33 weeks and still counting!

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

Yeah. Really in disbelief to tell you the truth. I can't believe, as we are going through this prematurity awareness month, that I am sitting here just 4 short weeks away from term. And that really even if things did spiral out of control I could still get that take home baby in just 2-3 more weeks. Of course I have absolutely no desire for that to be the case, I really want at a minimum of 37 weeks. Even if I am miserable with a baby who insists on being transverse and sticking its bum out my right side and using my ribs as a foot stool and stretching tool.

I go back and forth on if I really will make it. I've been having more and more of those signs that my body is preparing for delivery, but nothing indicative of true ptl. Just, what I'm assuming, are normal aches, pains and cramps for being 33 weeks pregnant. I still have the vistaril that I take whenever I feel more contractions than I'm comfortable with. And I'll be honest...that line is not a very big line lol! Give me something like 3 in a row and I'll down one just to keep any more from coming. Are contractions and bh normal at this point? Yes, and I know that. But psychologically, contractions are my worst enemy and I experience nothing but panic when I feel them. So if I can keep them from being too often, I will.

And I guess the biggest clue and indicator of how far I am is the fact that my maternity shirts are starting not to fit. They no longer cover the bottom of my belly and people can get glimpses of the lovely elastic waistband of my maternity pants. I won't even go into what the scale says right now. Let's just say I hope to never see that number outside of a pregnancy. Even though judging from my arms, legs and other areas all of that weight must be baby as I don't see any changes there.

And here's a 33 week belly.