shower me with your love

Saturday was my official baby shower. My Mom threw it for me and it was absolutely fabulous. The tables looked beautiful and she created these really clever centerpieces for each one. She took these little buckets and filled each one with different baby supplies—bottles, diaper cream, socks, hats, burp cloths, etc. When the shower was over I got to take all the goodies home with me. Each place setting had a little bag with a package of hot chocolate (one of I think 6 different flavors) & a large biscotti. I had a similar favor—with mini biscottis—at my bridal shower four years ago and loved the idea of tying together the beginning of our life as a family of two with the beginning of our life as a family of three.

The tables.

One of the centerpieces.

The food was great. We had mini croissaints with either chicken salad or ham & swiss cheese, potato salad, green salad, fruit salad, potato chips, mini eclairs & cream puffs along with punch, coffee, and water. The cake was an adorably decorated marble sheet cake. Everyone seemed to enjoy all the food and although I haven't had a piece of the cake yet, I heard it was excellent.

The top of the cake.

While my guests enjoyed their cake, I opened the huge pile of gifts waiting for me. We got so many great things. The registry must be bare because we got almost everything we registered for. Every bit of the nursery themed items were purchased, our car seat, diaper bag, monitors, you name it. We also got lots of cute little outfits in all different sizes.

I love this bag.

Cute camo tennies.

Funky little outfit from a Chicago boutique.

Mom & me.

Josh's diaper/poker party was also a big success. We ended up with 16 packages of diapers—which more than covered the cost of food and beer for the party. His party started at noon and the last of the guests didn't leave until after nine that night.

Diapers, duh.

by the numbers

• 36 weeks along
• 30 days until my due date
• 9 days until I'm full term
• 4 weeks or less until I go on leave
• 3 days until the baby shower
• 2 excited parents to be
• 1 baby we're ready to meet

35 weeks

"You have a nice pelvis."

That's what the doctor told me today. She also showed me her unshaven legs. It was quite the appointment. I went in today expecting my usual to do—check my weight, BP, fundal height, baby's heartbeat, any questions?, no see you in two weeks. That's not what I got. Oh, she did all the usual. I'm up a pound since the last visit two weeks ago. Blood pressure was good. Measuring 36.5 cm. Baby's heartbeat in the 140's. Excellent.

Not so excellent? Today I got to do the Strep B culture as well. I didn't expect that until next appointment and Josh was with me. Lucky him. It actually wasn't bad and was much quicker than your normal pap test.

When that was done she checked my cervix. That's when she told me I have a nice pelvis. That's so funny to me. Good news is the baby is head down and my cervix is still closed but soft. I'm ripening! How exciting. That means the end is getting near.

Oh, and I've graduated to the every week appointments.

you can't come yet, I don't have my list done

Things I still have to do before this baby comes:

• Pre-register for the hospital
• Fill out paper work
• Copy insurance card
• Send in
• Pack for the hospital
• Find bag
• Print lists of things to pack and cross-reference because I'm anal
• Make list of own
• Buy disposable/travel items (toothpaste, toothbrush, etc) which will be thrown away at hospital per the advice of The Life and Times of a Labor Nurse
• Pack something/everything/anything—just start already
• Car Seat
• Buy one (if we don't get one at the baby shower)
• Install it
• Have it checked by KISS (Kids in Safe Seats) at hospital
• Baby Shower!!
• It's on the 24th
• I can't wait!
• Then we can finally finish the nursery and assess what we still need to buy.
• Write Birth Plan for hospital
• "With this birth I'd like to try..." (per our childbirth class instructor)
• Things to include: no episiotimy if possible, prefer Nubain over an epidural, want to try alternative birthing positions like squatting, want to be able to walk around labor & delivery room, etc...
• Call the pediatrician we want for the Wee One
• Check that he is accepting new patients
• See what we have to do to secure him as ours
• Don't Panic

38 days to go

I think Josh's face says it all.

surprise!

Yesterday I had a final critique in a class to conduct and then two meetings with two different colleagues. The first meeting was set for about 11 a.m. and the second was set for 1 p.m. The second was set up initially to meet after my class would officially end (but being the final class I knew it wouldn't run that long). I had hoped that I could just bump the second meeting up to right after the first. Things didn't work out quite the way I had hoped.

My first meeting colleague (B.) popped up about 11:30 and he was with the colleague I was supposed to meet later (T.). I mentioned to T. that I'd like to meet sooner than later if possible because that would give me more time to go home and relax before I had to be back at 4:30 for office hours and my second class. T. wasn't having it—he told me he had other things he had to do and had to meet with someone at 12:00. He asked if we could meet at 12:30 instead. Okay, I thought, at least that's a half an hour earlier. I was tempted to see if we could just meet today instead, but he had set it up and is the department chair so I just decided to go with it.

B. and I sat down for our meeting and talked for almost an hour—awesome, it's 12:30 already, T. should be around any minute. Another colleague of mine (J.) showed up and started telling us this really animated story of how she almost got snowed at her cabin out east over the weekend. Finally at 12:45, T. showed up ready for our meeting, but with a catch. Instead of meeting in my office or in his he wanted to meet in the diner (our faculty/staff break area). He said he was hungry and hadn't had any lunch yet. So I packed up my stuff and the two of us headed over to the diner along with J. and B.

I got to the diner door—with J. in the lead—and she stepped back and told me to go ahead. My initial thought was, "Why don't you get the door? I've got all this crap in my hand." But, I stepped up and punched in the code. When I got the door open it was totally dark and I flipped on the light switch. That's when I heard it.

"SURPRISE!!!" was being yelled out in my general direction. There sat a huge chunk of people that I work with there to celebrate with me at a surprise baby shower. There was cake and snacks and a whole bunch of presents for the Wee One. It was incredible and I was absolutely speechless—not an easy thing to do.

I felt so incredibly loved by all my colleagues at that moment. J. had planned it all and it had apparently been in the works for a couple of weeks. I had no idea. Books, a baby tub, baskets filled with goodies, little toys, clothes, and lots of gift cards—great things to make the Wee One's journey into this world that much easier. It was great fun and there were lots of pictures taken. Here's a few from the festivities.

33 weeks

Feeling absolutely huge.

Lots 'o baby in there & not much room left.

They say that you're supposed to average the parent's weights to get an idea of how much your baby will weigh. Josh weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 10 oz. Thankfully, I only weighed 5 lbs. 6 oz. when I was born. That gives us an average of just under 7 lbs. I'll take it.

moving right along

Things seem to be moving along smoothly and at a relatively steady space. Went to the doctor's today and it was the same old song and dance. Weight is good. Blood pressure is fine. Baby's heartbeat is in the 140's. I'm measuring at 34 cm and I'm 33 weeks and a few days. According to the doctor, "Perfect.". The only odd thing the doctor asked me today is what I had for lunch. Burger, fries, and really sweet lemonade. She laughed and said, "Ahh, it was the lemonade." My sugar levels were up +2 in my urine sample for the first time ever. So, everything is good—back in two weeks.

We are getting more prepared for baby's arrival too. We finished up the last of our childbirth classes and the nursery is looking more and more like a baby's room. We still don't have any bedding or lots of the essentials, but the shower is just 3 weeks away and we're hoping for lots of goodies from all our family and friends. We were surprised by the UPS man last week with a huge package on our front porch. Josh was home when it was dropped off with just a ring of the doorbell as an indicator. It was the stroller from our registry sent to us by my Aunt and Uncle in California. Yay! Josh put the box in the nursery and wanted me to find it on my own but was too excited and told me just moments after I got home from work that day. It is so awesome.

Lots of storage areas and really roomy looking.

Check out how much the monkey likes it.

The closet is starting to fill up, as is the dresser. It wasn't that long ago when we just had two onesies hanging in the closet. I've washed and put away all the clothes, blankets, bibs, washcloths, and anything else that would come in contact with the baby's skin. I went out and bought 20 baby hangers and if I plan to hang up anymore clothes we get I'll need to go buy more.
I'll be posting more belly pictures soon and when I do we'll talk all about the lack of room in the womb for this little baby. Until then, we're just taking it day-by-day.