It only gets worse.

Here I am -- I made it through my first week back at work since the preterm labor saga.... and I'm still pregnant!

I think the preterm labor made everyone think this baby would never go full term (even one of the doctors at the hospital said that). As I write this it is Saturday, January 27, 2007 and I am 37 & 3/7 weeks prego. This is considered full term by all pediatricians - so the baby has proven everybody wrong.

As far as things go with me, my level of discomfort is increasing exponentially as compared to the rest of my pregnancy. The baby is dropping lower and making walking "naturally" a very uncomfortable, if not impossible, ordeal. Try as I might to look natural when I walk around it is very forced! And my ankles. Where have my ankle bones gone? Some of my shoes don't fit and some of my socks are like tourniquets on my legs. There are other issues that I don't care to share here, but long story short it'll feel very good to NOT be pregnant anymore!

Enough chatter, on to the pictures. We did the same sequence as last week for comparison sake. There are noticeable differences such as shape and where the baby is located (lower now).

This shirt was a bit drafty the way my belly pushed it out.

Still looking the same from the back side!

*** WARNING ***
Here's where they get a little yucky....

Love that belly button... Or "my button" as I've taken to calling it.

And this week for some excitement we have new angles for a different perspective (we were having a little too much fun with this....)

Never one to be left out, Aaron got his chance at modeling for prego shots. He might be a little bigger than me!

So proud of his belly bump...

Is he getting ready to push?

My mom had a dream a few months ago that the baby will be born on January 29th. Maybe she'll be right? My feeling is that this baby is going to get very close to it's projected due date of February 14th!

Brace yourself.....

Today was my LAST DAY to take the labor-stopping medication I've been on since I was hospitalized. Please note, this DOES NOT guarantee that anything will happen anytime soon. I could still go to my due date or later! But just in case I do go into labor relatively soon we thought we would get some good pictures to demonstrate just how big I've gotten.

I'll ease you into it with three pictures that are easy to view. But after the first three the last seven are pretty gross.

Amazingly it doesn't look like much from the back....

***WARNING***
The following pictures are all belly from many different angles.
It even grosses me out a bit....

We'll try to post here before leaving for the hospital and soon after the baby is born, so stay tuned (remember it could still be WEEKS, so don't get your hopes up too much).

Anti-Nester

If you know me well you know that I'm not big into housekeeping, organizing, arranging, etc. When I became pregnant I was real curious whether or not I would "nest". So far the answer has been a resounding NO! I'm getting things ready for the baby, but only because I have to. There's no compelling drive to clean, clean, clean or shop or anything of the sort! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting things ready for the baby but I wouldn't call it nesting.

The other night I washed up all the little tiny 0-3 month clothes and Aaron had to take a picture of me folding them and organizing them into piles to be put away. It felt good to get that done so I won't have to do it when I get home from the hospital.

We were thinking that maybe this little onsie would fit right now. I would estimate that the baby is probably about 6.5 or 7 pounds right now - but that's just a guess.

I put all the gifts from our baby shower on the bed in the baby's room. I received the motivation I needed to put it all away when I kept catching the cats sleeping in the white basket that McKenzie gave me. I wanted to get it organized before it became covered in cat fur and I would have to clean it before organizing! This is a picture of Sadie the first time I found her in it. I now have all the baby bath towels and wash cloths neatly rolled up and put away in the basket with no room left over for furry kitties!

My dogs were being so well behaved inside tonight. Rowdy is finally learning his household manners and is more trustworthy every day. They love to curl up in front of the fireplace until they are so hot and panting that they get up for water!

Rowdy loves to have a stuffed animal to chew on. He has been stealing stuffed animals out of the baby's room so we bought him his own pheasant last night at Target. He loves it - and he and Maci fight over it and steal it from each other.

Maci is a hard girl to get a good picture of. I was thrilled with this one tonight! Such a sweet girl - how could you not love that face?

And of course we all know that Rowdy is a beautiful dog as is evidenced by this photo.

Notice a Trend?

I have been spending a good amount of time in my recliner. I watch movies, read, do crosswords and sudoku, talk on the phone, and visit with Aaron.

Upon downloading all of our digital images for the past few days I noticed many pictures with the same thing happening. See if you can guess what it is.....









I guess it's good to have company, even in your chair! Having my pets to cuddle with is one of the best things about being out of the hospital!

Baby's First Shower!

Last Friday, my pharmacy co-workers hosted a baby shower for us at the hospital! I felt good and had a lot of fun visiting with everyone, eating, and of course opening presents!

Aaron came with and he was the official photographer and gift recorder.

There were all kinds of great food: sandwiches, salads, chips, dip, cheese &
crackers, veggies and soda.....

There was a very tasty cake, too....

.... and lots of gifts!

We ate from very cute plates with matching napkins.

This was a gift of all kinds of medicine for baby. Look at my face, only a
pharmacist would get THAT excited about medicine!

This is a cute, fuzzy sea turtle.

This is a cute, fuzzy blanket. It's super soft!

And of course, diapers! I look a little too excited about diapers.... I'm sure that
will change once I have to start changing them all the time!

A big, huge THANK YOU to everyone that helped organize the shower, prepare food, and also for all the gifts. Your generosity and caring is humbling and made us feel very special!