32 weeks

(No new size update till next week, sorry! Apparently she's still squash-sized.)

I think we just passed another milestone - according to my friend Ryan, babies born after 32 weeks are very unlikely to have any sort of lasting impairments from being premature. Yay!

Also, I double-checked the statistics: 90% of babies are born within 2 weeks of their due date (in either direction). That means we have a 90% likelihood of meeting Baby in just 6 to 10 weeks!  All of the sudden things are starting to feel more real!

Decal fail

Remember the super cute wall decals that I put up behind the crib yesterday? Well apparently they decided en masse to defect to the floor. The migration is already in progress. Sigh.

Any other ideas for ways to safely decorate the nursery? Apparently hanging pictures/frames or curtains/quilts is a no-go since she might yank them down and clobber/suffocate herself with them. Ideas?

the nursery!

We made a lot of progress this weekend in getting Baby's room ready for her! We still have a little work left to do, but at least she'd have a pretty complete place to call her own if she (heaven forbid) were to arrive tomorrow.

Huge thanks for my mom and dad for the crib, Mike's mom and stepdad for the crib mattress, Mike's dad and stepmom for the glider, and my former practicum supervisor for the changing table!

And I also just wanted to show off the fun time I had organizing things into baskets! :)

Diapers and toys in the changing table:

Clothes in the closet:

We're getting closer and closer to being ready for Baby's arrival!

maternity photos (my favorites!)

I'm usually much more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it, but Mike and I had a great time taking our "belly pictures" today. He turned out to be quite the photographer, if I do say so myself!

Here are my favorites (in no particular order):

 

maternity photos (outtakes)

I decided a couple months ago that I wanted to have some photos taken while I'm pregnant, just to commemorate this whole experience. But after we started looking into the pricing for professional photos ($200 per hour, plus mandatory print packages starting at $300?!) we quickly decided to just do it ourselves. Mike did a little cramming online (mostly from this site), then today was the day! I'm still sorting through all the pictures and editing the ones I like, so here's a few outtakes in the meantime!

This next one is definitely not flattering!  So much for that photo idea!

Here I am, attempting to get up off the floor and pretty much just failing miserably.

Lucy was quite "helpful" during the whole process.

After we finished our "photo shoot," I got to work on the pot roast that we have planned for dinner (thanks to my awesome new menu board!). Mike thought it was hilarious that I was...

...barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. :)

Stay tuned for more pictures!

To do

We're making progress on our never-ending baby to-do list!

Baby shower

We had a wonderful baby shower on Saturday with lots of extended family! I'll post more details later (I'm reverting back to my 7pm bedtime of the first trimester again), but for now I thought I'd post this photo of me and Mike with our own baby photos. Any guesses who Baby will look like? :)

birth photography

It's not in our budget to hire a "birth photographer," but that doesn't stop me from oohing and ahhing (and tearing up) over these "best of" photos!

http://birthphotographers.com/?p=790

30 weeks!

Just finished week 30. Wow! That means we also just finished month 7. I'm in my 8th month!

I have my next doctor's appointment tomorrow, so fingers crossed that everything goes well. After that we get to switch to appts every 2 weeks rather than every 4 weeks. I love getting reassurance that all is fine, so hopefully that trend continues.

We're coming down the home stretch!

Babymoon!

For the past several weeks, Mike and I had our babymoon planned for this weekend. Wait, you don't know what a babymoon is? Well, apparently it's supposed to be a last-ditch effort for soon-to-be parents to enjoy any semblance of freedom. I don't buy into that nonsense. I know Baby will change our lives in myriad ways, but we're still going to be the same people and we're still going to put our relationship first. So for us, the babymoon was all about a chance to take a break from our regular routine and just have a little vacation.  All the way out in Edina. Yes, that's right. Rather than jet off to the (expensive) sunny coasts, we went all of about 5 miles to explore the yuppie-dom that is Edina. And it was fabulous!

We stayed at the Westin, which is a fancy hotel attached to the Galleria. We got there early Saturday afternoon, so we had plenty of time to jump right in the pool!!!! This was the part I had been looking forward to the most: feeling weightless. Ahhhhh. It was heavenly! 

Then we did some window shopping in stores we don't normally frequent - places like Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Restoration Hardware, Coach, and other high-end places. Then we got dinner using our Groupon for People's Organic, a yummy restaurant with local/organic/sustainable food. After we went back to the hotel, we had another round of swimming (!) before heading back to the Galleria one more time. It's been years since I've left "home" after 8pm, so we were really going crazy when we went to Crave for drinks (for Mike) and dessert (for me) around 9pm. Aren't we wild?!?

This morning we got up early for one more dip in the pool (can you tell I loved being able to float? No back pain! No abdomen pain! Full freedom to stretch my shoulders!) before eating breakfast at Good Earth. (Yes, the place that my mother used to drag me to, kicking and screaming, is now the place that I requested we go to!)

Ah, what a wonderful weekend! Mike and I both had a wonderfully relaxing time (even if I did still wake up every 45 minutes or so, just like at home, even on the hotel's "Heavenly Bed"). I highly recommend a local vacation to anyone else looking to get away!

the betting tables are now open!

We're starting the countdown to Baby's arrival! Only 74 days to go until April 25...

So, anyone want to take bets on when she'll arrive? Chances are it'll be within two weeks (plus or minus) of her due date (based on the statistics previously written about here). Feel free to claim a date, either by emailing me or by posting a comment below. Winner gets first dibs on babysitting! (ha ha)

April 10 or earlier:
Wed, April 11:
Thurs, April 12:
Fri, April 13:
Sat, April 14:
Sun, April 15:
Mon, April 16:
Tues, April 17:

Wed, April 18:
Thurs, April 19:
Fri, April 20:
Sat, April 21:      Steph's guess
Sun, April 22:     Louise's guess (Louise's birthday and Earth Day)
Mon, April 23:    Jack's guess (Jack and Marsha's birthday)
Tues, April 24:    Marsha's guess

Wed, April 25:     Steve's guess (Wendy's birthday)
Thurs, April 26:      Mike's guess
Fri, April 27:
Sat, April 28:
Sun, April 29:      Ryan's guess
Mon, April 30:    Margaret's guess
Tues, May 1:

Wed, May 2:     Wendy's guess
Thurs, May 3:
Fri, May 4:
Sat, May 5:
Sun, May 6:
Mon, May 7:
Tues, May 8:
induction on Wed, May 9:

weeks 29-32: squash

Baby's the size of a squash!

Baby’s energy is surging, thanks to the formation of white fat deposits beneath the skin. (Have those kicks and jabs to the ribs tipped you off yet?) Baby is also settling into sleep and waking cycles, though -- as you’ve also probably noticed -- they don’t necessarily coincide with your own. Also this month, all five senses are finally functional, and the brain and nervous system are going through major developments.

$25 well spent

We now have an officially approved car seat installed in our back seat!

I'll be the first to admit that I thought it was silly to pay good money for a "certified carseat inspector" to check the carseat. I mean, Mike and I are both reasonably intelligent people, right? We should be able to correctly install a brand new carseat with the help of the manual, right?  We certainly wouldn't be part of the 85% of people who apparently install their carseats incorrectly, right?   But all the baby books tell you it's a necessity, so I dutifully signed us up anyway for our inspection at the local fire station.

Well, color me purple, but Lieutenant S Glapa made a believer out of me!

Seriously,  it was so incredibly helpful! He showed us how to install the seat 3 ways (using LATCH, the safety belt in the base, or the safety belt in the seat itself). He showed us how to check that it's installed correctly each time.  He showed us how to install it in the middle vs the side of the backseat. He showed us how to safely adjust the seat to fit Baby.  Most importantly, he gently corrected our egregious error in our attempted use of the LATCH system.

Yep, that's right. We had the carseat installed incorrectly and unsafely.

How many PhDs does it take to install a carseat?

Ha! Trick question! No PhD, just a Lieutenant Glapa!

So if you're debating whether to spend the money for a silly little thing like a carseat safety check, I highly recommend that you bite the bullet and fork over your $25 for a little education and peace of mind.



Oh, and the best part of the whole evening? The nice Mr. Lieutenant Glapa didn't even say a word about the fact that he watched me make an illegal left turn and then drive about 20 feet on the wrong side of the road in order to pull into the fire station.

I guess we should be thankful that at least Baby will be well protected from any accidents caused by me violating the major traffic laws. Sigh.

glowing

More and more people have been telling me that I'm glowing. Or that my body "really knows how to do pregnancy." Or that I'm getting "prettier and prettier every day."

I love hearing these things. :)

But my secondary response is to freak out a bit, because the old wives tale says that "girls suck the beauty out of you." And since I'm totally neurotic, I've now become really worried that our u/s tech was wrong and we're actually having a boy.

Yes, I'm crazy. I know.