Finally, some new pictures

Well, I finally have some pictures to upload. Hopefully soon I will have pics of our trip to San Clemente. The trip was fabulous, gorgeous weather, and I loved seeing all the places that Shawn is always talking about. Aunt Marg and her friend Gerri put us up for the weekend, and cooked up some delicious dinners of salmon and steak and ice cream. Yum! Plus they had this amazing memory foam mattress topper for the guest bed, I swear that was my favorite part. I actually slept all through the night without having to toss and turn from hip to hip, it was amazing. Shawn got to go fishing for a while, even though he didn't catch anything, and I got to tour the site where I think we will have our wedding and reception. It was a long drive there and back, but it doesn't seem as bad when you're making the trip with another person. And we got to borrow Shawn's parents' Jeep, which made it nicer than taking our Camry down there.

I am trying to really enjoy these last few weeks of baby-free living, and not take for granted being able to just sit and chill and not do much of anything, and just feel her kicking inside me while I do my own thing. Even though it seems so far away still, the weeks are already flying by -- I finally got around to posting up about four weeks' worth of belly pictures, and I can't believe it's been even that long already. The weeks just topple down on top of each other until the weekends come again, another week marker is reached, and it gets closer and closer to the main event.

Lila was giving me the details of how her labor went, and even though everyone's experience is different, I was definitely reassured by what she told me. She said it wasn't as crazy or chaotic as she had expected it to be or worried about. I'm glad I have her to learn from, I'd hate to be the first one to go, so to speak. She gave me lots of pointers on things to bring to the hospital and such, too.

Weeks 30-33:

32 Weeks

As I wait patiently for Lila to go into labor, so that I can dash to the hospital and help her welcome her little one, the first in the group of 2011 Babies, I'm getting ever closer to my own due date. It's been such an annoyance to me this whole time to have my official due date be on a Wednesday, despite the fact that, according to the measurements on the ultrasound, it should be on a Friday. I hate that kind of disparity! It's not at all neat and tidy and it means I can't ever feel confident in saying today is my X Week! Although, I've pretty much been going with Friday, cause it's tidier than Wednesday. So, in anticipation of tomorrow being Week 32, below is the latest news from inside my stomach, courtesy of BabyCenter.com.

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Apparently, 32 weeks means I have 56 days left to go. Wow, counting down in days now? That's a little too real for me. It's already coming way too soon, what with Lila about to pop and all, the shower this weekend, and all manner of other real stuff happening.

Also, I'm excited that baby is going to be a hare, that is, born in the Year of the Rabbit. Apparently, rabbits are good with money, creative and sensitive, and remind me a lot of Pisces. Which is good, because she'll need some of that to balance out her Aries nature. Shawn, as a Gemini, will get along well with the Aries baby, as they're both prone to being crazy and having lots of energy. I'll be there when it's time to relax.

This belly of mine is getting increasingly large. It's sort of hard to image that it has 8 more weeks to grow. Like, where is it going to go? So far, ***FINGERS CROSSED*** no stretch marks have shown their ugly faces. I'm going to redouble my Palmer's Lotion efforts, just in case.