37 weeks: swiss chard!

37 weeks: holy crap! Although our due date is still three weeks away, I am officially considered full-term (range is from 37 to 42 weeks). This has been the week when it's really started to sink in that one of these days I'm going to go into labor, give birth in one way or another, and then we'll have a baby! Duh, I guess, but it's a bit of a surreal concept, even with nine months to prepare for it. What triggered the reality check for me was an out-of-the-blue excruciating backache accompanied by some cramping on Wednesday. I didn't actually think I was in labor, but it made me realize that maybe my body is starting to prepare, and that anytime now I could start having symptoms, like those or different, that will signify that real labor has actually begun. I have been convinced for a while now that this baby is going to be late and that we still have some time to prepare, but then I have a bout of symptoms like that and I start to wonder. My hunch, though, is that we do still have a ways to go. I have yet to experience a lot of the typical symptoms that many women have in the days and weeks before labor. Although the baby is head down, I'm still carrying him or her pretty high, and I haven't had any contractions, at least as far as I'm aware. Who knows what that really means though. I've heard of women who walked around three or four centimeters dilated for a month before giving birth, and of those who had no symptoms and suddenly everything happened at once and labor commenced. Really, there doesn't seem to be any good way to predict when things will happen. Next week my doctor will actually examine me for the first time, though, so we may get some information, for what good it's worth.

I've continued feeling pretty good overall. My back aches and I'm uncomfortable a lot, but it's all manageable. I seem to be starting to have more energy highs and lows, too, one day feeling like I need to sleep all day and the next like I'm up for anything. Baby seems to be doing well, too, and is moving a lot. S/he is approximately 19 inches long, the length of an average stalk of swiss chard (which we've been eating a lot of, thanks to our CSA). Baby hiccups almost daily, and as s/he's grown, the hiccups have gone from a very subtle rhythmic feeling way down low, to a much more pronounced feeling that can be felt and even seen from the outside. S/he has also been practicing breathing (good job, baby!), which can also be seen and felt from the outside, in preparation for life outside the womb. This is all so fascinating to me and I feel so proud of the little feller already!

In other news in our lives, our lovely week of hanging out with Mary and Jimmy is coming to a close. We've gone to the beach almost every day and I feel like I've been on vacation, too. We have them through Monday, when they'll return to Ohio, and it will be back to last minute baby prep for us. They have been wonderful guests to have around, and we will miss them! We're hoping this baby will be incentive for all of our relatives back east to come out more often. Hint, hint.