36 Weeks

We made it to October!

Even though I'm not considered "term" until next week, the 36-week mark has long acted as an important deadline for us to complete the most necessary preparations for the Short Stranger's arrival. This has been due in part to our friends Jen and Jeremy's birth experience nearly 3 years ago, when their mid-December baby came 2 days before Thanksgiving (at 36.5 weeks). But also, because 36 weeks marks the beginning of October, a significant psychological milestone.

So how did we do? Not bad! If the Short Stranger came today, we'd be ready with the obligatory carseat, and a nursery that's *almost* done, and we'd have him set up with a pediatrician. Soo, a couple of our rooms might have to stay messy for a while, but we no longer have a downstairs that looks like a war zone. And by next weekend, I predict we'll be able to have pictures of the nursery up online, finito.

So here's what babycenter.com has to say about the melon ball baby:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely he's in a head-down position. But if he isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating him from the outside of your belly.