38 Weeks

How Far Along (in pic): 38 weeks. I can't believe that 38 weeks have already flown by!!

What We've Been Up To: On Monday I was showered by my wonderful colleagues at work! It was such a nice way to get to see everyone since we all work from our home offices now. They spoiled us rotten! We got an amazing HD camcorder and tripod, more adorable clothes and some Baby Bees products! I can't wait to try everything out!!! My boss spent plenty of painstaking hours making an INCREDIBLE cake! She took a picture of the chicken coop off of my blog and made a cake that looked just like it, complete with three adorable chickens! :) I had never seen a chicken coop cake before and highly doubt I ever will again! It was just to die for - and it was delicious to boot!!

On Wednesday night we took a breastfeeding class. It was super informative! The instructor was great and provided us with a lot of valuable information and tools.

We had our weekly OB appointment on Thursday. Much to our surprise I had only dilated about .5 cm more. We thought for sure we'd have been farther along, but our doc assured us we were in a good place. I think we are just getting so anxious and excited for the big day that it is getting harder and harder to stay in the moment! Gertie is going to come whenever the time is right - we just wish that time was right now! ;) We have even gotten all of the remaining baby essentials marked off the list including a laundry basket and trash can for the nursery - we are ready for diaper changes people!!

On Friday night we had Julie and her guy friend, James, over for dinner. Finn made delicious Pad Thai for everyone and we all thoroughly enjoyed the food and company! It was nice to get to meet James and catch up with Julie. We have our 10 year high school reunion coming up, which Julie is helping to plan, so it was fun to reminisce about the "good ol' days". After dinner, Finn went and had a guys night with Watson and Peters and to nobody's surprise they had a great time and even came up with some new baby names such as Waters (Get it? Watson + Peters = Waters...).

We bought a new couch on Valentine's Day! We picked up one piece of it on Saturday with help from Hanni and Freddy (thank goodness they are so nice to us). It is such a huge upgrade from our last couch! It is extremely comfortable, should last us a long time, and it gives us more space in the living room - without feeling like we lost seating space! And I am sure all of our family and friends will enjoy it more since they will actually be able to get off of it without needing assistance. ;)

On Sunday night we went to our neighbor's surprise birthday party. It was a lot of fun and there was another prego there who was expecting her second. It was nice to get to talk to someone else and ask questions about labor, etc. from someone who had been through it  pretty recently (her other child is 18 months). I asked how she "knew" it was time to go to the hospital and she actually ended up going to the hospital for false labor but had to stay for nearly three days after they discovered that her baby was squeezing the umbilical cord during every contraction which would cut off her circulation, causing the baby to pass out. The advice she gave us was to wait it out at home as long as possible and that even if your contractions are really consistent, if they aren't painful, keep waiting (if you can). It was interesting to get her perspective because I figured you would always "know" when it was time, but clearly that isn't always the case!

Cravings: Lemonade sounds delicious

Sleep: The halfway decent sleep has continued this week. I have been waking up around the same time in the middle of the night each night - almost always accompanied by contractions. But, I have been able to get back to sleep without much trouble, so that's definitely nice!

Gender: We remain at 12 people thinking it is a boy and 8 people who think it is going to be a girl on the baby pool! For those of you who haven't played yet, please do!!! Here's the link: http://www.expectnet.com/games/ComeOutAndDanz

Names: No updates here. Middle names need to be thought about a bit more. We are really at a point of being OK of making our decision once we meet the little one - we are certain it will give us some sort of clue as to who they are.

Symptoms: All the usual stuff. Lots of cramping, contractions, plenty of pelvic and hip pain, lower back pain/pressure.

Favorite moments since last post: The baby shower was awesome in so many ways. Getting a new couch. Spending another v-day with Finn (our last as a human family of two)! Catching up with old friends and meeting new people.

What I'm looking forward to this week: Well it is week 39. It's been fun to tell people when they ask when we are due "next week!" Their expressions are generally pretty funny. This week Finn and I got to spend Presidents' Day together (will blog about that in the 39 week post), and generally we are both just excited for the big day - whenever that is going to be!