My Eighth Month of Pregnancy

Another month has passed and now we're counting down on one hand until our little girl is scheduled to arrive! Here's how the last month has progressed. (If you want to catch up, you can check out my pregnancy update from last month here.)

THE BABY. At this point, she's supposed to be about 18 inches long and weighing just over 5 pounds (the heft of a honeydew melon, they say). In spite of her size, she's been as squirmy as ever! I love it. And she's been hiccuping occasionally, which feels more like muscle twitches than hiccups to me. But it shows her lungs are getting some exercise, so we're thankful for them! We're now at that point where we have to go to the doctor every week to keep an eye on my vitals. But next week we're scheduled to do one last ultrasound to make sure she's in the right spot and avoid any surprises during delivery. I'm looking forward to it because it's been since October since we saw her last! ME. I am starting to feel more uncomfortable from the size and weight of the baby, which has made getting up from bed and out of cars and the like more difficult (and sometimes requiring a helping hand!). But I'm not at that point yet where I feel miserable. I still feel quite good, actually! And in spite of her being so wiggly, she hasn't really woken me up with her movements. My sleep has been pretty decent, though I do wake up a lot more to change positions and hit the bathroom. But I'm still clocking enough sleep to make up for it (hitting the hay at 9pm or earlier some nights!), so no complaints there, either. PREPARATIONS. The nursery is pretty much set for her arrival. We still have a few things on our shopping list that fall into the "needs" category (um, diapers), but other than that, if she were to arrive, we'd be ready. We're still praying about a fitting name for her, because I want it to truly fit her and the calling God has placed on her life, so that's another item still up in the air. I've also been doing a lot of reading to prepare for delivery, because I feel a lot more comfortable going into something when I have a good idea of what to (generally) expect. It removes some of the anxiety, which is really important in childbirth; being afraid can cause your labor to be a lot more painful and drawn-out. We also have childbirth, childcare and breastfeeding classes scheduled to take over the next couple of weeks, and I've filled our Netflix queue with lots of baby-related videos in the meantime. So now, we're just waiting and preparing until she's here sometime next month!

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