5 Days or Less!

Little Guy is still stubbornly camped out in my belly. We have an induction scheduled for Tuesday, but hopefully he'll make his grand entrance before that. We're a little nervous about an induction because it has a higher risk of a c-section. There have been some signs that labor is fast approaching, so I'm really hoping it happens tomorrow. My dr is on call, Little Guy's Grammy will be here, and Adam is starting his 2-week paternity leave tomorrow (hint, hint, Little Guy!!)

Today is my last day of sitting at home by myself. I'm glad to have had this quiet time, and now I'm ready for the chaos to begin. Today was a pretty eventful day, actually. My friend Tami had a healthy baby girl this morning. She weighed in at 7 lbs, 5 oz, if you can believe that! She went all-natural and said it wasn't as bad as she expected. (I admire her strength but "epidural" is still prominently featured in my birth plan!)

Also, Little Guy's Grandma was in the hospital for a heart problem, but the doctors shocked her back into shape (literally) and all is well. It was a little scary but she should be fine and hopefully her doctor will allow her to fly in to meet Little Guy in a couple of weeks.

The weather continues to be just incredible, and I took a walk down to a nearby bed-and-breakfast to pick up the key to the room LG's Grammy will be staying in. The B&B is so cute, and hopefully it will be a nice get-away for Grammy while we stumble our way through our first nights with Little Guy. The walk back up to our house was slow-going and HOT (yes, it's a blistering 75 degrees here, but it's more like 95 degrees for a mammoth walking uphill.)

Time for me to get going - Grammy will be here in 2 hours and I still need to freshen up, finish laundry, and make dinner!

2 Days to Go!

Just two days until our due date! Adam and I are feeling so impatient to see our little guy. I am really uncomfortable, and it's hard to find a sleeping position that doesn't make my back or belly hurt. It seems like once I find a position that doesn't hurt me, Little Guy gets uncomfortable and starts kicking up a storm. I keep reminding myself that we probably only have a few more nights of that!

The weather has been incredible here this week - 70 degrees and sunny every day. I've spent a lot of time out walking, and today we went down to the beach near our house for a little picnic. The beach is right next to the ferry dock, and there was an interesting mix of people out. There were some anti-war protestors on one side of the street, and an old man with a "support our troops" banner on the opposite side of the street. There were a lot of families, an old flabby hippie man wearing nothing but tiny jean shorts, and several scuba divers. Here are some photos: (sorry, we didn't catch one of the hippie man)

I have my fingers crossed for Little Guy to make his grand appearance tomorrow! As anxious as I am to meet him, I've been thinking about what a great experience this pregnancy has been. It's been so much fun going through this experience together, and I am pleasantly surprised that I didn't suffer a lot of the aches and pains I expected. Most of the surprises have been wonderful, starting from that Friday morning back in September when I first saw that faint pink line. (If only I'd known how great most of my pregnancy would be back when I was lying on the couch wondering if you could die from fatigue and nausea.)

Hopefully we'll be posting pics of Little Guy very soon!

Last Day at Work

Just wanted to share a photo of the 15th Floor Pregnant Girls Club. Believe it or not, Tami (in the center) is due 4 days BEFORE me. I got to hear over and over again how huge I am compared to her. Tami's doctor has monitored her closely, and somehow she's hiding a normal-sized baby in there! Aparna is due 6 weeks after us, and her baby is doing well too.

Despite the comments, it was a blast going through the experience together. We went out to lunch every week and compared aches and pains daily. We're all having our first babies, so it was fun to share tips and the excitement of each milestone.

I desperately wished I didn't have to work during my first trimester. It was a challenge just to sit upright when I was in a fog of fatigue and nausea 24/7. But working during the rest of my pregnancy was great, especially with Tami and Aparna. Still, my last day on Friday felt like the last day of school before summer break. I haven't had this much time off work since I started working my first job after college. I'm not used to having this little to do - it's only noon on my official first day off, and I'm already wondering what's going on with some of the projects at work. I'm fighting the urge to check my work email, since I swore I wouldn't.

Later this afternoon we're off to the doctor and then meeting my friend Julie for dinner at Pike Place Market. I'm already thinking about what I'm going to eat!

In the Single Digits!

Alright, only 9 days to go until my due date! I hope he comes some time next week, but of course we have no idea when it will happen. I've been having contractions, some of them pretty painful, for almost 2 weeks. I'm so used to them that I no longer feel like I'm about to go into labor. Right now it feels like I could be pregnant forever. He is so cramped in there, and when he tries to stretch out it feels like he might pop right out of my cervix and snap one of my ribs at the same time.

Friday was my last day of work. I had a hard time deciding when to leave, but the timing worked out well with my workload and I was feeling so exhausted from the daily grind. My original plan was to work right until I went into labor, but I finally realized that I would be in bad shape if I had to give birth after a long day at the office. I am getting a lot of sleep and finishing up a few things around the house, and hopefully I won't have to use up a lot of my time off before he gets here. I still plan to take off 2 months from the day he's born, and after that Adam is staying home with him, so he'll have plenty of time with Mom and Dad.

Adam will get to celebrate his first Father's Day this year! I wonder if he'll feel like a special day out or if he'll just want some uninterrupted sleep. We've been talking about several things we'd like to get out and do this summer if Little Guy has the right temperament. We've never been big fans of the night life, so if Little Guy is laid back enough we might be able to enjoy a lot of the things we normally do.

Hopefully it's not long now! I can't wait to hold him and kiss him and see who he looks like!

What a Week!

The first half of the week was great. Little Guy's check-up on Tuesday went well, as usual. He's right on track and I'm slightly dilated. I was disappointed that the doctor couldn't tell me anything about when I'll deliver except that I won't go beyond 42 weeks! Best not to think about that scenario. I doubt he'll be much overdue, if at all. I'm having practice contractions, and they've become stronger and more painful in the last week.

Work was a real challenge on Thursday and Friday. We had big submittals going out both days, and of course something usually goes wrong when we have big deadlines. My job is to coordinate all of the pieces of the submittal from different engineers, get it copied, and deliver it to the client. Everything was going well on Thursday until the girl who works in our copy room came back from lunch drunk. She couldn't understand anything I was trying to tell her, and her movements and speech made me wonder if she'd had a stroke or something. So I had to try to finish the copy job myself, which killed my back and feet, and I missed the FedEx deadline anyway.

Friday's submittal wasn't much better. The engineers didn't have their stuff ready on time, so it put me even farther behind. I stayed an hour late to get the originals ready for the printers (I sent this one to an outside printing company!), and then my bus home was another hour late! There is nowhere to sit around the bus stop, and my feet and back felt bruised from standing so long. I was almost in tears, I was so tired and frustrated. Thankfully when I got home last night Adam had picked up dinner and I got to kick back and watch my favorite show, Escape to Chimp Eden. We curled up on the couch (kind of a challenge right now), and Adam rubbed my hair until I fell asleep :)

Today has been a gorgeous day. There's nothing like that first day of spring when you get to wear your flip flops and go without a jacket. We had a nice day out, and now we're going to have dinner and watch Marley & Me. Some of the women in our labor class talked about how hard the movie made them cry, so hopefully I'll survive it. It hasn't taken much to make me cry lately. I teared up the other day when I discovered that my last clean shirt that actually fits had a big stain on it.

Here's a picture of us at 37 1/2 weeks. Little Guy is showing his support for his Aunt Katie's school, Purdue.

Little Guy's Room

His nursery is ready to go, finally! We have our carseat installed, his clothes are washed and put away, and now we can't wait! I have been really restless the past couple of days, and having lots of practice contractions. We're still about 3 1/2 weeks away, but he could come earlier.


It's been nice to have time to get things taken care of. I even took the car to the dealership yesterday to get caught up on all of the routine maintenance. While I was waiting I got a big craving for hot dogs, and I spent a good half hour in the waiting room thinking about whether or not I felt like going to the effort to buy hot dogs and cook them. Finally I decided it wasn't worth the effort. But then on my way home from the dealership, I stopped at a Walgreens for something, and a group was having a hot dog cookout outside the store to support the American Cancer Society. I couldn't believe my luck! Little Guy and I got our hot dog, and I wrote our names down on the donation card. (You'll have to go to the Lake City Walgreens here in Seattle if you want a sneak peek at his name!)


I made a photo collage (you can see it in the second picture above) for Little Guy's room so he'll be able to see his family every day. He's been pretty quiet the last couple of days, probably because I can't sit still. He's still moving around though, so no worries! Speaking of worries, the swine flu scare made us a little anxious. Even Adam got a little worried when they announced the first cases in our area. I called and talked to my doctor's nurse, and she reassured me that there are safe treatments for pregnant women. I really hope the outbreak continues to be mild, since Little Guy will be here so soon.


He'll be full-term in just 2 days! We have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday to check if I'm dilated at all, and afterwards we're going out for dinner to celebrate Little Guy being full-term. I'm going to work another couple of weeks. I'm still sleeping really well and just mildly uncomfortable, but it's hard to keep my mind on work. I'm really looking forward to my last day!