Full-Term

I'm 37 weeks today and we've officially reached "full-term" status. If this baby were born today, it would not be considered premature. This is an extremely exciting milestone because it means that many of our hopes and wishes for birth are much more likely to be possible.

It doesn't necessarily mean that everything is peaches and ice cream around here, though.

I've been having painful contractions most days -- ones that last 5-20 minutes instead of the usual 30-60 seconds. They aren't timeable and they don't come on a regular schedule either, so they aren't labor-related. They hurt even more if I have a full bladder or gas, and because they clamp down on the baby, the baby tends to try to move around during them -- which hurts even more.

Basically, what's happening is that my uterus is getting irritated and that's what's causing the contractions. At my last appointment, we found out that at least part of the irritation can be attributed to a dynamic duo of a yeast infection and a case of bacterial vaginosis (both of which I hadn't noticed the symptoms of because they weren't my typical yeast infection symptoms and the other symptoms I assumed that were normal pregnancy pains). So I'm treating both of those conditions right now, and hoping that this all improves soon.

Regardless of whether that gets better, though, we made the call to start maternity leave early. I will be at work through Wednesday of this coming week, and then I will be on leave. It's stressful to wrap things up and know that school will be in session and I won't be there, but doubling over in pain in my classroom has gotten to be an unpleasant experience for both me and my students.

Speaking of which, when I left the room with a contraction the other day, the special education assistant who stayed behind reported that the students were all very concerned for me and one of them immediately declared, "That baby better thank Ms. Arden everyday for what she's gone through for it!"

Sweet kids. My advisory also threw me a baby shower yesterday, which was pretty awesome. It was a total surprise, too. I can't believe how well these kids can keep a secret when they want to. I'm going to miss them. It's hard to think about leaving them for so long. I hope that they get along with the substitute.

Not much is new. There's still a long list of things that must be done and things that we'd like to do before the baby arrives. Lots more strategizing about what to buy with our completion coupons from the registries, and writing thank-yous for the gifts that we've received.

Oh, actually there's one more new thing. We set up a baby guessing pool website. The link is here, if you're interested: http://www.untilithappens.com/bambino