Merrily we roll along

Just a quick update and a meme, since we were tagged by the ladies over at Oh, Susanica. We are rolling along here, just playing the waiting game now. There may have been some “dropping” action going on over the past day or so. Nutella is super uncomfortable and Cupcake is still super active. Birth classes have ended, prenatal yoga has ended…all that remains is weekly chiropractor and midwife visits. We received about 2/3 of the professional pictures our friend took last weekend, but are waiting on the rest. Hope to get some of those posted soon. We are delighted at the recent good news in the blog community, and are hoping for more to fill up the rest of Spring.

That’s all for now… “6 Things” meme under the cut.

Feathering the nest

So, I got the weekend off to a lovely start with a pre-natal massage after work on Friday. I had it done at the same place where I’ve been taking my pre-natal yoga class (which ended last week). It’s a very calming place and I’m sad that I won’t be going there routinely anymore. The massage was a Hanukkah gift from my sister and her boyfriend and I’d been saving it for the 3rd trimester when I knew I would need it most. The therapist kept me laying on either side snuggled up to a long firm body pillow and worked first on one side and then the other, neck to feet. I did feel very nice and relaxed when she was done, but not nearly as jello-y as after a full-on non-pregnant massage where I can lay on my back and stomach. Just another thing to look forward to after Cupcake’s arrival, I guess!

Saturday was our professional photo shoot. It was insanely windy and after some heavy rains during the week, the cherry blossoms at the location we had picked were all done. Fortunately, the magnolia trees were in full bloom, so we had fun posing under and among them. Our lovely neighbors came along to act as photo assistants, which primarily involved holding big fabric light reflectors to boost the natural light on the photo subject. Now just imagine a piece of 6’x3′ fabric in a frame and strong wind. You can see why things ended up being challenging! Our photographer friend told us we can bug him in a few days for the results, and we will be sure to share a few of them.

Sunday we completed the nursery. There was one final piece of furniture that we needed for storage and after a trip to our local IKEA, we came home and set it all up. I suppose at some point we might put some artwork on the walls, but for now it’s DONE. We both feel pretty ready at this point, although the car seats won’t be professionally installed until next Tuesday. Come on Cupcake, we’re ready to meet you!

Fun on Friday

We’re curious when you all think Cupcake will be done baking and how big he’ll be, so we set up one of those online guessing games. Feel free to log your guess and maybe we’ll send a little prize to the winner….you know, after we manage to become less zombie-like from the sleep deprivation 😉

(If the link doesn’t work for you now, try back later – that site can be wonky)

Also, I’ve created an image of Nutella’s belly (side shot) week by week so in the end, we could see the “evolution” of it. If you want to see that, it’s under the cut.

Full Term

It’s very tempting to make some sort of April Fools post, but I promise this isn’t one. We’re very happy about today though, as today marks 37 weeks and thus, full term. We will hopefully be meeting our little one near the middle to end of this month. Since my topics will be all over the place, I’m going to switch over to bullets:

• We now have a working shower again, completed as of yesterday afternoon. Thank goodness.
• Our professional photo shoot was put on hold until this coming weekend due to said shower catastrophe and what seemed like a rainy day. The rainy day actually turned into a beautiful one, so Nutella and I went out and took our own pictures with the spring blossoms (one appears at the end of this post)
• My boss invited my co-workers and I to a cookout yesterday afternoon during our lunch break. At the end of the cookout, he said “Wait, I have dessert” and ran to his car. He returned with cupcakes for all and a baby shower card for me, signed by everyone, with a $100 Target gift card. I hadn’t really thought they would do anything for me, and I was really touched and delighted.
• We had a good midwife appointment yesterday. Nutella does not have Group B Strep which means no antibiotics during birth- yay! Baby is still doing well with a beautiful heartbeat. Everything else looked good and we had our favorite midwife for the third appointment in a row.
• We have *almost* everything we need for this baby, but would be ready if he came now. The nursery is still full of stuff to be put away, but it’s getting there. I really want to share pictures of the room with you, but not while every surface is covered with piles.
• Finally, like one of the moms over at Reproducing Genius spoke about recently, I feel like I’m going through major emotional “housecleaning.” At this point, little else seems to matter to me but my wife and our child. I know what kind of parent I will strive to be, based on my own experiences and what I’ve seen around me. I also have no tolerance for people who do not respect the choices we have made and will be making, since all of our choices are made with the physical and mental health of the baby and Nutella foremost in our minds. I’ve been feeling very withdrawn lately, to my surprise, and have been avidly nesting. I am also feeling very overprotective of my little family and our home, and I can only imagine this feeling increasing when the baby is born.

That said, here’s one of the pictures we took among the cherry blossoms this weekend…Happy April!

belly and blossoms