Week 37 is here, and boy, oh boy am I ever ready to meet this baby girl. I had my 37-week check-up on Monday morning, and am pleased to report that all is well with this sweet little one. Having such a healthy pregnancy at age 38 is such an incredible blessing. When I was pregnant with Bean, she developed an irregular heartbeat about six weeks before her due date, which was cause for alarm and very stressful. While we did wind up moving her scheduled c-section up about two weeks prior to her due date, her heartbeat corrected itself as soon as she was born, which was such a relief.

My oldest had jaundice when he was born, which caused an extra-long hospital stay after an emergency c-section. Bringing both of my babies home was amazing, and I'm already looking forward to just being home with Baby C, and adjusting to life together. 

I've had few issues in this pregnancy, thankfully. I developed pain across the top of my left foot sometime in June, which causes excess swelling and discomfort, making it incredibly painful to be on my feet. My OBs have mentioned it's just pressure, and that top of the foot pain is pretty common in pregnancy. Combined with the extra weight (though believe it or not, I've gained less than 30 lbs this pregnancy), the extreme heat (90s+ every day most of the summer), and being near the end of this pregnancy, the pain is pretty unbearable. It's caused me to not be able to be very active, which has bothered me tremendously, and I'm praying that it doesn't make my c-section recovery much harder.

C-sections are no fun. Plain and simple. I've survived two of them, and am not looking forward to a third, but I don't have a choice or say in this matter this time around. In my last pregnancy, I was given a 10% chance of having a successful VBAC, and was told I could try for a natural birth if I wanted to, but after the trauma I experienced with my first delivery, I did not want to go through that again and still wind up having a c-section. So, a second and now third c-section is was and shall be. Recovery is really tough, and I'm not one to sit around and cry or complain about pain all the time... more of the suffer in silence type. I'm still trying to figure out how to manage all of this- new baby, kids in school while I can't lift, drive, walk up and down stairs, or even bend, really... while my husband is right back to work after we get home with our new baby. All I could think of as my anxiety kicked in over all of this the other night was the episode of The Office where Michael Scott presents his book Somehow I Manage. It made me chuckle, and I just resigned myself to the belief that somehow I'll manage.

My youngest started back to school this week, and it does feel good to have both of the older kids back in school. Every time I get one settled into kindergarten, I find myself with a new baby! This will be the last time, however, as I'm having a tubal ligation procedure during my c-section. I signed the papers at the doctor's office a few weeks ago, and cried about it all day afterward. While it's true that we don't want more kiddos after our sweet third baby, it makes it so final. 

We're focusing on God's goodness and what an incredible blessing our new baby is and will be. We've been working on finishing up a few things in her nursery, and I've packed my hospital bag- just in case we wind up having to go earlier than planned (hey, it can happen). The kids are excited, but are staying busy with their school schedules and fall plans. Now if Covid would just stay away- and that's a huge worry of mine right now, but I try to push that off for another day.

Baby C will soon be here, so we're soaking up family of four time while we can get it, and looking forward to the fun we'll all have with a new baby to love.

What kinds of excitement do you have going on right now? I'm hoping and praying that you are and will continue to be well, and have good things to look forward to in the coming weeks!