32!

I can officially say I am 32. Weeks, that is. To commemorate this occasion, Milo took it upon himself to wake me at 3 am. I didn't get back to sleep until about 5 am. I originally had the alarm set for 6. When it went off, I said "Yeah, right" turned it off and went back to sleep for an additional hour. I'll be OK for now, but I'm sure this afternoon will kick my butt.

As promised, here is a photo of the nursery. I apologize that I cannot seem to hold the camera steady very well (you should have seen the other 20 photos I took, all more blurry than this one). My sincerest thanks to Stephanie and Bob for the use of their camera. Because they needed it back, I finally went through and took photos of the items I'm putting up on eBay. Now let's see if I can actually post those this weekend.

OK a brief description of the decor of the nursery then I'm getting to work - we have dark green carpeting and beige walls. We wanted to keep the overall theme pretty simple and used colors from the Zanzibar stuff (you can kinda see the pillows on top of the dresser) we got to decorate. The curtains on the windows (off camera, to the right) are also dark green with the shades being a light brown (not as yellowy as the walls). For those who haven't seen it yet, I can't wait for you to come by - after the recycling day. The only reason you're getting one view of the room is that the other side is piled high with paper recycling which doesn't get picked up until next week.

I'm still feeling fine overall - although I've been pretty stuffy at night. My appetite is fine, but hits me weird overall. I seem to be back to the three meals a day thing, which is odd, but I guess fine. I had gained a LOT of weight per my last visit to the doctor (at least more than I reasonably should have based on the time frame) so I'm trying to be better overall. They're not overly concerned since the appointment was the day after Thanksgiving, but they did warn me that to be pregnant this time of year and not gain a ton of weight is difficult. OK enough of this writing, I better get to work.

Thank You Thank You Thank You!

I'm so thankful for everyone who was able to make it to the shower this past weekend. I know it was a crazy weekend to do it, with the Thanksgiving holiday, but we really appreciated seeing everyone - especially my mother-in-law who flew in for the occasion and went more than a little crazy at both Target and Babies R Us.

Here's a little photo of Ken and I at the shower - it's the obligatory photo of the guy with the beer in his hand next to his pregnant wife (my brother's baby shower photos had him with a beer in his hand in EVERY photo). Good thing I don't like beer :-). We enjoyed hanging out with everyone and really appreciated the gifts (believe it or not the thank you cards are already written, but it may take me a while to dig up your snail mail address - oh this age of electronic media).

The day after the shower my brother was coming to Baltimore to watch the Steelers get their butts kicked (sorry Andy) and he cleaned out his storage areas by providing us with a crib, changing table/dresser and lots of clothes, toys and other necessities. Can't say thank you enough! Ken and I then spent about 3 hours putting the nursery together (I SWEAR I will get some photos of that posted soon). We also did our first loads of baby laundry so we could begin to get the room in order and ready for Kieran. It seems very very strange.

On a sad note, Ken's grandmother passed away over the weekend. Madonna Gauvey will be sorely missed and Ken is going to be travelling this week to Ohio to join his family for the funeral. Ken says that Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday so its somewhat fitting that she passed away after that holiday. She at least got one more in. My apologies that I cannot be there - but I am not supposed to travel at this time, as it is too close to my due date. My thoughts will be with you this week.

How Did it Get to be Now Already?

Holy crap! I just looked up at the calendar and realized how close to Thanksgiving it is. The closer it is to Turkey Day, the closer it is to delivery of the little bundle.

I have no idea how we're going to get everything done, but on the plus side the room is 100% done. On Sunday my brother is being kind enough to bring up the crib and dresser/changing table he's giving to us. Once we've got all that assembled the room will be complete. I hope to have a picture of the room up tomorrow.

About all for now - feeling good though he wasn't really moving much yesterday. Today I'm stuck on conference calls and other webinars all day and he's kicking like a champion. Weird little guy. I'm tired overall but not due to fatigue (I don't think) more due to lack of sleep. I keep waking up from bizarre dreams only to be wide awake (and hungry) at 3:30 am. Today I was able to go back to sleep. Earlier on in the pregnancy I would wake up around 4 am and not be able to go to sleep again. I usually ended up downstairs with a bowl of oatmeal. Those days at the office were pretty hard.

Speaking of work... next week while my office is somewhat quiet I'll be putting together an outline of everything needing to be done while I'm gone. I only expect to be out February and March but we'll see how it all goes. It really depends on when Kieran decides to show up. I'm convinced that he's coming early. I don't know why really. My brother is rooting to share his birthday (Jan 19), only 6 days before my due date.

Ken is doing well, only 3 weeks to go before his final finals at school. Then he gets five glorious days of break before beginning his Bar Review course. I have plans for most of those days already :-).

OK, got another web cast to sit through. I hope you eat until you burst on thanksgiving!

Get Me Some Twigs - I'm Nesting!

Yeah, that nesting thing is for real. Got home last night and had a bug to finish installing the carpet. Took me about an hour and when I was finished, I had the urge to empty the dishwasher and do some dishes in the sink. After all of that my stomach kicked in and I had to be done so I could eat for the next hour.

I'm hoping the trend will continue tonight so I can get even more done around the house as we near the end of the waiting period.

Had a bad adventure this morning - got a flat tire on I-95. While I was waiting for Ken to come to my rescue, a Courtesy Patrol (something the Maryland Highway Administration offers) came and put my spare on free of charge. Ken arrived just as he was finishing up. Of course immediately after I went to the shop and got 4 new tires as well as the oil change I knew we needed. Ken's happy that we've got the new tires as winter is coming.

Other than that fun time, not much is new. Trying to get the house in order for Debbie (that's Ken's mom for those keeping track) to not see what a mess we've made. Now that the carpet is done, we can put away some additional things and determine where a few others go. Next big step is to buy curtains and shades for the room - we've got that on tap for this weekend over in Fells Point. Hopefully we'll find something we like.

Will blog again when the mood strikes.

I'm Glowing

The sugar levels were fine, so I think I'm done with all my testing. Can I get a WHOO HOO!!!

Went to my cousin's B'Nai Mitzvah this weekend (like a Bar Mitzvah only with two kids instead of one) and everyone was telling me I was glowing. I'm hoping this is not a really nice way of telling me that I'm getting fat in the face. Mostly I think my family was happy to see me not sick/green and losing weight.

My dad had us sit and talk with the Rabbi during the reception after the ceremony about the different issues surrounding circumcision, a Briss (ceremony where a boy child has his forskin removed, among other things) and naming ceremonies. It was interesting and helpful, if somewhat unexpected. We're still not going to do a Briss, but we will be doing a naming ceremony and now Ken is thinking about doing that at a temple - not something I was thinking of doing. We'll see. We've got a lot to get done in the next 11 weeks (yes, that's all I've got left).

The shower is soon to be upon us and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. We really set up the shower so that Ken's mom could come in and be a part of it, though we knew most of our friends and many of our family members might not be able to attend. So thanks to everyone who worked their schedules to make it and for those that can't - we understand and hope to see you once Kieran is here.

That's about all I've got for now, so many thoughts in my head but I've got to get to work. Lots to be done in the next few weeks!

Sugar Baby

I managed to get my blood drawn on Saturday without too many tears/freakouts (thanks mom). We'll hear the results at the next appointment, which is this Friday.

Not too much else going on, just trying to get organized here at the office and at home. The carpet we ordered came in wrong so it will (hopefully) be in this weekend so the baby's room can be finished. Once that's done we can stop storing all gifts we've receievd in Ken's den (he'll be very happy to get the floorspace back). Then we can finish cleaning up the rest of the house. Finish deciding where things we had been storing in the spare bedroom (soon to be Kieran's room) will live. Some of it just needs to get photographed and posted on eBay. That's probably my plan for this weekend - though it's been my plan for the past 3 months and I haven't done it yet.

I still feel good, though I notice I am more short-tempered than usual (or I'm just noticing my short temper, who can tell?) but overall I try to keep it in check. Mostly I just get uncomfortable around the end of the day. At home I tend to have a hard time keeping still because I constantly need to move around to be comfortable. What's seems to be fine for the first 1/2 hour I'm watching a show makes me crazy for the next 15 minutes while I shift around trying to find the next comfortable position. Ken is a saint through all that - he never complains when I make him move to make me comfy. Ain't love grand!

We'll see how much weight I've gained (starting to worry about picking up too much weight - but that's probably because I don't know daily how I'm doing) on Friday. I'll also find out if I can exercise (I'm sure I will be able to, but Ken wanted me to double-check with the nurses before I do). Many of you will get to see me this weekend at the Bar Mitzvah of Evan and Matthew (my youngest cousins) although I have no idea what I'll wear that is appropriate/comfortable/fits. Oh well. See ya'll soon!