Week 38 and 5 days

I had a blog all written up last week and then never took the pictures to post with it. There's not much to say. When I went last week for my 38 week checkup, I was 50% effaced and 0 cm dilated. Today, I'm 50% effaced and 0 cm dilated. Are you having deja vu? No, that's what I was at 37 weeks too. So see? You didn't miss much by me not blogging. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and write the blogs for weeks 39, 40, and 41 - 50% effaced and 0 cm dilated. Done.

I know that the ticker on the side of the page says 9 days, but there is a very real possibility that I could be pregnant another NINETEEN days. NINETEEN! (that's me screaming) When I got the news that there was no progression again, I started to wonder "How long can this go on?". My doctor assured me that she won't let me go ten days past my due date. TEN! (me screaming again). Hence, I could birth as late as May 19. She actually said she'd induce around May 16 if worse came to worse. At this rate, Ellie is going to come out walking and talking. Lee keeps trying to coax her out of there, but she's already not listening to him. Since I've stopped teaching, I've increased the amount I'm walking. According to some, that brings on labor. We'll see. I'm having a pregnancy/reflexology massage on Wednesday. I'm hoping massaging my"trigger points" will get things going. My doctor also suggested castor oil, but I'll see how the massage works before I voluntarily give myself irritable bowel syndrome.

We didn't do much this weekend. I got my stroller from Babies R' Us. I was really starting to get a little anxious about that because I knew it had been discontinued, but I hadn't gone to get it yet. I was half expecting it not to be there, but I got one of the last two the store had left. The thing is enormous. It even has a place for Trudie to sit. I also got a car seat base for Lee's car. He told me he's going to install it "later". Apparently, it's not really cool for him to drive around with a car seat base installed in his car as I have done for the last 4 weeks. I may get him a "Baby on Board" placard to complete the new daddy look.

Speaking of, the father-to-be had his "Daddy Boot Camp" class this weekend at the hospital where we're delivering. It was a three-hour class for dads only. He didn't really get into the specifics, but from what I can gather they went over all of these statistics of how kids brought up in two-parent households do better than kids brought up in one-parent households. Sounds like that took a prison-style "scared straight" approach. Oh and get this - the teacher asked the class to state their greatest ambition for their future son/daughter. So what is my husband's ambition for our child? Maybe a world-renown doctor? To follow her mother and be an environmental engineer? I would have been really proud if he'd said he just wanted her to be happy. No, he told that whole class that he wanted to "keep her off the pole". As in the stripper pole. I'm sure they all thought Ellie was the result of a bad night at Baby Dolls. I know he was trying to be funny, but I'm so glad I wasn't there because I would have kicked him under the table. Then I would have kicked him again.

We did get some artwork in that I ordered. How cute is that? That's Ellie's changing area. We're a little short on space so her diapers hang from the ceiling.

Lastly, on Sunday, I was thrilled to learn that my friend Meg is engaged! I'm so happy and excited for her and Ruben. Meg, if you're reading, let's do a destination wedding. Maybe in Mexico. I've never been to Cabo... but you know, whatever. Playa comes in a strong second. I'm just saying if you're looking to pick a place that not everyone has been, I'd LOVE to go to Cabo. That will be great motivation for me to diet and workout. Of course, if I want to go, I'm going to have to NOT be 50% effaced and 0 cm dilated. (Ellie, I'm talking you YOU. Get out of there.)

Happy Birthday, Lee

Lordy, lordy, he's almost 40. Well, not really, but those were his exact words on Friday morning. In the back of my head, I was hoping that Ellie might come on Friday. Since I was born on my mom's birthday, I thought it would be cool it Ellie was born on her Dad's birthday, but it didn't happen. She's still in there. She's pretty strong now so if you push on her, she'll push right back. Lee engages her in that activity more than I do. My two Tauruses are already fighting it out. Great.

We celebrated Lee's birthday on Friday at Cafe Pacific with his mom, dad, and brother. About halfway through the meal I decided to slide my shoes off to get a little more comfortable. I wouldn't normally do this, but I was in a corner against the wall so nobody could see. When we went to leave, I couldn't get them back on and blew a strap out walking. Nothing says sexy like huge feet and no ankles. It's fairly stunning. When we got home, Lee opened his gifts. It was pretty easy for me to shop for him this year since he dog-eared the Brooks Brothers catalogue when it came in the mail and starred everything that he wanted. I used to do that with the Best catalogue at Christmas. I was 6. When he opened one of the shirts he said ,"Oh great! This is the exact shirt I wanted!". Yes, I know. I picked up on that. I gave him a pair of shorts, a linen shirt, and a seersucker sports shirt.

I made him swear that he wasn't going to wear any of the new clothes out in the yard. He swore. And he didn't. He woke up on Saturday morning, put on his new duds and headed out to the nursery to buy plants. Later on that day, he tried to fix our grill in the seersucker shirt. I'm honestly surprised he doesn't mow our yard in his tuxedo. I mean, why not? It totally makes sense. Why wait for a special occasion to wear your best clothes when you can make pulling weeds a little more festive by accenting with a tie or a new Cole Haan belt? I try not to be a nag, but my head would explode if I didn't say something.

We didn't do much this weekend, but we did go to a crawfish boil on Saturday afternoon. At a bar. I was a good sport for about 30 minutes, but then I just wanted to go home. It's hard for me to stand for too long. That afternoon our friends, Mike and Shanon, came over for some wine and cheese and they brought their 3 year-old nephew, Ian. He has red hair and is cute as a button. We told Ian that I was having a baby. He asked where the baby was. I pointed to my belly and told him the baby was in there. He eyed me suspiciously and said ,"Did you eat the baby?". No. "Then how did it get in there?" Um... yikes. "We're totally kidding. I'm just fat." No need to go there.

While we were all outside, another couple stopped by with their 10 month-old little girl. Lucy walked over and laid down on her back so the little girl could pet her. She was in heaven - laid there wagging her tail. I think she was even a little upset when the baby left. Meanwhile, we had to keep Morgan, our Golden Retriever, inside because she loves kids. Loves them. In fact, she loves them so much that most children scream in terror when she's around because they're afraid she's trying to eat them. Poor Morgan. She can't help it - she totally looses her mind when she sees kids. Hopefully, she'll learn how to contain that excitement around Ellie.

Doctor appointment tomorrow - we'll see what she says about being induced. I'm ready for baby - mostly because that would mean I could go on maternity leave one week earlier. I think I have sleep apnea now which is making me a zombie. Not much longer!

Week 37

Full term! Ellie is now fully-baked and ready for her grand appearance. Here's what I learned at my Monday appointment - I'm 0 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She's going to check again next Monday to see if I've made any more progress and to determine if I'm a candidate for induction. I'm so schedule-oriented that it would be nice if I could color code "Deliver Baby" and put it into my Palm Pilot. My guess is I'm not going to be that lucky. I'm pretty tired this week because like clockwork, I wake up at 2:30 am every night. On Monday night, I never went back to sleep. No sleep = cranky and unmotivated Tiffany. I feel like Mariah Carey when she went crazy on TRL and started handing out popsicles telling everyone all she needed was "one long nap".

My co-workers gave me a really nice shower at work last Friday at lunch. We ate lunch, had cake and punch, and played games. Since my office mostly consists of men, I'm not too sure how excited they were to play "What candy bar is melted in the diaper?", but they were good sports and did it anyway. They also gave me a gift card to Babies R' Us so Ellie will be getting her stroller soon.

This weekend was pretty low key. We were going to go to go see Blades of Glory on Friday night, but the hail and threat of tornadoes kept us at home. We saw it Sunday afternoon instead. It was pretty good - I tried not to get my hopes up, but being a big Will Farrell fan, I wasn't as impressed with this movie as his others. We also went to the pre-Baptism class for Ellie. We only have to do the one class so I thought it would be better to do it before she got here than after. I have no clue when she's going to actually be baptized. That will probably be something we figure out when she gets here, but I'm thinking September.

I also went to the JLD Spring Market and bought a bunch of stuff I didn't need and made a trip to the stores for Lee's birthday gift. He's got a birthday on Friday so we have a weekend of birthday celebrations planned. Poor guy - last year his birthday was the day before my PE Exam so we kept it low key and this year I'm pregnant so it will be low key again. Next year I'm promising fireworks, honey!

I retired my high tops today. This was my last week of teaching aerobics. Yes, I've still been hanging in there with my stepping and lifting. I think I could have gone all 40 weeks, but I didn't want to go into labor over a weekend or something and leave my classes without an instructor, so I gave up all of my classes at Week 37 just to be safe. I'm a little sad because this will be the first time in almost 9 years I won't have regular classes, but I don't know how I can balance a baby, a husband, my 9-5 job, my volunteer work, and everything else along with teaching. So I guess it's more jogging and workouts at the YMCA from now on. I may get back into teaching one day, but the more likely scenario is that I'll just keep on attending group exercise classes annoyed that the instructor is stepping on the down beat, can't hear the 8 count, and queues 1 second too late. I'll miss teaching, but I'll miss all of my participants the most. I gave some of them my blog address so I hope they'll still visit me. Thanks for all of the fun classes, everyone!

Week 36

Just 28 days left. I can't believe that Ellie will be considered "full term" in 7 days. I had my 36 week check up on Monday and from here on out, I'll be going to see my OB every week until Ellie makes her appearance, which I guess could be any day now. I will keep everyone updated with weekly progress reports (without all of the gory details) via the blog. As it turns out, there's a chance that my OB will not be delivering my baby since her day to deliver is Tuesday and every 5th weekend. She assured me that all of the other doctors in the practice have delivered lots and lots of babies and not to be concerned. I wasn't until she got serious and said ,"I want to warn you that one of the doctors in the practice has a tracheotomy so he has to push a button on the side of his neck to talk. It sounds a little robotic, but I wanted to give you a heads up in case he's on call your day". I'm sorry - WHAT? So you're telling me that in addition to the fact that there's an 80% chance you're NOT delivering my baby, there's a 20% chance that Darth Vader IS delivering my baby? This is why Katie Holmes had a silent birth - it's because her doctor had a trach and she didn't want Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto to be the first thing Suri heard. Maybe it won't be that bad and he'll just sound like the guy from Moviephone.

The good news is that I am past the point where I am worried about giving birth to a midget or transgendered baby. The bad news is that last week I read an article on CNN about a boy who was born with a port wine stain on his face and wrote a book to educate other kids about his condition so they won't make fun of him, and now I'm afraid I'm giving birth to Mikhail Gorbachev's mini-me. I really feel that out of all of my fears, this is the most likely one that could come true. Did you know there's a 1 in 2000 chance that she could be born with a port wine stain someplace on her body? ONE IN TWO THOUSAND. That's pretty high. I'm trying not to think about it.

This weekend Dallas is hosting the American Baby Faire. I thought this sounded like a really great idea until I researched it on-line. I had a panic attack looking at the pictures. It's basically a Babies 'R Us but TEN times as big because it's at Dallas Market Hall. I like babies and kids and all, but not that many jammed in with strollers in one area. Everyone knows that registering at Babies 'R Us nearly sent me on a drinking binge, so I can only imagine what would happen if I went to the American Baby Faire. After days of frantic searching, Lee would probably find me holed up in an opium den. If you're in Dallas this weekend, the Junior League is hosting a great event (also at Market Hall) called Days of Spring Market. Stop by and shop!

He drank the Kool-Aid

Happy Easter, everyone! I can't believe that this time next year I'll have someone to hide eggs for! Ellie may not understand, but I'm sure I'll try anyway. Maybe next year it won't SNOW the day before Easter. I was amazed when I looked out the window on Saturday morning to see flurries coming down. It didn't accumulate, but burr - it was freezing. We'd been using the AC for about a month, but had to switch back to the heat on Friday night. I had planned on wearing the dress I wore to my shower to Easter services, but since it was 40 out, I went with a wool coat and scarf instead. Turns out this is the first April snowfall since Dallas has been keeping record. Let's hope it's the last.

Saturday was a big day because... Lee is now a bona fied Catholic. He's been taking classes since September and the big conversion took place on Saturday night at Conversionathon '07. That's not what they call it, but it felt like it since we were there for three and a half hours. If you ever do something really bad and feel the need to repent, get yourself about 36 weeks pregnant and then go sit on a solid wood pew at for 3.5 hours at the Easter Vigil mass. There were seven readings, an epistle, a gospel, homily, baptisms, confirmations, and finally Eucharist. We didn't get home until about 11:30 PM. Lee's friend, Mike, was his sponsor. I think Lee felt he might finally be taught the secret handshake or be forced to participate in idol worship, but it never happened. At any rate, I'm very happy for him and Ellie doesn't know it yet, but she is too. Katy wonders if now that Lee has converted if he will be consumed with the crushing guilt that comes with being a Catholic. I told her that I didn't think he feels the crushing guilt yet, but give it some time. We've only been married for 3 years.

On Tuesday, I went to the Catholic bookstore to get Lee a greeting card and some prayer cards for St. Joseph, since that's the confirmation name he took. I was looking for a "My First Hairshirt", but there must have been a run on them because it's Holy Week. When I walked in, the lady behind the counter asked if she could help me. "My husband is going through RCIA right now and will be confirmed on Saturday night, so do you have any "welcome to the club" greeting cards?", I asked with a chuckle. My attempt at unholy comedy was met with an icy stare. Apparently there's no joking about sacraments and there's no laughing in the Catholic bookstore. I missed the sign on the door. If I'd known I was walking into a hotbed of Catholic hilarity, I would have left my wedding rings in the car and referred to Lee as my "baby daddy". As I was picking out the prayer cards, Sister Mary Serious was telling one of her co-workers how she's not a good flosser so she has to use a water pick on her teeth because there's a spot near her molars that collects food. I lit a candle for her on Sunday, and I'm sure she lit 50 for me.

On Easter morning, I made waffles for the first time ever. That's what Lee requested so I figured out how to make them and used one of our yet-to-be-used wedding gifts. He actually requested blueberry waffles, but let me off the hook since I served him breakfast in bed. The Brights and the Rogers met for lunch at the Grape on Sunday afternoon and then everyone came back to our house to see the completed nursery. We finally got the sofa in Saturday. Now all we need is that baby!

I want that.

It's all happening. I have made great strides putting the nursery together so I'm feeling much better about what would happen if Ellie came early. As seen above, we purchased the freakishly bizarre "Symphony in Motion" mobile for her...

Personally, I'd be scared as hell if I woke up and saw that hanging over my head, but this is the mobile that so many people are crazy about. It plays Mozart and Beethoven so hopefully our tiny genius will like it. I know who already really likes it and that's Morgan. The other night, I was working in the nursery and I told the big girls to come over to the crib because I had something to show them. I turned on the mobile and Morgan sat down and was mesmerized by it. She then got up on her hind legs and put her front paws on the side of the crib to get a better look. I don't want her to start hopping up on the side so I told her to get down, but she was happy to sit on the floor and stare at it with her tail wagging. I can't tell if she likes it or if she thinks it's so strange looking that she wants to grab it and bury it in the backyard.

The bigs have been really good about not running off with any of Ellie's stuff, but then again it doesn't smell like her yet. Lucy likes to "baby" and nest with whatever she can find of mine (socks, my digital camera, hand lotion), but hopefully she won't start to baby my baby's things. Lucy is particularly fond of the teddy bear that hangs from the baby papasan, which is only velcro fastened on, so I'll see how long that lasts. Right now they seem interested but confused by all of the recently acquired items in the new nursery.

We were supposed to have the sofa for the nursery delivered this weekend, but our guy flaked out since his assistant didn't show up to help him deliver. On Sunday, I washed a full load of Ellie's things (sheets, blankets, towels, washcloths, layette) so I could start putting them away. We're using the same chest that was in my room as a baby, but we've switched the top knobs and spray painted the others. It will double as her changing table. Lookin' good now!! I've created a spread of items that people have sent to Ellie:

I already feel bad for kid #2 because s/he will probably be wearing and using all of the above items after Ellie does and be sleeping in the top drawer of our dresser. I mean, would little Ricky Bobby really know that he's sleeping in a shoebox and wearing a dress? No. Pink or blue onesies? Who cares because they can't see color for a while anyway. Everything has to be perfect for the first one, but by the time the next one rolls out, we'll probably be using the "what doesn't kill him makes him stronger" method out of sheer exhaustion and give him a bag of glass to play with. And Lord help us if there's a third one. Morgan's mothering instinct had better be pretty good because that's who's going to be raising it.

My friend, Veronica, also had a shower this weekend - a wedding shower up at Leslie's house. It was very nice. I'm afraid I may miss her wedding since it's 10 days after my due date. I hate to say that I may be busy, but I may be! Mom and dad came over on Saturday to do some shopping with me and helped hang the "Ellie" letters over the bed that mom made. I also purchased the Fisher Price Rainforest swing with gift cards from the shower and set it up . By next weekend, I want to make a 360 video of the nursery and figure out how to to post it to the blog. I have to keep up with the Erwins.