MacNut Week 33

Technically, this is what's going on this week:

• MacNut is the heft of a pineapple - ~17.20 inches and 4.23 pounds.
• The early baby fuzz, lanugo, is disappearing now and being replaced by actual hair. The nails of your baby are now long enough to reach to the tip of the fingers or beyond and may need trimming as soon as they are born. They may scratch their face even before birth.
• The baby is using her lungs to practice breathing by inhaling amniotic fluid. Your baby is drinking about a pint of amniotic fluid a day now and urinating the same amount (eeew...she's drinking her own urine!)
• You may gain a pound a week for the rest of your pregnancy.  Half of your weight gain will go directly to your baby.
• Do not stop eating or start skipping meals as your weight increases (umm...okay). Both you and your baby need the calories and nutrition you receive from a healthy diet.

Physical:

• Weight: 151 lb (+25)
• Belly circumference: 39.50 in (+9.00)
• Fundal height: 32 in (she's still pretty low down there, but at least there's some growth!)
• Dilation: 2-3cm
• Effacement: 70% (yikes!)
• Station: -2
• Estimated weight of baby: nearly 5 pounds!
• More contractions this week.  One night, they came regularly at 5 minutes apart for about 40 minutes.  I had a safe feeling that everything was going to be okay.  So I just tried to go back to sleep...and was able to.  I was told the next day that if I were to go in to the hospital that night, they would not have done anything to stop labor.  (But I think that varies from one practitioner to another.  I would ask for a tocolytic.)
• At the check-up on Wednesday, my midwife estimated that Camille is almost 5 pounds.  I don't know if that's even possible.  That's pretty chunky for this stage, right?
• My gestational diabetes has been very well-controlled.  Even after splurging at Fat Burger and Old Country Buffet (I did not go lightly, boys & girls), my levels were still well within the normal range!

Spiritual & emotional:

• With very mixed feelings, I bring you the news that my nephew Caleb died on Monday morning (7/19).  He was 12 years old.
• I have mixed feelings about his death because I am extremely sad (maybe even depressed), regretful, jealous, and happy.  
• I am sad because he's my nephew!  He and his brother Joshua were the first grandkids for my parents.  We lived with them for their first few years.  I was the expert at extracting snot from their nose and I was very proud of it.  Twelve is not an age where you expect to see your loved one go.
• I regret not seeing him before that damn shunt was placed in his head.  The surgery that caused him to have the blank stare, mask-like face, and severe muscle weakness.  I regret that even though I created an account for him and I put together a compilation of songs for him on Grooveshark, I never got a chance to give it to him.  I regret that I never Skyped with him.
• I am jealous because he gets to be in heaven.
• I am happy because he gets to be in heaven.  But I do miss him a lot.
• I'm not sure how things work up there, but I hope he was able to find his cousins -- David, Benjamin, and Penelope.
• Chin & I are heading down to Oregon tonight to be with family and to prepare for the memorial service on Monday morning.