Week 40

How far along?  40 Weeks! It's officially Baby Koch's due date!  9 months of waiting have come and gone.  Where is out baby?  O wait, he's just chilling inside me.  He said, "Mom, it's way too comfortable in here.  I think I'm gonna chill out in here for a little while longer."  Grrrrr!

Total weight gain/loss: Yeah about that.  I'm done keeping track.  I thought I'd be down a few lbs now mainly because I thought I was going to have birthed a child.  Well plans change and I'm still up some weight.  At least I've gone through my pregnancy with a healthy weight gain.  That gives me peace of mind.

Maternity clothes? Had to wear some of my nursing bras this past week because my knockers don't fit into my pregnancy bras anymore.  I look like a clown.  I'm also on constant laundry duty because I keep having to wash my "big girl undies" that I bought for the end of my pregnancy.  I didn't want to buy too many of them but part of me wishes I did.  I officially added my butt to my list of areas on my body that will be the first the get some workout attention after I have this child. 

Stretch marks? 40 weeks and no stretch marks!  Thank you Jones/Smith genes and thank you stretch mark and cocoa butter lotion!  Plus my husband loves the way my skin smells.

Sleep:  It's a toss-up every night whether or not I get good sleep.  It's more bad than good mainly because Dan and I are paranoid that I'm going to go into labor at any second so every time I move around in bed, I check to see if my water has broke or not.  But, when it does (if it does), we have our plastic sheets on in order to protect our mattress.  Dan wants to burn the plastic sheets.  We (me) might have been crazy when we decided to put them on our bed around week 24.  In my defense, when my mom was pregnant with me, her water broke when she was just at week 20 and had to be in the hospital for the rest of her pregnancy.  I was paranoid that I was going to do the same so I told Dan we absolutely needed a plastic mattress protector/fitted sheet thing.  He relented but he now wants to burn them so bad.  The crinkle crinkle sound of the sheets is not cute when you're getting into bed.  It reminds me of when I used to pee the bed when I was little (hey, it happens to the best of us) and was forced to have those dumb sheets on my bed.  Horrible memories.  (For funny stories on this subject, ask me about the device I had to use to get me to stop peeing the bed.  I think my whole neighborhood wanted to kill me)

Best moment this week: A wonderful and relaxing weekend with Daniel...well as relaxing as we could be since we're on pins and needles waiting from the call from the stork.  Every day seemed to drag on and on because it was one more day that we hadn't had our kid yet.  He's just not done cooking apparently.  But Dan told me to look on the bright side and enjoy this time that we had together.  He said it's God's way of giving us more time to ourselves before our family expands and that we should embrace it.  Because our due date came and went, we started "walking".  Dan and I went to a few parks this past weekend to try and get this labor business going by walking.  We saw over 25 deer on our walks (which was good for Dan because this past weekend marked the beginning of shotgun season and he wasn't able to go.  Sorry hun!).  We also quadruple checked everything we could possibly think of as it relates to the baby and going to the hospital.  We're just waiting now.

Miss Anything? Walking without waddling.  Gosh I miss that.

Movement: Still moving and squirming strong.  Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between his body rolls and a Braxton Hicks contraction though.  I'm still not even sure if I know what a Braxton Hicks contraction is.  I'm almost positive I haven't felt any labor signs and that I've only felt LBK dancing and kicking.

Food cravings:  I want Thanksgiving food!  Soon I will load up my stomach with all the holiday goodness!  O and milk.  

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nope...or I just haven't noticed.

Have you started to show yet:  Whale status.

Gender: I'm so anxious to share with the world our beautiful boy's name but I can't until he gets here.  Eeek!

Labor Signs: Stripping my membranes did not work to induce any labor signs.  Sad!  I really wanted things to start but I guess God had different plans for us.  I don't intend to get gross or graphic with you but I did pass my mucus plug (Warning: Do not google mucus plug.  I only did because I wanted to make sure of what it was but if I wasn't pregnant, I would not suggest googling it unless you want to be grossed out).  It was gross.  I got really excited though because I thought it was a sign that labor was imminent but after more research and calls to my doctor, I found out that just because you pass your mucus plug doesn't mean labor will come right away.  In fact, it might even regenerate itself because labor could be days/a week away.  UGH!  I'm beginning to think we might have to be induced.  

Dan and I have spent our weekends walking in the parks around Champaign and my friends have been mall walking with me a few times (and eaten Auntie Annie's pretzels of course) because I read that walking helps start labor.  Well I'm here to tell you that labor will begin when your body wants it to begin.  There's nothing you can do (without actual medical intervention of course) to make it come faster because your body will do what it wants to do.  Until I go into labor, baby is going to stay inside, cooking.

Symptoms: Twinges, back pain, loose pelvis (due to the Relaxin in my body...helps prepare your body for pushing out a child), needing to pee all the time, heartburn, etc.

Belly Button in or out? In.  I guess we finally answered the question of, "Will we ever see the bottom of Jackie's belly button?" with a resounding "NO".

Wedding rings on or off? On.  Between my skeletar fingers and my awesomely engineered wedding ring, my ring will always stay on.

Happy or Moody most of the time:  I'm more annoyed than anything.  I'm so anxious that when I sneeze I think I'm going into labor but it always turns out that I'm not so I just get annoyed.  When is my baby going to get here?  I cried a lot this past week because when my due date came and went without any sign of labor, I just got disappointed.  We've spent 9 months waiting for the magical due date to come and it came...and went...and no baby yet.  I know he'll come out when he's ready but it makes me so sad to have waited so long and still not have him here.  So every day afterwards just hurt even more because he still isn't here and I have yet to have any contractions or any real signs of imminent labor.  So I guess that makes me moody.

Looking forward to: So here is the scoop:  My doctor said that if I haven't gone into labor by the end of Week 40 that she would recommend that I be induced.  Her reasoning was that once women reach Week 42, the chances of having a stillbirth increase dramatically (nothing too scary but scary to me) and she doesn't want me to even get to week 42.  Therefore she said if by the end of Week 40 I haven't popped, she would want to schedule an induction for me.  Well that means I would be induced on Thanksgiving, and I didn't want that.  I asked if it would be okay if we could wait until Friday instead.  She laughed at me and said sure.  Momma wants her turkey, stuffing, cheesecake, mashed potatoes, pecan pie, and green bean casserole.  I didn't want hospital food for Thanksgiving (not that I would even be able to eat it).  With that said, I was instructed that if I haven't popped by Thanksgiving that I would have to call the hospital on Friday morning to schedule my induction for the day.

I told my family the news and we decided that all this news meant that it would be best to have Thanksgiving here in Champaign.  My mom was already planning on coming down the second I went into labor but since there is a strong chance that we might be induced, she was going to start her time down here on Wednesday evening and stay for a week.  Momma Jones, Daddy Jones, Dan, and my sister Jill were in charge of the whole meal.  I was only allowed to make a pecan pie for Thanksgiving because they all wanted me to concentrate on popping out a baby.  So basically I'm excited for Thanksgiving (more than normal) because my whole family will be down for it and will be here for when I pop out LBK.

Anything Else?: Still not a mommy yet but I will be for sure, next time I post.