{37 weeks} and FULL TERM!!

We made it!

 Baby Cade is officially full-term (and duck season is over) so he can come out whenever he wants now!

Thank Goodness =)

I started my weekly doctor visits this week. Getting checked wasn't as bad as I though it would be (everyone kept telling me how much it hurt). It didn't hurt, it was just...uncomfortable. Anyway, we'll skip the gory details of that. I was fully prepared to be disappointed when I heard my doctor say "Well, you aren't dilated at all."

What I heard was "Well, you're 3-4cm dilated and 60% effaced, baby is at a -2 station." (Google it)

What I really heard was "Well, if you go into labor right now, you can have an epidural!"

Woop!

This news of course elicited much squealing from family members, who were all fairly convinced we were having a baby this weekend.

This was on Thursday, the day my husband was leaving for his last duck hunting trip of the season. He asked multiple times if he should stay, and of course I told him to go. While 3-4 cm sounds great, realistically people can go weeks like that. He's close enough that he can be home in a couple of hours if he needed to be.
That being said, I put myself on couch rest for most of the weekend anyway. I did run errands Friday, but other than that I stayed around the house and went stir crazy. I finally got out today (when husband was an hour away from being home) and walked, which I followed up by eating pineapple (Bromelain anyone?)

I haven't had any contractions. Well...I haven't had anything that I though was a contraction. I've had some cramping at work (remember...13 hour shifts) but that's been the most action I've seen. She said the cramping is probably mild contractions. My ankles are still fat, and the fingertips on my right hand stay numb all the time now. There is no shaking or re-positioning that makes it go away at this point. And besides all that and the fact that Cade is down in my pelvis at this point, meaning he sometimes moves when I walk and I feel like I'm going to pee on myself, all is pretty good in my world.

All of this has really made me look forward to spring. I'm a winter person, because I hate to be hot and I only really appreciate summer for a good month so I can get a tan and then I'm over it. But this year little Cade will be around to take on walks (and shopping trips for new non-maternity clothes) when he's not being kidnapped by his daddy :)

Hospital bags are ready to go! That sheet of paper is the list of last minute items for hubby to grab!

My doctor told me to have my bags packed, but be prepared to wait a few more weeks. Let me just say, knowing I'm 3-4 cm dilated already makes me super-paranoid that my water will break while I'm in the checkout line at Target or in a patient's room at work...