THIRTY FIVE weeks

Yes, that's right, 35 weeks.  Which means, 5 weeks, or 35 DAYS to go.  We can actually count down the days now without sounding crazy.  So scary.  And exciting.  And overwhelming.  And whatever other description you can come up, it probably all fits.

The kid is 5 to 5-1/4 pounds.  And about 18 inches long (or somewhere between 16 to 20 inches long).  She is about the size of a honeydew melon, or a roast chicken.  The chicken picture is really kind of creepy, but it could have been a raw chicken, which would have been just ewwww.

She is pretty much fully developed at this point, which is awesome, but also scary.  If she were born now (which cannot happen under any circumstances), she has a 99+% chance of surviving.  Which is great. But please everyone tell her she needs to keep marinating, because we're just not ready quiiiiiite yet.

Her kidneys are fully developed and her liver can process waste.  Her nervous and immune system continue to mature, but everything else (toenails, hair, etc.) is fully formed.  She continues to add fat so that she can regulate her body temperature, but otherwise she's pretty much cooked at this point!

There is now more baby than amniotic fluid in my belly, and - as if I needed someone to tell me this - I am probably getting pretty uncomfortable, having a difficult time breathing and generally having smashed internal organs.  It's pretty awesome.  I have to be really careful what I eat because if I eat more than half a "normal" meal at a time, I end up pretty uncomfortable.  Also, another "state the obvious" tips is that simple tasks are very tiring.  Walking to and from my clinics at the courthouse causes me to be out of breath, talking for too long does the same (which makes Carmen happy - I have to shut up more often!).

I saw the doctor Monday, and I measured exactly 34 cm, which is where I was supposed to be at 34 weeks.  The baby's heartbeat is strong, and I've gained about 25 pounds so far.  So my doctor says I'm just plugging along as I'm supposed to do, which is great.  Except I still want her to tell me I need to start resting more.  But since she won't tell me, I'm just going to tell myself.  I'm going to try to leave work by 4 pm-ish most days and try to stop scheduling so many things for myself.  Maybe I'm being a baby about it, but it will mean a better life for me, the baby, and for Carmen and Jayden.  So I'm voting for that, for now.

In other news, my sister is crazy.  Starting Monday I began receiving packages from all of my friends.  My first two were from bay area friends, so I thought maybe they had gotten together to do something crazy.  And then two more packages showed up, from friends unrelated to the bay area.  And now I have a box of glitter, a pile of onesies, a bunch of sweet notes and cards and some amazing books and gifts for me, baby girl and Jayden.  I am totally overwhelmed with love.  I'll have more pictures tomorrow, but for now, here was the haul yesterday:

Jayden is also excited about all of these arrivals.  Especially because some of the boxes have things for him inside, and because he's super excited to read all of the books to his baby sister.  It's so very cute.  I know I'm not going to reach everyone here, and I will send appropriate thank you notes, but for now, thank you thank you thank you.