More 37 week info

Well, let's see.....we are getting into the home stretch and are finalizing everything around the house to be ready when baby comes home. Our bags for the hospital are packed and ready to go. The nursery is basically done, at least enough-so that we have everything we will need for baby once she gets here. We haven't done anything too elaborate, since we're in a rental apartment. We're saving big decorating things for when we eventually move, which is likely to happen this summer. We are hoping to buy a house, but we want to be sure we're ready to settle for a few years, since although it is a great time to buy, it is an awful time to sell! Anyway, I have also been cooking, cooking, cooking to get ready for the first few weeks of exhaustion! I have double batches of soups, chili, spaghetti sauce, sauce for homemade mac and cheese, and breads waiting in the fridge. I've stocked up on a bunch of quick-cook stuff, like soups, pasta and frozen stuff, which I normally try to avoid, but it will make life a lot easier for Nelson and I! We have lots of people who are willing to help out around the house, but I think I'm going to be very selfish about our time at home with just us. Nelson has 2 weeks (vacation) with us and then will work half-time for another 3 weeks (sick leave) before having to go back full time. We know those weeks will fly by and we want to have as much bonding time with her as possible. We are thinking of having an "open house" one weekend in May or June, so that people can come and visit us and meet baby. We just don't want to get overwhelmed with people, even though we know everyone has the best intentions! : ) We just know it's going to go so fast!!

For those of you who don't know, we are starting to think ahead to her baptism, which will be a double-special event, because Nelson and her will be baptized together! They are going to baptized in the church where we were married, which is the church we currently attend. This will likely be some time in June, when the great-grandparents are visiting. We would love if Uncle Colin and Aunt Carrie were back from Afghanistan to attend too, but it sounds like they won't be here until July, which is coming up soon, so we are thankful! Uncle Theo (Nelson's brother) will be the godfather.

I have to say that one of the positive things about having this breech baby experience is the love and support that has shown up in the last few weeks! Good old facebook! So many people are supporting us in this pregnancy, so many kind words of encouragement and helpful advice! So many people are praying for us and our baby, it's wonderful! It's very humbling to feel so loved!

Nelson and I decided to preserve the belly forever by creating a "belly cast", so we did that Tuesday evening. It's big! I haven't decided how I'm going to decorate it yet, probably paint with her name a "birth stats", or some kind of collage, we'll see. It was fun to do, Nelson did the whole thing! We were warned to use a LOT of vaseline, which we did, so much so it was challenging to get it off!! It took almost 20 min of scrubbing in the shower!! Here are some pics of it:



Wow, I look tired, but it took longer than we thought and this picture was taken at about 11pm. Worth it though!