34 weeks

Well, our lives have calmed down considerably since the house is healthy again! We had a great visit with my dad, though it wasn't as good as previous trips since we all were slightly under the weather and Chad and I had to work. But I am so glad that he got to come visit before our lives forever change! He was such a huge help. He put together our bouncer, stroller, and shelves and put up the nursery blinds. Unfortunately Lori was unable to visit because, while in St. Louis, she got hit with a similar stomach virus to what we had. It stinks that she had to miss the shower but we look forward to when they'll get to come visit--hopefully this summer!

I am starting to get my productivity back a bit. This is particularly good timing since I have under 6 weeks to get a semester's worth of work finished!

The doctor's appointment on Tuesday went well. My blood pressure was 118/70 and I had lost a pound since my previous appointment (due to not being able to eat or drink anything the previous weekend; it's all come back and then some...). The doctor did another ultrasound and Alaina is still head down and doing well. We mostly just saw her spine. She was sleeping. However, the doctor was able to point out that she is practicing her breathing. Very, very cool. She did say that she will be doing another big ultrasound a couple of weeks before the due date to assess growth and position. Chad is excited he will get to come to that. Below is the latest video. You can see her heart beating (around 140 bpm) and the practice breaths. Ignore the poor cell phone quality and my froggy voice from the bronchitis.

Alaina's movements are definitely more obvious now. They can be seen from across the room sometimes! She seems to be doing well. I'm also doing well. Continued reflux at night but I've been trying some tricks to reduce that so it's been better the last couple of days. The graduate students are throwing a shower on Friday for me and two of my colleagues who are also having babies. It's really very sweet of them.

Chad and I have scheduled our hospital tour and pre-registration for March 21. We have two more classes to finish. Everything is really getting real. Everyone keeps asking if I am excited or nervous. In reality, I am just not there yet. So many people keep saying "I bet you can't wait for her to get here" but really...I can. I am perfectly content with her staying right where she is for awhile. It isn't that I love being pregnant or that I am afraid of what life will be like with a baby. It may be just that there is so much to do before she gets here. I have what feels like a million journal reviews due, theses to supervise or read, IRBs to finalize, reports to grade, lectures to write, and a manuscript to revise. And none of that has anything to do with getting things ready for the baby.

To get ready for her we still have a number of big things to accomplish--

• Find and meet with a pediatrician
• Finish painting and decorating the nursery
• Launder and organize the baby clothes
• Decide on a bring home outfit
• Write thank-you cards
• Make meals to freeze
• Write "birth goals" (yikes)
• Determine what necessities we still need to buy (like um, diapers...)
• Pack our hospital bags and install the car seat

Hopefully I'll get to work on some of that this weekend. We also will be picking up our glider and ottoman! Yay!

Here is my lazy photo from this week: