38 Weeks & No Progress!

I have a feeling this little peanut is happy in his/her current sleeping quarters. At my appointment this week, the doc said I was still 1 cm and at least 50% (so maybe more???). I know this doesn't really mean anything as to when I could go into labor, but I just feel like I will make it to my due date if not past. My family seems to think I will go before then, but I bet you my stubborn child will prove them all wrong. My adorable and hilarious grandmother said she would push me down the stairs on 6/6/11 to make the baby come, because with all of the birthdays she has to keep track of, she thought 6/6 would be an easy one to remember. God I love her!

I think I have been feeling more Braxton Hicks contractions this week. I am pretty sure what I was feeling before was the baby moving around, because it was all on one side of my abdomen, whereas this week they are more central and seem to last longer. I asked my doctor if there is any way I would not know whether or not I went into labor, because sometimes I can't tell if I am having contractions or not and she just laughed at me and said she has NEVER dealt with a women that didn't know whether or not she was in labor. I'm sure she wonders how on earth I am a nurse by all of the dumb questions I ask haha. I didn't think I was going to get any bigger or that I could get any bigger, but just in the last few days I have looked in the mirror and noticed a change. It almost seems as if it happens over night :) I asked the doc this week if he could estimate the baby's weight just by feeling my abdomen, and he said it is definitely not a big baby, but he guessed about 6 lbs. I am not 100% sure, but that seems pretty average for 38 weeks. If I go to 40 or even 41 weeks, my guess is the baby will be somewhere in the 7 lb range. It just seems crazy, because I don't feel like I have a 6 lb baby in there!! At least he/she isn't 3 lbs like my psycho NICU nurse brain was thinking.

Speaking of the NICU, as of 38 weeks, I have officially cut back to part time. I didn't think one day less a week would make a difference, but when you are on your feet for 12 hour shifts, it makes all of the difference in the world! I get exhausted just walking up a flight of stairs, so having that extra day to rest and get things done around the house has been so nice! I am a little nervous to be making less money, but Chad and I are pretty good savers, and we will do what we have to do to make it work. We both feel it is more important for me to be home with the baby and if I have to, I can pick up extra shifts once I go back to work in Sept. While being a stay at home mom would be so wonderful, I truly don't think I could leave my job. I love what I do and I worked so hard to become a nurse, I can't imagine leaving it all together. The absolute best thing in the world is the flexibility my job offers. I have so many different hours, shifts, positions to choose from, that it makes it a lot easier to work but also be home as much as possible. When I go back to work in Sept, I will continue to work night shift two days a week, so I am only gone when our little one is sleeping. When I get home in the morning, I will either just nap with the baby, or I can rely on family to watch the baby for a few hours while I catch some sleep. I also love that Chad will be the one home with the baby at night while I am at work. I think this will give him good bonding time that a lot of first time dad's don't get with their babies.