38w2d

Well, I am officially on maternity leave. I cannot tell you how happy I was to wake up this morning and realize I don't have to deal with any work related stuff for the next several weeks. This last week of work, unfortunately, was rather stressful. One of my clients ran away from her foster home Monday night and it just made the days to follow that much more complicated. But, it's over!

This morning I picked out Bubba's coming home outfit, and got to washing onesies, socks, bibs, and blankets. We're not sure how big he's going to be yet, so I didn't go crazy washing all of the newborn clothes. We can always return stuff and exchange it for bigger sizes.

I really didn't think I'd feel this way towards the end, but after four or five straight weeks of near excruciating back and neck pain, I am so ready to have this baby!! Oh yeah, I've also been enjoying the pain in my hips, legs and feet, and my old friend constipation. I don't know how in the world I managed to work up to almost the last minute of this pregnancy.

It's really beginning to sink in that, in just a short amount of time we'll actually meet our son. By next weekend, he'll be coming home with us and we'll have to figure out what to do with him! I started panicking a little last night, thinking about the fact that I've only ever changed a diaper twice in my life (and that was on a girl), and how will I know what he wants when he cries, what if I can't soothe him, etc. I know I'll be sore after the C-section and it won't be advisable to go up & down stairs for a while, so that has me worried too. Our bedroom, the nursery, and bathroom w/tub are all on the second floor. Oh well, I'm sure we'll bumble our way through the new journey of parenthood, but it will all be okay.

Here are some more belly shots taken weeks 36-38, and a couple of the nursery:

36 Weeks

37 Weeks

38 Weeks

Making Room for Baby

We spent the majority of this weekend preparing the nursery. Gregg's parents came into town, armed with tools and supplies, to help us work on the room. Saturday morning my mother-in-law painted the bottom half of each wall with the blue color we picked out. After taping down the baseboards and doing the trim, the job went pretty quickly. After lunch, Gregg and his dad assembled the crib that my in-laws bought for us. Then his mom and I put up the wallpaper border, which really tied everything together.

I love the way it turned out. It's absolutely perfect! After we were done, I stood back to admire the room and could picture our baby in it. Words can't even describe how wonderful I felt. Now I am even more excited than ever for him to arrive! My MIL also brought the cradle Gregg slept in as a baby, and was up early this morning sewing new bumpers for it. It's really all starting to come together now.

Here are some pictures:
The first stage



Is there enough blue in this room?



A close-up of the Winnie the Pooh border, with baby's first toys in the crib


The finished project, and the tired but happy soon-to-be parents!