Thirty-Six Weeks

Wow. I am 36 weeks pregnant as of this last Saturday. According to BabyCenter, the baby is still packing on the pounds -- at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost six pounds (crenshaw melon) and is more than eighteen-and-a-half inches long. She is 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. The baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, which will form the contents of her first bowel movement. Oh yeah, we are looking forward to that again. At the end of this week, Baby Helms 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)!

Jarrett and I have done a decent amount of organizing and rearranging (and purging) around the house, and things are feeling a little better around here. We are still going to be fairly packed in, but maybe it will not feel quite as chaotic as it would have had we not done a thing. Elsa started back at Gabriela's this morning, so I have plans to get quite a lot accomplished in these final weeks... and probably some rest thrown in there too. I already was blessed with a massage and a chiropractic adjustment this morning, which were both fabulous. I am excited to meet this new little one and see what she looks like for sure. But I am still not prodding her to come any too early. Any time after the first of September is acceptable. :)