Weekly pregnant pic... yes, I'm still pregnant

40 weeks and 1 days pregnant

I'm a day early on the Monday pregnant pic thing that I've done for the past 2 weeks, but whatever. The point being... I'm STILL pregnant!! I'm pretty sure I didn't think I would make it this far.

The parents are now both in town, which is fun. Poor dad leaves before our scheduled induction on Sunday (1 week from today) so he may have to come back later to meet his grandchild. But we should have fun this week with Thanksgiving and I'm officially on maternity leave, which I love so far!!

I'm starting to attend things I thought I wouldn't be going to. The first one being church this morning. Then the Thanksgiving Eve concert on Wednesday night, the downtown parade with family the day after Thanksgiving... and I think that's about it. I was originally thinking of avoiding all those activities but then adjusted to the idea and although I'll probably face all kinds of comments about, "when is this baby coming?", I'll grin and bear it. I try to refrain from sarcastic responses, a little. Today when someone asked, my response was something like, "wouldn't I like to know". That's not too sarcastic, right? I do find it somewhat amusing when strangers ask when I'm due and I now say "yesterday".

Currently we (my parents, Mark, Barb, and myself) are doing $5 bets on what day we think the baby will arrive. I'm playing it safe with Sunday, the day the Dr scheduled our induction. I would be more than happy to loose the bet, although $25 would be nice, but not worth the extra time if this child decided to arrive before then. Although I'm now expecting to have a 8 to 9 lb baby.

Speaking of our scheduled induction, the Dr didn't give us much of a choice at our appointment last Wednesday. I hadn't "progressed" any more than previously and he went ahead and scheduled it for 8 days after our due date, on a day he was working and late enough that they wouldn't end up sending me home if things didn't "work". So either way next Sunday/Monday we'll have our baby.

Thanks for those of you who haven't shared suggestions on how to bring labor on. I'm trying a few things but assume that God will bring this child when He's ready no matter what we're trying.

Monday pregnant pic day

Apparently Monday is pregnant picture day. Lordwilling one day it will be new baby picture day, every day!!

The coat I'm wearing makes me think of that Chris Farley skit where he would wear a too-small jacket and sing, "fat man in a little coat". This is, obviously, a non-maternity coat.

Mom is here, which is super fun!! Came home from work today to dinner in the crockpot, cake in the oven, and the house warm freshly picked up and smelling good. I could really get used to having dinner ready for me every night!!

There is still no indication that this child is going to come any time soon. She's due on Saturday. We're talking with the Dr at Wednesday's appointment about plan B. Although we're still on the fence about what plan B should be.

In the mean time, I'm plowing through my last week of work. Which I'm glad about since my back doesn't want to spend more than 5 minutes sitting comfortably in my work chair. It's too weird that it's my last week of work that reality hasn't set in!!

Pregnant pic

The nursery is completely ready. I have decided to give up on cleaning. My mom is coming out this week and is staying until after Thanksgiving (SUPER excited about this!!). And I can only think of a few ways in which I could be more uncomfortable. I told Mark tonight on the drive home that the reality of what is about to happen to us completely escapes me. So right now I'm focusing on the excitement of not having a child using up all my resources. And planning a few fun activities (New Moon ;) for next weekend in case this child has decided to stay in past her due date. I think I get a little too anxious about having her out when I think about how I get my very own baby in a few short days/weeks ;)

Here I am, 38 weeks and 2 days.

Can you see the stretch marks on the bottom half of my belly? They are quite nice. Looks like someone clawed me down there. And of course, they are made worse by the excessive itchiness.

Life and baby prep and guesses on due date

On the subject of life, Mark and I got up just after 7 this morning, threw some clothes on, grabbed some food and headed out to get in line for swine flu shots. Since our baby isn't here yet, Mark wasn't allowed to get one (they were doing priority people only) and I managed to score the last shot the people giving them had. Relieved to have that done although the baby may not come before it actually starts working in my system so going to ask the Dr how this will all work. The pic below is Mark and I in line.

Regarding baby prep, my mom has been here for a few days and has helped me make AMAZING progress on getting the final details in place and all our wonderfully pink gifts put away. Although we had the furniture in place, we still had to figure out where all the little things were going to go and mom has been great! She's good at organizing and just sort of took over. Especially after yesterday's shopping trip when I was too tired to do anything other than sit on the couch. As we were out yesterday from around 10 until nearly 4, Mom and Barb kept laughing at me as I said things like, "my back hurts and I don't know why." Because apparently the reason "why" was very obvious to them.

We still have a few small things left to do, but for the most part we're ready!! At least as ready as you can be to completely change your life from what you've known for the past 2 years. It's exciting and scary!!

I want to find out what people are guessing for when the baby will come. We're due on the 21st (3 weeks from today) and the Doc says he's estimating she'll probably be early and not late. So far mom is guessing the 18th. No one else has made a guess yet. Anyone else want to weigh in??

I'm HUGE!!

Okay, this is a TERRIBLE picture of me, but as a profile shot... I can't believe how HUGE I am!!! The baby is all in front. Currently she likes to push out a lot, I keep trying to tell her that won't give her any more room, but she doesn't see to be figuring that out. And she pushes a leg (assuming it's a leg) out on my right side all the time. We sometimes like to pick on her and push back until she moves a little ;) I'm also enjoying her periodic hiccups. She just recently started to get them and frequently gets them a little while after I eat lunch or dinner.

Baby shower

Yesterday Barb and Sharon Mulder threw me a baby shower for my Sunset family. I work there, do ministry there, and have been attending for almost 7 years so it was quite the crowd! My friends are very generous and other than having to take a ton of pee breaks and getting sleepy, it was a wonderful afternoon!!

Me and Rose. She is the wife of a guy I work with and I got to know her at Gift last week. She's awesome and is learning maternity massage... I'm taking advantage on Thursday ;)

Me (36 weeks) and Barb. Thanks for the beautiful location, yummy food, and wonderful party!!

Jilly Gosset, know her from my job as admin. She's an awesome woman!

Little Nike's from my friend Jenna who I've been hanging out with since she was a Junior in HS. She's now graduated from college and is a career woman.

Rose picked out an outfit that was the hit of the party. SUPER cute!!

From L to R, Janet, Julie, Bethany and Rose. Janet is my boss and gotten to be a good friend. Julie start off as Barb's friend and is now mine as well, she's also offered her arms to hold the baby as needed. Bethany is the wife of another guy I work with and a good friend. And Rose, again ;)

These are just a few of the 20-25 people who were able to come. Barb's place was quite crowded. It was fun to see friends from so many different circles, our realtor, friends of Barb's, former co-workers, current co-workers, friends from student ministry, and all some how associated with Sunset. My mom was even able to come!! She's in town for a work thing and managed to get away for a few hours to join the party.

This was our second/last shower. So now I'll be spending the weekend with my mom trying to finalize the last few purchases and then plan to organize all our wonderful new clothes and accessories in the nursery so we're all ready to go!

At our appointment last Wednesday the Dr said he thinks the baby should be more early than late, which is exciting! So I'm hoping all these early plans will be necessary ;)

Jared's visit

Last Friday (the week before last), Jared flew through Portland for a short 12 hour layover on his way to Denver with our uncle Jerry for the marathon. We had dinner at Barb's, watched a little ol' skool Tremors and then back to our place to bed and up early to meet up with Jerry on the way to the airport. It was a fun quick stop!