The Home Stretch

36 weeks
Originally uploaded by porkchop & paul

Holy crap, 4 more weeks to go. I can't believe it! And I must admit, it's driving me a bit crazy not knowing whether it's really going to be 4 weeks or if it will be 1, or worse, 6! The planner in me is going nuts. But I'm trying to relax, there is really nothing I can do about that. Just hope we get at least a few more weeks to get the essentials wrapped up (the car seat, a place for the baby to sleep--the crib has no mattress and our cosleeper is missing the bassinet insert, the hospital bag packed), and also hope that this baby doesn't keep us waiting around for a few extra weeks!

We're having a bit of trouble getting the car seat installed. We need to use the LATCH system since the infant seat has a 5-point harness, but our Cherokee doesn't have the hooks we need. Paul's coworkers have been trying to call dealerships this week to see if we can get some sort of kit to get the hooks installed, but they've been saying we're out of luck. Paul's thinking they might just be too lazy to look though, so we're going to spend this week looking around. If we can't find anything we'll take it to the fire department, see if it's possible to install it with just the seat belt. I'd rather not have to exchange this one for a car seat without the 5-point harness, so hopefully it will all work out! Man, baby stuff sure can be complicated.

Happy things:
I've read that it's harder for the baby to move around now since she's running out of space, but man alive is this baby active! She seems to be moving more often than she used to, and her kicks are stronger than ever. Mostly she pushes on the right side of my belly, I see it bulging out of the corner of my eye every once in a while. During meetings at work she goes particularly nuts. Maybe she finds them boring and is thinking she better give me a swift kick to keep me awake. If so, it's working! She made me jump a few times, her kick was so hard!

At my last midwife visit, she said Annie is head down. Now hopefully she'll stay that way! I was kind of hoping she'd tell me I was dilated a bit, just a centimeter or two so I'll have less work to do later. But alas, nothing. I'm starting my weekly visits now though, so maybe when I go Wednesday I'll have some encouraging news! The best part about our visit was hearing how much stronger her heartbeat sounded. Very exciting!

My coworkers are throwing me a work shower this coming Friday, I'm very excited! And seriously, how sweet are they? I'm a lucky girl!