Baby at 36 Weeks!

Week 36. That means only one more week left before I am officially "Full Term" and I'm feeling it!  I still have quite a bit of energy, but am feeling more and more tired each afternoon. This is partly due to the fact that I'm not sleeping very well, but partly I think because there is like a 6 pound baby dancing around all day long inside of me, requiring my energy. This child has become a little buddy to me. I talk to it, sing with it, and "hold" it all the time. When I get slightly too-tired or aggravated at work with the girls, I know my baby is totally on my side. Baby doesn't like to hear a whiny voice, or be hit with a toy, or have his or her things taken from him or her either! 

So--me & baby--we're totally on the same page. SOMETIMES. Other times, I make Tim sit down and have a little chat with our child. Already-KB is learning very bad behaviors by kicking mama while she's trying to get things done. Or by constantly moving when mama's trying to rest. Or by hiding and being shy when I'm trying to let someone touch them. Unacceptable behavior at such a young age... tsk tsk. 

We have cleaned our house very well. I mean very well. On Saturday, Tim and I deep-cleaned and organized the whole apartment (minus super-organizing my things in the closet--there's still a little room for improvement there, but it's organized). Like scoured and scrubbed, folded and sorted, ditched and trashed, stored and re-stored... 

Baby is: ready to be strapped into a brand-spankin-new carseat, ready to be swaddled in clean bedding in the cradle (on my bedside), ready to be changed (by dad, of course:) ) on a new changing table and pads, ready to be nursed and cuddled on a great boppy-- covered in a sweet cover, ready to climb into a swing or bouncy seat... the list is almost endless.

OH, and baby's ready to be rocked to sleep on our newly re-upholstered-by-us Rocking Chair!!!

 

How your baby's growing:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.
At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.