36 Weeks - The Craziness Begins!

This week marks the beginning of many, many, many doctor, specialist, and non-stress test appointments. I have my regular OB appointments once a week now. The NSTs are now twice a week. Next week we meet with the perinatologist (a high-risk baby doctor), and Kaylee gets a really high-tech ultrasound to make sure she is growing okay.

I had my first NST on Monday. It was interesting. I had two different sensors strapped to my belly. One measures Kaylee's heartbeat, and I was instructed to press a button every time I felt her move or kick. We were looking for her heart rate to go up any time she moved. Which it did, perfectly. The other sensor tracked my uterine activity. Anytime I had a contraction it would be charted on a strip of paper. I was having contractions every two to three minutes, but they were pretty mild. Then I was taken to another room where the nurse performed an ultrasound to measure fluid levels around the baby and where the placenta is located. Everything looked good and I have another NST scheduled for Thursday.

As some of you could tell by my most recent belly pictures, Kaylee has dropped. It's a good thing though. This means she is getting ready to come out and meet us all fairly soon. However, her head being that low is making life interesting for me. It's harder to walk, stand, sit, move—basically to do anything comfortably anymore. I just keep telling myself that this is a good thing!

Update on Kaylee —

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She now weighs almost six pounds and her length probably has not changed much since last week, since most of the changes are in putting on those cute baby pounds! In general growth will experience a slowdown now, so she will be able to fit through the narrow passageway to the outside and also so she can store up all the energy needed for delivery.

Most of the bones (soft skull aside) in her little body are now completely hardened, providing a solid structure from which she can now make her grand debut into the world. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are structurally ready for a secure launch. In physical fitness news: her muscle tone has also improved over these past few weeks, and we'll definitely be impressed by her steel-like ulnar grasp (a newborn reflex that occurs when a finger is laid in their palm).

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.

By now, many of her systems are pretty mature, at least in baby terms—and just about ready for life on the outside. Blood circulation, for instance, has been perfected and her immune system has matured enough to protect her from infections outside the womb. Other systems, however, still need a few finishing touches. One notable example: digestion—which actually won't be fully mature until sometime after birth. Why is that? Inside her little gestational cocoon, she has relied on the umbilical cord for nutrition, meaning that the digestive system—though developed—hasn't been operational. So she will take the first year or two to bring that system up to speed.