37 weeks and 2 days pregnant

Mama's note: I sent this to Thora in an email on January 28. Reposting it here. Also, in this photo I was 35 weeks. I just kept getting bigger and bigger!

dear thora,

it seems weird to be writing you a letter but you will be a real person in my arms in just a few short weeks - or even days - so i guess it's really not all that weird. i was listening to a pregnancy podcast where one of the women speaking said she started writing her baby letters and i thought that was so wonderful and loving that i decided to do it too.

i am now just over 37 weeks pregnant with you. 37 weeks and two days. it's not hard to keep track. that means i am full-term and you could come anytime. the midwife says you are very tall and very big. also that you are low in my belly and getting ready to come out. not much longer now.

i am still working and you are cooperating. it feels like we have been together like this for a long time but really, it's only a blink of an eye. soon you will be here, taking up your own space and living your own life. i have loved feeling you grow inside me. everything has been a wonderful experience and even the nausea and headaches i had at the beginning and the rib/lung pain and contractions i have now are things that make me smile because they remind me that you are inside me, growing and getting ready to join our family.

i love feeling your feet. sometimes they jut out of my right side just under my ribs. sometimes i put my hand there just in time to feel a heel or toes and i just love that. i also love it when you get the hiccups. the midwife tells me that it's you trying to practice breathing.

your dad and i wonder what you will look like, what you will be like. i don't care... i just can't wait to meet you. we have loved you since we decided we wanted to have a baby and that love has grown with every stage... trying to get pregnant, finding out at four weeks that i was pregnant, the first ultrasound, the ultrasound at around 20 weeks when we found out you are a girl, when i felt you move for the first time (in the middle of the night!), when we chose your name, when we started buying things for you and washing your clothes and diapers, all the baby showers, when we started to feel ready for your arrival, all these things were milestones in my pregnancy that made me aware of how much more i love you with every passing day.

with much love,
your mom