Her Bump- 39 Weeks

Well it's official:

1. Dakota Kate will be a May baby and a Taurus {bull-headed I'm sure...like her Mommy}
2. We officially avoided 2 fronts that came through, the worst of it being the horrific record-making tornado chain that hit last Wednesday and she's continued to "Bake" {FYI: Clinical studies have shown that sudden changes in barometric pressure are known to cause rupture of membranes and the onset of labor. 2.5 weeks ago my OB delivered 8 babies in a 36 hour time-period and I'll find out tomorrow how many he delivered from the devastating storms that swept our state this past Wednesday}
3. We've also made it to Gigi's landing date- she's due to arrive in less than 4 hours {and I'm fairly certain Dakota won't arrive yet}
4. And oh, this is the MOST PREGNANT I've ever been! Mason was induced at 38 weeks, 3 days.

Truly I don't have anything to complain about.

We've been very blessed through the storms and are alive and well with no sustained damage. I was very concerned the evening of the tornadoes though as there were 3 hours straight of patterned contractions; starting at 14 min...13 min...12/11 min intervals and all the way down to 9/8 min. But thankfully they tapered off and obviously it wasn't the onset of labor---YAY! I'm not prepared for a home birth and at that point all of the roads, highways, and Interstates were closed due to the hundreds of tornadoes coming through. It could have been a very messy and scary situation. I'm so thankful we made it through without harm!

To date, I've had a smooth pregnancy with so many differences from the first: no anemia, no high blood pressures, fairly steady weight gain {although I've had my indulgences!}, no extreme swelling albeit I had to stop wearing my wedding rings at month 8, but that's much better than the 5 1/2 month limit I had with Mason.

Not-so-fun symptoms: my nausea has amp-ed up, heartburn stings every evening, my stretch marks even have stretch marks, my baby bump itself is significantly larger than before and I have outgrown about 80% of the maternity clothes I had relied on during this pregnancy.