This week I'm 38 weeks pregnant! I can't believe how fast the past 9 months have gone. As rough as some moments have been, the pregnancy really has flown by so fast and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to experience it. Growing a little life has been harder than I had imagined, but at the same time so wonderfully amazing. Every time I see Jackson shake my belly or feel a quick kick or slow roll, it never fails to make me smile. Its so amazing how intricate the whole process is and how God designed my body to know exactly what to do. It really is amazing.
I've got 2 weeks left until my due date, but we've reached the milestone of being "full term." Meaning Jackson could decide to come at any point now and be safe and healthy. My doctor has told me its just a waiting game at this point. He could come tomorrow, or wait until 41 weeks. We'll just wait and see. Both Josh and I are ready to finally meet this little boy we've been falling in love with these past 9 months.
Aside from extreme morning sickness that I've dealt with the entire pregnancy (even still), I've been incredibly blessed that we haven't encountered a single complication throughout these 9 months. Both Jackson and I have been super healthy and I'm so thankful for that. Somehow, despite not keeping much food down, my body has still managed to gain a healthy weight. I've gained 17 lbs total so far and my blood pressure has been amazing the whole time. The pregnancy cravings that I've encountered over the past few months have been : Celery, apples, pickles (this was a big one- ate like a jar a week), grapefruit, and orange juice. Not sure if water really counts as a "craving" but I can never seem to have enough water near me, lol. Which even shows in the food that I have craved- with throwing up so much I've battled dehydration a couple times. And so it even showed in the foods that my body wanted- celery is mostly water, pickles balance out your electrolytes, grapefruit has high water content and folic acid. So its been interesting to see my body crave exactly what it needed to keep both me and Jackson healthy. Josh and I were both pretty healthy eaters prior to pregnancy, but since getting pregnant- that upped even higher for me. My body just didn't want a whole lot of junk. So its been super easy to primarily stick to foods that were healthy for me.
We're almost done with the nursery decorations. It's taken us while to have time to paint the walls since we had to wait for Josh to get a break with grad classes. But its coming along so well. We're doing a Dr. Seuss theme and I love it. I know its silly since babies don't care about decorations and Jackson won't even sleep in his own room until about 4 months old, but it sure is fun for the parents to set up the nursery. Just walking in the room makes me smile. Its adorable.
As strange as it may sound, as of right now, neither myself or Josh have any nervousness or anxiety about the upcoming birth. I mostly just feel ready. We've done a lot to prepare while still having a flexible mindset. We're both definitely planners and pretty hands on when it comes to our medical care, but at the end of the day- birth is unpredictable. Never know exactly how it'll go until you're there. So we both have a solid understanding of the options available and what might happen in a true emergency situation. But mostly, we both just feel ready. Josh is crazy excited about every part of pregnancy and birth. He is impressed with how dramatically a women's body changes so quickly to care for a little life and he is ecstatic about getting to hold Jackson soon. I'm very ready for Jackson to be in my arms soon, as well as have morning sickness finally be over. And be able to breathe again, lol. Right now, Jackson is taking up a good deal of space which makes its near impossible to take a full breath at once. But I'm pretty sure the fact that labor will mean the end of morning sickness is going to be huge motivation for me during the moments I'm exhausted. So now we just wait and see what day this little man picks to be his birthday. :-)
