Forty Weeks!!!

I hit the due date!
I have completed 10 full months of pregnancy and August 30 is here. I can hardly believe it!
The next few days will be exciting I am sure, and for the first time I am really getting nervous about the labor part of things. This is a new thing, I used to worry about whether we'd have the house together, how we'd cope with a life outside of an infant, money, the baby's health and well-being, but never labor.
The house is in order for the most part, all clothing and newborn diapers, blankets, and sheets are washed and ready to go. Our hospital bag is packed, birth plan is written, relaxation CDs burned onto the laptop, camera batteries charged, birth tub reserved, doula on-call, snacks at the ready, baby is moving around well, and I suppose we are as ready as we're going to be!
And I'm getting nervous.
Rob will be great, Grace will be amazing. Can I do it?!

I sure hope so.

39 weeks

Anyone who has not seen me has been asking what I look like. Well, according to strangers who have to make comments in grocery stores I am "too small" and "there is no way" that I am expecting a baby in a matter of days. So I offer you photos, you can decide. It must be noted that at 6'1", I have more than adequate torso space for a full term, possibly large fetus to spread out and be comfortable.

Home Stretch

I am just a few hours from my last day of work for 12 weeks and 3 days from full term: 40 weeks. I can't believe how the time has flown! I am feeling great. I am not uncomfortable when awake almost ever. Sleeping is a bit more challenging but not nearly as painful as it was when my ribs still hurt. They magically ceased to hurt about 3 weeks ago. It was a great discovery, suddenly no pain! I think my ribs (alternating with my back for the first 2/3 of the time) ached for 16 straight weeks.
I survived, and know there are worse things. But I'm very happy to report weeks now of pain-free existence. The exchange was having to get up at night to use the bathroom. I had escaped that little annoyance for 36 or so weeks, now it is nightly. Sometimes it is twice nightly.
We've moved some of Rob's things to the basement for a pseudo office. Half our basement is finished and I use that term loosely. It is drywalled and carpeted, while the other half is cement walls on cement flooring. It was his idea to move a desk and bed down there, so we cleared out our boxes, steam cleaned the carpet, and put furniture in the room. It became a remarkably cozy little living space. Since it was hot, and since our air conditioning does not reach the second floor well, we started sleeping in the much cooler basement area. The temperature is wonderful, even keeping the AC on a relatively high temp kept the basement nice and cool. The down side is the urge to pee that hits me about 3 am every night now. Our only bathroom is on the second floor. I have to REALLY need to go before making the half asleep trek up two levels to the bathroom. What usually goes through my mind first is that I could hold it, sleep a while longer, and sometimes I do that. Then I wake 30 or so minutes later having to go even worse. Then I think of the unfinished half of the basement, just a few steps away and how there is a drain in the middle of the floor. It tempts me most nights. But I also go through the details in my head and squatting is not that easy anymore. Then there's no toilet paper, what if a cat follows me in? And really, I can just upstairs, right?

So I do. I have yet to wet the bed or succumb to the temptation of the drain. And yet I admit to pondering it.

37 Weeks and a Wedding

Lynn at full term!

August 8 has been this milestone anticipated since sometime in late January. That is around the time that my sister picked her wedding date and I got on a calendar for pregnancy and realized that I'd be 37 weeks that day. Thirty seven weeks is considered full term, or when the baby is about as developed as it can be. No medical professional will try to stop your labor after you hit this magical 37 week point. It was also the date I set for myself to have a glass of wine. I figured I'd be just ginormous and it would be scorching hot and I would have deserved a beverage after 9 months of no wine or beer. In the end, 37 weeks seemed to come quickly and I'm not that ginormous. The scorching hot prediction came true with a vengeance. As the wedding party posed for outdoor photos after the 1:30pm wedding, the heat index was 105 degrees. There was no shade in the park where the photos were taken. I participated in about 2/3 of the photo shoot, then hung it up and went back to the air conditioned bus to cool off.

The wedding was a lot of fun, it was a weekend of activities that mostly went off without a hitch except for my parents having a flat tire on the way to the reception and ending up there almost an hour late. Selfishly- and of course I'm writing selfishly, this is my blog after all- one of the best parts was the opportunity to swim in my sister's new inlaws' in ground pool. I submerged myself on Friday night before the wedding when guests at the post rehearsal dinner party jumped in and again on Sunday during the post-wedding brunch/pool party. It was heavenly. I stayed in the water for hours, and it was totally worth it even though for some odd reason I have become allergic to sunscreen (every brand I've tried, even the all natural stuff!!) and have itched myself into a rash for the rest of the week following my layering of the stuff on Sunday. It was worth it.

I did have my wine!

Hilarious (Oh, and Beautiful too)

This is what Rob called me tonight. I was trying on some shirts, I think, as a few no longer fit and a few more are very close to not fitting. He was amused. I have to agree about the hilarious part. This giant ball of a belly is attached to my body and its f-ing weird. And hilarious. I'm not too sure about beautiful. Hiroki, my 18 month old nephew, saw me this weekend and his mom told him that there was a baby in my belly. I patted my belly and invited him to do that too, if he wanted to. Hiroki said "Ball ball". Yep, pretty much.

New York - Long Overdue Post...

It has been a long time, yes. One month and one day since last checking in here. Many things have happened, lots of great travel and then lots of working on our house. New York was wonderful, as usual. Rob loved it which was good for me because I have always loved that city and find it crucial that he at least appreciate it and my expectations were far exceeded. We had a perfect place to stay in Brooklyn, about 3 houses away from a subway stop. We walked and subway-ed all over Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn and even made a trip to Staten Island one day for lunch. I held up just fine, walking on average probably 4-5 miles a day. It was the first time (I think anyway) that I looked visibly pregnant and New Yorkers gave up their subway seats for me every single time I got on the train without exception. It was kind of unbelievable. I lived there for a year and saw people carrying groceries, small children, boxes, people with disabilities, the elderly, and rarely saw anyone offer up a seat. But for me, they jumped up as soon as I got on the train and motioned for me to take their place. One man actually apologized for not having seen me sooner- and I had just walked onto the train!

I appreciate it, but for the most part I could have stood up. But who am I do deny them their good deed for the day? Way to go, New Yorkers.

Some photos from the trip:

Rob hearts public transportation (really, who doesn't?!)

Lynn and Rob under the Brooklyn BridgeGround Zero as it is now...
Historic Battery Park is totally transformed. It used to be a lawn and I once saw Ani Difranco play there. Now it is a sculpture and walking area, very fancy!






This is the photo that looks like we are at Sears and someone pulled down the "sunset on the water" cheesy background for our photo. It is really the Hudson River and that big pirate ship in the background? It is a bar. We had a great night out with some of Rob's friends.

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!!!!