Losing Serenity (And Teeth).

Thursday (No, wait, they just changed it to Friday) is my due date. Which means absolutely nothing as far as when the baby's coming. It's just a nice milestone. This is my second week back to school. I have as much as 2.5 weeks before I go on leave. (Unless the baby comes now, that'd be swell). I'm taking a full load of Cosmetology, two online classes (both of which have some crazy syllabus deadlines), swim class twice a week, and cycling twice a week. Took the first cycling class last Tuesday. Ouch. My crotch and butt feel bruised, which is super fun. It feels a little like I was stung by several bees on my lady parts. Glad I have a day to recover before I have to do it again.

Last Wednesday was one of my last OB appointments. All of her observations during my exam were positive. Things are progressing. Does this look like the face of someone who's ready to be done being pregnant? I think it does.

The kids are awesome. Chance is completely in love with kindergarten after his first week. During the week of practice summer kindergarten, he brought home his first kindergarten germs in the form of a head cold which we all got to enjoy. And he lost his first tooth. The tooth fairy didn't get to stop at our house, though- After a week of being wiggly, it fell out while he was eating a bagel and he swallowed it. Hopefully next time we'll get one. He does look really cute with his little gap in front.

Labor Inducers.

1. WALKING
2. SEX
3. EVENING PRIMROSE OIL
4. RED RASPBERRY LEAF TEA
5. SPICY FOOD
6. ACUPRESSURE
7. PINEAPPLE
8. BUMPY RIDES
9. CINNAMON STICK TEA
10. GO BOWLING
11. MOTORCYCLE RIDES
12. EGGPLANT PARMESAN
13. SWIMMING
14. YOGA BALL
15. SWINGS
16. CLEAN THE HOUSE
17. BLACK LICORICE

This is a list of things different people have suggested to me to get things moving along. Slowly in the next two (or five!) weeks I'm going to utilize them all. There were a few that didn't make the list (mostly because I tried them last pregnancy and the consequences were so horrific that I'd rather not go there again. I'm talking about you, cohosh and castor oil..) Also I had a person suggest eating macaroni and cheese with A-1 sauce.. That's a new one for me that I would totally try if I didn't think it would make me puke violently.  The OB keeps offering to strip my membranes and see if that does anything, but I'm on the fence. It's incredibly painful and the list of possible cons is pretty daunting.

So far I have enjoyed a few of these. Swimming is my favorite one. We swam in a friend's pool in Hayward last Sunday. Chance told me he really hopes the baby stays in another week so we can do it again this Sunday. Shamus told me he really hopes the baby stays in forever.

This is my 38 week belly. The OB swears I haven't gained a pound in two weeks, but my eyes just can't believe it.

Impatience (Or Dread, I Can't Decide).

Feeling a little like I'm not ready for the next three weeks. This week is Chance's week of practice kindergarten, the week after that is my first week back to school, followed by Chance's first week of official kindergarten, which ends the same day as my due date. Sound like too much? I seesaw pretty regularly between feeling like there isn't enough time to deal with it all to feeling like I'm going to be pregnant for eternity. (The real truth of it all is that I could be pregnant anywhere from two and a half more weeks to five and a half more weeks. Or I could go into labor five minutes from now, but I scoff at that theory.) This is a positive in the sense that I have some extra time to finish what needs to be finished.

Chance's first day went off without a hitch. We all got up in time, got dressed and ate breakfast without a problem, and made it on time. He left excited and came home excited that he gets to go back tomorrow. I was never that worried. He's been independent since infancy. Shamus has now begun talking about when HE goes to kindergarten. I'd bet any amount of money he and I will not be so cool come his turn. I can not lose that kid lately, his Velcro baby tendencies have totally resurfaced. James came up with the genius idea to make him a little bed on the floor of our room. He's not using it every night, maybe every other. I'm not getting kicked all night (at least externally, anyway) so I'm ok with it. Hopefully it's not permanent. Perhaps a newborn that cries at all hours of the night will make his bed look more appealing. Or he'll be a thirty year old man that sleeps on the floor of my bedroom...

The BabyQ.

The weather was terrible. It threatened to rain all day, but miraculously didn't, so the barbecue went on just fine. I didn't have to do a whole lot of the heavy lifting or the setup so I wasn't nearly as tired as I anticipated being. I was really happy with the number of people who showed and most everyone contributed something yummy to eat or drink. James and his dad manned the grill and cooked burgers and hot dogs. I stuck with simple desserts and ended up making piles of chocolate chip cookies (Shamus' request), my mini burger cookies (Chance's request), and chocolate-covered strawberries (that one was allll me). Easy, tasty, and successful. I got to squeeze into a sundress, eat a little bit of everything, and visit with everyone for hours. For decoration I printed baby photos of everyone in the family and hung them around the dining room. No games, no tiny plastic baby statues, no fuss. And a lot of people decided to ignore the "no gifts, just snacks" suggestion and bring adorable tiny things for me to ooh and ahh over. Perfect kind of "baby shower".

I charged the camera, but had too much fun to remember to take any photos. Except this one at the end of the day of a very tired, but very happy, me.

36 weeks-

Changes A-Plenty.

Big changes-

New schedule with Chance. Starting today, I now have Chance 80% of the time (His dad and I have had a 50/50 share for two and a half years).

Chance is starting kindergarten (!!!). I'm extremely excited. Soon we'll get to do my favorite thing in the entire world- school supply shopping.

New baby. There's going to be another person living here in.. four weeks? Though my guess is closer to seven weeks. I really don't want to get induced again (it'd be my third time) so I'm going to let this one stay in an extra week and see if he comes forth on his own. Plus Mary and I made a wager that if I'm still pregnant on September 14th, she has to buy me dinner. I'm going to make her take me someplace nice. (Though it's win-win, really, since it's a bet I would happily lose.)

Small changes-

 Less cravings, less breathing, more peeing. This is when a lot of women start complaining about having trouble eating and breathing. If the baby hasn't dropped down all the way into birth position yet, your diaphragm, lungs, and stomach start to feel pretty crowded. You'll usually notice it has happened because all of a sudden you're peeing coooonstantly. Oddly, I have both symptoms. My ribs hurt, I get lightheaded when I walk up the stairs, I can only eat half a meal at a time, and I'm peeing every ten minutes. How big is this baby?

I can NOT get Shamus out of my bed. He's definitely starting to sense all the change and it's manifesting itself in the fact that he's now in our bed pretty much every night. It's getting kind of crowded (plus, where will the baby go when he gets here?) so I'm trying to put my foot down and put him back in his own bed. Now, after the second or third failed attempt to creep into the bed, he's taken to sneaking out of his room and sleeping on the floor of our room or the hallway until James leaves for work, then finishing his morning sleep in our bed. It's ridiculous and pitiful and kind of cute. Hoping if I keep talking to him about it, it'll sort itself out. Or I will accidentally step on him during one of my sleepy trudges to the bathroom and he'll stop doing it. Either way.