Week 34

This past week has been filled with trying to organize the nursery with all of the wonderful goodies from the shower. Now that most everything has been put away, there are several projects I need to get done. We need to install the car seat in the car, wash all of Ethan's clothes, pack a bag for the hospital (in the off chance that this little guy decides to make his debut early, which after Lindsay's early arrival I am now totally nervous about!), get an email distribution list ready for Patrick so that he can let everybody know right away when Ethan does actually arrive, go buy a few of the remaining items from our registries that we'll need....the list seems endless! I keep thinking that I have tons of time to do everything, but Ethan is due to arrive in just 6 short weeks. I am so nervous!!!!

On Tuesday night we did our maternity photo shoot with my good friend Erin. For any of you that live in Charlotte area, I HIGHLY recommend you use Erin's photography business. She is so talented! Patrick and I had so much fun with Erin and hopefully there will be some cute shots. (I'm not exactly the most photogenic subject these days, so I'm sure that made it slightly difficult for Erin!) Once we get the pictures back I'll definitely share a few of them.

We had a doctor's appointment earlier this morning. Everything went well and Ethan's heartbeat, my blood pressure and my belly measurements were all within the normal ranges. According to the doctor's scale I am officially up 19.2 pounds. I must confess, I love the scale at the doctor's office because it is so much kinder than the one at home. According to the home scale I need to add almost 4 pounds to that total so we'll go with the "official" weight gain. The doctor did deliver some scary news today - since I am now at 34 weeks whenever I go into labor they won't try to stop it. (I guess prior to this point if I had gone into labor they would have employed some medical interventions to try to keep him in as long as possible to give him more time to develop.) I won't be officially full term for another 3 weeks, but he's big enough at this point that if he decides to try to enter the world early the medical community won't try to stop him. Wow!! Everything seems to be happening in fast forward right now.

I'm pretty sure I'm heading to Raleigh next weekend to see my family and meet the super adorable baby Graham. This will probably be my last road trip prior to Ethan's arrival, so I'm looking forward to being able to hit the road for a couple days and see my family and friends. Patrick is nervous about me being out of town and away from our hospital, but I still have the green light for travel and barring anything strange happening this week I'm looking forward to my weekend getaway in Raleigh.

Here's the official word on week 34: "Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers - which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born - are filling him out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about pre-term labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine."