36 weeks!

So if he's on time or early, we have less than a month to go! I'm trying not to think about him coming early in case he ends up being a late one. Also trying not to think of him coming early because then I have less time to prepare than I thought! We ordered our nursery furniture over the weekend, so it should come later this week or next. We of course didn't order from Baby Depot (see a few posts ago). We ordered a beautiful espresso-stain crib and combo dresser/changer from Babies R Us. Still on the hunt for a glider. I'm very much looking forward to having a place to put all the wonderful gifts and helpful hand-me-downs that we have acquired so far.

A friend of ours from the good old days at CPCBC is getting into photography and offered to do a pregnancy photoshoot for us so she can build up her portfolio. We had a great time with that on Sunday and she captured some great pictures. She was able to edit some and post them up on her blog at bekilindseyphotography.blogspot.com already. Looking forward to the finished product! Thanks so much Beki!

After the photoshoot I came home pretty exhausted and took a 3 hour nap, which worked out because Jack had to wrap up a freelance project. When I woke up, things felt a little different. It would seem that the baby has dropped! For those not aware - with your first child, the baby will usually descend lower into the pelvis a few weeks before the big day. So he's sitting even lower now, which makes for frequent trips to the bathroom. But it also makes for decreased heartburn and increased stomach and lung space, so that's been nice!

I had an appointment with my favorite midwife yesterday. She felt around and he's still head down (phew!) and she's guessing he's about 6 pounds already. I'm starting to go weekly now! CRAZY!

We also had another childbirth class last night. We learned about all pain management options. At this point, I'm going into it with the understanding that I'm going to get the epidural when things get really bad. It'll have to be an in the moment decision as to when that is exactly. I'm hoping I'll be able to push it off for a while so I'm not strapped to a bunch of monitors and IVs and all for who knows how long. The instructor told us we'd be watching a video of a woman getting an epidural. I thought it was just a video of the epidural procedure, but it was her whole birth experience and she did not warn the guys this time of the graphic moment(s). Jack was not so thrilled about that. But it was a very informative night and we're very glad we're taking the class. We skipped out before the relaxation exercise so we could join Jack's dad for dinner.

Changes in me - I'm starting to retain more fluids, so it feels like I'm ballooning out a bit. Mostly in my feet and ankles, but starting to feel it in my face a little. I guess I'm lucky I lasted this long without putting anything on in my face! Anyone who knew me in high school knows that I suffered from some edema in my leg in 11th and 12th grade after some soccer injuries. It was pretty cool to me - I called it my playdough leg. All the leftover fluid and dead cells built up in my leg or ankle area and I could squish it around like playdough and it didn't hurt. Sorry if TMI, but I loved grossing people out with it back then too. Well at this point, I have the same thing going on in my feet and ankles. I grossed Jack out with it the other night when I kneaded it all into a bump and then pressed a crater in the middle. Haha.