Officially full-term

Last Friday was my 37-week appointment and as usual it was uneventful. For the first time I saw the new doctor who replaced the doctor who delivered Claire. Apparently his practice is to check everyone for dilation from 36 weeks on, so I got a surprise check (no progress, though). The other doctors at the practice don't check until 38 or 39 weeks unless you've had contractions or other signs of labor.

I turned in my last article this morning so am officially on break from work (except for editing, which, compared to writing, is much easier to do on short notice and little sleep). Now I'm going to focus on getting rested before this baby comes. I have been waking up every couple of hours during the night lately, not just to use the bathroom -- although I always do that too, why not? -- but because apparently it takes so much effort to roll over at this point that my unconscious mind and body can't handle it.

I am very sorry to report that I think I actually might be done with running for this pregnancy. I'm not writing it off for sure, but my last few runs have really left me in rough shape. My last hard run was Friday and it took me until Monday to recover. It's not a specific issue like the SI joint problem I had with Claire, it's just more general achiness -- basically it feels like my pelvis is splitting in two. It hurts.

As much as I want to run all the way through the pregnancy, it's hard to think the benefits outweight the cost right now. And I am at 38 weeks and 2 days today so hopefully Evan's arrival is right around the corner anyway.