40 + 2

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

There has been a realization coming out of the wood works that a couple different people have pointed out in the last two days, and that Skip and I have realized: I am a slow poke. Always have been. "Come on, Ellen," has been the story of my life. Hey, what can I say? I like to take in the scenery :). Skip is the same, and even tends to be more on the "better late than never" side of things.

So, we've all decided, why would this little one be any different? Things are coming along, it's just taking its time to enjoy the scenery! (Although I can't imagine how interesting the scenery is right now, considering it's been swimming in it for 9 months already...)

BabyCenter says I have a newborn...

So, apparently BabyCenter knows something I don't, because it says in my status that I have a "newborn." Um, I could have sworn this baby was still in me as of today, made quite obvious by the foot that I'm looking down at kicking my belly button... from INSIDE. I suppose I will now be getting updates on information regarding my little newborn, even though I have yet to birth this child! Well, I guess the info will be useful, just maybe not for a couple of days yet.

This was a tough weekend for me. Long about Wednesday night I started to get a sore throat and a little cough, which turned into a full-blown nasty cold on Thursday. I went for a walk around campus with my boss, which was a bad idea, because I think I jacked something up in my back from the heels I was wearing. So, I left early from work because I was totally dragging ass, and went home and slept for a couple of hours. I ate some dinner, then basically went back to bed. Friday sucked, too. I had my 39-40 week doctor's appointment in the morning, and I'm 1 cm dilated, but that's about it. So essentially nothing big going on. But like I said, that's okay. It's just that I wished I wasn't as sick as I was, or that my back didn't seize up every time I moved. It seriously took me 5 mins to walk to the bathroom (normally 30 seconds), just because I had to hold onto the wall-- I almost burst into tears. I left at my lunch hour to go see my friendly neighborhood chiropractor (i.e. Andy), and he seriously is a miracle-worker. I had been in so much pain, and after he did some pressure work and ultrasound, I was essentially fixed. Thank the Lord. As for my cold, I went back to work and crabbily made it through the rest of the day (sort of snapping at my boss in the meantime...oops), then went home and crashed. I had a temp of 100 at one point, so I was watching myself pretty closely so that I didn't bake the poor baby...

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much sit-on-my-ass days, which was okay. My cough was terrible and really making me sore. I think the only thing I did out of the house was go grocery shopping, and even that kicked my ass (I called the hospital on Saturday evening just to make sure they didn't want me to come in, and they said to just keep monitoring myself, and if things got above 100.4, then come in). However, I was able to do a little cleaning and putzing by Sunday evening, so I feel a little productive. This morning I'm feeling a ton better, though still trying to get all this crap out. I just want to make sure I have all the strength I can muster to push this little one out when the time comes! I think after how I'm feeling today that I can see being fine... whenever the heck this kid decides to make his/her entrance! We're ready for you when you are ready to come out! :)

Just about ready...

Today is officially one week from my due date. I think we're ready for this baby to get here! I've set myself up thinking that it will come a couple of days late, so that way I won't be disappointed if it doesn't happen in the next week. As of Friday, I was around 50% effaced, and the baby has dropped, so there are definitely some things going on in there. However, being a first time mom, the doctor doesn't seem to think anything will happen early, which is okay. She thinks the baby is on the small side, so "cooking" a little longer is okay with me.

As far as other things going on, Skip and I spent some time last weekend with the Eckels and Prestons, so that was nice. We went down to CL on the 3rd to visit with my mom and dad on Saturday, and had a really great dinner with Pat and Grandma, too. On Sunday, Mom and I bummed around CL for a few things, then got Mr. A's for lunch-- I haven't had that in so long, and it was SOO good! We went up to Woodstock for my uncle Mike's 50th birthday party, which also was a good time. On Monday we met Skip's parents down at the Yacht Club to visit for the evening, and did some light canoeing in the harbor before going in for dinner and the Packers game. We hadn't seen Mannings in a while, so it was nice to catch up. Tuesday night we had our Baptism class, which was nice and touchy-feely... It was actually okay, though, because one of the girls from my water aerobics class was there, and we came to find out that they go to the same church as us. So it was nice to make some new friends!

I made it to yoga and band on Wednesday, but that may be it for band for the next couple of weeks. It's hard to carry my tuba on my back, not to mention everyone thinks it's absolutely hilarious to watch me (no, not HELP me), so I think I may take a break now until after baby is born. We'll see. Thursday I made it to water aerobics and then Steph came over for dinner. We had a great visit, as we hadn't really had a chance to catch up in a couple of weeks. Plus I got to show off all the things we've done around the house to get ready for the baby. This past weekend was essentially uneventful, with nothing planned. We went and celebrated our friend Pam's birthday on Saturday night, but that was about it. Two mornings of somewhat sleeping in was a nice bonus-- I figured it was probably the last opportunities we'll have to sleep in for a long long time, so I didn't feel bad at all doing it!

Now, to try and stay focused and get through this week.....