beets anyway, over swiss chard! I see beet salad with goat cheese in the very near future.

TMI of the week: Started with the “remedies” to soften the cervix and supposedly ease labor at full mode this week. Started taking extending primrose oil, drinking raspberry leaf tea, eating a bunch of dates and getting more freaky, because all that helps right? Haha, I’m glad my husband doesn’t read all my posts hehe. Anywhooooo! A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s “gotta do”, but I’m not trying to get this baby out early. She needs to come at her time, so I’ll be respectful of that, but I want her to come as natural as possible!

By the way, the Group B Strep test results came back negative, which means I won’t be needing IV antibiotics during labor! YAY! One less thing to worry about, because at the birthing center they don’t actually keep you on a fetal monitor or IV so you’re free to roam around, get in the tub, on the ball, on the silk or the birthing stool. It’s pretty awesome, and you’re allowed to eat the whole time you’re in labor (not that you’d want to when in deep labor), but maintaining the energy and hydration levels are a priority with occasional monitoring to make sure momma and baby are doing good. I definitely know I’ll be utilizing those honey sticks.

Old (New Symptom): No HUGE changes around here, just more getting up to pee, more heaviness of the legs (which may also be attributed to the new set of stairs at home), especially since I have a basement and a second floor. Baby is also changing sides on us more often this week (according to the midwife), not quite sure why, but as long as her head stays down, which is has been we are golden!

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Highlight of this week : We’re are settled in and the nursery is basically set up (thanks to Winecoach, his dad and my mom)! Just finishing touches now and will be sharing it with you guys next week! Stay tuned for the updates! Most boxes are gone, thanks to my amazing father in law, and my mom is keeping us all entertained with her craziness having up stuff and making me spend way too much time food shopping.

*Took mom and father-in-law to visit Birthing Center! There are 4 birthing suites named after the 4 seasons. They are just amazing!

• The Summer suite (the most popular) was taken that day by a momma and her baby!! Next time I will get a shot for you guys as it is also one of my favorites, very bright!!!

Funny Story: Did you guys catch my mom on snapchat at the nail salon? OMG….she was co-doing her pedicure with the pedicurist….she kills me with embarrassment, but we are definitely spending quality time together.

Exercise: Back to moving, walking and doing ball exercises. See some of what I’ve been up to here. I will do a post on late third trimester next week, I promise!

Core exercises to help us get back into shape when we are done carrying the baby! Because guess what, we need strong cores to carry them!

Cravings: Nothing comes to mind but I’ve been abusing the dates! I’m getting creative with them because they are highly indicated on the last few weeks to assist in going into labor naturally. I’m mostly enjoying it with almond butter.

Aversions: Doing good!

Mood: Hello baby blues! The end of this week was a bit rough. I went pretty well all week but for a good 24 hours I felt pretty bad. Sometimes the hormones just hits me like a ton of bricks! I was just so sad, missing Oklahoma, my friends that are there, hating the weather (it’s a lot cloudier here than there), and was crying for no reason. I’m mostly scared I’ll be a bad mom, that I won’t know what I’m doing and questioning possible life decisions coming my way. Really a lot of uncertainty that is completely normal for new moms, which is what I am, but none of the rational stuff makes you feel better when you’re sad, so I just had to wait for it to pass. The next day, the sun came out and I started feeling better. Darn hormones! I feel much better now but I’m not gonna lie, postpartum depression is scary, and that’s part of my fear. Fingers crossed I can bypass that.

Ultrasound and Baby’s Sex: At this point, no more ultrasounds, but weekly position checking by the midwife and heart rate monitoring. Baby Sandee is measuring where she should be, between 37-38 weeks, and a strong heart rate of high 140s-low 150s bpm.

Movement and Positioning: Head down, booty and back on the right and feet on the left side. Our little break dancer is twisting her little head in the birth canal and moving her booty side to side (wonder where she gets that from?). Daily hiccup sessions are a norm, lots of movement pushing my stomach up, all hours of the day. Some days I sleep well, some days not so much. It really depends.

Weight gain: Just over 30lbs, about 33-34lbs weight gain maybe?

Nursery and registry:  Great news: the nursery is practically done but these are from when it was still an absolute mess! I’m still waiting for the glider and a book case (Baby Sandee got so many books at our baby showers!), and I think we will be ready to share it next week! I can’t wait to share it with you guys…. It took an unexpected turn but I’m super happy about it! My mom, father-in-law and hubby worked super hard on it! They don’t let me do anything….anyway, sneak peak at the nursery (if you could even call it that at this stage)!!

Also, HUGE thank you to a lot of you who have sent her gifts, which to me equals LOVE.  Thank you SO MUCH for jumping on our registries with Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby (consolidated on The Bump) and sending us gifts. You guys melt my heart <3.  You are just wonderful, thank you for flooding Baby Sandee with love and blessings!

Names: We will be sharing her name as soon as she’s born!

Midwife or OB:  My new team of midwives is just awesome! They don’t even do cervix checks unless baby is past 40 weeks, which sounds good to me. After much research I learned that it doesn’t matter “how dilated you are” before labor, so, no rush poking around there either. I appreciate the respect to the cervix! Also, sharing the birthing center where I’ll be “birthing” with you guys this week, SO EXCITING!

By the way, I still keep in touch with my Oklahoma midwife. Love her forever and she would LOVE to work in a birthing center like the one I found here! I hope she gets to some day!

Aches and pains: That left rib pain is relentless….left side sciatica is on and off. Time to schedule a prenatal massage I think. Doing my preggo stretches also really helps!

Currently Wearing: Still sporting non-maternity tops with stretch bottoms. Running out of dresses though, especially now that temperatures are really dropping!

Sleep: Not getting any easier I must say…I discovered the recliner is a good friend and although I’m still sleeping on the bed tucked with pillows all around me, I might use the recliner for better sleep in the next couple of weeks.

Traveling – With 3 weeks left to due date, it has been contraindicated that I travel anywhere anymore. BOOOO! Ha! I have a Christmas party invitation to Chicago which is a 4 hour drive but had to turn it down….We are all on baby watch right now so I only go as far as downtown St. Louis!

I want to thank my friends, family and even some of you beautiful followers, for all the help with the registry and gifts you’ve sent to Baby Sandee! I’m still taking suggestions on the best products and “gear” needed to keep a newborn alive and well, so please leave me your comments on anything else that is crucially necessary for baby’s arrival because I AM still clueless. I feel clueless anyway….Don’t forget to follow @ColorfulPregnancy on Instagram for my nutrition tips during pregnancy!

Xo, Ana

Count Colors, NOT Calories!
Color your Plate, Color your Life.
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SNAPCHAT: AnaSandee – I will continue to snap and cook so get the recipes in real time before they make it to the blog! I’ll continue sharing more awesome things about the pregnancy and my adventures as I learn them! Videos stay up for 24 hours, so get following there!