36 Weeks

What is BabyCenter's fruit/veggie pick for the week? A crenshaw melon. Our little girl is a precious melonhead once again. She is also still packing on the pounds -- at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She is 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. She swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture called meconium, which will form the contents of her first bowel movement. Mmm... looking forward to that.

At the end of this week, Baby Helms 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). Jarrett and I finally sat down this evening and made our packing list for the hospital -- now we just need to actually pack! My coworker, who has been walking down this pregnancy path with me, had her baby early this morning, about a week-and-a-half before her scheduled due date, so I do need to keep in mind that an early birth is a possibility. It sounds like her labor and delivery went fairly smoothly, and she, her husband, and her new little boy are all doing quite well.