Still putting finishing touches on the nursery and will have lots more to wash and put away after the family baby shower on Saturday, but it's fully outfitted now.  I even made up some spray for the reusable flannel baby wipes I still haven't finish making.  I have about ten of them done, another 20 that need to be turned and ironed and finished, and another 20 or so that are just cut out and haven't been pieced together yet.  I keep putting it off, but maybe I'll have some time to sit down at the sewing machine and finish them this weekend.  I have finished several of my other projects for the baby, though.  I made two book slings, a diaper stacker, a valance, a diapering caddy, and a hamper.  I also made a few pairs of booties and I have several more in various stages of completion.  I wanted to latch hook a rug for the nursery, but these things will have to wait till I'm home with  him all day and can find the time while he naps.  

Our pediatrician that we met with a few weeks ago suggested I get a TdaP vaccination to cover the baby for whooping cough which is really bad this year and can be fatal to infants.  I asked my midwife about it and she agreed that I should get it, but that they don't stock vaccines in the office so I would need to go to my primary care physician.  I thought it would be faster and easier to go to the clinic in the local drugstore.  They gave my husband one, no problem, but couldn't go near me with a ten foot pole unless my midwife faxed them a prescription for the vaccine.  Sigh.  I called the midwives and they agreed to fax it, but I couldn't get the fax number to the clinic.  Their national customer support people were extremely rude on the phone, telling me that they don't have fax machines at the clinics (which isn't true at all because the nurse at the clinic told me they accept faxes) and that she couldn't give me their phone number to give to my physician because they don't take direct calls.  So the vial of vaccine that was leftover from my husband getting his injection that was sitting in their fridge with my name on it is going to go to waste.  I called my regular doc and talked to the lady in the lab who ran it past my doc and the nurse midwife just to be double sure that it was okay to give to a lady in her 37th week of pregnancy and they got me in and out in like 5 minutes.  I should have done that first instead of waste a morning on the phone trying to get the clinic sorted out.  I also saw my doc a couple weeks ago to check out my tongue which we had all thought had an oral thrush infection but which turned out to be geographic tongue.  I had tried EVERYTHING including a round of anti-fungal mouthwash prescribed by the midwives and nothing cleared it up, so I was relieved to find out that this geographic tongue is something completely benign and slightly mysterious that no one is really sure what causes it, let alone how to get rid of it.  I'll just have to live with the sore tongue for a few more weeks.  My doc says it might have been set off by the hormonal changes of the pregnancy and that it should clear up after I give birth.  

I've had a crampy feeling and a few contractions over the last few days and loose stools.  I keep trying to talk myself out of thinking that I'll go into labor earlier than expected, but it's really feeling like things are starting to get moving.  I've also had mild nausea.  But now that I've gotten that darned vaccine, I'm hoping to make it two more weeks, since that is the recommended time table before exposure to a newborn.  In any event, I'm trying to get lots of sleep in spite of the million little things I still have on my to do list before the baby gets here, you know just in case I do go into labor I'll have some energy to get me through.  

3 weeks to go

Well, my L&D bag is mostly packed and we spent the day out and about picking up some things for the baby and doing returns from the first baby shower.  Ended up picking up some floating shelves for the nursery, a small speaker dock for the nursery so I can load up one of the MP3 players with baby's music, and a diaper bag since we really needed one and I doubt we'll get one at the shower next weekend.  I've already stocked up the diaper bag with everything I'll need initially and finished packing some of the things I might want at the hospital in another bag.  Tomorrow we'll install the car seats and I'll make an appointment to get them inspected next week.

My in-laws had decided they were taking off on Monday to go up to Niagara Falls for four days.  I'm like, "but what if I go into labor?"  They hadn't thought of that.  LOL.  I know I have three weeks left, but it's really feeling like it could be any day now.  For real.  All day long today I had twinges in my cervix, so there's definitely some changes going on there.  I had my strep B test on Thursday, and the midwife wanted to do a quick check to feel the baby's head from the interior to make sure it was indeed a head and not a squishy tushie.  I gave her the okay and she had commented while performing the check that he was head down and engaged, my cervix was still very posterior but soft and perhaps a bit dilated already.  He dropped down like two weeks ago, so I wouldn't be terribly surprised if I went into labor a bit early.  Perhaps that's just wishful thinking, though.  I've been feeling fairly uncomfortable with terribly hip and pubic bone pain.  The first few steps I take after standing up are excruciating.  And I'm just generally enormous and lumber around like a hippo!

I've been to cloth diapering class and have an in-house consultation coming up, 26 hours of Bradley Method birthing class, breastfeeding class, and infant CPR class; and I've hired one of the most experienced doulas in the area. I feel like we can't possibly do anything more to get ready than we've already done except for performing a really deep clean on the whole house.  I spent some of the night tonight putting finishing touches on the nursery and it's almost ready for baby.  We even set up the video monitor tonight and put in the outlet covers.

Now I just have to get through the shower next weekend and get all fo that put washed and put away and then I can pick up a few last-minute necessities and we'll be READY!

Our birth class:

We met with a very nice lady pediatrician today.  I think we're really going to like that practice.

I still can't walk around normally because apparently I have Pubic Symphysis Dysfunction and it's really kind of bumming me out.  I have so much to get done, and not so much time left to do it in.

I have made good progress in the baby's room, though.  The closet is painted and shelves re-installed.  I've even washed all of the onesies and blankets I got at my shower and have folded and put them all away.  This weekend, I hope to get some things hung up on the walls and install the monitor and smoke detector.  I finally got the curtain I made forever ago put up, and my cousin recovered the old rocking chair my husband got for me at an auction for $2 with about $30 of fabric I picked out.  It's so much softer and it's a bright lime green now.  I love it!  And we scored a glider rocker for the living room at the Goodwill for $25!  My husband loves those.