Surprise!

37 weeks, 5 days. Yay!

We went to the OB on Tuesday, and all is well. My cervix is holding steady, I'm still at "1 and 1" which is great! We also did a non-stress test (NST) on the critter, which given my age, is standard at 37 weeks. Basically, they did the same monitoring we did when I was in the hospital for pre-term labor. 2 belly monitors, one to measure the critter's heartbeat, and one to measure contractions. We were on the monitor for about 30 minutes, and the time flew. I could listen to that critter all day long. She did very well, had the acceleration and decclerations in her heart rate like they wanted. So she is doing well, which is nice to know. We might actually make it to the scheduled c-section at 39 weeks. Amazing! (Wait, did I just jinx myself??)

So this is the final of my three posts reflecting on my experience with pregnancy. Today, the surprises.

1. Hair, hair, everywhere! OR How I became a hairy primate. Let me preface this by saying I'm not a hairy person normally. My body hair is light colored and fine. No hairy arms or legs or whatever here. But with pregnancy, I've become an ape. Mostly on my torso. My belly began sprouting dark hairs, fairly long, dark hairs (I know, ewwww!) around the 2nd tri. I've had to wax my belly twice so far, which thank the lord, does not hurt at all. But it is just odd. I hope this is not a lasting thing, and when the hormones even out, I'll go back to my normal non-hairy self.

2. Weird skin growths. I'll admit, I'm a sort of mole-y person. I have some Italian blood in me, and have olive skin. I have small freckle-like moles around my body. "Angel kisses" my great-aunt called them. But with pregnancy, it has changed. Existing moles have gotten much darker. But more concerning and strange, they have multiplied. I am literally covered with moles over my upper torso and back. They sprouted up out of nowhere, and they are everywhere!! Even on my now really dark-chocolate colored boobs. Moles on my boobs, what the hell?? I've also got so many skin tags. I can barely shave my underarms for all the skin tags there. I have been dreaming of when I finally get to visit my derm in a few months to get this craziness taken care of.

3. Crappy maternity clothing. Damn, considering so many women need maternity clothes, you'd think it'd be easier to find decent clothes. Not so much. Pretty much everything is only available online, or sold at Motherhood or Pea in the Pod stores. That's it, those are your options. Brutal. Either so expensive you can't justify spending $200 on jeans you'll only wear for 4 months (Pea in the Pod) or crappy quality that falls apart after 3 washes (Motherhood). The Gap has been my best option, but that's not saying much. I've had the most trouble with pants. I ended up wearing many of my non-maternity sweatpants or workout pants, worn below my belly. I'm just glad I don't have to dress up for work and can get away with workout wear most days. There is a huge market opportunity here. (And I know many of you have used ebay, but I just can't do used clothes. not for me.)

I pretty much expected the rest of the craziness, like the flatulence, the burping, the moistness down there. And like I've said, I've had it pretty easy. But if you see some pregnant, mole-covered simian wearing sweatpants, yeah, that's me.