No Progress Just Yet...

I just got back from my first internal check appointment. I know I'm only 36 weeks and what you find out doesn't really mean anything in many cases, but I was hoping for more. As of now, I'm not dilated at all, I'm barely effaced and the baby's head is not even close to being engaged. Ok, there's still quite a bit of time so I can't be too concerned. I guess I was just hoping for more of a signal to know when she might be here. I'm getting anxious!

And I'm getting more pain. Life is definitely a lot more uncomfortable at 36 weeks. There's just a lot of pressure "down there" and frequent general pain all around. My feet often hurt and swell if I'm too active, but everyone says to stay active. It's a hard balance. And I almost always feel like I need to go to the bathroom. Oh, and my under-the-belly pants dig into me and hurt too much to wear - especially the jeans.

Ok, that's all the complaining I'll allow myself to do. I'm still so incredibly lucky and all the rest of these things are just small scarifices I have to make to get to the ultimate goal of having a baby. I can handle it for 4-5 more weeks. No problem!

But everything else is still fine. The baby is pretty active lately and her heartbeat was 168 bpm. My belly grew another 3 cm in just a week - that's kind of scary. I guess she might end up being closer to 8 pounds in the end since she was already about 5 1/2 last week. I also gained another 3 pounds in just the past week - yikes! That puts me up to 30 pounds gained. I blame work for those last 3 pounds though - I'm still eating leftover cake from my surprise shower. LOL!