39 Week Bump Update

Being 9 months pregnant during summer looks a little like this: me lying on the couch in front of a fan with an icy cold wash cloth across my forehead and food network on in the background. Multiply that by hours and hours, and welcome to my life. I'm super thankful that it's been a relatively mild summer so far, but 90+ degrees is still a little too much for me to handle right now.

I've had a few pre-labor symptoms, but nothing that's stuck, and for the past few days I've felt absolutely no cramping or contractions. So either this labor is gonna come totally out of left field, or this guy is in there for the long haul, just like big bro. Since I was induced with Ez, and have no real experience with labor that begins naturally, or my water breaking on it's own, I've been spending many a late night reading labor stories on pregnancy forums. All I've determined is that there are a million different signs and symptoms that could mean I'm about to give birth at any moment, or they could mean I'm still a month away from labor. I've read stories of second labors that took mere hours from start to finish, vs. second labors that took longer than the first. There's no rhyme or reason to pregnancy and labor and birth, so I'm trying to go with the flow and not read too much into every little cramp or indigestion, but obviously I'm more than a little preoccupied with when this guy is gonna decide to make his entrance.

As far as nesting goes, I went through a little phase where I was literally scrubbing the walls and baseboards at 2 in the morning. I'm pretty sure it would've taken less effort to just repaint everything. I can tell it's cleaner, but I doubt anyone else would even notice the difference. I think Joe is going through his own mini-nesting phase, and he's been super helpful taking care of all the dishes (my least favorite chore) and we've both been preoccupied with cleaning out the fridge and then restocking it to the brim. We finally finished hanging the curtains in the boys' room, boxes of tiny diapers are stacked against the living room wall, and the dresser is filled with newborn to 3 month-sized onesies. All that's really left is to pack a hospital bag, but I've made a checklist of stuff I want to bring, so that's practically the same thing ;)

Part of me realizes that it's so much easier to take care of a baby living inside of me compared with a newborn on the outside, but overall I'm as ready as can be to expand our family to a party of 4. Who knows, maybe I'll be back with 40 and 41 week bump updates, or maybe this'll be the last one??

Just for fun, here's a little look back at the bump progression:

For a little walk down memory lane, here are all of this pregnancy's bump updates. And for comparison, here are my first pregnancy bump updates. Joe and I were crunching some numbers the other day, and I've been pregnant 18 of the last 34 months. Pretty crazy, huh?? Thanks for following along!