37 Weeks

FULL TERM!!  Baby Koch is now considered to be full term and could come out any minute!!

(I feel that I look like I'm smuggling a football or two under my Urlacher jersey)

How far along? 37 Weeks! Baby Koch is as big as a winter melon.  What the heck is a Winter Melon?  Anyways, doctor estimated that Baby Koch weighs between 6 and 6 1/2 pounds but cautioned me that since I'm tall that I have more room for baby to hide so he could weigh as much as 8 pounds right now and will get bigger.  I'm hoping for our little man to be around the 6 pound mark.  I want him to be a healthy growing boy but I also don't want to push a 10+ pound baby out of me.  That's terrifying.

Total weight gain/loss: 33 pounds.  It's all gone to my belly, butt, and boobs.  Ready to see smaller numbers on the scale though.  I know I'll be losing a few once I give birth but I'm not quite ready to lose the belly.  It's just starting to get cute and I feel like a real pregnant lady now.  Guess that means we'll have to have more kids.  (just not immediately after)

Maternity clothes? Still searching for that illusive pair of black maternity leggings that are actually long enough to cover my body.  It's too late to justify ordering anything online but I've been to EVERY store in Champaign that could possibly sell maternity clothes and NO ONE carries tall black maternity leggings.  I'm not even that tall!  I'm only 5'10" but apparently that's tall enough to be excluded from fitting into normal sized clothes.  I'm not a happy pregnant lady.  I'm at the point where shopping for clothes to fit me makes me cry....in the store.  This became apparent to me when I went to both Old Navy and the Gap to see if they had any good news for me and when I saw the meager selection of maternity clothes (none of which fit me), I broke down in the store and cried.  I quickly put on my sunglasses and hightailed it out of there so not to embarrass myself too much.  Nothing is worse than having someone ask you what's wrong only to incoherently respond with more tears and ridiculous hand gestures.  So I'm no longer clothes shopping.  It's probably best if I just stay out of the public eye for a while...these boobs are getting ridiculous. 

Speaking of which, still need to purchase those darn nursing bras.  Any advice on when is the best time to purchase one?  The ladies are getting bigger by the hour so I don't want to get one now only to have it not fit tomorrow and even more when my milk comes in.  (Gosh that sounded weird.  Did that sound weird to anyone else?  It definitely did to me.  Milk. Ugh!  I've been trying my best to avoid any and all direct references to me being compared to and feeling like a dairy cow but that just happened.  Now I feel super un-sexy.  Great!  Need more Halloween candy)

Stretch marks? No. My skin is just being stretched to its limit though.  Also, I want a tan (don't know if I mentioned this or not).

Sleep:  I wish I could get 8 hours of UNinterrupted sleep.  That would feel so good.  I did manage to get a load of sleep this past weekend.  It was my goal to just be a loaf'er because Dan was gone and I really didn't want to do anything other than veg and catch up on sleep.  Mission succeeded!  I mean I still had to get up and pee every 30-45 minutes but boy did I catch up on some sleep.  I felt like I was in college again, getting to sleep in to whenever I wanted to. Those were the days.

Best moment this week: Lounging.  It was Homecoming at U of I this past weekend (we lost...it was really sad).  I told my son that maybe by the time that he comes to U of I that we might have a good football team.  O well.  I got to tailgate with some friends for a bit (until Baby K told me I needed to take a nap).  I also got to see my former roommate Ashley!  Since my hubby was away hunting for his last time, I wanted to spend time with some people I normally don't get to see.  Ashley and her boyfriend came down and stayed with me.  They slept in our spare bedroom/Baby Koch's room and woke up and said that they slept like babies.  I got a kick out of that.  Then the next day, I got to watch the Bears game with my good friend Megan.  Good news is that the Bears won.  Sad news is that I don't think they deserved to win with how crappily they played.  But I spent most of the time catching up with Meg.  Then again, I spent the rest of my weekend just relaxing.  My wonderful sister-in-law gave me a prenatal massage gift certificate so I even got to get pampered and enjoyed that.  So my weekend was a combination of sleep, food, relaxation, and friends.  Love!

Miss Anything? Still couldn't drink at the tailgate.  Ugh!  It's not the alcohol that I miss, it's more of the social aspect of it.  When I tailgate, I would like to have a drink.  When I have chips and salsa in the summer, I would like a margarita.  When I'm watching football, I would like a beer.  When I'm eating a nice meal with friends, I would like a glass of wine.  Okay, so maybe I would like a glass of wine all the time but you get what I'm saying.  I miss the whole experience of it...not that you need alcohol to have fun...cuz you don't kids.  I just would like it sometimes.  I also miss moving comfortably.  Walking (or at this point, waddling) is not a comfortable thing for me.  My child's head is located in the down position, in my pelvis, and this is very apparent to me.  Every movement I make, I cannot help but be reminded of my child's head.  Although I'm loving my belly, I miss moving without feeling like a waddling sausage.

Movement: LBK (Little Baby Koch) is a dancing fool.  He loves shaking his booty.  I'm just amazed at the intensity of his kicks and rump shake'age.  I already have plans for him to be on Dancing With The Stars season 40.

Food cravings:  Halloween Candy.  No idea what happened to the 3 bags I bought last week.  They just suddenly disappeared.  But also, I need to introduce you all to something amazing.  I give you Prairie Farms Holiday Milk.

The day I was considered Full Term, I went to Wal-Mart for my usual gallon (or two or three) of milk and other grocery needs and in the milk cooler I was delighted to see that Prairie Farms has officially released its holiday milks!  They do this every year and I enjoy guzzling my share of the Red Velvet milk.  So to celebrate making it to Full Term, I quickly grabbed a carton and waddled my way to the register so I could pay for my stuff and get my expanding bum home in order to pour me a glass of this red delicious goodness.  Needless to say, I was one happy pregnant lady after I inhaled some of this milk.  Everyone, pregnant or not, should do themselves a favor and go and try one of these fantastic flavors.  They're all pretty tasty but my favorite is the Red Velvet.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Only feeling sick when he kicks my stomach.

Have you started to show yet:  Of course!

Gender: Little Boy!  We started our Baby Pool this past week and some of the names people are guessing for our little man are ridiculous.  Most are pretty normal though.  We're still keeping his name a secret until the day. No word on whether or not anyone has guessed it correctly in the pool. 

Labor Signs: NO!  Should I be feeling them?  Doc said it was fine that I wasn't but it would make me feel normal if I was.  I mean I'm not complaining that I haven't felt this pain but is that weird that I haven't?

Symptoms: There's definitely more pressure on my pelvis.  I have a feeling that his head is situated super low in my pelvis which is causing some super pressure on my body.  My lower back is getting more and more sore by the day.  Guess that means I'll be enlisting Daniel to rub my lower back in exchange for cookies.  I thought I was getting cankles but Dan laughed at me when I told him this because he said there's no possible way for my colt-like bony ankles to ever look like cankles.  (I kinda wish my ankles weren't so fawn-like because then maybe they would be strong enough to wear heels.  I'm 24 years old and have trouble walking in heels, not because I'm pregnant but because my ankles are the size of a toddler's...and not even a chunky toddler for that matter).  So no cankles, just a paranoid Jackie.

I'm still super uncomfortable while walking around.  It's just not as easy as it was before.  I realize that I took for granted how easy it was before pregnancy to get up from a sitting position on the floor or anywhere for that matter.  Now it's an ordeal to get up from the couch, bed, floor, car, etc.  I'm guessing it's pretty comical to watch because attempting to get up is usually accompanied by awkward grunting followed by my desperate attempts to grasp at invisible wires to help pull me up.  I'm not a graceful person.

Also, I think my hormones might be getting the better of me these days.  Dan walked in from work one night this week and discovered me sitting on the couch crying, and when he asked what was wrong, all I could get out was, "I just want him here.  Why isn't he here yet?".  Yeah...I'm a bit hysterical.  I'm also not allowed to watch "A Baby Story" anymore because I cry at every episode.  Even the segment on the Ellen show where she helps out families makes me bawl like a baby.  I should maybe start wearing my waterproof mascara because I'm a hott mess of a raccoon by the end of the day.  It's not me, I swear! It's the hormones.

O and I also pee about 5,000 times a day.  Nothing new there.

Belly Button in or out? In.  I swear it's gonna pop!

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Happy or Moody most of the time:  Happy...and moody (as described earlier).  I do have a tendency to tear up every time I walk into our little man's nursery.  How could I not though?  The entire room has been completely filled by the love of people in our lives.  From books, to outfits, diapers, dressers, crib, bookshelf, tub, linens, toys, and more, everything in that room has come from all the amazing people we've been so blessed to know.  I can't look in that room and not see the amount of love that has come from our family and friends and even some people I've never met before.  I'm just blown away.  Dan and I are just so grateful for everything that you all have done for us and our little man, who isn't even here yet!  Just wow!  So of course I cry when I walk in there.  I also cry because when I look in there and see all the love that our child is coming into the world to meet, I think of how many babies come into the world not knowing that same love.  (O gosh....cue the tears again)

Basically I'm a hormonal mess.  Super highs and lots of tears.  I'll probably be more of a mess once LBK gets here.  

Looking forward to: Halloween and painting my belly like a pumpkin!  There are a few things a pregnant lady gets the exclusive license to do and one of them is show off her belly on Halloween through paint!  Lucky for me that Baby Koch will be "as big as a pumpkin" exactly on Halloween!  Isn't that crazy??  I'll be sure to include a picture of my attempt to paint my belly on Halloween in my next blog post.  I also hope I get trick-or-treaters! (need to buy more candy for them)  Still sad that I probably won't have gone into labor before Halloween.  I really wanted Baby Koch to come a few weeks early so that I could dress him up in an adorable Halloween costume but since he won't be here by then (most likely), I now have to wait an entire year to dress him up.  UGH!  What's a crazy mom-to-be to do?

Since Halloween marks the start of week 38, we obviously had to carve pumpkins before then.  Here is my friend Stef, Dan, and my pumpkin carving adventure this year.

Dan worked on a 4-pumpkin rated design (which was the hardest design in the book...he kept reminding us of this the entire carving time)

Stef working on her 3-pumpkin rated design.  Her pumpkin also smelled like a cantaloupe instead of a pumpkin.

All three of our pumpkins.  Dan's 4-pumpkin design, Stef's 3-pumpkin design, and my free-handed design of a baby which I thought was appropriate (I didn't follow a pattern)

Stef and me with our pumpkins  (She's also a nurse at the hospital I'm going to give birth in...maybe I should consider changing hospitals. jk)

All three of us with our pumpkins.  You decide who's pumpkin is best. (Mine)

Koch pumpkins!

Anything Else?: I'm also looking forward to November starting because that means it will be LBK's birth month!  Also, that means it'll be so close to Christmas and that means time to start decorating for my favorite holiday!  I will also need to plan out all my recipes I'll be making during the holidays, start Christmas shopping, and of course, start the Christmas music!  Gosh!  Little Baby Koch's first Christmas is going to be magical and I can't wait to teach him all about the wonderfulness that is Christmas and the holidays!  (Cue Crazy Holiday Mom Jackie...this was a role I was born to play!)


I was also informed by my great-granddaughter (sorority thing) that apparently there is a high number of Sigma Kappas who read my blog which cracks me up.  I didn't think anyone read this outside of my family.  I apologize for the number of run-on sentences I have, my inability to use proper paragraphs or punctuation, my love for ending sentences with prepositions, my illogical trains-of-thought, and my made-up words.  It does crack me up that people I don't know read this.  I hope you all get good laughs out of my stories if I haven't scared you off from becoming pregnant.