30 Weeks

This is it, the final stretch! TEN more weeks, and summer has hit St. Louis. Heat indices are over 100 daily and everyone who sees me now has to make some comment about how poorly I planned for the heat, or how I have so much further to go in the summer. I am visibly pregnant, no doubt about it. No stranger has even had to ask, they just assume. And they are correct. Yes, I am aware of the heat and the pooor planning and how much further I have to go to get through a hot summer carrying an extra 25-30 (or more!!) poorly distributed pounds around. Yes, I know. The thing is, I am fine with it! I really enjoy having 10 weeks left, I don't feel ready for having a baby yet. The baby is certainly not ready to be here either. A co-worker has a friend who is just 2 days ahead of me according to due dates and who began pre-term labor a few weeks ago. She held off delivery until this weekeend, and at 30 weeks had a 2lb, 9oz boy. I do NOT want a preemie, I don't want months in a NICU, and I want to be giant and fat and still healthy with a large healthy baby inside.

There are no 30 week photos of me for two reasons. First, and primarily, because until yesterday we were without a camera. My nearly 6 year old Canon bit the dust, I helped it along a bit in March by leaving it out in the rain. It had a short revival and functioned moderately for another couple of months before mostly petering out. The time has come for a new camera, hopefully one that will last another 6 years. So I spent the last 2 weeks researching and asking for advice and checking sales. My deadline was yesterday and I ended up with this camera:

The camera has come just in time, as I am leaving for New York City tomorrow! Actually, I am leaving in just a few hours, I am blogging instead of sleeping. I could not visit NYC without a camera, especially when Rob has never spent much time there. He's been there a week already and reports that his research is going better than he'd imagined and he may have time to hang out with me and explore the city. It will be good to see him and the best news of all is that the average temp over the next week in NYC is 10-15 degrees cooler than it is here.
I am so looking forward to getting back to the city I love. This will also be my last flight before being grounded by pregnancy, and the last vacation unencumbered by baby gear. To remind me of this, here is a photo of the corner of our living room. This is just about all the baby gear we have acquired in the last few months. Most of it came as gift or hand-me-down, the swing was a bargain purchase. This is the first photo taken with the new camera.

It will be a reminder of how things will be changing.

So on that note, it is off to New York!!!!