39 weeks - Happy Passover!

How your baby's growing: Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

How your life's changing: At each of your now-weekly visits, your caregiver will do an abdominal exam to check your baby's growth and position. She might also do an internal exam to see whether your cervix has started ripening: softening, effacing (thinning out), and dilating (opening). But even armed with this information, there's still no way for your caregiver to predict exactly when your baby is coming. If you go past your due date, your caregiver will schedule you for fetal testing (usually a sonogram) after 40 weeks to ensure that it's safe to continue the pregnancy. If you don't go into labor on your own, most practitioners will induce labor when you're between one and two weeks overdue — or sooner if there's an indication that the risk of waiting is greater than the risks of delivering your baby without further delay.

While you're waiting, it's important to continue to pay attention to your baby's movements and let your caregiver know right away if they seem to decrease. Your baby should remain active right up to delivery, and a noticeable slowdown in activity could be a sign of a problem. Also call if you think your water may have broken. Membranes rupture before the beginning of labor in about 8 percent of term pregnancies. Sometimes there's a big gush of fluid, but sometimes there's only a small gush or a slow leak. (Don't try to make the diagnosis yourself. Call even if you only suspect you have a leak.) If you rupture your membranes and don't start contractions on your own, you'll be induced.

How I'm doing: I'm glad to be off work now. I'm a lot more tired and walking is a lot slower and a little uncomfortable--sometimes more than others. I had an appointment with a midwife on Wednesday. My group B strep test came back negative. Good news. So I won't need to get IV antibiotics during labor. She also advised me to start taking naps everyday to get used to sleeping during the middle of the day so I'll be able to sleep when the baby sleeps. I've taken her advice a couple of times already. I do get tired after I exert myself at all. I'm still trying to get a few things done but I have to take a lot of breaks during the day to relax or nap. I have been able to get a few things done each day though. I think I have 8 or 10 meals in the freezer for the days after guests leave and I'm still too exhausted to cook. I have a couple of chicken pot pies, lasagnas, taco meat, and chicken and rice casseroles. Plus instructions for Scott about how to prepare everything. I worry that otherwise we'll be eating KFC and McDonald's every night since they are right down the street. Other than that, I'm just trying to stay on top of the laundry. Two loads a day is my max since that's the most I can carry at one time and I'm not willing to walk up and down two flights of stairs any more than is necessary.

We celebrated Passover at home today. We were invited to the Eisenberg's in San Diego but we decided that was too far to drive so close to my due date. Delivering at an unfamiliar hospital with unfamiliar health care providers is something I really didn't want to risk. We worked very hard to find providers that matched our views and didn't want to risk not delivering with them. Especially since tomorrow is a full moon! So we had our first Passover at home; just the two of us. It was actually quite nice, we had matzoh ball soup, brisket, steamed broccoli, charoset and then chocolate covered matzoh for dessert. We even ate on our wedding china for the first time.

Here's our Passover table (all ready for a little baby to join us):


And me, next to the table:
Someone asked me if I was having twins the other day. I don't think I'm that big, I've seen MUCH bigger. An hour before that some (nicer) woman told me I didn't even look pregnant from the back.

Charlie likes matzoh and the bitter herbs too:
Tomorrow is a full moon. Apparently, this old wives tale IS somewhat true. We're hoping that means I'll go into labor. No real signs of that happening yet. Baby seems to be running out of space though. She's really been pushing out against my right side. We keep telling her she needs to move down, there's no exit out my right side. We are, of course, anxious to meet her.