Bumpdate: 37 1/2 weeks, Nursery is FINALLY done!

At 37 weeks I am not feeling tired of being pregnant, but I am feeling tired of going to the doctor every single week. Today at my appointment I measured normally, even though last week a different doctor said I measured small and because of that I have an ultrasound tomorrow morning to make sure my amniotic fluid is normal and check the baby's growth. The ultrasound is kind of fun when I think about getting a peek at the little man, but I am mostly nervous they are going to find some excuse to induce me at the ultrasound, which I really, really, really don't want. If he measures too small or too large, they are going to want to induce, because of the gestational diabetes - blah blah blah. So we are praying for a Goldilocks ultrasound - that the baby will measure just right.

Speaking of labor talk, that's all that's on my mind now that I am officially "term". I am having Braxton Hicks that are definitely stronger and longer, especially at night or when I am active, and are sometimes accompanied by that menstrual-crampy feeling (which is what my contractions felt like when I labored with BB). I have a friend from work who offered to be my doula, and we met this week and talked all about pain management techniques and my birth plan - I am very excited to have a doula this time around! I really want my labor to start naturally, when the baby's ready - I believe that my body knows what it is doing. And I am so tired of hearing "Even though you're diet-controlled and your blood sugars are well-controlled, blah blah blah gestational diabetes blah blah blah." The doctor I saw today was very supportive of that and recommended walking and some *cough* other activities to get things moving. That's right, it's that time already. I can't believe that we could potentially meet our baby boy any day now. Since this weekend, both J and I feel emotionally prepared, and we have the carseat the in car and my hospital bag packed, and as of this evening, I finally finished my final nursery project -recovering BB's old crib bumper. That project was a bit overly ambitious of me and I am "sew" glad to be done with it (especially since we won't even be using it in the beginning due to the increased risk of SIDS with crib bumper use - I just wanted it to look pretty and add some pizazz to the crib). I told J that if we have a daughter, she's not getting a crib bumper - they're too much work, and it probably would have been easier to make one from scratch rather than recover BB's old one. Of course, I made that declaration mid-project when my sewing machine kept malfunctioning on the last couple of steps and I may or may not have been mildly swearing at both the machine and the minky dot fabric (which was a nightmare to use - my machine and minky dot apparently hate each other). Anyway, now the nursery is DONE!

Which means (in my mind) that baby can come anytime he's ready. I won't mind a few more days of quality time with BB though, since I've mostly been focused on my to-do list since I've been off work. Other exciting things that have gotten "done" in the last couple of days are an unexpected replacement of our refrigerator (which is really a saga in and of itself), a new cell phone for J that actually transmits my phone calls to him which the old one wasn't doing and well, at 9 months pregnant that just won't do, and a new laptop battery because the laptop is just a very skinny desktop computer right now (we have bad luck with laptop batteries). Oh, and J cleaned up the tool-strewn obstacle course that was our garage today. And in the last few weeks I have compulsively washed every piece of fabric that isn't nailed down in our home, and got the carpet and couch cleaned.

BB just chats away about everything, including his baby brother, and pulls up my shirt and rubs my belly when we ask where his baby brother is. He loves to play in the baby's room. He has become very affectionate this past month, and runs up and hugs our legs all the time and is generous with hugs and kisses. He requests "Mama hold BB? Daddy hold BB?" He's also expressing his likes and dislikes - a few weeks ago I made omelets and he announced "BB likes these eggs." It was an impressive, complete sentence, and I was so happy that the first food he announced he liked was something I made for him, and since then he has continued to tell us more about what he's thinking and feeling. BB's in the third week of his ISR refresher course right now, so he's swimming every morning at 9 am. It's been good but it has put a cramp in our morning and I am definitely ready for it to be over and to enjoy a more leisurely morning - thankfully our last lesson is Friday.
Here's BB being a total ham (mid-meal) earlier this week:

If you're thinking his hair looks a little long, don't worry, I gave it a trim tonight.

Okay, time for the great nursery reveal!




(Yesterday I ordered photos to fill the empty frames)




J built the airplane shelf!


I made the "A" out of a cardboard box and a piece of scrapbook paper!


The crib with the crib skirt and bumper that I recovered


Trying to show a better shot of the crib bumper


Aaaand a shot of the closet with all of the little clothes, just for fun.

We already had all of the furniture we put in the nursery, so all we bought was paint, fabric, and a few accessories and new linens. J's mom and sisters bought our baby boy the wooden airplane suspended from the ceiling at an antique fair, and I got the map off of amazon for about $2 (I actually bought several because I used the maps as decoration for Han's world-traveler-themed baby shower, and that's what I used the map bunting for that I hung over the window). And we are so glad that we could keep the pull-out couch in the nursery so we still have guest quarters.

So this is going to be a bump-less bumpdate post, but I wanted to get up the nursery photos. Only a couple more Bumpdates to go!