36 Weeks

So I’m a little late on this week’s post, here we are closing in on 37 weeks but I’ll update you on 36. The baby is now the size of a Crenshaw melon….yeah, we weren’t too familiar with them either. We looked it up and it looks like a large canteloupe to me. He was still head down at the last doctor appointment, so we are hoping he stays that way! We had a great shower with the Visser family on Sunday. It was fun to see everyone and we got a lot of nice things. My brother-in-law, his girlfriend and her daughter came up for the shower. It was really nice of them to make the trip, especially since it meant driving north to Lynden on Sunday for the shower, and then driving back south, and south, and east across the mountains to get home. Jeff has been very busy with a big work project, and it looks like the busy-ness will continue, so he won’t get to take much time off when the baby arrives. Of course we would both like him to be home for a while, but at the same time in today’s economy we are very glad that he has a job! I have no doubt that he will spend every possible minute with our boy and they will form a very special bond from the beginning. My plan is to work as long as I can until the baby is born, and then I’ll return to work in July, but part-time.

My wonderful co-workers surprised me today with a work shower! They plotted to get me to lunch totally unsuspecting what was going on. We had some yummy Thai food, gifts, then back to the office for cake. We have had some stressful times at work over the past year with budget cutbacks and layoffs, and I was reminded again today how lucky I am to work with such great people.

I have nursery pictures to share this week! First, here I am at 36 weeks, in the nursery:

Jeff and me with our cake at the Visser family shower:

Some nursery pictures. I need to get one that shows all of the striped wall so you can see the great job done by Jeff and Greg. We still need some kind of curtains and to hang some things on the walls.

The caterpillar toy is one I had and loved:

It’s too bad he won’t have any books….

35 Weeks

Well, here we are at 35 weeks, closing in on full term! Turns out that Jeff was just a week ahead on his produce prediction, as this week our boy is the same weight as a honeydew melon. That’s a shade over 5 pounds, if you don’t happen to know that off the top of your head. He’s about 18 inches long, and pretty much just putting on weight from here on out. His lungs will be fully mature at 37 weeks. He gets the hiccups about once every day or two, sometimes they are strong enough that you can see my belly move with each one. Jeff finished touching up the paint in the nursery yesterday and also finished painting the changing table, so once all that is dry, we can put the room together! I still need to figure out what to do for a window treatment in there. There is a blind on the window, but I want to add some type of curtains/valance/something else. Other than that though, we have all the major pieces, just need to put them in place!

Next weekend is our Visser family shower at my Grandma’s. It will be fun to see the family again, I’ve gotten a bit bigger since we were last there! This baby is so lucky to have such wonderful, loving relatives on all sides. He’s also part of a mini-baby boom on the Visser side, as two of my cousins will be having babies in the months after he arrives. This is only fitting, as I was one of four babies born in a single year on the Visser side.

The official 35 week photo:

34 Weeks

I’m now just six weeks away from my due date! Starting with my appointment on Tuesday, I now have weekly doctor’s appointments from now until he is here. Some part of him is pushed up under my ribs on the left side. Thankfully it’s not uncomfortable, but I can definitely tell there’s something there if I take a deep breath. Our boy is now about 4.75 pounds, or about the weight of….a canteloupe! We always try to guess each week which item of produce he will be equal to; and this week Jeff guessed honeydew melon, which I think is close enough to count as correct.

My dad and Helen were here this weekend, and it was great to see them. The last time we saw them I was about 6 weeks pregnant, so I certainly look different this visit. Also, I am eating like a normal person rather than having bland carbs at every meal like I was on that trip. We realized driving back from the airport that we neglected to take any pictures, so unfortunately I have none to share. We had a great afternoon in Seattle yesterday, it was chilly but dry and the sun came out while we were walking around. We had dinner at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar downtown…if you ever get there, I highly recommend the sea salt caramels. Yum.

Here’s the 34 week shot, have a great week!

33 Weeks

Jeff pointed out this morning that next month we will have a baby! Hard to believe I’ll be full term in just 7 weeks. The Boy is now about the same weight as a pineapple, or about four and a half pounds. He continues to move around in there, which is always great to feel. At my most recent appointment (Thursday), the doctor said he was head down and turned to the side, with his bottom on my left, one leg folded up and one leg straight out. Doesn’t sound very comfortable to me, but I know babies are always smushed in utero. Maybe he’ll be flexible like his mom. Thursday was also our tour of the childbirth center at Providence. It was nice to see the rooms and learn a little more about how everything works there.

Jeff’s brother Greg came out this weekend to help with painting the nursery, and it looks great! I’ll post pictures once it’s all finished. I am very grateful to both Jeff and Greg for executing my idea for stripes on one wall, which was very labor intensive for them, and not at all for me. Thanks wonderful husband and wonderful brother-in-law!

You may have heard about the earthquake we had here Friday morning. It was a 4.5 on the Richter scale, but occurred about 36 miles under the ocean, so it doesn’t seem to have caused any damage. Jeff and I didn’t feel it, I was still in bed and he was downstairs getting ready, but we both heard the wall rattle…though we didn’t figure out what caused it until hearing the news later that morning. That was the first quake for both of us.

Here’s the official 33 week picture!