The countdown to parenthood...

Last week Grant returned from 3 weeks in Southeast Asia to find baby clothes hanging in the closet, a stroller in the dining room, a bassinet in our bedroom and a much bigger wife than the one he left at the end of January! Not to mention lists of what to pack for the hospital, essential baby items, etc!

As you may have noticed, when my calm, patient husband is away I sometimes fall into my mildly OCD-like spells of... well... jumping the gun. Some might call it nesting, which is a nice way of saying that I am getting a little nuts about preparing for the arrival of our little one. I am now 33 weeks pregnant (7 1/2 months) and counting! The remaining seven weeks might sound like a long time... unless you consider that I am all ready past the stage of pregnancy when my mother gave birth to my brother or 4 weeks from when she gave birth to me! On one hand I am excited to meet our little one, but on the other I feel like I am running out of time!! However, as my dear friends caution me, I should prepare myself for the worst case scenario of being 2 weeks overdue so that I don't completely lose my mind if it comes to that! Quite frankly, I think I'd be happy to stay home and knit! What was I saying? Oh yes, nesting.

I suppose most people would spend this time decorating the baby room but unfortunately we don't have one. We're looking at creative ways to divide the space we have into functional work/play/sleeping spaces... so my "decorating" is restricted to drawing floor plans and having nightly dreams that I discover an extra room in our house. I am not sure when the "cleaning" urge is supposed to kick in but if anyone knows how to kick-start that one, please let me know. Perhaps it will arrive a couple of weeks before the due date - when I intend to go on maternity leave.

Bebe's due date is not the only one on our minds... our taxes are due the day after Bebe! I need to divert my energies to that awful task asap... if I can only muster some enthusiasm!

In the mean time I am really enjoying this stage of pregnancy. Bebe is VERY active and keeps me entertained all day long with acrobatics... which are starting to get quite restricted! I am definitely feeling the strain with a few aches and pains but I'm doing pretty well these days. Our childbirth classes are excellent - Grant and I are having a catch up course this week for the ones he missed.

We're very excited about my parents' arrival on April 10th, so there's a good chance they will be here when Bebe is born and his/her identity is revealed to the world! Oh - and I am having a couple of baby showers this week! One with my co-workers and one that my sweet friend Renee is organizing... these will be followed by a church shower for me and 2 other girls who are pregnant.

Thankfully we have been rescued from 4 weeks of snow and ice by some warmer, sunnier weather... I think Spring is on it's way!