Look! I can grow people: 37 wks (6ds)

Ha ha ha, it was the holidays, like anyone really expected me to be any earlier than this. Right, so, how fast can I spit this out? Wednesday I had my final pregnancy class, Planning a Positive Birth, and it was my favorite of the whole series. The instructor was excellent and really gave me some things to think about. I don't really want to talk about my birth plan here, though most people know what I want, in the event that things don't go to plan which there's always a high chance of. Suffice it to say this class was on my wavelength and I was happy. On Friday I had my Dr's appt and it went really well!! I learned I am NEGATIVE for Group(ie) B Strep, yay! Also I am 1 cm. dilated and 60% effaced. We saw a different Dr since our was out of the office and the first thing she said when she started my check was "I can feel her head right here, she's pressing right into your bladder. You must have to pee all the time." And truer words were never spoken. That same day Jason's parents and sister came up to help us get ready to celebrate Christmas! We hadn't seen Amanda since this summer so it was really nice to be able to spend some time with her (and she made me a beautiful photo collection of my sonogram pictures and some maternity pics that I hung in my bedroom)! We had dinner, I got my nails done, and we grocery shopped. The next day we went on a hunt for round, red candles to complete my place settings. Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Pier 1 and Yankee were all a bust. Thank the Lord for Michael's! We had a nice Christmas Eve, with some roasted AND smoked chicken and a baked macaroni & cheese and a salad before opening a few gifts and diving into preparing some food for the next day.

Because it was Christmas! This was the first holiday Jason and I have ever hosted in our house so we really wanted it to be nice and we could not have done it without SO MUCH help from Jason's parents and sister. I was so exhausted from an inability to sleep and they really jumped in and helped with the cooking and cleaning and ironing and omg everything. We had a really nice morning opening gifts before the rush to finish things before my family arrived. And arrived they did! We had a total party of 13 at our house and it was so much fun!! Everything went smoothly too until Jason was making the gravy and it happened to explode in his face and over the entire kitchen. He's okay, no worries. His dad and Garrett jumped in to take care of the mess and the food and I began wrapping up his burns in ice water dipped wash cloths until my mom and his mom came in to help and assess the damage. My sister picked up some burn treatment things at the pharmacy and we soon had Jason wrapped up and ready to continue! He's fine now, face is great and arms are only a little red and splotchy. And the food was unharmed in the process!! We had roasted tomato and garlic soup, salad, green beans, squash casserole, mashed potatoes, a country herb stuffing, cranberry chutney, and a giant prime rib roast. I was stuffed!! Then we had presents and we are so blessed from our amazing families. It was really unbelievable. If I start listing everything I'll never stop! Afterwards my sisters Kali and Lilly stayed over along with Kali's boyfriend since the lucky ducks were going to NYC for the week the next day and we were taking them to the airport. We stayed up late with everyone playing XBox games until I went to bed and had the best Christmas ever: straight sleep from 11:30pm-8:30pm. I didn't even wake up to pee! That's how I know it was a Christmas miracle!

The next day everyone left and Jason and I ran errands. He's spent the past couple days painting the curtain rod and refurbishing a shelf to pain for Bebe's room so I can finally show pictures of it! We're so close!! I've been feeling insanely pregnant lately. As I said up there, I'd been extremely sleep deprived before Christmas. Either I'd go to sleep for two hours and wake up to pee and be wide awake for the next 4 hours. Or I'd wake up every hour on the hour for the entirety of my sleep duration. Or I just wouldn't be able to sleep at all. Christmas was such a relief, you can imagine. Other than sleep I've had the typical complaints. I'm uncomfortable, my back hurts, I get random and inconsistent contractions that are very uncomfortable, I feel insanely heavy whenever I move and the lightning pain is sometimes terrible. Not to mention I pee like every hour. Though I did lose another pound somehow. I SWEAR I'm eating. At 37 wks I am now +22 lbs and the Dr did not say it was bad so I say it is good. But all in all I'm so ready to be done!!

But Bebe still has a few more weeks. At 37 she is now full term, THANK GOODNESS, so she COULD be born. But she hasn't yet. She's about 6 and 1/3 of a pound and about 19 inches (about as long as a stalk of swiss chard - which funnily enough we used in our stuffing for Christmas!). She's pretty much just hanging out, getting rounder and healthier, and assaulting every organ she can possibly sink a limb into. One night she moved non stop from 11pm until 5am. She's going to be a little handful, I can tell already!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: If you want a Birth Announcement SEND ME YOUR MAILING ADDRESS. Text it, e-mail it, I don't care how you get it to me. If you don't send it to me you might not get one!