Moving On

August is half over and summer is almost gone and normally I would be sad about this, but every day that passes brings us that much closer to meeting our baby. The past few times I've had weird muscle spasms or a shooting pain, D automatically asks, "Are you in labor??" The other morning, before he left, he made sure to tell me, "Call me if you're in labor"...as if I'd forget or something! I can tell he's getting really excited about seeing the baby, although I will miss his nightly chats with him or her. They're so sweet and heartfelt, but I guess he'll just talk to the baby that way, although I won't necessarily be there to hear. On Monday this child was in constant motion for a good twenty minutes, and while he's always active, it's never for that long of a duration. Ever since then I've only felt him in the middle of my belly with a few good swats and kicks to the right, but I think (and hope) that was him getting into the head-down position. Last appt, the dr said he'll check the baby's position and if I'm dilated at the next visit (this upcoming Monday), so I guess we'll have an answer then (D is on vacation next week, so he's coming along to the appt)! A few people in church last night commented on how I look thinner and went on to say that I'm the only pregnant woman they've known to look thinner at the end of pregnancy, but I really think that Baby is just hanging out in the middle. Whereas before he'd have oh-so-much fun stretching himself out sideways, which was always (not) a fun feeling. And one last baby thing. My friend recently told me about this really cool bottle for breastfeeding moms who also want to bottle feed from time to time (me!) called Breastflow. See how it has a double nipple so it's not as easy as regular bottle feeding? So cool.

While Baby is very important and all, that's not all we've been focused on (although we did go to an all-day childbirth class on Saturday which was very informative and answered all my questions). We've been going over to the house almost every night and getting little things done here and there. D's dad has been over a few times, which has been a big help. And of course my dad is over there practically every morning for a few hours doing his thing. He has amazing skills and is not only saving us thousands of dollars, but is doing everything so professionally. I do what I can when I'm over there. I've even ventured into painting...just the front door which is very well ventilated. I was going to paint it white again, but realized I didn't have to paint it white just because it was already white, so I put a first coat of black on. It now matches the porch light, the house number, the mailbox, and the screen door handle. I like it much better. D has a friend coming over on Saturday to help with ceiling painting. My mom is plugging away at all the trim work. Yana primed the baby's room earlier in the week and is just waiting for the ceiling to be done so she can paint the room. I guess she's excited about doing that, which is a great help and I will be sure to let Baby know she had a big part in putting his/her room together! We have a few more projects going on, but with all this help we're getting from some family and friends, they'll all get done sooner rather than later.

However, we most likely won't be in there before Baby arrives, but Mom has offered to put the cradle in her room (there's no room in ours!) so she can get up with the baby, change his diaper, and bring him to me to feed during the nights for the first few weeks. I'm not sure if I can pass up a deal like that! And I like the idea of Baby and her bonding since she is SO excited about her first grandchild (and she definitely will be as excited about every grandbaby that follows...which is scary!). D just found out, too, that he only gets 3 days paternity leave while he's on the floors for the next two months after his vacation (back to having call every fourth night) and that's basically all while I'm still in the hospital. Then, after two months of floors, they said he'll get his week of paternity leave (when he's on an elective rotation). So random and so inconvenient, but that's how it's going to work. I feel bad for him because he wants to stay home for longer and when he is home, he'll be getting up early and getting home late and on call every fourth night. All that to say I will definitely be needing the help since he won't be here much, so thankfully my mom is a very ready and willing grandma (along with so many other people I'm not sure if I'll even be seeing my baby for a few weeks). But I digress, the house will look so much better when everyone is done doing their thing. I'm so excited to see the outcome!!

In other happenings, Mom, Yana, D, and I went over to Nick's house on Tuesday night to watch the Olympics. That was a fun night. Tonight we're going over Rita's house for Yana's bday. Tomorrow I'm going curtain shopping with Mom and Yana and I'm hoping to get D to go furniture shopping. Next week our best friends from PA are coming up for a 3-day visit and I am sooo excited to see them!! They really are awesome, they said when we found a house to let them know and they'd come up to help. We've yet to find friends as great as them, they're the best! I'm sure next week will be super busy with all that's going on, but at least D will be on vacation and we'll be doing fun stuff. And maybe, just maybe, Baby will pick one of those days for his birthday. An eight-and-a-half month pregnant mom can hope, can't she?