Week 37

The weeks keep rolling on towards the birth and it seems like each week is starting to get tougher.  We were cruising right along until about Week 34 to Week 35 and then it all just seemed to change overnight.

This week we went to the doctor twice – once for another growth ultra sound and then just a routine check up.  Both turned out great – baby to be and mom to be are both healthy.

Mom to be is now working from home and keeping her feet up while she battles swelling.  Epsom salt baths, elevation, and walking to get out the stiffness seem to be helping.  I don’t think there is much that can be done about the swelling.  It is a part of it.

Any mothers reading this that can offer help or advice – please leave us some information on what helped you get through your later stages of pregnancy.

On another side of things – not baby related, but happening this week.  We decided to do some remodeling on our kitchen, purely by accident.

We’ve had a leaky faucet for a while and the only way to fix the leak was to turn the handle to the left.  This was eventually going to catch up with us and on Wednesday it did.  The handle broke on the faucet and we were forced to use pliers to turn the water on and off.  I went out and bought a new faucet that evening and then waited till Thursday to install it.  I called in my father in law who is really good at installing this stuff.  I’m not a great handy man, but I am getting better at it.

Anyway.  Thursday arrived and me and my father in law went to work on the faucet.  We did all we were supposed to do in order for it to lift right off so we could install the new one.  For some reason it was hung up.  After some careful searching we found the culprit.

There was a nut holding the faucet to the sink that was impossible to get to because it looked like this nut was screwed in before the sink was installed.  So we undid the bolts holding the sink in place and pulled the whole sink out of the counter.  We unscrewed the nut, replaced the faucet, and put the sink back in its hole.  Done, easy enough – right!

Wrong.

We decided to go ahead and put in a new sink because this one we currently had was old and well used and we wanted a deeper sink for the kitchen.  My father in law ran down to Lowe’s to find us a new sink.

Okay, so new sink, put the faucet on, fix everything in place – done, right?  Wrong again.

From this point forward it just went downhill.  The pipes didn’t fit back in place because the drainage areas on the sink were further back than they were in the old sink.  The sink was also deeper so that caused issues.  The water lines were to short to reach the new sink.  The list just went on.

When Thursday ended we had our sink in, but nothing was hooked up.  We got water from the bathroom and drank bottled water until Friday.

On Friday my father in law came back and he took out all the old plumbing under the sink and re built it himself so it would fit the new sink.   New water lines were put in place which were longer and we now have everything back to the way it was.  I want to give a special thinks to my father in law for taking the time to do this.  He really impressed me with all he knows about home repair.  I would have been lost without him.

It is funny that this year it seems like I have gotten a crash course in what it takes to be a parent and a dad from both sets of parents – mine and my wife’s.   Knowledge that will help me become a well-rounded father.

Here’s a video to give you an idea of what our house looked like before and after the kitchen sink remodel.

Okay, Week 37.

Your Baby

Huge news this week: You’re carrying a full-term baby! If you were to go into labor today, all systems would be a go. Woohoo! Even though you can’t wait for the little bambino to quite literally rear his head, keep in mind that your bun benefits from every day in the oven. Other ticker-tape-worthy developments:

Baby’s growth slows down dramatically this week, which is great news for your birth canal. His bones are still soft and pliable and will solidify after he’s born. More great news for your birth canal.

So if he’s all cooked and ready to go, what the heck is he still doing in there?! He’s busy practicing for “life on the outside,” working on his breathing, sucking, sleeping, gazing and peeing abilities. The only thing he can’t practice yet is his ability to scream at the top of his lungs when he’s hungry—but he’ll do plenty of that in a few weeks.

At this point babies vary in size, but the average length is between 19 and 20 inches and most babies weigh approximately 6 pounds. About the size of an average largemouth bass caught in Minnesota by your cousin Earl.

via 37 Weeks Pregnant – 3D Pregnancy Calendar

That’s it.

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