William is full-term today!

As of 37 weeks, a baby is considered full-term. That is, if he’s born now he will not be considered premature and his body systems are developed enough that he can function on his own. It also means that if I go into labour, the doctors would not do anything to stop it.

We spent the weekend cleaning the house! It’s still not entirely clean, but I wanted to do a thorough job of the parts I did do, and Darryl helped a great deal. We also went shopping for a few more baby items (like pack & play sheets), and got them washed. William’s room is set up for the most part, his bathtub and bath accessories are set up in the bathroom, and I started putting together the items I’ll need to carry to the hospital with me. While out shopping, we bought a LOT of snacks (for the hospital) and easy-to-prepare dinner items (for the return home).

For some reason, I was convinced (wishful thinking) that William would be born on the weekend. It’s probably good that he wasn’t, since it allowed me to get a lot done around the house. I think I’ve been having Braxton-Hicks contractions periodically throughout the past week or so (maybe longer), but they don’t hurt at all and feel more like William is rolling around or stretching in my tummy. What makes me think they are in fact BH contractions is that my stomach gets very tight during them. However, since they don’t hurt and I am not usually paying close enough attention to distinguish them from William’s movements, I have no idea how often they are occurring.

These past couple of days, I’ve gotten pretty good quality sleep and my energy level has been higher. The cleaning we’ve been doing may or may not be a sign of me nesting. Overall, I feel a lot better than I have felt for most of the past month, probably because I don’t have sinus problems and because, now that the cleaning is done, I’m able to keep off my feet and relax a little bit more.

Still to do: - put together a list of important phone numbers
- pack my hospital bag
- pack William’s hospital bag
- work on William’s scrapbook

I’ll be taking Friday off, and Monday is a holiday, so hopefully I will be able to get most of the above tasks accomplished.

Week 37

“Congratulations! Your pregnancy is now considered full-term: Your baby is developmentally ready to handle life outside the womb. He probably weighs a little over 6 pounds and measures between 19 and 20 inches. If you have preeclampsia, your caregiver may recommend inducing labor this week.”

-- from: www.babycenter.com