Week 39 - Cankles

There is so much going on in the final week of pregnancy. Hopefully Copper will give us a few extra days to get stuff done. As my post title states, I now have cankles. I have avoided them up until 2 days ago. My feet and hands have been swelling for quite a while now, but my ankles have stayed normal. It started with just my right ankle the past two nights, but all hell broke loose today and they've both ballooned beyond being cute. They are not pretty. I do not like them. Last night I was able to lie on my left side and the swelling went down pretty quickly. I sat more today which explains why both ankles are swollen. Generally if I am up and moving around all day, the swelling is minimal. However, today I sat at work for quite a while. Sitting is my enemy. I may be a rare breed of pregnant lady that prefers to stand and move all the time. Sitting is when I'm uncomfortable. With the basement remodel taking up most of our time, I haven't had much of a choice than to be super active. I may have to stand and do squats while I'm working on the computer tomorrow at work. Go away cankles.

Here's the pics you've all been waiting for! Week 39! Only 1 week to go!

It's getting kind of big. Don't ya think?

The midwife estimated that Copper was at about 7lbs last Friday and predicts a baby in the upper 7lb range. I prefer that Copper stop growing and I have a 7 pound baby about a week late. We'll see.

We were told that at 37 weeks you should have your car seat installed and baby bag packed. We still haven't gotten around to packing the baby bag, but Daddy installed the car seat the beginning of last week. Now Melvin has to share his back seat with an empty car seat. He probably shouldn't complain though, because soon enough there will be a crying baby next to him. Since the middle of the seat is the safest, Melvin has to "think thin" and smash his big body into the side seat. It's not all about you anymore, Melvin, soon you'll be the step child.

Tonight we've started our search for a doula. I remember when Lisa first told me that she was getting a doula and I thought she was nuts. Why would you need a middle man at a birth? That was a couple years ago and I have since done a 180 and completely understand the role a doula will play. Even the midwives at the birthing center have all had doulas attend their births. Aubrey and I are meeting one tomorrow and another on Wednesday night to see if we can find a good fit. It's a bit late in the game to be looking, but not too late. We're getting a doula in training to keep the cost down, but feel confident that it'll be a positive experience. I think that Aubrey likes the idea that coaching will not be entirely on his shoulders. We also really want a doula just in case we get transferred to the hospital. If that happens, then things are not going as planned and we would definitely like to have a middle man around to help with decision making and understanding the medical model for delivery. Something that we found interesting about the birthing center is that if we are the only couple there for a birth, the midwife will be with us about 90% of the time! If there are 2 births going on then the time will be split and if there are 3 births then a second midwife is called in. The birthing center has rooms for 3 births and books only around 20-25 births for a month to avoid overcrowding. While the doula doesn't seem as necessary in the best case scenario (I'm the only birth and everything goes as planned), she will be very nice to have in any other scenario.