37 Weeks, Braxton Hicks and Nursery Pictures!

Luke is scheduled to make his debut in 5 days, 19 hours, 12 minutes and 32 seconds.

Give or take, of course.

He is definitely flexing his muscle and getting ready! At our ultrasound on Monday, he fulfilled all the things needed for his biophysical profile in about 3 minutes. He was moving all over, breathing, strong...just having a grand old time in there. I told Dr. Sweeney that if he decided we may need to go earlier than Tuesday we'd be ok with that because Luke is STRONG! Not to mention, my latest worry is something rupturing at my scar site because it HURTS. He is really, really, REALLY down there and I'm just worried that all his moving and shaking down there could rupture the scar and then...well, I wouldn't be me if I didn't worry about something. Dr. Sweeney said it looked pretty good--but wants us to come in again tomorrow and be sure all is still well. He remeasured Luke again and feels that he's dead average at about 6 and a half pounds, or so...which is funny because that's what Matthew was AT BIRTH and if I went as long as I did with Matthew, I could have a 9 pounder! Whew!

Tomorrow will be the last ultrasound ("Until the next one," he says--ha ha!) and then, unless there's reason to go earlier, Tuesday we'll go in around 10 and hopefully deliver around 1:00 pm. Hard to believe.

I had my last OB appointment today. Luke was bouncing all over for the NST and John came along. Let me just say there is nothing funnier than watching your VERY micro-managing husband DYING to push the little 'movement' clicker when HE sees (or thinks he sees) movement but cringing when I don't because I didn't 'feel' the movement. Seriously, he was telling me, "Push it! He moved!"

Maybe he did, but I didn't feel it, and since I get to be the boss of that test, I have to say that I sort of took a little bit of glory in being the one with the clicker!!! John sat in that chair, though, clicking air as if it made a difference. He's so funny!

When Dr. Shonekan came in, she said, "Oh...some contractions, huh?" Umm...yep. I'd had them all morning, but not anything really patterned or predictable or too intense, so I wasn't too worried. I had about 8 or so (one a REALLY strong one!) in about 23 minutes or so, but they weren't really long and there was no rhyme or reason to them, so we aren't worried. I've continued to have them all day, and though I still feel like there's nothing more to them but they are Braxton Hicks, I'm keeping track of how long they last and sort of how frequently they come. We see Dr. Sweeney first thing in the morning, so we'll see what he says...still planning on Tuesday, though! I've gained 27 total pounds and think that's probably where I'll end up with overall pregnancy weight. Not too bad. Last night, John and I were looking at me at 27 weeks with Matthew and now...big, big, big difference. At this point with Matthew, I had gained over 42 pounds...mostly fluid. I've hardly had any swelling with Luke, which is one of the reasons I feel his movements even more and the BH feel stronger--Dr. Shonekan says I don't have my shock absorber!! I told her I didn't think I'd ever make it to 40 with Luke and she laughed and said she had no doubt I would have...my boys are obviously very happy in Hotel Mommy and like to stake their claims. That made me smile. Of course, with how much he was moving around this morning, John said he was having one last hurrah and throwing a party to trash Hotel Mommy. No security deposit coming back, we guess.

I have finally gotten around to taking pictures of Luke's room. I got the awesome painting Stephanie did the other day and John hung it last night. I also am including a picture of the quilt that was the inspiration for his room theme--I love that it's all unique and just for Luke. Hope he will love it too!