The last paranoid weeks

37 weeks today...it's so hard not to be paranoid and anxious.
For my scheduling purposes, it'd really be best if I could make it through the entire week after my due date.  I'm teaching classes, and would like to get through the final week of the semester.  Although, at this point, I don't really WANT to make it that far, anymore, so I'm actually making contingency plans, and hoping to schedule to have NO class the final couple of days. 
So I should be good, as long as I can still make it to at least my due date- April 29th.  Or at the earliest, April 26th.  That's still 18 long days from now. 

I haven't done quite the preparation this time around as the first.  Of course, we should have everything already, and we've already done it before, so should be masters, right? 

Still, ever little blip, I get hopeful yet anxious and nervous.  And perhaps I should feel more unprepared.  I haven't even packed a bag yet. 

I've been feeling lots of crampy contractions.  Though they haven't even been regular enough to think about timing them.  They seem to occur more often when I have a full bladder or a full...other end.  I guess I can hope that they are at least working to progress things along so that I have to make it less far during actual labor.  The Dr. measured me at 1 cm and 25% effaced at last week's appointment (36 wk+ 3days).  I had been getting a few cramps for a week or so before that.

But I'm also getting a lot of painful kicks that cause a tightening feeling.  I can't quite be sure if its a contraction or just a baby movement.  This baby moves way too much.  Dr. said she was head down at my last appointment.  I keep hoping that she must be.  Afterall, I feel very uncomfortable in my pelvis and hips recently.  I'm pretty much to the point of waddling, and feeling sore after sitting, laying, standing....um, doing anything, really.  I can imagine its because her head is grinding in there, settling lower and lower and lower. 

It's also hard not to be nervous that she's flipped.  Although Dr. said there's a 98% chance she'll stay head down after this point, I keep feeling hiccups all over.  The other day, they were up in my rib cage, then they were over on my right side.  Plus, I'm getting a lot of poking jabs in my left side.  Today, they kind of feel like they are back low on the right side.  Who knows if hiccups are really even supposed to be an indicator of where the head is. 

This morning, after having a few cramps on the drive up to work, I wiped after going to the bathroom, and had a very buggary-like greenish mucous, stretchy discharge.  TMI, I know...but I just wonder what the mucous plug really looks like.  I got this discharge for weeks with Q, too, and kept thinking that labor was imminent (especially after being 2cm at 36 weeks).

I guess I just gotta keep busy.  I have a  hair appointment that I'm really looking forward to on Friday, plus another Dr. appt.  I should probably schedule a few things for the week after that, too. 

25 weeks, 22 months

I am now resigned to wearing maternity clothes the rest of my pregnancy. Ok, truth be told, I actually don't have a single article of maternity wear on right now, but I probably should.  I at least won't be able to squeeze into my jeans anymore after I run them through the wash next time, so I suppose I will get dirtier and dirtier until I break down and wear maternity clothes.  They suck, though.  At least, all the ones that other people gave me in incorrect sizes suck.  They just don't fit right.

So far, I've gained almost 20 lbs at 25 weeks.  I think the distribution is at least 1/4 to my boobs, 1/2 to my belly, and the remaining 1/4 to my ass.  I guess it could be worse than that.  By now, I'm feeling pretty good, too. No complaints, although this baby moves ALL the FREAKING TIME!  Q wasn't such a wiggler, so it was more special to feel it, and well, less annoying.  I do enjoy feeling movements, but I can see how this might start to keep me up at night.  I especially don't like that swift kick to the bladder or bowels that makes me feel like I need to run to the bathroom.

It's crazy that I only have three months left.  Yikes!!

My cutie head is nearing her second birthday.  She's pretty adorable these days.  Her vocabulary is pretty big for a two year old ( I think), and she's pretty communicative.

The other night, she demanded that she wanted to go to bed in our bed.  She never sleeps in our bed, other than weekend mornings when I get her and she has her morning milk in there with us.  But at bedtime the other night, she crawled up in there and then commanded us:

"Daddy, get in bed!"

"Mommy, turn of lights!"

"Mommy, lay down!"

I asked her a series of questions to trick her into sleeping in her own bed.

"Where does the quail sleep?"

--"Quail sleep in the bushes"

"Where does the cow sleep?"

--"Cow sleep in the barn"

"Where does the owl sleep?"

--"Owl sleep in the tree"

"Where does Daddy Sleep?"

--"Daddy sleep in the bed"

"Where does Quincy sleep?"

--"Quincy sleep in Daddy bed."

That little tricky monster.  Usually she would respond "..in the tent".

She's too smart for my own good.