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....

Just 6 Weeks To Go!

Well assuming little junior shows up on time, that is. Yep, I'm at 34 weeks now. And this morning, I must confess I had a very sad moment. I found my very first stretch mark. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be complaining. Here I've made it this far without a stretch mark on my belly. But the last week or so, the skin on my lower tummy had been feeling sore, and today it finally manifested in a pink streak across my skin. I guess I should be grateful I've made it this far without one, meaning my skin is pretty stretchy. But still.

We spend the weekend down in Potosi, MO at my mom's place, for my first of two baby showers. We got our car seat/stroller travel system (Byron's most wanted item!) and tons of cute little clothes. But the 6 hour drive each way taxed my ability to sit comfortably in one place for very long - thankfully Byron did all the driving so I got to squirm and stretch as much as I could.

Little Bubba continues to grow at an exponential rate, but has yet to outgrow his hiccups habit. I'm pretty sure he's doing it on purpose at this point. According to the sources that know these sorts of things, he is now about 5 pounds, and packing on a half pound a week. People continue to tell me I don't look all that big, which is reassuring I suppose, but I feel like I have small watermelon strapped to my tummy. A watermelon with a large squirrel suffering from ADD stuck inside it...

32 Weeks and growwwwwwwing

Check out this big ole' belly! Can't take credit for the cute pose (ah, the internet), but love the pic anyways.
We had my 32 weeks appointment this morning, and everything continues to come along swimmingly. My tummy now measures 34 inches from top to bottom (the number of inches is approximately equal to your number of weeks of gestation). I think the slightly higher measurement means this kid is more likely to be early than late, but that may be wishful thinking on my part. (And besides, that would mess up our plans to see Star Trek in the theater before our tot arrives!)
The midwife says his head is downward, which is good, but explains why my ribs are suffering constant assault from his kicky little feet. Sometimes it feels like his toes are curled around the edge of my ribs, which I can assure you is a bizarre feeling indeed. Our little booger has gotten the hiccups several times in the last week or so, which goes from cute to annoying pretty quickly. A quick belly jiggle has scared him out of them on occasion. I imagine he thinks it's a sudden earthquake.
We've started working on the nursery, and are both begin to feel the onset of nesting fever. Also suddenly the intrinsic cuteness of baby items is becoming overwhelming. We headed to Ikea last weekend to pick up a dresser/changing table, and both said "awe....how cute" to about a dozen things in the kids area. And this from the woman who is not normally touched by cuteness. Now just the sight of a ridiculously small onesie is enough to get me misty. Hormones, I say. Yeah, hormones. Once we've made a little more progress on the nursery I'll put up some pictures of that for your entertainment.
Just 6 more weeks of work to go before I get off for maternity leave! WHEEEEE!!!!

31 Weeks!

Check out the growing bowling ball I'm hiding under my shirt.

My first baby dream

Last night I had my first baby dream. This was after hours of dreaming about cooking (we went to a cooking class yesterday evening). So I dreamt that our baby was born, and that I was out and about at the mall with Junior in a baby carrier. Then our little infant develops the amazing ability to speak at 2 days old, and looks at me and says with confusion "my butt just exploded," which apparently meant that he had pooed. At which time I realize I have made the ultimate new mom mistake - I went out without a diaper bag! And my poop-y little boy keeps telling me about his messy situation. I had just threaded my way through a huge clump of hoodlums and finally found a bathroom where I hoped to jury-rig a paper towel diaper, when the alarm went off. Whew. So in thinking about it, I guess it's a good thing that kids don't learn to talk until after they have better bowel control, otherwise our days would be filled with alot of, ahem, potty talk.

In other preggo news, I enjoyed a faaaaaabulous expectant mother massage over the weekend courtesy of my thoughtful hubby's Valentine's Day present. D-lightful. And we had my 30 weeks checkup yesterday, which went smoothly. Still have great blood pressure and all that jazz. And, for the record, still getting kicked and poked internally on a regular basis. And getting bigger every day! I'll try to get another picture up in a day or two to show you my blooming figure.