Nursery

As Steve mentioned before, we've turned our office/guest room into our office/nursery. After much furniture assembly, we more or less have the the finished product. Here is the transformation:

Before:

After:

All ready for baby!

Spa day

To celebrate being 39 weeks pregnant, Steve and I went to the Nob Hill Spa to get massages.

It was super relaxing. We got a coupon which upgraded our 50 min. massages to 80 min., but I wouldn't have minded if when it was over they started from the beginning and did the whole thing again. The spa also had a pool and a hot tub (which I only put my feet in). We discovered that I am still buoyant, and Steve is still not.

At 39 weeks, I feel like I've reached my maximum allowable girth.

I still have no obvious signs of labor, but I am getting a bit more anxious about the process, as it could literally begin at any moment. Maybe I should stop watching A Baby Story while I'm home during the day. I feel like I need another session with our childbirth class instructor to rebuild my confidence about labor. She made it almost sound like fun! Also, at the time we took the class, it all seemed like something in the future. Now it's an imminent, extremely painful experience. I'm already getting a little peeved that everyone else just gets to enjoy the baby, while I have to do all the work! Steve thinks it will be painful for him as well because he foresees me physically injuring him during labor.

Couvade

It's a french term originally meaning, "To hatch", but now refers to father-to-be's having pregancy symptoms. I've had at least one couvade symptom. If you guessed weight gain, you'd be correct. Although not quite the degree of Shuyi's gain, it is still quite a bit more than can be explained by measurement variance. If you think about it though, it would be pretty hard for a guy not to gain weight when you have 5 different kinds of ice cream in the freezer and plenty of other snacks around the house.

Despite the weight gain, I ran ok in the bay 2 breakers 12k race last sunday. I didn't quite reach my goal of finishing in less than an hour, but it was pretty close. The field was probably at least a minute slower than normal due to the hot weather (extremely hot for San Francisco, probably 20+ F warmer than normal). The heat really saps energy quickly when running. Not sure if this year was my last best chance to crack the 1-hr mark. We'll see how much running I can do after the baby arrives. One thing is for sure, I'm not gonna be able to lose weight by breastfeeding.

Still pregnant

38 weeks:


Less than 2 weeks to my due date! I had another routine doctor's appointment this week. The midwife poked around my tummy for a bit and told me that the baby's head is very low, almost too low to feel. She also said that the baby feels just about the right size, not too big and not too small. I hope that this is true and that the baby has not inherited Steve's Big Head Disease!

This week was also my last week at work, although I will probably have to stop in sometime next week, partly to steal some of the lab's 70% ethanol. I plan to liberally spritz people down with it before they enter the house once the baby is born.

A lot of people have been asking if I am anxious to get it over with and have the baby already. I think I am still more mentally prepared for the baby to come on or after her due date. I've sort of made a bunch of plans for the next couple of weeks. For example, Steve and I are going to get massages on Wednesday. And my mom isn't getting here until next Saturday. Once she gets here we're planning on getting pedicures. There's also several restaurants I want to go to while we can still eat out. Plus Steve's birthday is June 1st, and I was planning on baking a cake to bring into his office. I think Steve wants the baby to stay in there until her due date mainly for the cake.

Nesting

They say that nesting, or the uncontrollable urge to clean and prepare for the baby, is indicative of impending labor. If that's the case, then I think Steve is going to go into labor soon. This past weekend he lined all the drawers in the baby's dresser with contact paper and washed all the baby's clothes. We also picked out the baby's going home outfit:

We prepared a backup outfit in case she's too big to fit into newborn size clothing. Steve is convinced we will have a giant baby because we were both very large babies. Steve had to be born by c-section because his head was way too big. I hope this is not the case with our baby.

In other news, it's week 37, so I'm full term! Way to go, baby!

Now I'm REALLY ginormous

35 weeks:


36 weeks:


I went to the doctor's today, and I've already gained about 40 lbs! Holy moly!

Baby shower

We had our baby shower this past weekend.

It was super fun and very pink. Thanks to everyone who came and especially to those who organized it!

I had actually never been to a baby shower before, and neither had most of the organizers, so I think our shower was based largely on what we've seen on Sex and the City and The Girls Next Door. We played a bunch of cute baby games, including "Guess the Baby Food Flavor," a game so difficult that it had no winner.

The most disturbing flavors to me were mac n' cheese, which tasted nothing of mac nor cheese, and chicken noodle soup, which was a fluorescent orange color unlike any chicken I've ever seen.

Here Steve and I are playing the "Match the Baby Picture" game, where all the guests brought in a picture of themselves as a baby and everyone had to guess who was who.

I won this game by guessing everyone correctly! Steve switched around three people, of which two were girls and one was a boy and all three were of different ethnicities. :-/

Can you guess which baby is me and which is Steve?

Even though I've never been to a baby shower before, I think that ours was a really good one. We got a lot of very cute things for the baby, and Steve even got some baby holding practice!