No news is just that… no news. Despite my best efforts to coax the baby into making an appearance this weekend… s/he has decided to take up permanent residence in my belly.

Or so s/he thinks. I have other plans. Which include more coaxing, and then finally submitting to induction on Monday. So there is an end in sight.

I was up for like, 2.5 hours last night with contractions, and I thought that might be it… but apparently not yet. Still having random contractions, but nothing serious or regular. Just annoying.

Had spaghetti from Mario’s flying pizza for lunch today, so I’m waiting to see if that’s actually the sure-fire cure that it’s supposed to be, lol. If that doesn’t work, I’ll move on to the next food… which I guess is chinese food, or thai or something. And I’ll be continuing to walk, and take trips up and down the stairs. So far, nothing’s really working (as of Thursday, I was still not dilated), but I figure… none of that stuff can hurt, at any rate. And it makes me feel like I have some tiny measure of control over the process, which in reality, I have none.

There’s a list of people who are going to get emails (with pictures!) when the baby comes (probably slightly before I get a chance to update here)… so if you think you might not be on the list, and would like to be, email me, and I’ll add you.

So, for all my whining, being pregnant is actually pretty awesome.

• I get to eat pretty much whatever I want (assuming that’s not sushi, cold lunch meat, rare steak, soft cheeses, or three or more helpings of fish a week).
• I have an excuse to take a nap whenever I want (I totally need to start taking advantage of this).
• People in general are nicer, and smile at me a lot more for no particular reason.
• I can ask people to do things for me without feeling bad, and go put my feet up while they are doing it.
• People are always telling me how good I look (generally after they tell me they think I’m having twins…)
• And my ever expanding waistline can be completely blamed on the baby (and so can any mood swings or odd food cravings).

1. You should consider any post from here on out to be potentially TMI. Especially if you object to hearing about body parts, or body functions, or medical procedures. Someday, I might return to normal, but until then… be forewarned. I have no energy left to censor my posts… sorry.
2. Still plodding along. Almost (not quite) at 39 weeks, and the doctor said I’m starting to progress a bit towards actually having a baby. Yay! I’m apparently starting to efface, but not dilating yet. And, although my cervix is so high that my doctor had to practically climb inside me to find it… the baby’s head is apparently right there at it, ready to do whatever babies’ heads are supposed to when everything is ready. So, yay for progress, and hope it continues.
3. I’m seriously tired, all the time, and sore. And emotional and stuff. I’m ready to be done with this, and yet the thought of bringing home an infant is terrifying. I’m tired of whining, too, but I can’t seem to stop. And everyone acting like I’m late having this kid already isn’t helping, let me tell ya – technically, I’m not late. Yet. Just saying.
4. I do have a final end date where I know for sure I will be no longer pregnant… Feb 2nd. I’ll be induced starting the night of the 1st, if nothing happens before then, because at that point I will actually be (one week) late. That’s also the day my parents are flying in, so that could be interesting and stuff, but I guess I’ll cross that bridge if and when I come to it.
5. In non-baby news, I managed to make it through the CSI season premiere without crying, really, even though I almost cried right at the end. They did a good job of spacing out all the emotional stuff throughout the episode, so it worked out pretty well. Not sure still, how I feel about CSI: Morpheus, but time will tell, I suppose.
6. All this tiredness does have a few perks – I’ve been doing a lot of reading. I’m currently reading the Cheney Duvall series by Lynn & Gilbert Morris… which is good (I had read some of it previously, at some point), and I’m enjoying it (which is good, since I have two more books after this one, plus a three book sequel series)… but I’m finding my shortness of temper even extends to the characters at points… I’m like, “Geez, can’t you two see you’re crazy for each other? Hurry up and get together or something! I’ve been able to see this for the better part of 6 books now, what’s your problem?” Sadly, they don’t listen, or at least haven’t yet.

Edit (1/16): Apparently, it doesn’t count if you don’t hit “publish”. So this has been sitting as a draft for like a week. Ha.

1. I’m still pregnant. Which isn’t surprising, as I’m not quite 38 weeks (so depending on who you ask, I’ve either been full term for a few days, or I’ll be full term on Sunday). But I’m about done. All my joints are swollen (had to take my watch off today… my wrists have swollen that much), and I’m super cranky, and I’m tired all the time. It’s kinda annoying. So here’s hoping the baby come early. I’ll be trying anything (uh… anything I deem safe? I suppose) to coax the little one out in the next week or two. Not only am I seriously uncomfortable and tired of being pregnant…
2. I’m actually pretty scared of induction at this point. I mean, in some ways it’s silly, as it happens all the time, people do it every day… but the thought of pumping chemicals into my body to induce contractions (not to mention the harder labor) seems much scarier to me than say, having my water break while I’m waddling around Wal-Mart (which is also scary). Plus, I’ve known 4 women who’ve been induced in the last 9 months – all at different hospitals – and they’ve all ended up with c-sections. For various reasons, mind you, not all the typical “failure to progress” that’s often related to inductions. But still. Scary stuff. That being said, all the mommies and babies came through fine, so it’s all good in the end… but I’m trying my hardest to avoid a c-section at this point (at least until the doctor says it’s needed, anyway).
3. This child will not sleep through the night. I mean, we were going good for a while, but the last few nights have been kinda rough… I’ve been up and down all night, trying to soothe a child that I can’t even really touch and coax him/her to stop throwing dance parties while I’m supposed to be sleeping. Last night was a little better, but still… this does not bode well for sleeping through the night later. At least at this point, the silence and lack of crying means that I’m the only one that’s awake (in theory… Chad hasn’t slept well, either, and I think it may have something to do with my restlessness).
4. I have had the most bizarre baby-related dreams lately (when the baby has let me sleep, that is). For instance. A couple of weeks ago, I dreamed that Angelina Jolie and I went to a spa. The kind with pink fuzzy bathrobes and everything. And we got pedicures and talked about being mommies. (Seriously. Who dreams of stuff like that?). Last night, I dreamed the baby was about the size of my cell phone, and I kept losing track of where it was – because, as it turns out, Chad kept stuffing it in the pocket of his trench coat. To replace his broken yo-yo, he said (yeah, I don’t know either). Later in the dream, I tried to nurse the baby (because it had somehow morphed to normal size), but my boobs fell off. (Sorry… that might have been TMI, but in retrospect, it was pretty funny).
5. Work is crazy right now, as I’m trying to get a ton of stuff done before I go out on leave, which could be any day, but will probably be in like, two weeks or so. That level of uncertainty is a little unsettling for everyone, and to make it worse the girl who was supposed to take over some of my bigger day-to-day duties… is stuck in China right now, because some lawyer somewhere forgot to fax some paper to someone, and the end result is she’s waiting on a visa to come back. It may well be after I leave that she gets home, and some of the tasks will be difficult for her to do so far removed from the office. So yeah, there’s some amount of panic. (Not on my part, though, since I’ll be gone for the worst of it. Ha!). Plus, something in the server just broke, and the sys admin is AWOL, and no one else can fix it. So there’s more panic, as I’m the link between our group and the sys admin, so we’re hoping she gets back to me soon.
6. My parents are flying in on February 2 (yet another good reason not to have the baby late…) Which will be nice, as we’ll get to visit, but crazy, as I’ll be dealing with a newborn and house guests and even less sleep, and I might have to remove the flash from my mother’s camera so she doesn’t blind the poor kid. Between now and then, I have to figure out whether my dad can negotiate the stairs or if he and mom will need to sleep downstairs, if downstairs, where the mattress will fit, and how to keep the animals off of it.

First off, news. I’m still pregnant. For some reason, about a half dozen people have felt the need to ask me if I’ve had the baby yet… and the answer is no. I still have, at least in theory, 3-4 more weeks. But. I’ll let you know when I do.

The baby is doing good… Christmas Eve ultrasound showed the baby weighing in at around 6 pounds 10 ounces, which puts the projected final baby weight around 8.5 pounds. Which is awesome. So no plans for an early baby due to size at this point.

I was told, long long ago when I first was pregnant (seriously, it seems like years or something), that morning sickness can return in the third trimester. And I was like, oh whatever, I guess that would suck… but since I was never really super sick in the beginning, i didn’t think about it much. Until this morning. When I’ve been thinking about it a lot. While trying to keep down my breakfast. So far, I’m winning, but the long and short of it is I feel like crap at the moment, and trying to find a position to sit/lay in that doesn’t make me want to hurl, and yet still allows me to work on my computer (I’m working from home today, so computer access is important)… is challenging. Half of my brain thinks I should eat something more, to see if it calms my stomach down, and the other half doesn’t want to see what frosted miniwheats look like two hours after you eat them.

Pleasant thought, I know. Brought to you by a grumpy pregnant woman. Edit: apparently, clementines are my new cure for morning sickness. Who would have guessed?

So on to New Years. My goals for this year:

1. Lose weight. Actually, this one is a gimmie, since I’ll be shedding 8.5 pounds of baby plus associated fluids and whatnot at the end of the month. But seriously, it would be nice to be back down to my pre-baby-after-Disney-Cruise weight by the end of the year. (at current count, that would put me losing about 50 pounds, but maybe a little more, since I’ll probably gain another five or so before I can start losing any).
2. To eat healthier, and spend less money eating out. Although I realize that this will be difficult for the next two months, anything is better than nothing. Seriously.
3. To take advice and criticism better, especially in regards to parenting. Just because someone else does it differently does not make me a bad mommy (even if that someone else is my mom).
4. Not to change my standards just because the going gets tough. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for convenience. But if I say, “I want to eat healthier, and spend less money eating out”, I can’t cave and run to McDonald’s every night for dinner becasue I”m tired and it’s easier than cooking something at home (McDonald’s could help this situation by not putting crack in their chicken nuggets, so I wouldn’t be so addicted to them).
5. To be better about taking pictures. I’ll have a lot this year with documenting, and pictures will be important.
6. To be better at blogging/journaling in some form. So I don’t forget everything.

I’m sure there are more, but this’ll do for now.