Progress!

There's nothing like being told by your doctor that you only have a few weeks left before D(elivery)-Day. This is what happened a week and a half ago. Up until that appointment I thought I had about 7 weeks. Long story short, at this point I probably have about 3. Way to light a fire under my ass. I had not yet acquired the nesting frenzy that comes when delivery is near. Oh sure, I had tackled lots of projects and come up with things I would like to do whenever I got a chance. But I had not yet awoken in the middle of the night to scrub the insides of the cabinets. So now I am in the middle of a kind of forced nesting. There are things that MUST be done before the baby comes and now I am scrambling around to get them done. It REALLY helps that Sophie is in school 3 mornings a week and that she loves being there. It REALLY does not help that she keeps waking up in the middle of the night for no good reason, causing me to get even less sleep than I have been. Regardless, I am making progress.

- We have completed Day *5* of successful napping in the big girl room! Sophie will only sleep in the trundle bed, not the actual bed, but I honestly don't care. As long as she is happy sleeping in her new room, she can sleep wherever she pleases. I also have not yet attempted to leave the room before she falls asleep, which I will need to do soon. For now I am perfectly content to nap with her. Sometimes it's just a 15 minute cat nap, after which I sneak out of the room. Yesterday I slept for close to 2 hours, which felt awesome. We are planning on starting bedtime in the new room this weekend. Wish us luck. Actually, wish Shimmy luck, because I am going to Sharon's house for a much-needed sleepover Saturday night. (I'm packing my jammies and mad libs!)

- I got my massage. Now this may not seem like something that NEEDED to get done before the baby comes, but let me explain. This was a massage I had won in LAST YEAR'S Purim Raffle. Somehow I never had time to redeem it. Pesach came right after Purim, then we were getting ready for Israel, then we were in Israel, then we were dealing with the remodel of the bathroom, then I got pregnant and didn't want to get a massage during the first trimester (it's not recommended, not going to get into why here), then I just couldn't find a free week until now! So I went and got my free massage. It was more like uncomfortably lying on my side in a cramped room of a pack rat's apartment. Said pack-rat spent an hour rubbing cheap lotion all over me and chatting with me about G-d knows what. It was a far cry from my usual massage by Sven at Elizabeth Arden Red Door Day Spa (not really his name, but a massage by a European gay man by any other name is just as sweet).

- I am in the middle of typing up my birth plan. It's not all that different from my last birth plan. Just adding and tweaking based on experience this time. I lost the file on my computer, so I am having to type it all from scratch.

- I picked out the baby's thank you notes at the stationary store today. I picked out one set if it's a girl and another if it's a boy and after the baby is born and named I will call the store and tell them which ones to order. Yes, we know what it is, but we're not telling. And it's a damn good thing too, because halfway through my sister-in-law walked in. Turns out, she WORKS THERE. Talk about being out of the loop.

- I still need to put the finishing touches on Sophie's new room. I just need to hang pictures and Shimmy needs to swap out some switches and outlets.

- I need to finish the baby's room. It still looks like Sophie's room (which it essentially is), so as soon as Sophie is all settled in her new room, I'll get to the redecorating! I have already bought what I needed to do this!

- I still need to buy/pick out Baby STUFF. In particular, I need to make a final decision on the double stroller. I am heading down to Gaithursburg tomorrow to the baby superstore of all superstores to test drive a few. The current frontrunner is the BOB Revolution. Which, with all of the added accessories, will end up costing about the same as a crappy used car.

- I need to make all final arrangements for D-day. I need to pack my bag, and even more importantly, make sure my mom packs hers. I am more concerned with Sophie being taken care of than I am concerned about myself. I need to have her clothes picked out, lunches packed, a detailed map of how to get from our house to her school and from our house to the hospital and from school to the hospital. I am getting really stressed just typing this.

- Finally, here's some of my physical progress:

34 weeks:



Once upon a time at 10 weeks: