The Purty Dozen

You're 38 weeks and 2 days along!

Do you know what that means you have in common with this?

And this?

And this?

And this?

That's right: a dozen.

You are twelve days away from your due date, and that number '12' never sounded so 'purty!'

We are still in awe that you will be here in 12 days (or fewer (or in all actuality, in 19 days)).

Your Mom and I keep saying goofy things to eachother like,

"You're a Mom"

"You're a Dad"

"I'm going to have a son"

"I'm hungry"

Okay, so the last one wasn't really related, but you get the idea. We're just still pretty flabbergasted that in a dozen days or so you will be here to change our lives forever! In a dozen days (or so) we are going to embark on the next biggest adveture of our lives!

We've really got the place looking good for you. This weekend we rearranged some furniture and moved your cradle into our bedroom, organized the cupboard in your bathroom, put batteries in your swing, loaded the labor playlist onto both Ipods and packed them and the ipod docker into our hospital bag, cleared off my camera's memory cards, picked out, bought and washed the outfit we're going to bring you home in and thought about putting your pack and play together.

Why didn't we actually put your pack and play together? Well, you gotta leave us something to do in the remaining 12 days!

Watermelon Waiting

You are now 37 weeks along! And that means you've reached the final stage of your fruit continuum.

That's right, buddy, you are now the size of a watermelon!

And, as a watermelon, that means two things:

1) Watch out for Gallagher.

2) You are "Ready" for birth.

Now, ready is sure a loaded term. But, basically, it means you could be born today with no complications. All you're doing for the next 3 weeks (or for how ever long you decide to remain in utero) is adding on baby fat, refining your blinking, and sucking, inhaling and exhaling (yup, you're still breathing in liquid!).

But, all that's really just practice! You're ready for the big show any day now.

And with that in mind, your Mom and I are trying to get "ready" too.

"Ready or not, here you come." Definitely, we know that's true.

But we still had a few more things to check off our lists to make us feel a little bit more ready.

So this weekend, we put together your stroller and unwrapped your car seat/infant carrier and installed it in the car! Seeing as how they won't let us take you home without the car seat, we thought it was a good thing to get done.

We also got down our big red duffle bag from the attic and started packing for our trip to the hospital. I got my change of socks and boxers and t-shirts all packed up. The toiletries are all ready to go: toothbrushes, toothpaste and (very important) deods. Your Mom is packing all her clothes and other necessities today, including some pretty cool long socks (which may be the first thing you see) and nursing tops.

This bag, of course, is a complete luxury. You can be born with or without it; but since this whole deal is about keeping your Mom as comfortable as possible, so you can be born as comfortably as possible, it's probably a good idea to get this Emergency Bag all packed and ready to go.

So, the bag is ready to go, as are you. And now we're just playing the waiting (until March) game.

And, surprisingly, an odd calm-before-the-storm mentality has settled over our household...as long as that creep with the moustache and the sledgehammer isn't lurking about (Gallagher, not Pops!)