34 Weeks

What's Happening This Week: Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which she'll need to regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

How far along? 34 weeks

Stretch marks? Still don’t have any, which I don’t understand because my belly is pretty stretched!

Sleep: In my weekly email from BabyCenter.com there is always a section called “How Your Life’s Changing”…I think this week’s paragraph describes how I’m feeling pretty accurately.  By this week, fatigue has probably set in again, though maybe not with the same coma-like intensity of your first trimester. Your tiredness is perfectly understandable, given the physical strain you're under and the restless nights of frequent pee breaks and tossing and turning, while trying to get comfortable.

Best moment this past week: I finished organizing her closet! YAY! This was a big accomplishment for me. This child has so many outfits, I’m going to have to change her 20 times a day just to show them all off! :) I bought super cute closet dividers to separate her clothes by age (newborn, 3-6 months, etc), which helped tremendously with the organization process :)

Food cravings: Pretty much anything that’s bad for me…I wake up in the middle of the night wanting to eat an entire cake. It’s a good thing I don’t keep junk food in the house! haha

What I miss: Never thought I would say this, but I miss working out. Walking around the neighborhood is all I can really do at this stage. I’m actually looking forward to getting back to the gym.

What I am looking forward to: Our friend Kelly is coming to stay with us Saturday! She’s coming in from another part of Houston (near Rice Village) to hear Matt preach on Sunday. Should be fun!!!

Weekly Wisdom: "Babies need a diaper change about every 2 hours, feel free to change her without being asked!” haha That was advice given to Matt. These are very wise women :)

Now that the weather is perfect here in Houston I’ve been taking more walks outside with Matt and our dog. It’s been nice getting the fresh air and a little workout!  We live right on the greenbelt trails, which is amazing. I can’t wait to take walks with our daughter in the stroller :)