38 weeks!

It has been a long 9 months, but the end is very very near and soon a baby will be here! I am uncomfortable most of the time, can't take a proper deep breath, and am so going to miss getting kicked and punched by baby. I have gone to classes, gotten a tour of the hospital, and am now waiting patiently for something else to happen. I haven't slept through the night in months, I have no dexterity in my hands and tend to drop everything, and I cannot bend over. I haven't had to deal with much swelling (some, but not much), I haven't had much heartburn (again, some, but not much), and it really has been like all the awful side effects you hear about from pregnancy skipped me (thank goodness!). I'm being induced next week, I'll know more tomorrow after I go to the doctor. I'm getting really anxious and excited. I really want to meet my little peanut!!

I also have watched quite a few movies/tv shows with people going in to labor. From what I've heard about what will happen, probably the most realistic is "Knocked Up". The goofiest is when mommy-to-be's water breaks and they rush out the door ("Friends" Rachel). I'm sorry, but if your water does break, you're not going to go anywhere without changing your clothes (when you're at home, if you're on the street you cannot do that -"Sex and the City" movie)! You have enough time for that at least. And then there's the immediate rush to the hospital because mommy-to-be had a contraction ("Sex and the City" Miranda, "Steel Magnolias" Darryl Hannah character). Contractions start long before you must rush to the hospital. 30 mins apart, then 15 mins apart, 10 mins, and no need to go to the hospital until they're 5 mins apart and that's lasted for an hour. That's a lot of contractions before needing to call the doctor or head to the hospital. In "Knocked up", Alison started having contractions and waited at home (in the bathtub) for Ben to get there and take her to the hospital. Probably the most likely thing to happen, though I would be worried about sitting in the tub and not being able to tell if my water had broken or not.

from the mouths of babes

My parents and Eli went out for breakfast this morning. After their meal, the waitress came by the table. The following exchange occured:
Waitress: How was everything?
Parents: Great, thanks!
Waitress (Leaning in to Eli): How was your food?
Eli: I farted!
Waitress: What?
Eli: I farted!
Waitress: okay... (and she walked away)

The waitress may not have understood Eli-speak, but Nana did, and has been laughing ever since!

shopping for maternity clothes

today, i went out looking for something to wear to a wedding that adam and i are going to in a few weeks. jcpenney has a decent selection of maternity clothes online, so to penneys i went. I found a cute really dark blue jean skirt on clearance for $12 - so I'm feeling like I got a pretty good deal. I also tried on a bunch of maternity shirts. They all hit me mid-thigh and were so long that I just looked really short and wide in these ridiculous shirts. Each shirt I tried on would have looked great it they were at least 6 inches shorter. Apparently I'm supposed to be 6 feet tall in order to not look like a weirdo in these maternity shirts. My next step is just look for bigger regular shirts, because I am not a fan of these maternity shirts. Regular shirts don't make me look so short!

TMI

Alright, I realize I may be having a bit of a TMI moment right now, but I'm putting this out there anyway.

My child thinks my bladder is a punching bag. If my bladder gets too full and is invading baby's space, good golly does this kid put the beat down on my bladder until I drain it. I think the personality of a first child (especially my first child) is shining through already.
What a little peanut.

One of my students just said to another student "Well aren't you a smarty pants? Smarty wanna party!?" They really are hilarious.

monthly update

apparently I am down to only blogging monthly. I'm really going to have to work on this. But, what's been happening?

1. Baby. I'm at 24 weeks. I feel baby kicking lots. It's so neat to have something moving inside me that isn't me. Baby is especially active while I'm in class. But as soon as baby's around Adam, baby stops moving. If you've ever seen Adam with a baby, you will be immediately amazed because he has an extraordinary power to lull baby to sleep. I've decided his amazing ability even works in utero. He has felt baby twice, but I know he's ready to feel more kicks and baby is just not cooperating. I have also entered that stage where I am HOT all the time. Over the winter my mom was amazed that I was spending so much time under blankets. Now, I'm hot all the time... particularly while I'm in class teaching. My students told me tonight that I'm waddling already.

2. Furthur. Was AMAZING. third row seats and totally fabulous. Phil and Bobby were fantastic. John from Dark Star Orchestra only sang three songs while we were there (he's the 'Jerry'), while most of the songs were sung by Bobby or Phil and Bobby together. I have a top ten favorite grateful dead songs (and they move up and down the list, but mostly the top ten doesn't change) and they played 2 of my top 10 - and considering the number of songs that are in the Dead repertoire, I'm amazed that I got 20% of my top ten. What are these two songs, you ask? Uncle John's Band and Scarlet Begonias. So fantastic. Which, Scarlet Begonias is extremely often combined with Fire on the Mountain in concert, and they continued that tradition this night too. Other highlights - China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Eyes of the World (sung by Phil), Jack Straw, Wharf Rat. We had to leave early to catch the train, and I checked out the setlist the next day. We missed Box of Rain, which is my mom's all time favorite song, and in my top ten, but we had to catch that train! Bummer, but oh well. Of course the people watching provided some entertainment. In particular, a guy was dancing like a nutso, even during intermission. My favorite was when he stuck his ticket on his forehead and danced around staring at the ceiling like the ticket was his ticket to the universe. Absolutely hilarious. I'm not really doing him justice, but believe me, he was great people watching material.

3. My dad. Broke his leg. At the bottom of his fibula. The poor guy has a boot on his foot and cannot put any weight on it. He's been pretty bummed out about it, but I went and saw him this past weekend and he has a system of using a walker, scooter, and wheelchair, so he's getting around pretty well. He's accidentally fallen twice since this happened and aggravated his leg again, but he seems to be okay. He goes to the doctor in three weeks for another x-ray and to find out if everything's healed or not. Nerve-racking!

Alright, that's all for now.

weekend of fun

My doctor wanted me to not travel for a few weeks because things were not in the right place in there. After going to the doctor again last week she okayed me to travel so I had to venture home to visit little Eli monster man (and parents and brother and sisterinlaw). I got to spend a lot of time with the little two and a half year old terror and it was so much fun! He's started reading books to you, instead of you reading to him. He is so freaking cute! He read a book to me about animals, telling me what all the animals are and what color they are. He's so good at his animals and colors and shapes, and he's learning counting (right now he always skips 4, and sometimes skips 4,5,6&7). The last time I saw him he only knew 1 and 2. It's been a month and such a huge difference in what he knows. And, whenever you ask him something and he doesn't know the answer he says "I don't know" and it is the cutest thing EVER.

I'm at the 20 week mark now, so I'm halfway done baking the bun in my oven! I went to a used clothing store over the weekend and was able to get quite a few maternity shirts and pants, and all clearance was $1! Such a successful shopping trip! My hair is growing out faster on the left side of my head than the right, so my wonderful sisterinlaw gave me a great haircut over the weekend. It took her a while to even it out my crazy hair, and she also said that my hair was even thicker on the left side of my head, i suppose adding to the whole growing faster thing. She did a great job, despite my head being ridiculous.

So far I feel totally fine, still am not feeling movement but am looking forward to it soon. We had another ultrasound last week, and when Adam would talk, baby would move even more. So I'm really looking forward to feeling baby's reaction to daddy's voice. :) :)

a name for baby

Adam and I haven't spent a whole lot of time thinking about baby names. So many people have offered suggestions, which I listen to none of them. But I have also been told that we need to come up with a name for baby to use in the mean time. I have just been calling baby "Baby", but that is not very creative. I also don't want a nickname that is gender specific. Yet, I keep calling Baby a he, and that really makes me want a gender neutral nickname until Baby comes out. I've loved the ideas that friends have used for their babies, and I need to come up with something as great at theirs!
We have started talking about decorating Baby's room. Adam wants to paint the room blue with clouds and stencil in trees. :)
My hair is growing faster on the left side of my head than the right side. It is making me keep my hair in a ponytail most of the time. It's subtle and probably no one else would notice unless I point it out to them, but I know that it's goofy, so ponytail it is. Hopefully my wonderful sis-in-law can come visit soon and fix this ridiculous problem.