Full Term!

At 37 weeks as of today, my baby is now considered full term. Although I have three weeks to go based on a 40-week gestation period, the baby's organs are now theoretically mature enough to live outside the womb without complications. Ideally labor will wait another three, four, or even five weeks, to give the baby the opportunity to mature further. Regardless of my due date, if the baby were to decide to arrive today, my doctor would not try to stop labor.

Before I was pregnant, I didn't understand what an emotional milestone reaching 37 weeks is. Chris expressed his emotions by high-fiving me as I stumbled to the bathroom early this morning while he was getting ready for work and exclaimed, "37 weeks!" I've been reassured by stories of friends' kids who were born weeks before term and grew up without health complications and by a friend who's a doctor (and who's own kid was born two weeks before term) who told me when I was at 33 weeks that if our child were born that day, it'd earn itself a few days in the NICU, but that it would be fine. Regardless of my kid's chances in the few weeks leading up to now, the less drama in my pregnancy, the better.

Like the rest of my pregnancy, Chris and I can only sit and wait, but otherwise go on with our lives. If I were to develop complications or were to go too far past my due date, (where the risk of the baby growing too big or the placenta breaking down goes up) my doctor would consider inducing labor or even a c-section. But those scenarios haven't even been discussed yet. I'm enjoying the thrill of knowing the baby and I have made it, even if I'm in a bit of denial that the baby really could theoretically come any day now.