34 Weeks

6 weeks (or less) left!!! Yay! It's official - I'm carrying something the size of a melon in my middle-section, which explains why my back has been hurting so badly! Baby is almost 5lbs by the end of this week (woah!) and 19-20inches in length. All of the muscles in Baby's body are maturing and he/she is practicing using them by all of the wonderful jabs, kicks, and stretches that have been going on constantly :) Not a whole lot of "change" per se, mostly just fattening up in preparation for the big day. We had our 34 week appointment on Wednesday - Baby's heart rate is 155 and he/she is definitely head down still, which is perfect! The midwife predicts that Baby will be 6.5lbs (at the smallest) to 7.5lbs or so (at the largest) on D-day...hooray! Sounds like a perfect size to me :)

I'm finding it harder and harder to sleep lately - so much movement going on inside, lots of weight to carry outside, and just generalized discomfort all around. I keep telling myself - 6 weeks, maybe 5 weeks even!, and I'll get to hold Baby...I can do this! Our changing table/dresser arrived yesterday (yay!) and our mattress and changing pad should be arriving by tomorrow! Slowly but surely getting everything together; now all that's left is putting the final touches on the nursery :) Our condo is completely painted!! It looks great; Tyler did a great job :) His list of projects is almost gone, which is nice to see (at least on this end...he may start looking for others soon!). We've also hired a doula (thank you for all of the prayers for wisdom)! We found this lady through our child birth educator and she seems like a really good fit for us; plus, she has her training in midwifery (she'll be taking her boards in February) and this allows her to labor at home with us until we're ready to go into the hospital. We are very thankful for her and think she will help make this natural birth a wonderful experience for us :) We've also finished our child birth classes as of Wednesday; we are now officially certified to birth our child...good to know! Haha, in all seriousness, we did learn a lot and feel like class has prepared us a little more for D-day...can't come soon enough!\


Baby born at 34 weeks

Thanks for all of the prayers - please continue to pray that God will provide someone to temporarily watch our child from mid-January through the end of February while we wait for our spot at the childcare center to open. He has been faithful in providing for us thus far and we trust that He will continue to do so :) Please also continue to pray for our preparations overall as we get closer and closer to having our little one, and also for a healthy end of the pregnancy/safe delivery for both Baby and mom. Thank you all, again, for your love and support - we couldn't do this without you! Have a great weekend!!