Dixie's Destruction

Dixie is actually really good about not destroying things...despite the fact that labs are known to chew like crazy. She does destroy the bones we give her (even though we only buy the super hard ones for "heavy chewers"), and we've spent over a hundred bucks and a lot of time in Petsmart buying various chew toys that she completely demolishes within minutes...but that's fine. Fortunately, she has never chewed on furniture or shoes or clothes. However, yesterday we went outside to find a whole newspaper torn to shreds in the backyard. It was actually pretty funny. Larry kindly cleaned up her mess for us this morning. Here's a video of her surveying her work.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoys family and food! We are postponing T-day until Saturday since I'll be sleeping today between shifts and Michael is on call. We did get to have Thanksgiving breakfast together this morning in the hospital cafeteria. The meals are free for all employees today...a small gesture of kindness to those who have to work on Turkey Day, I guess. I'm looking forward to Saturday...Michael's parents will be here, so we'll get to have Thanksgiving with both sets of parents. Maybe the food will even force the baby out. I've been having a lot of contractions on and off for the last 2 days, but they aren't consistent or timeable. Just when I think they are getting more frequent, they stop. Oh well...I still have lots to be thankful for!

Giant Belly

I would just like to point out that you are all very lucky to be seeing the belly unveiled. :-) I am not a fan of my bare belly shots but Michael forced me to take some. The first is last week at 37 weeks (with Dixie wondering what is going on) and the second is today at 38+. Is it just me or did he definitely grow in the last week? Or is my belly just sagging under the weight now?? I'm now officially that pregnant woman that people stare at, wondering if she'll "pop at any time". I was 5 minutes late to work the other day (because I had to pee, of course) and everyone thought that I had gone into labor...they are surprised every day I show up that I haven't had the baby yet. I have today and tomorrow off and then a string of 5 shifts in a row. It would be really nice if he came tonight/tomorrow, but apparently, he's pretty comfy in there at the moment.

Full Term

Just wanted to post to say that I am now full term! The whole pregnancy dating thing is a little confusing, so in case you are wondering....the "due date" is the 40th week of pregnancy, but "full term" is anywhere from 37-42 weeks of pregnancy. So he really can come any time now. I'm OK with him staying in a little longer, but it would be really nice if he wanted to show up so I could stop working :-)

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!