Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position.

Had a very productive check-up with the midwives today! Got my Group B Strep test done, which I hadn't been looking forward to but was completely painless. Hadn't even thought about the fact that my pants would be coming off, because haven't had to do that since my first visit with the midwives 5 months ago. But I'm sure mine are not the first pair of hairy preggo legs she's had to endure, haha!! Hey, it's winter and shaving is quite an effort these days, don't judge!

Basically, about 30% of women have Group B Strep "down there", but it's harmless to the mom and also is a transient thing that comes and goes. So, they wait to test you around 35-37 weeks, and if you're positive, you have to get 2 rounds of IV antibiotics after you've gone into labor but before you give birth. After that, your baby's risk of contracting the bacteria and becoming seriously ill from it goes from 1 in 200 to 1 in 4,000. If you don't have time to get the antibiotics in before the birth, apparently they have to keep the baby several days (a week??) in the NICU for observation, yikes!!  Because I know there can be tons of side effects from taking antibiotics themselves, and I'd like to labor at home for as long as possible and not have to rush to the hospital for drugs, I really REALLY hope my test comes back negative. But we'll just have to wait and see.

I met with Corrie today, who is my favorite of the midwives. When she came in, she said something like "Is it a girl?" to which I answered "We're not finding out!". But now I have this voice in the back of my head going "It must be in your chart that the baby is a girl!!!" hahaha!! I doubt it, probably it was just her greeting. Everyone loves to guess what the baby is (though almost everyone thinks it's a boy, including 2 psychics - our birthing teacher and my sister's mother-in-law.) Anyway... She confirmed the baby's position which is, drum roll please.... HEAD DOWN! Hooray!!! And she was so gentle in her palpating, hooray for that too! She asked me to take a deep breath in, and then when I blew out she gave 2 solid (but gentle) mashes to my lower pelvis area and then announced, yep, that's the head down there!

Since I have no cramping or any kind of early labor signs, she cleared me to head to Charlotte for Thanksgiving. We had purchased "cancel for any reason" travel insurance just in case, but soooooooooooooo glad everything is going well and we can go home! I can't wait to see everyone and have a yummy Thanksgiving and our baby shower!!

Our next appointment will be in 2 weeks - at 37 weeks I'll officially be far enough along to delivery at the Birthing Center! She said that Ryoji should come to that appointment, cuz we'll go over what to do when I go into labor and all that. With his schedule though, it'll be tough, but hopefully he can make it. We also have our consultation that week (December 4) with the pediatrician we think we're gonna go with. And I really gotta set up an interview with some day cares... so much to do!!!!! And only 12 more days of work to go! ^_^

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe or butternut squash) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help 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.

Watch what you say! Your curious baby is listening in to your conversations at 34 weeks -- and might enjoy a lullaby or two -- so go ahead and sing to him. Some say that baby will recognize songs mom sings while he’s in the womb, and may even be more easily soothed by them if he’s used to them once he’s on the “outside.” At week 34, you might breathe a little easier, since baby may descend lower into your pelvis and give your lungs some space. (Ahh!) Of course, some babies don’t do this until the day they’re born, so we’re not making any guarantees. The pitfall of this descent, of course, is even more pressure on your bladder, so be prepared to make even more trips to the ladies room over the coming weeks.

Had my check-up today - 1 week later than scheduled due to the craziness of Hurricane Sandy. Speaking of Sandy, I met with Sandy Woods today who was the only midwife in the practice I hadn't rotated through to yet. She was nice enough, but I like the other girls better for a couple of reasons. 1) She seemed quite ditzy - she had trouble calculating my weight gain, at one point being about 5 pounds off and saying I need to gain more weight, and I had to correct her. 2) She is quite a bit older, which I would normally see as good because she must be super experienced and wise, but she couldn't work the mechanical chair to get me reclined with my legs up. 3) This one was the most compelling reason for disliking her on my part - she HURT ME during her palpating of my tummy to find the baby's position. I mean - OWWWWWWWW she was REALLY mashing in there to try to find the baby's head. I thought she was gonna like break my water! That said, she was the only one of the girls who was able to actually manage a guess as to the baby's position, which she thinks is...

HEAD DOWN!!! Go Akapanchan go!!

So, she confirmed what me and Ryoji had been thinking (though she said she's not positive) - butt is up top on my right side, just below my ribs. Feet are out to the left side, where I get the knuckle-dragging feelings (which are getting sharper and sharper day by day, sometimes actually painful!!), body is lying down a bit to my right side (hence the random off balance look I've seen my tummy get a couple of times - photo below), and head is right down center where it belongs - yippee!! Now if Akapanchan will just keep in this position, and rotate so the back is facing forward for the birth - all will be right in the world!!

In HypnoBabies news, I have been a bad girl, way too lazy. Only practicing like once a week, when I should be doing it every day. Oops. The other night I laid down for bed and my back was really really uncomfortable, it was strange! Almost painful. So, I thought, OK, let's try turning off my "lightswitch" and releasing the hypnosis anesthesia... hmmm DID NOT WORK. So, getting a bit nervous. Should probably practice more...

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (size of a pineapple or durian) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.