My thoughts: 35 weeks

I was going to write this cutesy bullet post about all the funny things I have been thinking and experiencing lately, but I just can't get in the mood to finish it that way.

In short, and I know I have been saying this all along, but I really can't believe this is happening. After all we went through that failed, here we are at 35 weeks with a healthy baby girl all curled up in my belly who got there the old fashioned way.

It has always killed me to hear women who've struggled with infertility say "I can't wait to have my body back" or "Won't it be great to sleep on my back again" or other insignificant luxuries that pale in comparison to the gift they have been given. Like really, you miss your pre-pregnancy body so much that you would rather have the beautiful miracle you've been blessed with be over? Do you remember how much you prayed to become pregnant?? How can you be so "done" with something you heart longed for?? I'll just go ahead and say it: I'd like to be pregnant for the next 15 years ;-) Ha!

So here are some things I am loving right now:
*Baby girl waking up at 1am (and 4am, haha) with me when I have to pee, and how she keeps moving after I lay back down. I just lay there and drink it all in. Sure, she keeps me up, but feeling her squirm is so precious and something I dreamed about for so long....
*Belly is getting to be kind of heavy on the underside, and I am hoping that this means she is moving down and getting ready for a beautiful birth
*Continuing to practice prenatal yoga is so neat- I am feeling totally confident that it is helping my body keep in shape and mitigate the symptoms that other people complain about.
*I think I am getting some teeny stretch marks on the underside of the belly- and it is so cute! Hahaha :) I am like wow, belly is really growing now!!
*Cottage cheese :) Did you know it is a great source of protein? :)

Last night at the end of dinner, baby girl was moving up a storm, and my belly was, too. It was so cute for Mr. A to be able to see it- you should have seen the smile on his face. He hasn't been very touchy-feely with the belly, but I know that he is totally in love with and in awe of this little person inside.

The way I am approaching preparing for labor and delivery is the same way I approached training for both of my marathons: physical and mental preparation. There isn't much you can do to exactly prepare (it's not like you can do practice labors like you can go out and run for 4 hours in preparation for a marathon!), but I feel like prenatal yoga has equipped me with many many tools to use to ease the intensity of contractions, and the concepts that we've learned from the Bradley method will also help I think.

The one thing that crossed my mind this morning when I woke up and could have gone back to sleep for 2 hours was how to make sure I am rested enough! For my marathons, I made sure I got enough rest leading up to the race, but guess what, I don't know when the date of this baby marathon will be!! I have been getting at least 8 hours of sleep per night, but I think I am going to try to increase that little by little. I cannot be tired when the time comes!!

This post feels kind of disjointed, but it's the best I can do for now! We are so excited to meet our baby :) 35 days till she is due!