DONE!

At work, that is. Yesterday was my last day at work, and I am now officially on maternity leave. Wheee! I must admit, it's pretty fantastic. Slept in this morning (well, if 7:45 counts as sleeping in...) then went out for breakfast. Gotta enjoy having a life while I can.
We had my 38 weeks appointment yesterday, and everything continues to look good - blood pressure, weight, etc. The midwife thinks the baby may have started to drop (as they do around this time) so that's a good sign. I'm occasionally feeling twinges of painful sort of cramps/contractions, but they're very short-lived and sporadic at this point, so right in line with standard pre-labor expectations.
And, because I'm anal-retentive like this, we're headed for a second tour of the Family Birthing Center at our hospital this evening. We did the tour right after we found out I was pregnant, and I want to make sure we are still familiar with the place with the due date approaching. And we've done alot of research and learning about what we want since we did the tour, so we'll be able to ask some better questions this time too.
Then tomorrow, I'm headed to a breastfeeding class at the hospital. And Friday our lovely doula, Victoria, is coming over for another visit to go over all our plans and preferences. It's a packed week!

Baby Shower!

This past Saturday we enjoyed my second baby shower, courtesy of super party organizers Kristin and gram-to-be Anita. You can see on the left an adorable pair of little sneakers we got, though in order to more accurately represent reality, I should have placed them kicking me in the ribs. :) The shower was lovely, with piles of super cute stuff. Little Bubba now has enough onesies to poo, pee, and vomit all over himself for a nice long stretch before causing Daddy to do laundry. My mom and grandma came up for it, so it was adventures in grandma-land as well (hence the second photo.) Happily, at this point we're basically all set in terms of the basic stuff we need for him. Just plan to stock up a bit more on diapers and order the baby sling I want, and we're ready to rock and roll. Which is great, because this little man is currently rocking and rolling all over the place in my midsection, potentially doing the Macarena or practising his kick-boxing warm up routine. Either way, he is all over the place this evening. Even Daddy putting his hands on my belly, which usually quiets him down, had no effect. Maybe he's about ready to party his way on out. At this point, I am now 37 weeks, meaning he's technically fully baked, and would be considered full term if he showed up right now. But I've told him that would place a serious cramp in Mommy's plans to see Star Trek and Wolverine at the movie theatre.
Can't believe we're just weeks away from being parents....

Holy Cankles Batman!

Yesterday evening, after a stressful day of worrying about our cat being sick (and unsuccessfully trying not to let my preggo hormones get the best of me and make me cry) I got home to discover that A.) according to the vet, our cat's prognosis is quite promising, and B.) I have developed super-cankles. Byron insists that they're really not that swollen, but I know the truth. And of course, this is all just in time for the warming weather and the seasonal retreat of boots and pants...lovely!
I'm 35 weeks now - whoopie! Just 5 weeks to go, and just 3 weeks left at work. Which, I admit, is delightful. Little junior continues to get the hiccups almost daily, and seems to enjoy throwing his elbows around. My belly button looks like it will disappear in the next few days, and the angry red stretch marks continue to develop just underneath it.
We were in South Bend last weekend for Byron's Welcome Weekend for the Notre Dame MBA program, and our friends in the admissions department were already eager to start recruiting the little tyke. We met some other couples, a few with kids, that will be Byron's classmates this fall, which was great. Baby enjoyed his first campus visit (including a special performance of the ND fight song by the marching band's trumpet section, very rousing) and we looked at several housing possibilities. Of course, the one we liked most is more than we want to spend, but there are additional possibilities on the horizon. (Must find a big place with room for visiting grandparents!) I also discovered that my ability to stand/walk/talk for more than 30 minutes without discomfort is diminishing rapidly.
We're getting close - just 5 weeks (or so) to go....