Gettin' close

It's week 38! There's not much new in the way of baby development--she's pretty much a regular baby now, just amphibious until birth. :) I'll have another appointment this Monday, so if anything changes, I'll know more then. 

In the meantime, fun stuff! We got Meridian one of these contraptions this past week:

This is exciting for 2 reasons: First, they're awesome. Last weekend we had dinner with Rob and Lili (aka the henna artist who did my belly blessing--we've become friends with them, and they treated us to an awesome vegan meal by chef Lili :D). Anyway, while we were at their house, we got to play with their 8-month old daughter, and she had one of these Jolly Jumper things, and she was just having a blast bouncing and swinging from a doorway. I decided to look for one on Craigslist, and lo and behold, I found one. :) Which brings us to reason #2 it's awesome: I communicated entirely in French to get it! The Craigslist ad was only in French, so I figured it was best to respond in kind. We exchanged a few Francophony emails, but the real test was calling the guy on the phone to set up a time for me to come get it. It went off without a hitch, practically....well, there might have been some hiccups in my speech, but since successful communication was made, I'm still proud (and the guy said my French was très bien :p)

I actually just finished my French course yesterday, and I did really well on the final test! It's so crazy that it was 6 weeks ago that I was talking about starting the class because it feels like yesterday--this pregnancy has been flying by, seriously! :-o

We've also been collecting some French kiddie books for Miss M since she'll be bilingual (She's already so much more worldly and cultured than us :p). Reading them is also good practice for me. It's probably no surprise that French books seem to be rowdier than English ones (at least English books sold in the US). Here are a couple pics from her books:

First, a nip slip:

 And then this, whatever is going on here :p

Like I said, she's gonna be worldly, so things like this won't phase her. ;)

And then I made this moon pillow for her. I thought it would be so cute to see her snuggling into the moon, and although it didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned it, it's still gonna be super cute with her in it. :D It has a little face stitched onto it, but you can't really see it. 

And then there's front-heavy me. My cheeks are permanently ruddy from this pregnancy; it seems to be my only weird side-effect, but I'm not complaining. :p

So anyway, it's just a waiting game from here on out. Ian did decide to take the week of March 7th off, so depending on her status (whether she's by land or by sea at the end of that week), he'll either return to work on the 14th until she comes, or he'll slide right into paternity leave if she comes during that time. Either way, he'll get some much needed home time! 

à la prochaine fois! ;)

Baby development weeks 28-37

Get your kicks...in week Thirty Six

It's week 36--9 months! Meridian's kickin' and squirmin' around as usual. I feel her squirming consistently right before I go to bed and early in the morning , so I assume she's just rowdin' it up all night, although it doesn't keep me up or wake me up at all. I'm still feeling great--strangely sprightly and limber for such a preggo. I was almost worried that maybe my belly wasn't as big as it should be since it isn't cumbersome at all...until I saw the following pictures:

Now I understand why Ian never shared that concern ;)

(We don't have a full-length mirror, if that helps explain my surprise at my appearance ;p)

Also, we did finally get the bassinet set up, and it's really making it hit home how close we are--just having this bassinet sitting there, empty, ready for a baby. Actually, I put a curtain over it so Tooters wouldn't lie in it, but I'm worried it's a lost cause--should I be worried that he'll try to sleep in there with her? Any advice?

Edit: I just realized I used the word "worried" 3 times in this post....but actually I'm feeling A-OK about everything. I'm so excited for the birth (and of course everything that follows)  :)

35/35

Friday marked the big 35/35--35 weeks down and 35 days to go!

We're both sick with colds right now, so I'm not too keen on posting a pic yet :p, but maybe in the next couple days. Other than the colds, things are going well, as usual! It's hard to believe that everything is happening so fast--I'll be full term in 2 weeks! The other day I bought soy yogurt that expires on my due date; it's weird thinking that within the amount of time it will take for a carton of yogurt to expire, we could have Meridian!

We're planning to set up the bassinet tomorrow :)