36 weeks!

Mardi Gras belly

As I heard several times at church today, I'm now in the "home stretch." I completely agree and feel intensely sorry for any woman whose body chooses a 41-42 week pregnancy. Yikes. Ow. Ouch

Or at least that's how I feel, since I'm feeling intensely pregnant now and doubtful I can possibly stay pregnant much longer. It's always dangerous to say/write something like that, but it's very much how I'm feeling.

I've actually never seen 39 weeks pregnant as Jack came one day before that mark and Cora came at 38 weeks even. When will baby Luke come? Only the next few weeks will tell!

I do have moments of feeling pretty good, but the hard parts of pregnancy are taking over and include:

• Standing - aiiee!! my back!
• Sleeping - it's so hard to get comfortable (I use 5-6 pillows depending on whether Jacob will share that final one or not) and it's painful to roll from side to side.  I have to pee at least twice a night and it HURTS to haul my bulky self out of my little cocoon.  I feel like my abdominal muscles are broken.
• Contractions - when my baby pops out in 30 minutes, it will be because I've put in the time with early labor contractions these last few weeks/months. I've been to the hospital twice with contractions coming every 3 minutes for multiple hours (having contractions has been such a consistent part of this pregnancy that it took that threshold to get me worried enough to actually go in to the hospital).  They are low down and painful and I really feel like they aren't going to leave much work left for actual labor.  Again, we shall see.

It is surreal to be so close to meeting our baby!  We are all four eager to meet this little guy. I feel like we've been preparing to meet him for so long, and I hope all of us, especially Jack and Cora, will be ready! I still am ticking off items on my pre-baby list (i.e. why there are no nursery pictures to share yet) but our hearts are definitely ready and that's what matters most.