Our Last Night...

The darkness engulfs my bulging figure as I gracelessly flop to the other side. Peaceful sleep has become a thing of the past since somewhere in these nine plus months I have metamorphosed into a female Buddha. Tonight's restlessness, however, is not unwelcome. It isn't the heartburn or the frequent need to go to the bathroom that is keeping me awake. I place my hand on my stomach as you roll over and poke me with a protruding limb. The game of "try to guess my body part" has become a favorite pastime of mine. Soon, however, the mystery will be revealed and I will be able to see with my own eyes what has been causing all this commotion inside. For such a tiny life, you sure do know how to make your presence well known. I can hardly believe that, before long, my tiny butterfly will spread his wings and retreat from the warm cocoon.

I glance over at your sleeping father who is oblivious as to what is happening. "We won't wake your Daddy just yet." I whisper to you in my mind. These private conversations will be deeply missed, as will the now familiar acrobatics that you perform. "No, we'll keep this our little secret for just a little while more." The increasing waves tell me that this will be our last night, and I want to hold on to these final moments as mother and unborn child.

The past month I have gone from anxiously counting down to feverently praying for this moment to get here. I already feel like I have been pregnant a lifetime. It's not just my body either that has been stretched to the end of its limit. I have gone way beyond the cute pregnant woman stage and have entered the "beached whale" phase. If I hear one more time, "Are you still pregnant?" Or "How far along did you say you were?" I really think I might burst! (Pardon the pun) Don't get me wrong, I have loved carrying you inside me and am utterly amazed that my body has nurtured and been your safe haven for all these months. These past days though, I admit, I have been preoccupied with one thought...."Would you get here, already!"

Now that our journey as mother and unborn child is finally coming to an end, however, I am not prepared for this melancholy drifting over me. There is a bit of sadness mingled with my joy of what lies ahead. I long to hold you in my arms, and yet, part of me still wants to carry on this special bond that we share right now. At that thought, you give me a gigantic kick as if to remind me, "Hey Mommy, we still have that special bond; it will just be different!" My face lights up with a smile and I am filled with an overwhelming sense of love and happiness. I am ready for our last night as mother and unborn child to come to an end and for our first day together as mother and newborn to begin. I touch my stomach one last time, caressing the now familiar shape of the unseen you. Then I remove my hand, reaching over to wake up your father. It is time.

Updated to add...I am not in labor despite what this says, it is not our last night as mother & unborn child. Sorry if I led you to believe that...I just liked this and thought it was appropriate to post.

38 Weeks, 3 days - Doctor Update!

Doctor appointment update...
went to the doctor today to find out if any progress has been made. So far, so good...everything is progressing as it should be. My doctor thinks Dane will be arriving pretty close to his due date. He has dropped and I'm 50% effaced, 1 cm dilated. My doctor said he obviously can't know what is going to happen, but he does feel that he will be seeing me next Tuesday at my weekly appointment and Dane will come sometime after that. Here's hoping he comes next Thursday or Friday!

I can honestly say now that I'm not in the most comfortable state. I know I'm very lucky to have gotten this far without feeling like a beached whale, but now it's definitely difficult to be comfortable doing anything. Walking, sitting, sleeping, putting shoes on, making dinner, doing laundry - all of it is quite taxing on this body of 30 extra lbs! I'm still trying to do all my normal activities because I can't stand just sitting around, but I'm definitely sitting around much more than I was a few weeks ago and I'm moving MUCH slower! I am to the point of just being ready for him to get here. I want to see him and touch him and hold him and just be his mom. No worries - I don't have blinders on, I know it will be tough but right now I'm thinking it might be easier than climbing up our stairs every day! :)

Nursery is finished!

We finally completed the nursery...all the way down to the decor on the walls! Now he can make his grand entrance any time he wants, we have a room for him at the inn!

You've probably seen this...

Every time I see this it just cracks me up because I think of my dear, sweet hubby changing our baby's diaper. You all know Cameron - can't you just see it too?

MLK Jr. Day

Happy anniversary to my dear hubby, Cameron! We started dating on MLK Jr. day 1999!! We've been together for 9 years total...kind of crazy to think back to all we've been through together. When we first started dating, I never imagined I would be marrying him! I'm so thankful things turned out the way they did and we'll be welcoming our first child very soon! See pictures below of what we looked like then:

MRI Results

Today's MRI results came through just as we hoped! There are still spots on the brain, however none of them have changed or grown...the specialists at the hospital believe the spots to be either scar tissue and/or "dead" tumor tissue. They think these spots will continue to show up on Andon's MRIs for the next 6-8 months until the brain is completely healed. As long as they don't grow or change in anyway, that is good news. Thank you for all the prayers for Andon and the Zehring family. We are so excited about the news and fully believe his battle is over!

7AM Friday, January 16th

I usually blog a reminder about Andon's upcoming MRIs and this time I've neglected to do that. Andon will be having his MRI tomorrow morning at 7am and they should have the results by noon. I will post as soon as I hear from the Zehrings, but we just ask that you keep them in your prayers! This is a very important scan and we fully believe it will show Andon to be cancer free!

3rd & Final Baby Shower

Saturday was my 3rd and final baby shower! How lucky are we to have had 3 baby showers!?!? We received so many wonderful gifts and necessities...now we just wait for the little man to get here! Cameron's mom Teresa was nice enough to host a baby shower at her house. Thank you, Teresa! Family came from IN and southern IL...thank you all for making the long trip, especially in the snowy weather! It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to celebrate our miracle. Thank you everyone who made the time to come to the shower and most of all - thank you for the amazing gifts for our little Dane!

36 Weeks!

We've reached 36 weeks...amazing how fast it has gone! We're down to the final month and I am getting really ready to meet our little monkey! I read last week that my uterus has expanded to 1,000 times it's original volume - how crazy is that?!?! We had another ultrasound last week and everything is looking good! Our little man is still measuring about 5 days ahead of schedule according to the u/s, so there is a chance I will be delivering a very big baby. His weight last week was 5 lbs, 14 oz. and according to everything I have read he should have been measuring around 4 lbs, 12 oz. so he's one full lb ahead of the average weight! He's head down so he's getting ready to make his grand entrance...with what we learned last week about his size, I'm very hopeful he'll come a bit early! We're still working on the nursery and we will post pictures of the finalized project soon! We're waiting on our dresser and changing table and then we can finally start putting stuff away instead of having it in piles all over the floor! It is absolutely astounding at what a baby can already have when they haven't even arrived yet! See below for pictures of the large bump and last week's ultrasound...

It's hard to make out, but this is his head. Eye socket is the dark spot surrounded by the white and he's facing up / left:BIG belly:

Baby Shower #2

I had my 2nd baby shower this weekend...the girls that I used to work with were nice enough to throw me a baby shower. It was actually a dual shower as one of the other girls from the resort is due about 5 weeks after us with a little baby girl.

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankrolls smaller, homes happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten and the future worth living for." I cannot believe that we only have 5 weeks to go until the little man arrives...SO EXCITED to hold him and see who he looks like! My guess is Cameron, but we'll see soon enough!

Thank you Rhonda (our wonderful hostess):

Ringin' in 2009!

We decided that since this is probably the last "hoorah" for us for a while, we should go out for NYE. We decided on a package deal at Mickey Finn's microbrew in Libertyville which included all you can drink, all you can eat, champagne toast at midnight and a band for entertainment. As you can imagine, I took full advantage of the all you can eat buffet but not much else! We spent the evening with Chris & Heather and Keenan & Kristy and I actually made it out to ring in the new year...didn't get home until 1:30! I was pretty proud of myself for making it out that late!
Do I look ready to leave at this point?
This morning, Cameron took off to meet Sean for the Wrigley Classic - a hockey game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Redwings. It is only the 2nd outdoor hockey game the National Hockey League has ever hosted and it just happened to be at Wrigley Field! Cameron came home red-faced from wind burn, but he said they managed to stay relatively comfortable...must have been the 4 layers he had on!