38 Weeks

Thirty eight weeks. Wow. Only two weeks until my "due date." I was happy to read this week that pregnant women are actually due for a span of four weeks (38-42), and they just give you a due date at forty weeks because it falls in the middle of that four week span. So looking at it that way, I AM DUE NOW!!! This baby could come anytime now over the next four weeks! (Let's hope it got a little of mommy's impatience, and decides to come early!)

I have been extremely tired all week. Everyday I feel like my energy level is on empty, and I am always up for a nap.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 5AM with a burst of energy and an urgent need to clean. So I jumped out of the bed and scoured the house from top to bottom for three hours. I have read that this sudden urge to

make things ready for the baby is called the "nesting instinct," and that labor can follow shortly after it hits, even within hours. (However, this instinct can hit up to several weeks before the baby is born as well.) Believe me, I was jumping at every little pain that day, waiting for the contractions to start. Obviously they never did. :(

My feet have begun to hurt this week. It is mainly at night right before I go to bed, and then again in the morning right after I wake up. I believe that the cause of the pain is blood or fluid pooling in my feet and making them slightly swollen and painful to put pressure on. Also, I have a sharp pain across the arch of my right foot, that I think may be tight tendons or ligaments. Every time I take a step and it stretches the tendons running from toe-to-heel, it shoots pain through my foot. I am not sure what is causing this. I have just been stretching my feet and legs as much as possible, trying to keep them loose. (I talked to the midwife about this, and she said that it is similar to carpal tunnel . Basically, the increased amount of progesterone during pregnancy breaks down the sheath covering the tendons running across my arch. Which means that there may be a spot on my tendon that is exposed, causing the shooting pain. It is like a live wire that has lost a section of its outer shell.)

My stretch marks are continuing to grow, and continuing to drive me out of my mind. They are SO ITCHY all the time. It nearly makes me cry when my shirt brushes against them and the itch fest starts all over again. It is like scratching one of the most itchy mosquito bites you have ever had only once, and then trying not to scratch it again. Or like a mosquito bite between your toes, that constantly rub and initiate the itch factory AGAIN. The vitamin E oil and cocoa butter have been rendered useless as they no longer grant any relief to the insatiable itch.

Those are my only two complaints this week. God has been granting me comfort in these last days. Jared and I are both eager to meet our baby. Last night, Jared surprised me when he stared at my belly for a moment, and then posed the question, "Are you gonna have that baby soon?" I could hear the excitement in his voice. Then he ran into the kitchen and got the bottle of "Mongolian Fire Oil" and poured it over my plate of spaghetti. Then he said, "We are gonna help it out a little."

(nothing happened. sorry babe.)