35w 5d: prelabour and getting ready

So, I'm getting to the end. I'm actually feeling better physically than I did a couple of months ago -- I think I've gotten more used to carrying the extra weight, and my iron levels must finally be OK because I don't feel so horribly tired any more. I can feel the baby running out of room; big kicks have been mostly replaced by pokes and fidgets, exactly like someone trying to get comfy in a cramped space. The baby is head-down, but sort of curled up sideways. It still has a bit of time to get into a better position, so I'm trying not to worry.

I am having a lot of Braxton-Hicks these days -- I actually ended up spending a night in hospital last week because they were getting painful and it looked like I might go into labour. But when I failed to produce a baby, they sent me home again :) I've taken this as my warning to start getting ready, though. I've bought most of the stuff for my hospital bag (including some clothes for the baby), I'm picking up a Moses basket from my sister later this week, and we bought a Moby wrap I'd had my eye on for ages. (Now to figure out how to put it on...) I'm also feeling very nesty, and keep going into frenzied bursts of tidying and organising. Which the apartment really needed, so this is no bad thing. It seems like I'm in what the books describe as prelabour, which apparently can last a month or more. I won't be at all surprised if I go before my due date, though... it just feels like things are starting to happen.

I still have worries; my fears of something going wrong with the pregnancy are now being joined by fears about how to actually look after a a baby. I am rather terrified at the idea that they're just going to hand us a baby and we have to take care of it and keep it healthy and happy and I don't feel like I know how to do any of this. But maybe nobody does. Most of the time, though, I'm excited and impatient to meet the baby.