Week 37 – Almost There….
August 29, 2006
My friends and family have been wonderfully supportive throughout my entire pregnancy. From the moment broadcast the good news, we’ve have encouragement and support, people bring by gifts for no reason other than they’re excited (and they just can’t resist the adorable baby stuff).
In an attempt to be supportive, my friends, family, and near strangers have tried to encourage me this past week by telling me that I’m almost there, it’s getting close now, time’s almost up, etc. Whenever anyone says that, I want to respond, “bite me”. These next few weeks might fly by to them, but they are dragging slower than molasses in winter to me. I think they forget that I’m waking up 3-4 times a night, and that I have to rotate myself like a rotiserie chicken to get comfortable in bed, that I can’t get in or out of any chair or bed these days without a great deal of effort, that I’m eating Tums as a late-night snack, that I have forgotten what it feels like to take a deep breath, and that even some of my maternity clothes are feeling tight these days and I could go on. So every day is a long day – I’m tired, and my whole body hurts, and when people say I’m almost there, they think a few weeks is a piece of cake, but to me every day is a long one, and “D day” feels sooooo far away.
Instead of telling me I’m almost there, I wish people would remind me that this isn’t going to last forever, even though it feels like it will.
As most of you know if you’ve read much of this baby blog, I subscribe to both 
As anticipated, as soon as I started showing, every mother I met had some words of wisdom for me. I’ve read plenty of articles on this, and I know that the easiest way to handle the unsolicited advice is to simply say thank you and file it away. Most of the advice I’ve received has actually been useful, and I’ve found that I enjoy hearing about other women’s experiences with their children.
I have been amazed in the past week or so how many people have first asked me when I’m due (not a new question – I’ve been getting that one for months) and then when I tell them I have over a month to go, they look shocked. So apparently, I’m looking overly pregnant already. The meter man in town (the guy who writes up tickets if your meter has expired – Frank), the cashier at the local market, other tennants in the building where I work, etc. Everyone seems surprised that I’m not due earlier. Should I be worried that I’m going to have a huge baby, since 5 weeks early I’m looking ready to pop? Ironically, my weight has been about the same for over a month now. I would assume that the baby is still growing, and my stomach certainly seems larger, but my weight is the same, which is weird to me. I’ll definitely ask my doctor about it during my next visit next week.
It’s not as bad as you think. Sometime around the end of a pregnancy, the baby apparently “drops” lower into your pelvic region, so it’s closer to the birth canal for the big day. The literature I had read on this referred to it as a “lightening”, so I was assuming that maybe my stomach wouldn’t feel like it weighs 300 pounds when that happened. Apparently I was wrong. My doctor asked me if the baby had dropped, and I told him I didn’t think so, but I didn’t really know what that felt like. He asked me if I was feeling more pressure lower, and I said “oh yeah I am”. So, apparently “dropping” for me doesn’t mean a relief from any of my current discomfort, it just means I’ve got more pressure in my lower abdomen versus up near my lungs. Thinking back, I haven’t been irritated about not being able to take a deep breath in a little while, so I guess there is less pressure up top, but nothing significant enough for me to notice. On the other hand, the baby dropping shows an end in sight – even the baby is indicating that he or she will be ready to come out soon, so that’s a plus – I won’t be pregnant forever, even if I feel like I will some days.