The joys of pregnancy?

This week I hit my 36th week, 252 glorious days of pregnancy have passed and only 28 days remain (at the most). What an interesting thing pregnancy is, you know?

I always start off feeling like I am going to be pregnant forever and each day drags on-and-on with little or nothing to show for it until around 20 weeks when my already overweight belly gets bigger and finally starts to look like an actual pregnancy is happening there. That’s when things start to feel real, soon after that I feel the first little flutters of movement. But then, all of the sudden, boom! It’s days from being over and you have no idea where the time went!

Today I am so thankful that I made it to this point, 36 weeks is a huge deal for me! Only a day from now, I will be the most pregnant I have ever managed to be! I saw the doctor this week and he did my Strep B test, since I usually don’t make it much past this point and I want to have all of that out of the way when it comes time to give birth and he offered to check me, so that I could have a bit of reassurance that things are ok and I am going to carry full term this time. I gladly, however nervously, agreed… I was a bit panicked inside though because at this point with the twins I was 2cm already and I felt like hearing that would make me feel like I couldn’t make it to the finish line this time either.

I laid back and waited to hear the news, hoping for the best but expecting to have to give myself a major pep talk about how “things are fine,” “this is your 5th baby, you are bound to be dilated, it doesn’t mean anything,” things I know as a Doula and that I have been saying to myself anyway. He checked and he smiled up at me and said “barely a fingertip.” What a freakin’ relief! I feel like I can make it all the way to the end now! I know that dilation does not indicate when someone will go into labor, but I feel like my body is behaving and things are good. It is only 14 more days, I can make it 14 more days… and then some I hope!

Here’s to 28ish more healthy days of pregnancy and then handing this beautiful baby girl over to her parents!