So...here we are 39 weeks - and all I have to show for it is fat swollen feet/ankles, fat belly, fat fingers, fat pretty much everything. The forecast for tomorrow in Sunny Philadelphia - 100 degrees, hazy, hot and humid. You've got to me effin' kidding me.Today's appointment went well. No contractions, no signs that this baby is ever going to leave so I had no choice but to sign the eviction notice for this weekend. Just waiting for a call from the doctor to confirm an exact date and time. David seems all too comfortable right where he is so induction it is. Unless he decides to change his mind and arrive on his own beforehand.
I thought my luck had changed when my blood pressure sky rocketed to 138/80. As a precaution I was sent over to Labor & Delivery to be monitored in the PEC (Perinatal evaluation Center). I was hooked up to a high tech BP monitor and I sat there for two hours so they could tell me - OK you can go now. What?!! Are you sure I don't have pre-eclampsia??! Anything to get this baby out of me!! So not only is David not cooperating but neither is my BP. So unfair!
Tomorrow is my last day at work for a while and I will enjoy my last couple of days by sleeping. I plan to sleep as much as I can so that come baby day - I won't be exhausted. More updates to follow...sorry to those who have lost the baby pool - I was REALLY pulling for you!!
It has been a long time since I have been able to lay on my tummy. It wasn't until I saw this cute picture of Miss Maddie enjoying some quality tummy time that I started to reflect on just how much I miss my own tummy time!
15 days and counting. I have a week left of work before I start my maternity leave. I can't believe it is almost here. We had a fabulous weekend starting with the arrival of Stephie late afternoon on Friday. We went to Pizzeria Uno for dinner and then to pick up our brand new coffee table!
The fun part was getting out of Stephie's rental car and into our house. We had good timing because a guy saw us from down the street and came to help Charlie. Stephie and I weren't much help so we went to pick up some ice cream and left the Doc to put the table together!
Then on Saturday Stephie treated me to a wonderful morning of a pedicure and manicure at a salon in center city. It was nice and relaxing and just what my big fat swollen feet needed. I decided to paint my toes blue for the upcoming arrival of our little guy. You can see below how cute my toes are. At least that is something! After the spa treatment we did some shopping and then lunch at El Azteca (our favorite restaurant). It was a wonderful way to spend the weekend.
We are now full term at 37 weeks. I thought it would be fun to go back to the old pictures I have taken and do a pregnancy retrospective. The first picture on the left is me at 17 weeks. It seems like so long ago. I can't believe how short my hair was. That was also back when being pregnant was cute and fun!
The next picture on the right is me at 24 weeks. I was still not too big! I still enjoyed being pregnant and even started to feel him moving around. It was when there was plenty of room for him to move so he was able to play gymboree using my bladder as a trampoline!
Moving on to 27 weeks the picture to the left. At this point I was starting to feel more and more uncomfortable. I was getting bigger and swollen. I stopped wearing my wedding ring at this point because some days it was too tight. We started working on the nursery assembling some of the furniture.
Moving on to the picture on the right is me at 30 weeks. This is when the nice doctor kindly told me to switch to carrot sticks instead of the sweets I craved so much. I decided that I wasn't going to listen to the nice doctor and continue to eat my candy, chocolate cake and ice cream! The time to eat healthy will come after the baby is born. I mean what other time in life do you have an excuse to eat as much as you want and gain this much weight. So I say - ice cream it is!
Last we have the 36 week picture or as I like to refer to as - the Shamu picture. Pregnancy is no longer cute or fun. I am too big to do anything. I get winded from moving across the room into the kitchen. I do not feel bad when I whine to the Doc that I need another soda or glass of water. I am going to enjoy being lazy until this baby comes out and I don't feel guilty at all because we both know who will be the one getting up to feed the baby and change the baby and rock the baby back to sleep. Me. So in return I get to enjoy these last few weeks being a spoiled pampered princess who gets rides to work and back rubs!
Something that I will NEVER take for granted again. You don't realize how easy it is to sit up from a lying down position or stand from a sitting position until your belly has taken over and your girth is massive and cumbersome. Or when walking (or should I say waddling) has become so arduous that people stare and laugh at you as you make your way across a street (I won't mention any names...eh-hem the Doc) because you look like a penguin. And forget about bending over to pick something up off the floor. If the Doc isn't around and it's not important - it stays right where it is. Unfortunately it does me no good when it's my work ID badge that I dropped on the elevator floor while making my way to my office yesterday morning. Thankfully I wasn't alone and the nice lady riding with me took pity on my gargantuan size and picked it up for me.
(3) Just when I thought that I couldn't get any bigger - well check out this belly. It's as if I grew bigger overnight. More stretch marks have emerged. I could knock someone out by just using my belly. 
You can also see how much it's dropped since the last belly picture at 34 weeks. That is a good sign - maybe we'll have a July baby instead of an August baby. Random people at my work say that I am going to "drop" this baby any minute now. They also can't believe I have three weeks to go, although I have been listening to this for about two months now. People just look at me and say "Wow" - Yeah I get it I look like Shamu - we already established that from the last post.
(6) The cats got a sneak peek at what it is like to have a baby in the house but I am sure they have already forgotten the scary "creature". In the meanwhile they have called dibs on the Pack N' Play. Oh silly cats - you have no idea that your world is going to change. Run to your hiding places now and don't come out for at least three years.
I am happy to say that our little guy's room is all ready. If you can't remember what it used to look like see the pictures to the left and right. It was white with a silver rug. It used to be the "computer room" and so now the computer is now in the guest room.
Next was to add the furniture. We put together the crib and changing table and then we added the armoire. The last piece of furniture we got was the glider which came last week. The Doc was on a mini vacation and put it together while I was at work. It was a nice surprise and very comfortable. He also installed some new shelving in the closet. It's set up so that there is a hanging rod with a shelf above and then another shelf towards the bottom. We added some rubbermaid bins for storage. Hey at least one room in our house will be clean and organized! We're hopeful this whole organization thing will rub off on us and we can keep the rest of the house that nice!
Add some finishing touches like the shelf on the wall over the changing table and the Finding Nemo picture over the crib and we have ourselves a finished Nursery!!
Here I am at 36 weeks...the Doc and I came up with some adjectives to describe my size: voluminous, hefty, king sized, packed, prodigious, vast & heavy duty. These days I refer to myself as the Hungry Hungry Hippo. You can see the comparison from the picture below.
I can't stop eating. Let me give you an example of how much I can eat these days! Today for breakfast I had two eggs over easy and an english muffin. Then we decided to go see a movie and on the way we went to Wendy's and I had a Jr. Cheeseburger and a medium fry.
Then we walked around the mall and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and you can bet there was cheesecake involved and no I didn't share. I have never been so hungry in all my life. All I want to do is eat. At this rate you can just start calling me Shamu...
35 weeks! I can't believe that it's almost here! 37 Days to go! This weekend we had Benny, Robyn (not to be confused with my sister) & Maddie over. They arrived Friday night and we got a sneak peek at how Trot and Drew would react to a baby in the house. Let's just say they FAILED!!
Yesterday we took a trip to Atlantic City. We walked the boardwalk and then walked the beach. Baby strollers and beach sand don't go well together. The Doc and Benny had to carry the stroller until we got down by the water and then it was fine! The water was very cold so Maddie didn't get her first experience of sticking her toes in the Atlantic Ocean maybe next time! It was really nice down by the water but very hot on the boardwalk. After that the beach we headed back to Philly to El Azteca our favorite Mexican restaurant and then to get water ice! After all that walking around and being out in the sun I was beat so I left the boys to the x-box 360 and went to bed!