Jen Loves

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Today, I am officially 37 weeks pregnant. I've been told that this is considered "full term", and I can't believe I am finally this far along. I keep telling my friends that pregnancy really does "fly by"…but at the same time pregnancy is a LIFETIME. I feel like I have been pregnant for about 3 years now, when really its been, well, 37 weeks.

I used to be TOTALLY freaked out by anything medical related. The idea of a human growing inside of you? So scary and unreal. Going to the doctor in general? Basically never happened. While I've been a bit of a hypochondriac in the past…I actually never get sick somehow. I've had 1 minor cold in the last 3 years, and I can't even remember the last time I had the stomach flu. Because of this, I was never at the doctor and that's obviously fine by me! Don't even get me started on how I felt about getting my blood drawn.

But now? Pregnancy is amazing and beautiful. Growing a human inside of you isn't freaky at ALL. Not in the least bit. All of those kicks to my ribs and rolls across my belly are so amazing. Now when people say my belly moving is "freaky" or "like an alien" I just laugh because I know I felt that way once, and they will realize how amazing it is themselves someday, too.

Before you get pregnant, you have no idea how pregnancy will affect you and your body. I used to have to eat first thing when I woke up because I would feel nausea and "morning sickness" from my hormones as a teen. Because of this, I was convinced I would for sure have morning sickness. I made it through my first trimester throwing up maybe 3 times. I didn't miss a day of work. I was, however, EXHAUSTED. Weeks 8-10 were rough and I was in bed by 7pm every night. Second trimester I started to feel a lot better. I would tell people that I felt totally normal. So normal, that at times I would forget I was pregnant. I know I am one of the lucky ones!

I felt like one of the lucky ones until I hit my 27 week appointment and my doctor had me do the glucose drink test as well as a bunch of other blood tests. I didn't think the glucose test was bad at all [probably because I eat so much sugar…oops], and luckily, I passed that one. I did learn what a "platelet" was though and that my count was low. My boss and father in law are both doctors and assured me that it wasn't a huge deal and I would be fine. Even with this assurance, its so scary to find out something isn't perfect and normal during your pregnancy. My count was on the high end of being low, but it meant that I would have to get my blood drawn more often---which I was hoping to NOT have to do anymore. I got my blood re-drawn a month later and found out my count had dropped again. If my count became too low I found out that I would not be able to get an epidural, so I began planning for this. The following month they checked my blood again, and I found out my platelets were finally stable!! Still lower than normal…but stable! So now I sit here crossing my fingers that they are still high enough and stable when I go into labor.

These last few weeks have been pretty rough. I have been SO lucky that my boss has been letting me work from home. It is so hard to get dressed, and its almost impossible to sleep. My baby dropped at 35 weeks, and I felt it happen…it was crazy! I was already carrying her low, and now she is VERY low. Its very uncomfortable right now, but I know I will be grateful for this when I am in labor.

So now…we wait. This morning at 4am when I was wide awake and saw my husband wake up and look at me I told him that I've been awake so much at night these days, I am definitely trained and ready to be awake with a newborn!

I've been obsessing over newborn photos [like the photo above] and motherhood. In these last few weeks, I haven't even been thinking about the labor and how its scary and if it will hurt. All I think about is safely getting my baby girl here and how sweet her little face must be and how I just can't wait to meet her! We are still back and forth between two names, but we know that when we see her we will know who she is. We have been waiting to meet her our entire lives!! We are so excited and in love already. Any day now :)