Week 37

 Little Foot is officially considered "full term"! At thirty-seven weeks the lungs are fully developed, organs are ready to go and if he/she was born today would be overall in good shape. My body is starting to get ready for labor with BH (Braxton Hicks) contractions that come at no particular time, but happen at least 5-15 times a day. These just feel like a tightening of my stomach, no pain, just can be a little uncomfortable at times and my stomach feels rock hard. At first I had no idea what these were, I thought it was just the baby moving up top and making it really hard, but I guess those are actual practice contractions. Too bad everything I've read says that real contractions are nothing like this...one can hope! I'm also still feeling what they call "pelvic lightning" which happens when I'm walking around. This feeling is a short, lightning type pain that comes from the pelvic area and is due to baby's head trying to get comfortable and hitting nerves down there. It goes away just as quickly as it comes, but man when it happens I have to stop and take a short breath and sometimes even pick up my belly with my hands to see if it helps.

This week my mom and I went to the park with Lexi to walk laps. This is the first consistent week we've been able to go and do it and my body definitely felt a little tired but not bad. We're walking two miles a day so nothing extreme (but I do feel that pelvic lightning during my walks which sometimes makes me want to stop every once and a while).

Saturday night Jorge and I had a date night and went out to eat at Macaroni Grill (only our second time ever being there, not really a favorite place). It's always nice getting out just the two of us. I'm going to try and get as many little date nights in before baby comes!

Sunday we spent the day at the Pet Expo with Ceci, Gustavo, Zoe, and Gustavito. It's our annual trip we make to go and see all the different dog breeds and sometimes buy new products that people come up with for pets. Zoe loved all of the dogs, wasn't afraid of them at all! It's a great Expo where we get to learn about new breeds that we've never heard of before, and how we're going to pick our next dog when the house is ready! I thought I was being smart by wearing thick comfortable socks with boots since we would be doing a lot of walking...nope, wrong again. I really should have worn tennis shoes because I was so tired/sore the next two days! No more of that...looking good is OUT, comfort is IN for the next few weeks (or months, let's be honest).

We had our thirty-seven week check up appointment with Simona (our midwife) on Monday and everything is looking good to go! Baby's head is still down, my blood pressure is normal, GBS bacteria test came back negative (so I don't have to worry about taking antibiotics during labor), urine is normal with proteins/sugars, measuring a little big she said (but still normal range), and we did a little test run in the birthing suite. She showed us how during labor I would be getting in/out of the tub, positions I would be in while inside of the tub, what would happen after cord is cut and all that good stuff. Doing the run through made it seem so real and close that reminds me this can happen any day now! Little Foot will be here in no time!

-Heather Ortiz, mama to be