Christian The Lion

You must watch this video. It was shown this morning on The View and I was totally in tears at the end.

Ever since I was small I've always loved tigers (although this story is about a lion) and have always wanted one. In fact (silly, naive me) dated a guy before I went to Bible School and he said we could get a tiger name her Sahara and sail around the world. And do you know I actually researched tigers as pets. Obviously I didn't end up with that guy sailing around the world with our white pet tiger. But I've always thought it would be pretty awesome to have one as a pet. And this video only made me wish a lot harder :-)

light at the end of the tunnel is shining brightly!

So here we are 37 weeks and 3 days. Full term and could be happening any day now. We had a doctors appointment Thursday and as of then I was 2 cm dilated. I could be more now though. Saturday we took Shawn to the Maryland Aquarium and saw the dolphin show which I LOVED. My Gannie used to take us all the time and it's my favorite part. But there was tons of walking and that night I was having pretty strong contractions. One was so bad I started crying. But they weren't close enough to go into L&D or call the doctor. Once I got all settled in for bed and ate some cereal they pretty much stopped. But I had more Sunday, again nothing to be totally alarmed about. But I have noticed in the last week I feel really different. I can't fully explain it, but something has changed. If Baby P decides to come this week or early next week I won't be surprised. So I've gotten our bags all packed. I've blown up my birthing ball and we're all ready to go. I'm very excited and ready for him to come. Besides wanting Baby to get here soon or right on time so we can meet him, Shawn also has a big work thing coming up and has to go to New York on the 14th. He wasn't going to go but I really want him to go. It's an album release party for his next song and although it's just a party, it's still part of his job. And I'm really proud of him for the work he did on this song because it's really awesome. So I want him to be able to go, but of course we could have a very, very new baby right then. So we are trying to decide how we can make it so he can go for the night and that I'm comfortable. Not sure how to do it, but we're going to try and figure it out. As long as baby doesn't come on the 12th or 13th or hasn't shown by then, I think it can be done. We'll see.

Almost there

Shawn asked me to come down and hang out with him in the studio, and I figured since there's nothing to do but sit and watch him, now would be the perfect time to update my blog. We just got back from our breastfeeding class, which was not as helpful as I wanted it to be. I expected to learn more about techniques and instead it was just basically a two hour class on the benefits of breastfeeding. But it was still informative, and I did learn stuff like, Colostrum is yellow because of Vitamin A, If you get a flu-shot the benefits of that is passed right on to Baby, and if Baby puts his hand on your breast while feeding it releases more oxytocin & prolactin which helps with bonding and the milk let down. So there was beneficial information. We also had our first childbirth class on Monday, which Shawn and I both really, really liked. Our instructor even prayed and crossed herself (we're delivering at a Catholic hospital) before starting the class. Right now I am 36 weeks & 1 day. It's so exciting to realize that in 4 weeks time, give or take a day or two (or three or four) that our baby will finally be here! There is certainly still more things I need to do and purchase (who knew babies needed SOOOO much) but emotionally if this baby decides to come today I'm ready! Physically I'm starting to reach the point of "How much longer!?" I can't sleep at night, which means I sleep until like 10 or 11 (or noon like yesterday!) or I sleep in the afternoon. I don't know what it is about the night time, but I just can't sleep! I pee about 12 times a night and have to heave myself over every time I want to roll over. I still am thanking God though that NOTHING has swelled or started to spread. No pregnancy face, no cankles, or swollen hands and fingers. Everything else besides my ever expanding belly is totally normal sized. I am starting to take on a slight waddle as well. And with the expanding belly I've had to start rolling down the belly part on my maternity pants. I swear it feels like my circulation is being cut off! Well that's my update for now, Monday brings another doctors appointment, and with that...maybe just maybe, keep your fingers crossed, but possibly another update! Aren't you excited? ;-)