36 weeks

36.weeks.JPG
Originally uploaded by ryanandlaurawolf.

Only 3 weeks and 3 days till D-day.
I love hearing others' instincts about the baby--whether it is a boy or girl, if I will deliver tomorrow or 3 weeks from now, etc. I feel blessed to know so many are interested in this little life growing (bigger and bigger) inside of me. I only hope that many of the people that are interested in this baby now will pray for him/her and for us, as parents, after it is born. My only hope of being an effective, God-glorifying parent is in Christ alone.
Speaking of the due date rolling closer, I have started having dreams about giving birth and going into labor. The dreams depend on my preoccupations during the day. Last week, I started thinking about the likelihood that the baby will be over 8 pounds...which led to a dream about birthing a toddler that wouldn't let me hold him. Yesterday, I started having weird nerve pains in my upper thigh and in my lower belly that got me wondering about the pain of true labor and, what do you know, I have a dream about waiting to go into labor. In my dream, I kept trying to go walking and just couldn't get it done.
Oddly enough, I had my first un-provoked nose bleed last night. As I slept, I reached up to itch my nose and out came a stream of blood. I grabbed a towel (it was brown, don't worry) and covered my nose, then realized I also had to go to the bathroom pretty badly...after I figured out all that, I woke Ryan to get some pointers on how to take care of a nose bleed. A few minutes later, the bleeding stopped and I finished my night off with more dreams of labor.
I expect to keep having these not-so-calming dreams as the time draws near. Things are good right now...God is good. I still feel great almost all the time and I have a good friend and old-roommate (Alana Peake) from college visiting this weekend.

34 Weeks

I hate to push down the Jackhouse pic. There has been quite a response there, both on the blog and otherwise. This pic of Laura is actually from last week, so she is probably already showing a touch more. Yesterday, she said that she thinks she can tell that she is growing throughout the day. Her clothes seem tighter at the end of the day, she says. I don't know about that. She has been crashing at 9 pm steadily this week.

Today we go to the doctor, and will discuss our Birth Plan. This involves communicating how we would prefer for the labor and delivery to go--specifically regarding drugs and interventions. Obviously, we will submit to the good doctor's medical expertise, especially in an emergency. But we want the baby to stressed as little as possible, and we want to avoid a C-section. Rachel's birth story and Aurelie's birth story has given us encouragement about the how labor and delivery can be done--and be done well.