Awaiting Labor : 38 & 39 wks

At 39 weeks I'm feeling stiff, sore, and walk like an old man but am happy to finally move past feeling really sick. My best Boston friend, is super motivating and has me optimistic that I'm nearing the end...Whether it's another day or up to another couple weeks before our babies arrive, at least we have time to treat ourselves to some delicious ice cream while we wait it out together!

(Pic taken 1/14/2010. I'm 39wks...Ginger is a trooper at 41wks!)

Looking back over a week ago:
Here I am running on 3 to 5 hours of bad sleep each night (it got worse when I suffered through the worst of my cough and had several nights with zero sleep), currently have a never ending cough and congestion, have swollen feet, and gained roughly 25+lbs. It's a good thing I'm 38 weeks pregnant or there would be something really weird going on!

(pic taken 1/4/2009 at 38wks)

Due Date in only two weeks! It's time to leave your baby predictions!

Re-Used : Vintage Pillow Case

I bought this vintage rose pillow case at an estate sale in Portland, OR about two years ago for roughly $0.25. I completely forgot about it until I thought I'd see if I had any fabric to cover the pad in the bottom of the bassinet. After a couple measurements, a few quick seams on the sewing machine, and some stain treatment it's now the perfect fitted sheet for Pinkberry!

37 Weeks

We seem to have difficulties getting our old camera to take a focused picture in our apartment.

Below is the clearest followed by the funniest shots Matt took to document week 37!

Boston College Girls

I have such sweet girlfriends here in Boston. My Boston College girls (a bunch of girls who have boyfriends/fiances/husbands in the MBA program) got together to celebrate my fascinating growing belly and Pinkberry! I thought it was quite perfect that they chose to carry on a collegiate theme as everyone shared their favorite childhood book. I came home with a lovely stack of classic books for the little one to enjoy which I am really excited about.


Kathleen and Krista, our lovely hostesses pictured above, made this the most thoughtful shower I could have imagined. Herbal teas, delish sandwiches with the crusts cut off, scones, cookies, a fruit tart, and even Dove chocolate mint pieces! It was so pretty and I'm still not sure how they got into my head so well...Each thing was so personalized and a personal favorite.



Now it's time for a few classic shower games. A name game, how BIG is Jana's belly, and draw a baby. (check out the pictures for that last game mentioned. It was quite funny to watch and the results were even more entertaining.)



Thanks again BC girls. I guess we're adding one more girl (a baby girl) to our get togethers in a month or two.

Nesting

I've discovered first hand that "nesting" is a real thing. Over the past several months I've gone through a phase of intense energy focused on organizing, cleaning, and improving many unnecessary projects! I don't have a second bedroom right now as we are renting a one bedroom apartment, so I don't have a baby's room or nursery to focus this frenzy on. The part that cracks me up is that all of the deep cleaning I've completed will be back to normal amounts of dust and dirt within mere weeks.

Here are a few of my accomplishments that I am so re-leaved to have done.

• Hand stripping, waxing, and buffing the kitchen floors
• Touch up paint throughout the apartment
  
• Rotating the 8x10 area rug
• Cleaning out and reorganizing all our closets, clothing, and paperwork
  
• All miscellaneous deep cleaning including dusting under our bed, cleaning kitchen cabinets and refrigerator
  
• Lists upon lists of 'must do' things that I've already forgotten what they were
  
• Refinishing a flee market kitchen table three times before I got it right (almost)
• Creating a spreadsheet for every possible thing I can track and organize
• Reading every pregnancy, birthing, and baby book I can get my hands on
• Taking an over priced birthing class
  
• Analyzing and researching all possible baby products and needs that we could possibly encounter then realizing that most of it is unnecessary
  
• Picking fabrics for a quilt and crib bedding so my mom can work her crafty magic
  
• Daydreaming about what our baby will be like

I've also discovered that even 'soon-to-be-grandmothers' need to nest. Matt's mom has hand made four smocked dresses, two beautiful quilts, a baby bag for me, and fixed up many priceless vintage baby items circa baby-Matt! Every time I speak with Sasa I hear there is another special project in the works!

(One of the darling smocked outfits by Janice/Sasa!)

My mom has only recently had her time freed up but has also been working her handy work for quite some time now. Just a few special things she's completed are super cute burp clothes, several ultra soft crochet blankets, and also the precious crochet blessing blanket that takes hundreds of hours of work and even has tiny jade beads all around the boarder (which she hand picked out from the jade market in China). She's now working on crib bedding for Pinkberry.

(A couple Gramma Julee blankets awaiting the baby's arrival.)

I've really gone to town making "the baby's corner" especially nice. Yes, I swept away all the dust bunnies and set up the "Cariboo Basinet" which I bought off Craigslist.

(Nana has gotten in on the action as she's made up a quilted mattress pad made to fit the bassinet perfectly!!!)

35 weeks down, +/- 5 weeks to go!

I feel like I'm filled with doll parts that are moving around.




Here I am today at 35 weeks:

Week 30 & 31 = HUGE

Is it possible .... To get any bigger?
My back is breaking!

30 Weeks


31 Weeks


The belly has been "cute" up until now.
The third trimester is all about sweat pants, whenever possible, just to be comfortable!

Happy Halloween '09

Last weekend, with Matt's Mom in town, we decided to take another visit up to Salem, MA.
As expected, Salem lived up to all our Halloween expectations.

I'm nearly 28wks along here! ----- This last picture is terrible butt it makes me laugh so hard. I was taking a picture of a grave stone when Matt couldn't resist taking a picture of my caboose! I had no idea of this until I was looking through the pictures afterward!

26 Weeks: The sister side by side by side!

The baby and my belly have grown to 26 weeks as of Monday. I couldn't resist creating a line up including myself and my two younger sisters when we are each 26 weeks in our pregnancies. My picture is terrible (hopefully I can get Matt to take a profile picture for me another time) but other than the twin factor it appears that I'm on track.


Liesl pregnant w/ twins ------------------------------Megan---------------------------------------------- ME!
(Pictures in order of pregnancies....I'm the last one!)

Baby Bonnet

After much help from a good friend here in Boston (thanks Ginny), I finally have a finished product and have learned some knitting basics. I'm so happy to be learning how to knit!


(The loose ends are now finished off, but this is the picture I took when the real work was complete.)

Good Music

There is nothing better than a good concert. Matt and I saw an all time favorite last night, SunnyDay Real Estate. What a perfect way to bring back 15 years of memories than through hearing this band's old songs!

Below are two pictures of me on the way to the show. The venue was across the street from Fenway Park.

As you can see, I'm finding that the only way to deal with the awkward shape I now have at 6 months pregnant is to wear tons of accessories!

It's a.....

Can you believe we're having a girl!!!
And for all of you asking for photographic evidence proving that I really am pregnant... Here are a couple pictures taken three weeks ago in Chattanooga with Matt's Grandmother. (20wks along)

PS - I would really enjoy some www.pinkberry.com right now...for real!

The BIG little post!!!

We've been out of pocket for several weeks now so I have many updates yet to post. ...Spain, France, Atlanta, and a very special visit from a good Seattle friend!

Matt has finished his second week of school and we are back into the swing of things, for the most part! We are sharing our computer again which makes blog catch up challenging, but for now I have a few minutes for the much awaited "BIG little post!"

Yes, we have big news!!! If we haven't had a chance to tell you personally, Matt and I are very excited to share with everyone that we are having our first baby!!!

Pregnancy has been moving along smoothly as I am already 5+ months. We're due mid January and already know the gender. If you haven't had a chance to make a guess on what we're having, now is your opportunity. (you can make your prediction in a comment.) I'll let you all know on my next post if we're having a boy or a girl.