The Home Stretch

3 weeks and 3 days until my due date! Not that anyone's counting...
I have finally reached the stage where I can go into labor and it would be just fine, they wouldn't try to stop anything. Bring on the spicy food.

This week I have started to experience noticeable Braxton Hicks contractions, also known as haha-just-kidding-nothings-really-happening-and-you're-not-going-into-labor-anytime-soon contractions. At least my body knows it's preparing for something to happen shortly.

I will update a nice fatty picture as soon as I can get the camera back from Micah, who was using it for school. Everyone tells me I'm small for being 8 months. I asked my doctor today if that matters and he said all my abdominal measurements are right where they should be but because my torso is longer my pooch doesn't stick out as far as it does for many others. Lucky me.

I've Got the Black Lung, Pa

This week has been relatively uneventful to me mainly because I returned from Wilmington with a bad cold and have spent most days laying in bed miserably.

Micah has been super busy- he has two more weeks left until the end of the semester and a number of projects to tie up before then. Yesterday he got up at 2 a.m. to start doing work and didn't come back from school until after 7 p.m. I tried to assure him that this is not healthy. This morning I sucessfully convinced him not to get up when his alarm went off. Good influence? Bad influence? Maybe I'm a bit of both to him.

I have now graduated to weekly OB/GYN appointments. Yesterday, my blood pressure was quite a bit higher than it has been, but still in the healthy range. They claimed my weight was 7 lbs more than my previous appointment before Thanksgiving. I have convinced myself that their scale was somehow broken and this can not possibly be true.

Lastly and most importantly:
Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I came across Micah sitting on the floor scratching the bottom of his foot...with my haircomb. I was appalled. He expressed remorse and shame and then promptly moved on and began using my comb on his other foot. I made him rinse it in hot water, but if I develop a fungal scalp infection in the coming weeks, we all know why.

Opinions?

Should I try to make money selling these products?

http://www.amway.com/EN

Thanks, Thanksgiving!

Last weekend I got to see my Dad and Stepmom in Wilmington. 'Twas AWESOME! The only bad part is that I never dug out my camera until the morning we left. Darlene and Brooklynn also came out. She's turning into such a kid! Brooklynn, that is. Not Darlene. But, happy news: Darlene found out that she is having a baby boy in April. Yay! Brooklynn said over dinner on Saturday that his name should be Brian. I like it. Just sayin'. Our Thanksgiving feast was amazing- we all helped towards making pies the night before and then LeAnn organized a fabulous dinner with all the classics- turkey, rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean salad. I have not eaten so much in such a concentrated period of time since....last Thanksgiving. Afterwards we were all in various stages of unconsciousness through the evening. Even though Micah had schoolwork to do, it was nice to see so much of him. He has a super busy week ahead- teaching 2 lectures, doing experiments for a professor back at BYU and writing a big report, in addition to his usual workload of classes and TAing.

LeAnn threw a baby shower for me on Saturday and it was great to see those who came. It very fun. Between the shower and all of the stuff my Dad has been collecting from Freecycle.org, I feel much more prepared for Natalie/Angela/Ella/Rebekah/Rachel to come. We have all of the absolute essentials- a car seat, a bassinet, blankets and some clothes- so anything big we get from here on is just extra fancy. Like a stroller. And a boppy pillow. There are still plenty of little things, but I'm sure you spend the rest of the child's life getting little things that they need as they go.

After the shower, Brooklynn helped me collect all the balloons. Once they were all collected and tied together, Brooklynn picked out the mylar one and said she liked it and that it was "stylish". Hahahaha. Too cute.

Driving home on Sunday, Micah said that his favorite part of the trip was sharing the things that we are grateful for while we ate our Thanksgiving meal. It is refreshing to realize how blessed we are.

After tomorrow, it will be December. I am very excited. I am supposed to have a baby in December. That means not much time left! I feel lucky that I am still pretty mobile and everyone tells me I don't look that big, but I am beginning to slow down. Everything aches- my back, my hips, my feet, and I feel clumsy. Oh, well. Comes with the territory!

Amicalola Falls

What a week, what a week! Amicalola Falls was gorgeous. It was hard to capture how huge it is because it is nestled right up to the trees and the hiking path was so close beside it.

We didn't take the trail all the way to the top, only to the halfway point. After the first bit, the climb was all stairs that had grated steps that the dogs couldn't climb because the gaps were bigger than their little feet. We carried them up the first set of steps just to get the best view of the water and then came back down and drove to the lookout at the top of the falls.

The fall colors were beautiful. I'm glad we didn't go any later because fall is definitely on its way out and most trees are pretty naked now.

Here's me, looking fat by the waterfall:

I feel like I have suddenly gotten a lot bigger in the last week. I had Micah take a picture of me last night and I am still in denial about it accuratley capturing my size (I'm not really that big, it's just an unflattering shirt!). Micah has been very sensitive and supportive, making such statements as, "You're like twice as big as you were yesterday!", "I'm skinny... compared to you", and "From the back, you couldn't even tell you're pregnant...except for the stretch marks...". I can't believe New Years Eve is so far away and I already feel huge!

Today I had a doctor's appointment in which they did a scan just to see that all was normal. Based on the measurements, they said the baby is about 4lbs 11oz, and projected a totally average 7 1/2lb baby by the time she's born. Yay! No mammoth baby for me! She is already in position with her head down facing back, so that's good- no breech-position c-section necessary. And it is definitely a girl, no surprise there. Micah came up with the name Natalie Rose the other night. I think it's alright, except that Rose makes me think of Titanic. I think we might have to make a 2-5 name list and just wait until she's born and see what name fits her best.

Less than a week until we leave for Wilmington for Thanksiving. I just realized that this will be our last trip without any children to worry about. Woohoo! Par-TAY!

The Name Game

Micah doesn't like the name Angela anymore. I think that he worries that people will make the immediate connection to the Angela who was my best friend's Mom. He has recently suggested:

• Danika
• Natania (female variation of nathaniel, meaning "gift of God". Would be in line with both of our Hebrew-originating names)
• Eden

These names spare the risk of her being associated with other people, I guess. But I've never met anybody with any of those names, and I am not too sure about weird names. Don't want my child growing up thinking she has to be strange because she has an oddly unique name!

The shame is that so many normal names we like are ruined by people with that name. Like Angelina, which would always bring to mind Angelina Jolie. Or Isabella, which makes me think of Twilight. At least all of the Angelas that we have known have been people we like!

Sending Christmas Card

My mom is in town visiting. It's been very nice. We may take a jaunt up into the mountains tomorrow to see the fall colors.

I've (perhaps prematurely) started thinking about Christmas cards. I love crafts but I don't want to have to buy too many supplies, so I'm planning to do some collage type designs on plain cardstock. I'm mostly thinking along the line of this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/megancoyle/5281188137/

except perhaps a little simpler so I can make lots of them. Here are a few other examples I was inspired by:

We took a nice photo we can put in the card. Below are some of the ones that were not chosen:

Oops. I forgot to change out of my fuzzy socks and sandals. Cross off all the full length pics...

Perhaps if it weren't such a Christian holiday, I wouldn't mind circulating photos in which I resemble a fat, cross-legged buddha statue.

Here we go, one, two-Squirrel!

"Don't worry, Micah. If we just keep taking more pictures, we're bound to have one turn out well."