36 Weeks

I am now at the point where my doctor's appointments are every week. I feel like I just barely transitioned out of the monthly appointments, and now here I am with weekly appointments. You know you're one of the regulars at the office, when:

1. The receptionists have been calling you by name for the past couple of months.
2. You and your doctor have inside jokes.
3. You know the names of the medical assistants, the nurse, the RNP, and the receptionists.
4. You recognize two or three other expecting mothers who are often at the office at the same time you are.
5. You no longer get confused trying to find your way to the front desk upon leaving your exam room.

My pregnant belly really pops once I hit around 32 weeks. Now, at 36 weeks, I feel HUGE. My maternity shirts aren't loose anymore, they actually fit. What?! What is that?

I'm not sleeping very well at night. If Reece wakes up and needs help in the bathroom any time after 3:30am, I will be awake for at least two hours afterward trying to fall back to sleep. I'm constantly waking up because I'm no longer comfortable. And I'm having really weird dreams that keep waking me up.

The other night I had a dream that I looked down at my hand and my wedding rings were gone. Then, I tried to find Derek and couldn't find him anywhere. And then all of these random guys kept coming up to me, proposing, giving me a ring, and demanding that I marry them. I refused because I desperately needed to find Derek, but kept getting so angry because he was nowhere to be found and my hand was full of these awful engagement rings from all of these awful guys. What spurred that dream? No idea. But it was frustrating! My heart was pounding when I woke up, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I looked over and saw Derek sleeping next to me. My dreams have been especially terrible this pregnancy, making it even more difficult to get a decent night's rest.

But, I have to say, my favorite thing right now is being able to go out in public in sweatpants and not have people give me funny looks. Don't get me wrong, I go out in public in sweats even when I'm not pregnant, I just get funny looks from people. Looks that say, "Jeez, doesn't she have the time to put on real pants?" Anyways, when I go out to the store now in sweatpants, people don't look at me like that! They see my giant, pregnant belly and immediately they understand why I'm wearing sweats. Because let's be honest. No pregnant woman can stand jeans for much longer than an hour or so once they hit 32-36 weeks.

Life has been a little crazy lately, but I love Friday nights. And while I love the night once Reece is in bed, I get the most joy out of being home with Derek and Reece. Seeing them play together and just being together as a family brings me more peace than I ever thought it would. Yes, there are those wonderfully joyful times when Reece is in the throes of threenager-hood, but most of the time being together as a family is everything I need it to be. I am so excited and anxious to see how our family grows and changes with the addition of this next little girl.

Four more weeks!