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: