At week 37

Today's marks the beginning of my 37 week.

Time really flies. Baby and I are closer and closer towards the EDD. Baby's officially full term today as he has passed the week 36 mark. His lungs should be able to function properly if he is to come within this week. We have walked hand in hand for the past 9 months.

I can feel baby's growing bigger in the womb and he's running out of space. He always try to stretch his little knees against my tummy. So often that I get this sore spot on top of my tummy. And I can tell that he's anxious to come out so he can give himself a big stretch. Just like Natalie, this little one loves to stretch. Old people said that babies who love to stretch, will grow very fast. Also, this baby always gets agitated and annoyed when he gets long hiccups, and he'll start stamping his feet on my tummy. Who won't, I get annoyed too, :).

Coming early?
I've been having this feeling that baby will come early, as early as this weekend. Am I that desperate or is baby giving me signal? Hmmm... we shall see. And this Sunday's the day Natalie turning 18 months, or 1 and a half year old.

Apart from that I have some vague physical signs which I didn't have during Natalie's time. I can somehow feel my cervix has dilated slightly since last two weeks, with a short sharp pain every time I have Braxton Hicks. Mild period-cramp-like lower backache, discharge, more frequent urination and some people told me that my tummy looks lower now. I feel that too, the lightening. At one point of time, I was feeling the baby pushing on my stomach but for the past one two weeks or more I was beginning to feel abit relief on my stomach. And I've been having dreams of giving birth via natural birth. I just feel so ready. Gosh, I think I'm really desperate.

Can you feel yourself dialating?

Anyway, I have to settle everything within these few days, in case it's a real sign from baby, as if he's telling me, "Mommy, please get ready now. I'm coming this Sunday."

Naming game
So last night before bed, I decided to dig out my Chinese dictionary and check out some characters, which I'd long thought of using for baby's Chinese name. These are the few that I settled with, 幸哲，幸喆，展业, 宏业，鸣and so on. I particularly like this character, 喆. And NO, it's NOT because of David Tao, 陶喆. The reason I like the character is because it means wisdom and intelligence :). Instead of using ming（明）, which is also hubby's name, and it's commonly used.

Stem cell issue
Well, I need to arrange for this too. I believe it's worth coz it's a form of health insurance which money can't buy, even if one may have all the monetary coverage in the world. But the problem is which company I should go for, one that is reliable and ethical in their business management. Have yet to meet a rep from Company C, the newest company. Need to call them.

And I need to do more research on this... headache.

Follow-up
Last Thursday, when I went for my gynae check-up, I found that my weight has again jumped to 73kg, which means baby has put on 1.5kg in just one week. He's now weighed about 2.9 to 3 kg. Wow, heavier than Natalie's birth weight, which was only 2.8kg. After confirming with my gynae, neither me nor baby is overweight, just the right size. It's a good sign, as I was a bit worried about no weight gain like in last pregnancy. But judging from this, everything is fine so far, should baby come within this or next week, he will weight about 3.2 kg or slightly more.

This Thursday will be my next weekly check up. Can't wait to know how much weight baby has put on again.