The Final Stretch...

Watching A Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby is not helping my level of patience for the baby to get here. Less than three weeks left, my third-to-last scheduled prenatal appointment, not being able to breathe very well due to someone taking residence in my rib cage, and some slight cramping this morning are not making me any more patient either.

I just reminded Aaron this morning that we need to take a belly shot - it's been a few weeks since the last one and we never know how many days we have left at this point.

The baby has been in the same position for a while now, and she likes to push her feet or some other small body part out at a spot directly below my ribs on my right side quite a bit. A few times she's pushed so hard and suddenly it caused my eyes to water. No matter how painful, it's still pretty cool too. She been feeling pretty tight in there the past couple of days which I'm guessing means that I'll be growing an even bigger belly pretty soon. At least that's the pattern that we've followed so far.

This past weekend I outgrew my rings. My fingers outgrew my wedding ring a few weeks back, but since my engagement ring is a bit bigger I was able to wear it in the meantime. That changed when we were out and about on Saturday, and I could barely get it off. I decided to take it off for good before it got stuck on my finger.

I've finally gotten a few stretch marks across my belly. At first they were just right above my hips, and that's still where they're worst, but now there's a few low across my belly. I can't see them very well, so I asked Aaron to take a look at them. He lied and said that he couldn't see anything except my beautiful belly. He's very sweet, and taking excellent care of me.

There are only three things we need in order to be completely ready to bring her home. Well, two that we absolutely need, and one that we've been waiting on for a while. The first two things are diapers and diaper rash cream, which are pretty essential. We have some g-Diapers and a few sample Huggies that we've gotten from various places, but the g-Diapers may be a little big and the two Huggies won't last us very long. The other thing we need, still, is a video camera. Aaron is still wavering on his choice, but I think that I'm going to have to put my foot down tonight and make him buy one.

I still have a lot of work to do at my job before they're ready for me to leave, but I'm starting to care less. If I thought the baby was distracting before, she's definitely a huge distraction now. I can barely think about anything else (except food) and I just can't wait to meet her. These past few weeks and the few to come are about the most exciting time I've ever experienced.

Seen by Me

I had a weird experience the other day, and I just have to share it with someone. So you lucky people get to hear about it.

I was at a gathering of people, including many people older than me and most of them fairly intelligent and well-known in this particular circle. One older, well-known gentleman (I'll guess he's in his 50s) was sitting near me for one part of the gathering, sort of next to but slightly in front of me. Suddenly, I noticed he was acting kind of weird, glancing from side to side apparently trying to see if anyone was watching him.

Then it happened. He, repeatedly, picked his nose. Then he would inspect what he removed. Then he ate it. This happened multiple times, but the multiple that made me move to another group was about 3 times. And I think that's only because I couldn't believe what I was seeing for the first two times.

It's been a while since I've had an experience like this, where someone is doing something totally bizarre in public and I get to witness it. It used to happen to me all the time. I'm kind of glad that I had a good streak going, and totally grossed out that this is how it was broken.

The Countdown is On

I have a countdown to my due date on my Google homepage, and today it read "25 Days Left!". That's right, days. I realistically know that my time being pregnant is almost up, but the whole reality of it hasn't hit yet. I'm finally getting somewhat better at this whole thing; worrying less if not complaining less. Hey, it's uncomfortable to be this big, and it seems like I've just become ungainly. It kind of snuck up on me.

I find myself doing very typical pregnant lady things: eating ice cream every night, struggling to get up off of whatever I'm sitting on, and I've definitely got the waddle going on. Aaron is being very kind to me, and I appreciate it incredibly much as I've kind of gotten sick of myself not being able to do things and I can't imagine it's any fun for him either. He's even doing my nesting for me. This weekend he vaccuumed for 4 hours straight (the dirt sensor on the new vaccuum has him becoming a little OCD about how clean the carpet is), and is talking about doing even more cleaning tonight.

Since he has cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, save for the room we use as an office, I find myself wanting to nest but not really having anything to do to satisfy that need. We've already washed almost all of the clothes we'll need for her right away. I suppose I could wash some blankets and towels, but I hate laundry so much that not even nesting is creating the urge in me to do that. So, I've taken to trying to get all the final little things we need in order to be completely and totally as ready as we can be before she gets here. The list of things I still need to buy include:

- An extra car seat base for Aaron's car
- A stroller base to use with the car seat
- An umbrella stroller (this one can probably wait)
- A carrier - we're getting the Ergo with the infant insert but now just have to decide between regular and organic versions
- Diapers - this is probably pretty important, huh?
- Diaper rash cream
- A diaper bag
- Some waterproof pads for use on the changing pad and under her bassinet sheet
- A baby tub
- Baby soap/shampoo/lotion
- Baby grooming and health-related gear, including a nasal aspirator, thermometer, nail clippers, brush
- A sun hat
- Socks
- A couple extra sleepers
- Some iron on sheets to print up some designs for onesies (probably not as important)
- Lasinoh
- A bottle-cleaning brush and bottle drying rack

And that's just the stuff I can remember off the top of my head. Crap, this is going to be expensive! Also, how am I going to find room for all this stuff???

For any moms out there reading this, is there anything on this list I'm not going to need? Anything that was essential to you when you had a new baby around? I'm kind of an obsessive planner and not knowing exactly what I'm going to need is driving me a little nuts.

As a reward for dealing with me and my pregnancy neuroses, I think I'm going to have Aaron take a belly shot tonight to share with you all. Plus it has been a couple of weeks and since there are possibly only a couple of weeks left until she's supposed to get here I'm also feeling the need to record everything that's going on. Being full-term is making me a little crazy.

Spring

Spring has arrived in Michigan, or rather, spring was here and now it's almost summer because that is what the weather feels like. Mid- to upper-70s and sunny is not my idea of spring, and especially not the idea of spring I had in mind when buying my maternity wardrobe. Needless to say I've been uncomfortable and hot lately. Uncomfortable because I've been trying to squeeze into things I have no business squeezing into, and hot because if I get tired of being uncomfortable it means that I have to wear something too heavy for the weather.

So, yesterday afternoon I broke down and had Aaron take me shopping for a few items of clothing to make it through the next few weeks. I feel kind of bad buying maternity items with theoretically less than four weeks left, but I just couldn't deal with it any more. Plus I bought some items that I can wear for the "4th trimester" (which, I have to say, that term bugs me because there's no such thing as a 4th part of something divided into thirds), you know, when I'm still too big for my regular clothes, but will probably look ridiculous in maternity clothes. That being said, it was incredibly depressing to go shopping at this point, because I am too big for half of the maternity clothes I tried on. Seriously.

Clothing issues aside, I am enjoying the warmer weather. My favorite two things about spring are not having to wear a coat or socks, and I definitely don't need either of those things right now. Wait, there's a third thing: opening the windows. We're shut in for so long that a few days of open windows makes everything feel fresh and new. It's wonderful.