I am making this public, but not "facebook" public, since only a few people read this. I wanted something documented, just incase...I don't want to jump the gun, but today might be the day. It's 3:11 am and I've been up since about 12:30 having contractions. They are coming about every 20 minutes. I'm having a lot of back pain with them, which is so not fun. Each contraction I just try to think "this is one step closer to meeting my son or daughter". I tried to sleep between them, but couldn't so I'm up tying up loose ends, like getting the final stuff packed in my hospital bag. Crazy! I'm letting Ryan sleep right now so both of us won't be exhausted, but after that last contraction, I think I want him up now. I really think today is the day...

37 weeks pregnant. I can't believe it. Only 3 more to go. I have had 3 showers. One at Ryan's work, one at my work, and one at church. As we were going to the church shower on Friday, I told Ryan how nontraditional my showers have been, which has been cool. I've had my showers at a school, a zoo, and a mall. We have slowly but surely been getting the nursery together. Now that we had our last shower we can do our last (ha ha ha...) load of laundry and get everything organized. Ryan has been a life saver. There is so much I want to do, but don't have the energy to do it. I have been sitting in the lay-z-boy writing thank you notes while he pulls stuff out and I tell him where to put it. Work is getting harder, but I'm going to try to stick it out until baby comes. The weather in the 90's the past month hasn't really helped. I am just so anxious to meet our baby. I can't wait to see what he/she looks like, how he/she acts...just how everything is going to run. I can't wait!!!! Well, I can, because I really want baby to come on my due date so mom and Josh can be here. That's really important to me, but I'm also preparing myself for the fact that it just might not happen that way.

Things I will miss when I'm not pregnant anymore:
-Feeling the baby move
-Having friends rub and talk to my belly (they can still do that but it'll be weird)
-Having a miracle grow inside of me
-Going to bed as early as I want
-general attention that pregnant women get
-having an excuse to not lift heavy stuff at work :)
-the extra kitty snuggles I'm getting. Obi likes to lay against my belly and purr and baby will kick
-realizing everyday how blessed I am to have Ryan as a husband who lets me come home from work and put my feet up while he cooks dinner and takes care of most chores

Things I won't miss:
-round ligament pain
-going pee ALL the time, especially almost hourly at night
-having a hard time getting out of bed
-difficulty bending down especially when doing things like putting on socks and feeding seals
-swollen ankles
-re-occurance of arthritis pain in my hands