30 week update

3/4 the way through a pregnancy would sound pretty exciting if it weren't for the fact that I know how hard the last 10 weeks can be! I told my friends at church Thursday night that I feel like I packed all my energy away with the Christmas decorations. The third trimester exhaustion really seemed to hit last week!

A few things may be contributing to the sudden exhaustion. First, I think I was purely running on adrenaline through Christmas; a necessity with all I had to accomplish. When Christmas was over, my body decided to catch up with sleep.

Also, I think the baby moved from transverse to, oh, I can't remember the technical term but head down, in utero last week. I've been feeling a lot of pelvic pressure, which is something I really don't remember ever feeling before. However, my last four or five babies were still very high until . . . well, until I pushed, pretty much! :) Wouldn't it be something if this baby actually "dropped" before I was 7 cm dilated? I measured 30 cm at the doctor two weeks ago and measured 29 cm yesterday, so I'm pretty sure the baby significantly changed postitions.

I've also started to have a lot of contractions, which isn't anything new with me. I went to the doctor when I had early contractions with #4, but I've learned that it is just normal, at least for me, to have a lot of contractions leading up to the "birth" day. They aren't strong, so I can ignore them pretty well, but I think they do wear me out some.

Esther made our countdown chain to keep track of how many days until the due date. I still have to add some black chains on the end though because chances are I'll go past my date. Although babies #2, 4, and 6 were a day or two early, so maybe #8 will keep up the even number trend!

As much as I would love to continue chatting about pregnancy and birth, my break should really end, so I can clean the boys room. Ewww! I feel sorry for Nathan because he got all of his chores done all week, but he went to work at church with Steve today, so he probably won't have time to get his "Super Saturday" today - which is when all the chores for the week are done. It was actually a very good week for chores, and I may have five kids that get a Super Saturday. What a help that would be if they all did that every week until the baby comes!