36.5 week check-up

Here's my woefully unflattering 35/36 week photo. Although if I do say so myself, Roxanne looks adorable. This photo was taken on Saturday, and I hit 36 weeks on Monday. Just to give you an idea... :)
Here's a sequence of photos I took of Roxanne in the "atrium" at Northside while we were waiting for our "family tour" on Sunday. We got to visit different areas of the labor and delivery/recovery/nursery parts of the hospital. It was very very educational. Northside is definitely very different from Piedmont. Even if just in terms of sheer size. There are so many floors dedicated to babies and mommies! It also made it all much much more real. It won't be long before we are in that hospital with a new baby. Some big differences between here and Piedmont. They don't put any cap on how many people are in your room during labor. No children other than siblings are allowed to visit once you move to a recovery room. Which is sad, since we have lots of beautiful cousins and friends we'd like for the baby to meet right away. Sigh. They encourage rooming in as much as possible, and keep your baby with you much more than Piedmont did. So good things! The guide also mentioned in passing that if we have an emergency where we have to get to the hospital in the middle of the night and bring Roxanne, they will help keep that under control. It's not their preference, but they assured us they are a "family hospital."
As you can see, Roxanne has a bandage on her right hand. She burned her finger/knuckle on the grill the other night. We didn't take her to the hospital (maybe we should have?) but we've been keeping it clean and Neosporin-ed up, and it's healing beautifully. But she loves talking about it. Her favorite part? Telling people that it was an accident, but that Daddy wasn't paying attention. Oops.

She likes her shirt that I made. The top itself is a super cute hand-me-down from my sister, and I got these flocked iron-on letters from Michael's. I've been looking for cool "big sister" shirts for a while, but no luck. This one will do. :)

So, today I had my check-up with the midwife. I'm about 36.5 weeks. I'm measuring 37.5 weeks, but I've been measuring about a week ahead for a while now, so no big news there. Heart rate sounds good, and measured at 141 beats per minute. I'm convinced this baby is a girl... I also asked the midwife to check me, and she reported that I'm currently 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. I'm very much hoping that it's an indicator that I'll go into labor in the next week or two, and maybe avoid an induction on or around 8/15. I'm having a few other symptoms of early labor, so fingers crossed it will be sooner rather than later. Of course, I'm probably jinxing myself... Either way, I've got one more week of work, and my next midwife appointment will be early next Friday. But to be on the safe side, I think I should probably go ahead and pack the hospital bag. I can't believe it's time to do that! It's crazy how things move so fast even when they feel like they are crawling... I'm also done with my summer semester, which is really a big relief. Unfortunately, I don't have much energy to do all the cleaning, etc. I need to be doing. On the upside, we've been getting in some extra pool time after work, and it's wonderful for all of us. De-stressing and de-swelling. Perfect!

I apologize if that entire thing was incoherent. I'm really sleepy. All the time... It's like I have mono. Or a giant baby in my belly...