From Plum to a Cardboard Box

I'm officially 38 weeks along today. I have 14 days to go. Again, in theory.

I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable. The weather hasn't been all that great so my walking has been severely restricted. The dog is a little stir crazy and I don't blame him because so am I.

I did something daring yesterday. I measured my belly. This isn't really an unusual thing. It happens quite often at baby showers as a game. The guests try to guess with a piece of string how long around the expectant mum is in the middle. The soon-to-be mommy looks mortified, the guests laugh, and the winner gets a prize. It's all in good fun. Except, I won't be having a baby shower so the only one laughing is me. Which is a little pathetic, actually. Oh well. So the measuring tape said 46 inches. Not bad given that my bust is 45. It's been an amazing adventure watching my uterus grow from the size of a plum to that of a cardboard box. I wonder how big I'll actually be when it's all said and done.

Falling asleep has become increasingly difficult. I'm seriously propping my stomach up on the side with a fleece pillow. Then I put another pillow under my arm pit and another one under my back. I'm pretty sure I look like the U.S.S. Arizona in dry dock. Some nights it works well. Other nights, it just doesn't matter. It's become painful to lay on my side and lying on my back isn't an option unless my goal is total system failure. I'm kind of at a loss about what to do. I've heard tons of stories about how the little unborn ninja would practice kung-fu kicking mom in the ribs every night but no one has ever told me about how much it hurt as everything shifts from left to right or vise versa. This makes me wonder how "normal" I am. And while I'm at it, sharing secrets and all, I have the distinct pleasure of experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions for extended periods of time that usually only happen on one half of my abs. Today the left hand side of my body has been practicing its own workout version of the Abs of Steel while yesterday it was the right side.

No nesting yet. Well, not the cleaning kind of nesting. I have no desire this week to clean at all. This, of course, got me thinking (which happens often since I am unemployed and have nothing else really to do). Anyway, I was thinking the other day that maybe if I start cleaning some really crazy things I will trick my body into thinking its really time to go into labor and then the more active labor will start!

Yeah, that's just nuts. I'm right there with you. I think I'll stick with the measuring tape experiment instead.