Oh, the stress of it all..

I heard news that one of my other belly buddies (Alicia) just gave birth last night. That means two people out of the three that had a due date within a week of me has already given birth! My pregnancy ticker says 24 days, or 3 weeks and 2 days remaining to my due date. My official predicition is Feb 27th, as that is the last day my office is open, and my coworker gave birth on the first day the office was open so I just thought it would be fitting. Anyway, I'm starting to feel the stress of it all. There is so much to do, and Luke has been really great - but at the same time really stressing about getting everything done before baby is born. We still need to do a few loads of baby laundry, put everything away in the nursery (there are just mounds of clean baby clothes everywhere), pack our hospital bags, and we still are trying to finish up the video and photos from the wedding we did a month and a half ago. On top of all that, it sounds like some people have hurt feelings over our birth plan/preferences. The whole point of telling people was to eliminate stress, not create it!!! *breathe* Yes, I know I need to chill, I just thank God I have a three day weekend starting in about an hour. I would so love to come back on Tues, with 20 days left to go and nothing on our plates. Here's hoping...

One more down!

Baby has officially "dropped". I noticed this on one of my early morning bathroom runs, I looked down and thought "where did baby go?" He has moved about 3-4" lower then he was, so that means he's locked and ready to go! They say for first time moms, baby drops about 2-4 weeks before delivery, so that would mean baby will be coming sometime between 38-40 weeks likely. The following may be TMI, but I thought would be cool to document - here is the progress I've made towards labor from the common signs:

1) Nesting - check! I started nesting a week or so ago, cleaning and preparing the baby's room with a frenzy.
2)Baby Dropping - check!
3)Cramping/pelvic pressure - not so much, only a few times when I lay on my right side
4)Dialation/effacement - I'll find out on Thurs!
5)Lose mucus plug - check!
6)Bloody show - not yet
7)Contractions - on and off, but not with regular consistency and they rarely hurt
8)Water Breaking - not yet

So, I still have a ways to go, which is okay by me seeing as how I feel we have 1-2 weeks left of things that HAVE to be done before baby is born - such as packing our bags, doing a final thourough clean, and finishing up the wedding pictures/video for our pastor's daughter. So, I'll keep you updated!

Baby is almost here!

It's so hard to believe, but baby Seth could be in our arms in as short as 3 weeks from now! His official due date is less than 6 weeks away, and the time has just gone so fast. Some people say towards the end of pregnancy things slow down, but the opposite is true for me...though I do feel like I've been pregnant forever, at the same time I wonder how I will be able to cope with the upcoming events - labor and delivery, nursing, and taking care of a newborn. I have been blessed to have three baby showers - one from my family, one from my work, and one from my church. I got so many wonderful things to fill up the baby's nursery it is incredible. I'm now officially "nesting" and gathering up all of the things that he still needs, and hope to purchase them by nights end...then this weekend I will spend some time washing baby clothes and such and packing our hospital bags. I would rather be over prepared, then to not have anything ready when the time comes. As I read in a blog a week ago, I could go anytime now, though babies usually stay in their comfy home until around the due date. We had a friend that just gave birth at 33 weeks, and I'm at 34 weeks, so the reality does hit that it could be sooner than we expect. I'm really looking forward to the epidural after watching some of the birthing videos...I honestly can't see how people would go (or even want to go) 100% natural. No, thanks! I did a recent survey on yahoo answers posing the question what their pain level was with an epi, and all but two said a zero.

Updates on me - physically baby does feel like a huge watermelon, which is how big he is this week. He's weighing in around 5lbs, possibly more. I'm surprisingly comfortable, and haven't been overly tired however. Luke has commented more than once recently when looking at my prepregnancy photos that I was so super skinny before getting pregnant. Not that I'm fat now, but pregnancy does tend to make you look like a huge whale...large belly, face fattens up, and now I can't remove one of my rings...the great thing, though, is that within a few weeks of birth I should have my body back.

Updates on baby - He's definitely got a personality, he loves music, especially Pillar. His favorite song is "reckless youth" and if I'm ever concerned that he's not moving around like he should I'll put it on and in a matter of moments he'll start bouncing around, even if he was asleep. I can also feel more body parts, it was cool the other day we could feel his leg, where the knee was and everything. He's still transverse and mighty comfy that way, I'm just hoping he'll turn into the proper position in the next two weeks. If he doesn't, I will possibly have to have a c-section. We'll see, though.

That's pretty much what is new, at this point it's a nesting and waiting game...I have 24 days left of work (less if he comes early) and then he should be here!