8 Months down....1 Month to go!!!

Yay...only 30 more days (give or take!!!). I am getting really excited / a little nervous the closer it gets to my due date....mostly excited though. I just put on my calendar to pack my bags for the hospital on July 1st! But then I saw on Facebook that this girl I used to dance with just had her baby. Well, she was due the week before me...that makes me a little nervous! I may pack my bags this weekend just to be on the safe side! I didn't pack my bags for our honeymoon until after our rehearsal dinner (which I do not recommend doing). I don't think that this will be a situation where I wait til the last minute to pack my bags. God bless Daniel, but if I had to go to the hospital unexpectedly without bags packed I cannot even imagine what he would end up bringing me!

Here is what Critter is up to week 36! He/she is the size of a beach ball...that explains why my stomach now looks like a beach ball!



As your baby's "rapid growth" period approaches an end, she will top 19 inches and almost reach 6 pounds. However, she will continue to add weight in the form of extra fat until delivery. Those nails are so long, in fact, that she might even scratch herself in utero. The only organ that isn't fully mature yet is her lungs. If she hasn't done so already, this is probably the week that your baby will drop into the birth canal.

You have probably gained 25-30 pounds, and you probably won't gain much more in the final weeks of pregnancy.

The placenta's role is coming to an end and producing fewer hormones now that your baby's body is capable of being more independent from yours. Your baby has developed a nicely functioning pair of kidneys, and her liver is processing some of her waste products. You still provide antibodies for your baby through your bloodstream. These antibodies can protect your newborn from whooping cough, mumps, measles, and even mundane coughs and flu.

As your baby has grown inside you, she has developed a sucking reflex. She's tested out that reflex on her own thumbs and fingers. Now she's well equipped to nurse. Her gums are hard and ridged--almost as if teeth are emerging--and those will help her latch on to a nipple to feed herself when the time comes.