36 Weeks

How far along: 36 1/2 weeks. Almost full term!

Total weight gain: 131, up 19lbs.

Maternity Clothes: I'm living in comfy maternity dresses thanks to my neighbor dumping her maternity wardrobe on me :)

Movement: my midwife verified that baby girl is in fact nestled right in my ribs. I try to scoot her away but she responds by kicking me harder. Uh oh, we're in for it.

Food Cravings: nothing crazy though I did try Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns ice cream last night. So good.

Sleep: I'm still not making it to bed until 11:30pm. I really need to get to bed earlier...I'm only able to sleep on my left side at this point. If I'm on my right side I have trouble breathing--no bueno.

Milestones: baby has a sleep pattern by this point, though if this is true she's basically awake all the time. I feel her move during a big chunk of the day and night.

Best moment of the week: I have two. The best is when I read books to Parker and baby girl wiggles all around in the womb. I love knowing that I'm reading stories to both of my girls :)

The second is that I'm making progress on things! I have art ordered to hang in baby's room. Parker's big girl room is coming along. I finished updating the laundry room and have art ordered to hang there too. I printed out my birth plan, got My Breast Friend in the mail (omg, 10000 times better than the Boppy. Did you know that you can walk AND nurse at the same time with it?!), have the birth announcements picked out, stocked my freezer with meals, washed the Belly Bandit (which will be popped on mere hours after delivery), booked Parker's gymnastic classes (yay yay yay! So pumped for this!), and am almost done updating Parker's baby book (I know, I know...way late on this).

Random:
-Surprise surprise, I'm uncomfortable. Seriously though, I'm really surprised. I never hit that uncomfortable stage with Parker. I was power walking until the day I delivered Parker. Psssshhh, pregnancy was a breeze. Fast forward to now. I have trouble breathing most of the day. A slow walk around the subdivision makes me huff and puff and my Braxton Hicks go out of control. I have to sit with my legs spread open because my belly needs a place to rest (sexy).

-Even though I've felt better, I love this stage of pregnancy. I love the huge belly, the anticipation of locking eyes with her for the first time, the movements I feel letting me know she's okay snuggled in the womb. I'm going to miss this in a month.

-Parker knows something is up. She's become very cuddly with me over the past weeks (which I didn't think was possible--she's the cuddliest thing out there already) and wants to be held a lot. We're experiencing sleep regression. Parker was on a good sleeping streak but now she demands us to lay in bed with her to fall asleep. She clings when I hand her off to Kris to be put down. She wakes up every.single.night between 1:50am and 2am like clockwork and comes into bed with us. She wants to snuggle up right next to me and if I move or get up to use the bathroom, she wakes.

I'm down with bedsharing but I think it might be a bit difficult for Parker when I'm nursing all hours of the night for lord knows how long (12 months with Parker so it might be another long haul). FX for an easy adjustment for all in the sleep department.

While the plan was to potty train Parker before baby's arrival and I'm pretty confident that she's ready to be fully PT'd, with the sleep regression and behavior changes we're going to hold off until after baby arrives. It's going to be tough with a newborn but with Parker moving up to the next toddler preschool class 7 months early I'm sure the big kids going potty will be great motivation for her!