"Your Pregnancy - 36 Weeks"

I had another Dr. appointment today, and once again, all is well!   I will now move to weekly appointments.

The c-section has been officially scheduled for Friday, January 6.   I will need to be at the hospital at 5:00am.   Ouch!

The doctor said the goal is to keep lil' Biscotti inside and growing for at least the next 11 days and that after 11 days, she's free to come out whenever she'd like.  *gasp!*  11 days???

Of course, that doesn't mean she's coming in 11 days, necessarily.  That just puts me within an acceptable delivery time frame 

Side note:  I guess I've been getting these pregnancy updates via e-mail a week early.   I'm at 35 weeks today, not 36.  But I'll keep posting the updates as I get them, because they are interesting, nonetheless.

And here is this week's pregnancy report:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.