37 Weeks Pregnant!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 37 Weeks

Size of baby: Baby Vitt is as long as Swiss Chard! (About 19 inches)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I've gained 36 lbs, but now more than ever I'm convinced I have at least 10-15 lbs of water weight. I am SO swollen!! This week it's become very obvious that my arms / wrists / fingers are extremely swollen as well. I knew my fingers were because I haven't been able to wear my wedding rings for a few weeks, but now I can't wear many bracelets either--my wrists are as thick as they are wide!

Maternity Clothes: All maternity except for a few loose dresses and open-front sweaters

Gender: Baby GIRL! Still working on a name--our favorites include Bristol, McKinley & Eloise. Her middle name will be Grace after my littlest sister and my great grandmother. I REALLY want to name her Bristol Grace, but Scott's leaning towards McKinley Grace...so we shall see.

Movement: Still moving a lot; I laugh when I look at my belly and it's all lopsided because she moves completely over to one side.

Sleep: Decent is how I'd rate my sleep. I had one day of insomnia this week which was horrible because then I was tired and worthless for much of the day :-(

What I miss: Sleeping on my back, being skinny, lying on my stomach for different things, having pain-free shoulders, having ankles instead of cankles!

Cravings: CHOCOLATE! Can't get enough of it this week!

Symptoms: SWELLING like crazy, round ligament pain, braxton hicks contractions all the time

Best Moment this week: Being surprised with many beautiful gifts from my friends!

On Sunday, the day I actually turned 37 weeks, I hosted a "sprinkle" for my friend Julie who is due to have her third little baby four weeks after me. Julie has one son who is almost five and last January her baby girl Mallory passed away suddenly at 33 weeks gestation. It was a terribly sad time for Julie and her family, and also for our group of friends. When she became pregnant again late last summer and found out it was a very healthy baby boy we all were so happy for her and wanted to celebrate the pregnancy with her. So on Sunday we did just that. Everyone who came brought an appetizer or dessert to share and I opened our home to everyone for the party. Anyway, I never expected a single person to give me anything that day, but a few of my friends also left gifts for me and I felt so blessed! Since this baby is going to be born in the spring, and Jaden and Sienna were both fall babies, the clothes we have for the first year don't match up very well in terms of sizes. Now we have some brand new beautiful outfits for this summer, some much-needed new bibs, the cutest baby crocs, a new photo album just for this baby's first photos and a handmade pink and white blanket that my friend Cindy's mom made just for our baby girl. These are the very first gifts anyone has given to us for this baby and it really touched my heart that these friends thought of me.

Julie, who the "sprinkle" was for, also gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure at the nicest spa near my house which was another big highlight to the week! I don't feel that I did much by hosting the sprinkle since our friends all brought food, but she wanted to give me something and I want nothing more right now than to have someone rub these swollen tootsies. So this week I'm making an appointment to use the gift certificate!!

Thanks to my friends for making me feel so special :)