Baby's Room

Today I am 36 weeks and 4 days. Woohoo! Michael and I painted the baby's room last weekend and I was pretty proud of the job we did. I feel secure knowing that we could drop out of residency and do manual labor instead...which would probably pay more than our residents' salaries. Everything else is pretty much set up in his room, although we still need a bookshelf. The pictures below make the paint look lighter than it really is for some reason...it's really a cornflower blue. I am huge and apparently getting bigger daily. Dixie is her same sweet self--there are few pics below of her getting a new bone, which is pretty much the highlight of her existence. She will be ecstatic when the baby arrives and I think our biggest problem will be keeping her level of excitement down around him. Nala, on the the other hand, will be extremely pissed off about the new thing invading her space. You can see her looking a little perturbed in one of the pics. My parents officially moved here about a week ago and are busy setting up their apartment. Everything is going well around here...just waiting on Baby Reader to make his debut.

34 weeks and counting

Somehow I don't think I'm going to make it until my actual due date. I could be completely wrong, but my gut tells me otherwise. I've thought all along that this might be a November baby, but lately I've also been getting tons of comments from other people corroborating my theory :-) Either people act very surprised when they find out that I am not due until December, or they flat out tell me that they don't think I'll make it until then. Even my OB agrees. She also told me that that after 35 weeks, they won't stop me if I go into labor. That means that a week from today, it's really "any time now". In light of this, I asked Michael to install the carseat yesterday on his day off, while I was on call. I feel completely unprepared and still have so many things to do, but I figure that as long as we have the carseat ready and a place for him to sleep when he comes home, the rest will come together. I'm not sure how we'll get everything else done since we have no days off or even post-call days together for the rest of the month, though.

On another note, I walked out of the hospital in my usual post-call stupor this morning and was very excited to notice that the weather has changed and really feels like fall. I love fall...the crisp air, Halloween and Thanksgiving, hot apple cider, leaves changing color. When I was a kid, we used to go to Oak Glen (in the San Bernardino mountains) to pick apples and then to Julian for the most delicious apple pie. Since Florida is as flat as a pancake, I doubt I'll be apple-picking in the mountains, but I'll still enjoy the weather.

Baby Shower

My wonderful friends Sandy and Kim threw me a fabulous baby shower last weekend. I don't know how they managed to put it together since Sandy lives in Atlanta and Kim lives in D.C.! I can't believe that people came in from around the country to help celebrate Baby Reader and that he got so many gifts from all of his friends and family! Thanks to everyone for spoiling him rotten! Don't worry--I've already told him that he is s very lucky little guy :-) I also got pampered before the shower by my parents with a pregnancy massage and mani/pedi. The massage was amazing...the masseuse must have really worked some fluid out of my knees because I could actually bend them for the first time in months. I look really pale, swollen and tired in these pictures, but don't let that fool you---I was having a blast!

Belly Pictures

Since I finally charged the camera and found the cable to connect the camera to the computer, I can actually post a few belly pictures from the last few months:

About 16 weeks

About 20 weeks

25 weeks

26 weeks

I'm starting to feel really big, which is not surprising considering the giant belly in the above picture. It's also sad that I'm looking back at the 16 week picturing and thinking that I look skinny. I keep telling myself it's just water weight :-) Clearly the baby is growing, though. I feel him move all the time now and he's got some strong kicks/punches!

Nursery

After many hours of online research and a few trips to furniture stores, I think we have finally picked out the nursery furniture and bedding. We haven't actually ordered it yet, but I've set tomorrow as our deadline! I have spent every evening (as in the 2-3 hrs between when I get home and when I go to bed) researching online and reading my trusty "Baby Bargains" book for the last few weeks. We just need to take one last look (I swear, I'll make a decision tomorrow) because we are ordering online and I want to be sure of the crib color--it's really hard to tell what it looks like on the computer. Last weekend we had a day off together and went crib-shopping. What a PITA. The problem is that I'm picky and there aren't a whole lot of cribs that have exactly what I want. Of course it didn't help that it apparently takes 10-12 weeks for the furniture to come in when you order it at a regular baby furniture store. Seriously?! Are they growing the tree first? The baby will be here in 12 weeks. I realize that he won't need a crib and dresser immediately, but I'd really like to have everything here and set up before I'm sleep-deprived and carrying a newborn around. Fortunately, there are several reputable online sites where you can order furniture and it ships in about a week (they must order it from the company and keep it in stock). Anyway, here are some pictures:

Crib

Dresser ("combo unit" in baby furniture language, which refers to the fact that the dresser doubles as a changing table.)

Bedding

OB appointments and hurricanes

So I had an OB appointment today and Baby Reader seems to be doing great. The whole appointment was about 10 minutes long and 5 minutes of that were spent peeing in a cup, but I guess there's not a whole lot to do at a 24 week appointment. The OB listened to the fetal heart tones with the doppler and his heart rate was right where it should be. She also measured my fundal (uterine) height and I'm measuring right between 24 and 25 weeks, as I should be. Which makes me feel much better since I have had several people at the hospital lately tell me "Oh, you're so small" when they find out how far along I am. People have just started noticing that I'm pregnant in the last 2 weeks or so...apparently scrubs hide baby bumps well. Unfortunately, I think people just thought I was fat. I wore "real" clothes one day last week and suddenly everyone noticed that I was pregnant, including the other intern on my team who then told me "I just noticed that you were pregnant. Before, I just thought you were fat". Yes, he actually said that. Fortunately, he's really nice and there's a bit of a language barrier so I wasn't offended at all...in fact it was pretty funny. Speaking of baby bellies, I have pictures to post but the camera died....sorry.

The OB also asked if I had thought about my "labor plan" (whether I want an epidural, etc) and whether we wanted the baby circumcised or not. Valid questions, and things that I've already thought about, but for some reason it really freaked me out that she was asking these questions already. Unlike Michael, who gets so busy that he apparently forgets that I'm pregnant, I have constant reminders that I'm pregnant (getting kicked/elbowed/head-butted in the bladder/ribs/liver and the fact that it's getting difficult to put my socks on/get out of bed/tell where my ankles are). Despite these reminders, I think it still hasn't completely sunk in for me that there will be a baby here in a few months. And by the way, I'm not complaining about the karate moves going on in my uterus---I love feeling him move...it's my favorite part of pregnancy so far.

OK, now about hurricanes. So supposedly Tropical Storm Fay is heading toward the Florida Keys right now, although you'd think there's a Category 5 heading straight for Shands hospital by the way people at work have been talking. I keep assuring everyone that there will be no hurricanes in Jacksonville for the next 5 years because Michael and I are here, and that would be like lightening striking twice, since we already dealt with Katrina. Right??

Oh, and here's what's going on with Baby Reader at the moment (more or less): What Baby Reader probably looks like in utero.

House Pictures

So I actually took some pictures of the house about 2 months ago and never got around to sending/posting them. We've changed some decorative things since then, but not much. There are so many things I'd love to do--put real tile in the kitchen, have an island installed, add curtains/window treatments to all the rooms, touch-up some of the paint, paint our bedroom (I really don't like the plain white), paint the baby's room (which we will do before he comes). We still have no wedding photos, dining room table or patio furniture. And of course the baby's room is not furnished yet. Speaking of that, I'm getting a little nervous that we haven't even begun to think about what baby items to get. My friend Carina lent me her Lila Guide and my friend Sandy wrote up a whole set of recommendations for baby products...both of those things will help a lot. But there's just so much to think about...crib, changing table, bedding, clothes, diapers, diaper genie, boppy, bottles, car seat, stroller, etc, etc... And by the way, it's only because of my friends with babies that I know about things like diaper genies and boppies. Anyway, here are some pictures of our house (it's a 4 bed 2 bath, although I didn't post pics of the other two extra rooms, guest bath or laundry room):

Outside Front

Kitchen

Living Room

Nook in entryway--needs shelves so we can display stuff

Empty Dining Room

Our bedroom (really needs to be painted and needs pictures)


Office

Back covered patio and part of the yard
Master Bath