38 Weeks

This weeek the baby is the size of a winter melon or a mini watermelon.  Chocolate Chip is measuring around 19.5 inches and as much as 6.5-7 pounds!  The size of a real-life newborn baby!  

At 38 weeks, the baby is shedding the vernix and lanugo that was once covering his or her skin.  He or she could have blue, gray, or brown eyes.  But they can change up to one year of age.  And Chocolate Chip's vocal cords have now developed to allow the baby to let us know when he or she needs something.  Hopefully the baby's vocal cords are not quite as developed as Elsie's - or we'll all need noise-cancelling headphones to survive family dinners.  

We have been waiting (im)patiently for our crib to finally arrive at Suite Dreams.  Eric called them to check back in on its status, and it is here!  It will be delivered to us between 7 and 8 pm on Saturday (38+1).  So the boys can work on assembling the crib on Sunday afternoon.  Once the crib is standing, we can hang our final wall items (a mirror over the dresser and a wall decoration over the crib), and install the wall mount for the baby monitor.  Then the nursery will really feel finished and ready to accept a baby.  We had purchased a crib from Target just in case the Suite Dreams crib was not here in time for Chocolate Chip to sleep in it right away.  So now we can return that one and have the real crib ready to go.

I have my next OB appointment on Tuesday (complete with nonstress test).  I think Dr. Gabel will check my cervix and set an induction date for sometime during the 39th week - which could be as early as next Friday!