37 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

According to the world health organization and the baby center emails, I am full term! (Although according to the purple Mayo book and the definition we used for a paper I am helping to wrap up at work, 38 weeks is full term). Either way, I am excited to have made it here. And I might be starting to add in an extra walk each day, eat more spicy food and try to woo my husband into having sex with me more often...all in an effort to bring on labor. I don't care if they are old wives tales - I am to the point, mentally and physically, that I am OVER pregnancy. I WANT MY BABY!

Since so many of my friends are currently pregnant, I have been thinking a lot of what I did and didn't use out of the pregnancy products. It should come as no surprise that pregnant women are HIGHLY marketed to. My friend JN and I were scheming to buy a whole bunch of exercise balls at Target, slap a sticker on them and re-sell them for twice the price as "birthing balls", because that's essentially what a birthing ball is. Do you think women giving birth in the middle of the rainforest are using birthing balls and sleeping with pregnancy pillows? Baby Center even has their list of pregnancy products you can't live without.

Still, even though I was resistant to a lot of the stuff, it did make me more comfortable. So here's my take on pregnancy products...hoping that I won't have to use them for too much longer! :)

CRITICAL
*Pregnancy pillow. Oh how I made fun of these. And then my husband bought me the Boppy Total Body pillow. HEAVEN. I drag that thing everywhere I sleep. It came with us on the road trip. Yes it was $50, but we got a $25 gift card for signing up for the USA Baby emails and thus, it was only $25. And it came with 12 weeks of free US Weekly trash. I think any body pillow (pregnancy or not) would suffice but I loved my Boppy.

*Pregnancy camisoles. A friend that had her baby in June told me to get these when I started to complain that some of my shirts were getting too short. I have one in nude, black and white. I have to say that they make things really warm so I haven't used them lately too often, but they were nice to make everything seamless under my shirts. I got them from Old Navy but they also have them at Target.

*Prenatal Yoga DVD. I love this thing and I hate workout videos/DVDs. I actually still do it, although mostly only in sections at 4 AM to relieve my aching back. A friend loaned me it, but I am totally going to buy it for my next pregnancy. I have the Shiva Rae Prenatal Yoga.

WONDERFUL
*Peppermint lotion. This might be exclusively wonderful if you are going through your third trimester in summer, but this really helps me cool down at night. I have the Burts Bees Mama Bee kind since it was a gift, but really, any peppermint lotion would work.

*Belly Balms. Ok, every single book, email, etc tells you that your tendency to get stretch marks is more genetic than anything and no cream is going to prevent anything. I DID NOT LISTEN TO REASON. I slathered stuff on me from the first day I knew I was pregnant. Mostly because I got a lot of this stuff as gifts. I have blogged about all of these before and I didn't necessarily prefer one kind over the other. My belly didn't get too itchy that often. I still do not have any stretch marks though! Here's hoping none pop up in the next 3 weeks.

ON THE FENCE
*Seabands. These are actually marketed towards people who have motion sickness AND pregnant women. I used them for about 2 weeks in early pregnancy b/c I was wearing long sleeve shirts at the time. I gave them to a pregnant friend, and don't know if she's used them. My husband suggested pulling them back out since I have had some nausea recently, but there is no way in HELL that I would wear them without a shirt sleeve to cover them. They are Richard Simmons sweating to the oldies. I don't know if they work. I was so sick that my husband would have bought anything at the time. Shortly after I started using them, I started feeling better, but i cannot prove a causal relationship.

WASTE
*Belly Band. I may be the only person that does not like this thing. In fact, I hated it. But everyone else I know likes it. (Actually, I think my friend MB also did not like it). Next time, I say just bring on the maternity pants.

*Preggo Pops. I got a sample of these. They taste fine but really they taste just like Halls Vitamin C drops which are more widely available and a lot cheaper. I went through Halls Vitamin C drops like crazy in early pregnancy b/c I always had a bad taste in my mouth.

NEVER TRIED
*Belly Support band. Honestly, I toyed with getting one of these around 30 weeks to help me with my running. but then I would be breaking the deal I made with myself- that I would stop running once I thought I needed the belly bra. I have non-runner pregnancy friends that thought these were helpful. I can't voice an opinion on this b/c I was too cheap to buy one.

*Special "pregnancy" underwwear. Now here is something where they totally jack up the price for no reason. I DID have to get all new bras, but I just went to Macy's and got normal bras in bigger sizes. Some people get those bra extenders that allow you to extend the band. I would have done this if that was my issue. My issue was not expanding band size. As for underwear, I bought the one pack of larger grannies before vacation and that is it. I still fit into many of my pre-pregnancy underwear, although those giant Hanes parachutes are the most comfortable. I think they shrank in the wash ;) (what I tell myself instead of thinking my butt got bigger!)

*Fetal doppler. YES. This was on the baby center list. Ok, I can't comment b/c I didn't have one, but this seems a little excessive. I do have one friend that has one, but she has had a lot of complications and some of her friends got together and rented her one as a gift.

*Slide On Shoes. This is also on the baby center list. My husband bought me a pair of birkenstocks but other than that, I didn't get any new shoes. I am very lucky and haven't had any foot swelling and still fit into all my shoes. PRAISE ALLAH!

That is all the products I can think of right now.

WOOHOO! 37 weeks!