nine-month appointment
Today I had my 9-month prenatal appointment. Exciting news: I am 1-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. That means the process has officially begun! I have not had any contractions (at least not the kind that I can feel) since last Tuesday (three days ago), but my body is obviously having contractions since I am dilating (they are just painless contractions at this point). From what I understand, it could still be 3 weeks or so until I am dilated enough to go to the hospital... everyone is different. My due date is in 3 weeks and 1 day.

The baby is also head down, but not engaged (which means he's still floating around in there). Often the baby becomes engaged at the beginning of labor but other times it doesn't happen until right before, so this doesn't necessarily mean anything.

The doctor predicts the baby is now about 7 1/2 pounds. If I carry to my due date, he would be 8 1/2 to 9 pounds... but the doctor doesn't think I will carry that long. She predicts we have 1 to 2 weeks left!

I don't want to get my hopes up, because I know these predictions are sometimes wrong. There's really no way to guess how quickly my body will get things going. But still... the possibility that we could be parents in a week is pretty amazing. That means we only have 1 more weekend (minimum) to sleep in instead of 3.