37 weeks (and 2 days)

That belly just keep growing! I think you can see a little drop, but it's hardly dramatic, given how low I've been carrying all along.

Although it's not exactly topical, what's foremost on my mind this week is how absolutely out of my mind crazy bored we are right now. Not because of pregnancy or being full term or being on leave... but because we are trapped in the house for the THIRD day in a row. We are out of movies, we're out of games to play, we're out of conversation, we're even out of food. Mr. Ibis is currently on a 1.25 mile trek to the grocery store on foot because the roads are still snowed in, on day three of this storm. I was tempted to go with him out of sheer boredom, but we both knew I would not fare well on that long of a hike through the snow drifts. Right now I would love to personally go to the Mayor's house and shank him with a rusty spoon for his brilliant idea of cutting the snow removal budget in half to save money. WE LIVE IN NEBRASKA. It's not even the end of December and we have had TWO blizzards already... I'm starting to lose it. If I have to sit home listening to my dog bark at every gust of wind for one more day I'm going to go mad. I wish I could go into labor for no other reason than it would be SOMETHING TO DO.

I talked to my mom last night about Christmas and babies. She said that she had all four of her babies slightly early... me (the first) coming the earliest at about 39 weeks. This gets me hoping that there is some truth to the old wives' tale that women tend to labor like their mothers. It's not that I'm in that stage of "I need to get this baby out" - on the contrary, I had one week of discomfort and am back to feeling pretty fine - but I just want to meet him. And I would love for my mom and sister to meet him when they come, and not just meet my big belly.

I really don't know and I don't think anyone knows, but doesn't it seem like if my cervix is already 80% effaced that I would probably go into labor sooner than 3 weeks? It's just kind of crazy to think that there is a 6-7 lb kid plus a bunch of fluid resting on a little shelf of muscle that's less than a centimeter thick.

There really isn't much to say about this stage of pregnancy that I haven't already said. I still feel plenty of baby movement, but it's just stretching and shifting. I get uncomfortable staying in one position for any great amount of time (like an hour or more), and I'm easily fatigued by things like shopping. But my energy level is still good - I can't overdo it but if I rest a little I can rebound pretty quickly from too much activity. I'm sleeping okay, considering, despite many position changes, 2-3 pee breaks a night, and not being able to sleep past 8am no matter what. Any pains that I have - whether it's backache, stiff fingers, pelvic pressure, cramping - tend to be fairly short-lived.

Oh, you know what is the weirdest and ickiest feeling these days? When I roll over in bed at night, the feeling of my uterus shifting from one side to the other. It's uncomfortable, slightly painful, but above all just totally gives me the creeps! It's like I can feel all my internal organs straining to rearrange themselves, and I can feel the full weight of my uterus & baby pulling on the ligaments... just, ew.

What I'm Really Wearing: Sometimes it's necessary to get dressed, just to preserve one's sanity, even if most likely one will not be going anywhere that day. Let me point out that my shirt is just barely reaching my pants, and any kind of movement will cause my pants to move downward and my shirt to move upward; this is just par for the course at 37 weeks!