37 Weeks & 1 Day!

I held off on writing this post yesterday because I had a Dr's appointment today so I wanted to be able to include any pictures. Also, I saw my regular doctor, Dr Kecia again for the first time in a few weeks. Mango is now 37 weeks and is considered full term. Dr. Kecia said I should be prepared for baby to come any day at this point but assured me that being a first time mom it'll probably be right up or even after my due date. But if Mango came today s/he wouldn't be considered preemie and likely would be able to do everything on his/her own. But the plan is to cook for a few more weeks.

Apartment is being painted this week. Can you tell?

Since I hadn't had any good pictures of B I made a special request for some. Mango isn't exactly the most photogenic I'm learning, as his/her hands were once again all in the face. But we listened to the heartbeat, measured the mango and even saw the little one breathing with the lungs, which Dr Kecia said was a really good sign. Mango is measuring about a week to 2 weeks behind depending on the head, abdomen or femur measurement and is still about 6-6.5 pounds.

The big thing right under the nose is a hand

I still think s/he has Bills' adorable nose

Dr. Kecia also said that this Monday she's set to be in the next group of Dr's to be approved to deliver at NY Downtown! She also told me she just lives 2 minutes away from there (!!!) so if she's approved she'll definitely be there for the delivery. And... she slipped with the baby gender. The first time it was during the ultrasound, then corrected herself just once. I laughed and brushed it off. But later in her office she said it again 3 times, then corrected herself. So. There's that. It's not confirmed or anything because I didn't want to know, so definitely still a surprise, just not as surprising as I thought it'd be. I told Bill about the slip up but didn't reveal anything to him, so I can let him decide if he wants to know. And I'm not revealing it here either, because it could just be a mistake. So for all intents and purposes, mango is still just mango.

Last Saturday was Melissa's baby shower, which was a ton of fun, but totally knocked me out for the rest of the day. And Sunday Bill and I enjoyed some dim sum, then picked up my baby presents from work. I'm napping a lot on the weekends and to be honest, would probably be napping here at work if they didn't keep giving me so many projects to work on. Next Wednesday is also officially my last day.

Melissa is the tall blond in black. I'm the petite brunette with the GIANT belly

The whole group

As far as renovations go, I think Bill and I are both stressing. They're painting this week, so at least that's getting done, all the appliances are arriving on Friday and next thing is really just ordering the countertops, and praying it arrives on time with no issues. After that though we still need the apartment to be deep cleaned and at least get some absolutely necessary baby stuff set up. We also just reordered the backsplash tile to arrive next week as well as the handles and knobs for the cabinets (who knew those weren't automatically included... or why our designer didn't mention them. There are other little stupid things that keep coming up (this week- the cabinet doors have numerous scratches and nicks on them... so we'll need to have those replaced). But if we can just get to a place where everything is mostly done, we have working appliances and the apartment can be deep cleaned, we'll feel so much better about bringing mango home. Until then... baby has no choice but to stay in!

To end on a good note, last night Bill and I picnicked at a concert in Prospect Park for Guster (who we just missed), Ben Folds Five and Bare Naked Ladies. We grabbed some subs from the Italian food store in the neighborhood, some wine from my old favorite wine shop and then just enjoyed hanging out in the park listening to good music. It was good to go back to my old neighborhood, and introduce Bill to one of my favorite summer pastimes. We both also noticed all the babies, from the teeny tiny newborns to full blown toddlers just hanging out, so something fun to look forward to doing with mango next year!

Upcoming:

• My last doula appointment is tonight before labor day (not the national holiday). We're meeting with Lori to go over my birth plan and discuss any other labor coaching.  
• This Friday the appliances arrive! I know I'm so over the renovations, but I'm really excited to have a working stove, a new fridge and a DISHWASHER again!
• This weekend I think I'm meeting Bill's Aunt, and possibly seeing his nephew again too.