39 weeks and still hanging in there

This is a photo from yesterday - Sunday - at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Festival. We were so excited to find out there was such a large faire a mere 60 miles away! Aaron and I LOVE the RenFaire. We go to the one in Atlanta every year and our first date was the one in Maryland. I know our friends at home think we're big dorks for loving the faire so much but we don't care - we go and buy our giant turkey legs, laugh at all the cheesy acts, play along with all the terrible accents, and try to buy something special for each of the girls.This year C picked a tail - furry and red that spins when she twirls, and K picked a pink dragon she named Fluffy that rides on her shoulder.  We were happy to share the day with Aunt Janice who we're living with while we're up here. We had a great time.
For those of you wondering my appointment last Friday went well. M's heart rate is still in the 140's and he's still growing/moving a lot. No more ultrasounds or echos so the midwife was just guestimating when she said she thought he'd be around 7lbs at birth. We'll take it. All my tests look good - no weight gain this week so we celebrated w/ a burger and fries from Bobby's Burger Palace :) We also met the family life specialist who will help us talk to the girls about what their brother is going through - and harder stuff if it comes to it. Apparently they have special dolls - cabbage patch dolls for those of you who know what those are- that they put the same tubes/wires that each individual baby has to prepare siblings for what they'll see. She assured us that usually kids are pretty resilient and respond better to seeing these fragile babies then parents expected. I hope so - C is so sensitive... I hope she can handle it. If not, they say don't push them. Just let them know it's ok if they want to wait in the waiting room and they can try again later.
So 1 week to go until our due date - if we don't go into labor by then they will start talking about inducing me. Probably before the following Friday. I hope he comes on his own. He's going to be pumped so full of meds and crap that I want to do my best to let him come into this world as naturally as possible. Maybe that's silly... probably. It's strange what becomes important in light of everything he'll go through - all the procedures and sedations, anesthesia and morphine and here I am worried about Pitocin. I admit it - silly. but I guess with so much out of my control I try to hold onto what I can. Like cutting out dairy. I've read numerous accounts of HLHS babies having issues with their gut - digestion- blood in their stool- that is hard to pinpoint so often they will say it might be a dairy allergy and look suspiciously on your preciously pumped and horded breastmilk as a possible culprit. So I cut out dairy at 36 weeks - just in case. Probably silly again - but apart from the occasional pang for pizza, or gelato, or almost anything off most menus- it hasn't been that hard and my body feels better.
So I'll have my last scheduled appointment this Friday. We'll bring the girls so they can see the hospital before they know a patient there - when they can just enjoy it. then we'll set up appointments/plan for next week if he doesn't come by then.
In the meantime we've bought 2 fresh pineapples - I swear that helped me go into labor with K- and plan on walking/swimming everyday.