Yep, still here

I promise I didn't have the baby weeks ago and am just keeping it a secret from you all. I was apparently misinformed about my plans of having the baby on Thursday.

It doesn't take much to impress people these days. At least 4 people have commented on how they are surprised I can still wear my rings. I got yelled at yesterday by my CEO for attempting to change into my (rather low) heals. I obliged and put my tennis shoes back on. I keep getting called into meetings that I wasn't originally invited to because people assumed I would be out by now. It's like when you say bye to somebody at a party or something and then awkwardly see them again. That's every day at work right now.

I have tried many a natural labor inducing remedy. Have consumed an entire bottle of evening primrose oil. Kenny made me eggplant parmigiana last night. I'm eating pineapple as I write this. I've been taking the long way to work so that I have to walk more. I've eaten spicy food. Am going to give up and sit on the couch this weekend.

Due

So today is my fabled due date. Mardi Gras. I am fairly certain there is to be no birthing for me today. I feel better about Thursday. The puppies don't think baby is coming today either. This is what they do while Kenny takes my weekly picture and they are waiting for their morning walk.

I think Leroy knows something is up. He's taken up being creepy and sleeping in his own bed at night. Either he knows something up, or he doesn't like sharing the bed with the whale who disrupts every creature in bed when she shifts positions.

Belly at 40 weeks. Also known as the time when pregnancy calendars stop. People are now disappointed to hear from me by phone or see me at work.

We had a lovely Valentine's Day. Baby cooperated in not coming on Valentine's Day as I had previously requested. We went to Outback. It was an outing we had planned for the day for several weeks. Sure we could have gone to some romantic-ish spot--perhaps a local restaurant we'd never been to--but we wanted to journey to the suburbs and go to Outback. Kenny consumed 2000 calories and 150 grams of fat.

For my Valentine's present, Kenny gave me a pedicure.

Apparently, much like learning to braid hair, learning to paint nails is something often overlooked for boys. Luckily, I can't get close enough to really see them and I think they look just spectacular from afar. For Kenny's Valentine's present I made him some waffles with berries and fresh whipped cream. Also I carried around his child for another day.

Some puppy for Friday

Jack from Kenton Kodner on Vimeo.

39 weeks..not for the faint of heart

So I've figured out why the baby hasn't come out yet. It's too busy eating.

I'm sparing you the pictures from the other side featuring angry red lines.

We went to the midwife today. I'm bigger (clearly). Baby is bigger. Baby will be born no later than March 2nd. I have a March 1st 8:00 pm room reservation at the hospital in case we haven't seen any action by then. I'm hoping very much for a February baby.

Kenny made me Jell-o last night. He added the hot water and then said, "and this is when you would add the alcohol." Pretty sure it's the first time he's made Jell-o that wasn't in shot form.

A brief tour

There is much evidence of approaching babyness around our bedroom. Note the elephant humidifier purchased for baby's room that may never actually end up in baby's room.

And here's a picture of the headboard we finally finished. This is a project that had been on our to do list for months and really ought to have triggered labor upon its completion. Our bed looks kind of gaudy here, but I don't think the colors look this way in person. I hope not at least.

This is where baby will sleep (courtesy of Kenny's cousin) in the beginning.

This is Kenny testing the new glider with our usual stand-in baby.

And these are our bags packed for the hospital. Items range from pillows to electronics, powdered gatorade and tennis balls. It's kind of a hard trip to pack for, you know?

And this was the belly at 38 weeks. See? Plenty big enough for a fully grown baby to come out of it right NOW.

Like the night before Christmas if you had no idea when Christmas was

I want to meet the baby noooooooooooooooow. This could be a really long month. At the midwife today, we briefly discussed what we might want to do if baby still hasn’t shown up by March. By March. March is a lovely time to be born. I was born in March, but if this baby gets any ideas about waiting for a March birth it’s going to spend the first 3 years of its life grounded. As it is still 2 weeks before my due day, I really need to chill out.

In a vain attempt to hasten the birth, we’ve gone into super nesting mode. I think our Saturday really sums up life as of late. We ran a few errands in the morning, got home and napped for an embarrassing number of hours, eventually got up and found ourselves cleaning out the fridge until after midnight. It now glistens. I’ve reorganized every cabinet in the kitchen at least once. The floors have all been cleaned. Bathrooms are shiny. All clothes in my dresser have been refolded. All clothes in my closet have been rehung. I even gave the washing machine a good scrubbing and vacuuming. I feel like maybe baby is just waiting for us to get one more project done. After we made and hung our headboard Sunday night, I fully expected my water to break.

In other news, our new computer arrived yesterday. New computer replaces 7 year old computers that are so old everything we try to do on the web laughs at us. Want to upload pictures? Good luck. Want to do your taxes? Taxes are for people with computers that don’t have electric tape on them. We skyped Kenny’s mother and video g-chatted my brother last night. Apparently this is what modern life is like!

I’ll post the pictures of the belly and the last week’s accomplishments in baby preparations later.

Workplace hyjinx

So, last Friday I was a bit bummed. I had to wear a suit (or what I classify as close-enough-to-a-suit-I’m-too-big-for-real-clothes) instead of the usual jeans casual. I had a client meeting scheduled for 4:00 and client meetings=you have to dress up. My boss told me that our receptionist would call when the client got there and asked me to print off a bunch of stuff for the meeting in the meantime. I walked down to the meeting with her, past what I did not realize at the time were all empty desks. When we got to the room I thought it odd that the door was shut.Seemed kind of rude to have our client all shut up in the room by himself. I opened the door and was greeted by my entire office shouting “surprise,” a clothesline full of onesies, and a table full of cupcakes and falafel (from my favorite falafel place). Oh, and a Kenny. The Kenny part really threw me off much as Megan’s appearance at my birthday last year threw me off. I have a hard time with people being in the wrong context. I said, “you’re not supposed to be here” and kept asking him why/how he was. There was a flipchart full of boy names since my coworkers all know that yes, we have girl names figured out but can’t agree on a single boy name. They came up with many winners including Moonshine and “The Situation.” We had sparkling cider (or champagne if you happened to not be pregnant). I thought the onesies on the clothesline were my present and was surprised when they handed me a big gift bag full of baby bathing paraphernalia and a Babies R Us gift card. I introduced Kenny to each and every one of my coworkers. I think it’s good for him to have a face to go with the names he hears about all the time. Overall, I would describe the experience as awesome.

In related news, I am now over 37 weeks pregnant. That means the baby is full term (though the due date is not until Mardi Gras) and is basically just freeloading and trying to get fatter right now. At my midwife appointment last night I found out I had gained a centimeter and lost and pound in the last week. My scientific explanation for this is that the baby is eating my fat. To be on the safe side, I have been eating pretty much non-stop today. I’ve had a bagel, bowl of oatmeal, protein bar, manicotti, and a Hershey kiss so far today—and we’re really just 6 or 7 hours into the day. None of the pictures this week were good, so you get this one:

We finished most of our household projects this last weekend. It’s as if we’re finally ready for that housewarming party we were going to have. Also, you just really can’t have a baby when there are pictures that need to be hung. I mean, I’m sure you can try. I just know it’s a bad idea. We are officially allowed to have the baby after we make and hang our headboard this weekend and get onsite recycling set up. Below is a picture of Kenny’s masterpiece. I talked him out of making himself crazy and trying to hang them in straight lines. The idea is that we try to have at least one picture of all of our family members and friends. This is how baby will remember who each of you are.