Wrapping up my pregnancy series. I wanted to take a picture with him around three days old but I was just too exhausted to set everything up. I did manage to take a few on his two week birthday and I’m glad I did because he already seems bigger to me. Now I’m going to put all 36 photos in a book for him, and get my finished tutorial on these up before it arrives!

So my baby has been served! S/he got his/her eviction notice this afternoon and has to be out or get kicked out by Monday morning.

I think baby got the message loud and clear though cause things are starting to pick up. I’m about 4cm dilated and just waiting for labor to kick in. In fact, a couple of hours ago I started having much stronger and more consistent contractions. I’ve been timing them and they’re about 5-8 minutes and pretty intense right? I messaged my photographer and texted my friends on standby to watch Lil’ J. Contractions are still going. I finish writing a post for BabyCenter. Contractions are still going. I go wake up my husband and tell him we may need to start getting our crap together to go to the hospital, and whatdoyaknow, things slow down. Well, not totally. But the last one went from being consistently five minutes apart to being 14 minutes from the last. That’s right, I’m live blogging this my friends (well, not the whole time, just right now).

I keep thinking “this can’t be it… I’m going to get induced” or “I remember this hurting a bit more on pitocin” but I’m also trying not to compare the two too much in case this IS it. I’m not sure I’ll believe this is it until I’m begging for an epidural, but maybe it’s smarter if I call someone before then? Oy, this is mighty different than last time.

As much as I’d like to take this opportunity to finish putting up vinyl on the nursery walls, and sew a couple more burp cloths–I’m thinking it may be best if I TRY to sleep (if I can sleep), and finish that fun stuff in the morning. Ya, I don’t think I’m gonna chance going to work again. I have a strange fear of my water breaking at work.

Anyway, I shall keep you posted. If there are other night owls up reading this wondering what’s going on, I’ll probably be posting random updates on Twitter and my Facebook page.

Here’s my 40 week letter and photo. Finally all caught up, just in time. Don’t make fun of my horrible handwriting.

Still no baby! It’s ok. I has a feeling my due date would come and go. But at least this time there’s some action going on contraction wise.

I celebrated my due date with a prenatal massage that may or may not help kick things into gear, and my mom and sisters arrive this Saturday. I’m really having fun relaxing these last few days and setting up the last bit of the nursery.

It dawned on me that this was my last Monday as a mom of one! By this time next week I’ll have a baby for sure, and be a mother of two. Talk about mind blowing!

Here’s last week’s photo. I’ll take my 40 week today hopefully. My feet are seriously that fat, and the photo is a little blurry cause it’s quite difficult to balance on one leg while nine months pregnant.

Cosmetic (yea they’re fake, but oh so stylish!) glasses: c/o 39DollarGlasses; Top: Uma Tunic c/o Yala Designs

My calls to the full moon didn’t help last night. I did feel some contractions that I’d rate maybe a 3 on a scale of 1-10 (compared to what I’d rate an 11 when I was on pitocin).  So more than Braxton Hicks, but definitely not full-blown labor.

It’s ok though because I was up anyway frantically trying to finish sewing Lil’ J’s Easter dress. If I had had the baby it wouldn’t be done. Lil’ J had an Easter egg hunt at school today, and it’s her last day, since she’ll be home with mommy and daddy during our maternity/paternity leaves, so I wanted her to have something special to wear.

I bought the pattern from Adelaide’s Boutique for anyone who’s wondering. I LOVE her dresses, and was so stoked when she released a pattern for the style I most often buy.

I was sewing pretty fast and in a groove but then I ran out of elastic thread right at the end, and couldn’t find the rest of it anywhere! I contemplated running to the store at what was 3am, but didn’t want to alarm my husband. So I found a dress I hadn’t finished yet and picked the elastic thread from that dress, to use on her Easter dress. It was a very annoying and tedious process that had me up until 5am! But it all was worth it this morning when she asked to see the dress I had been sewing and couldn’t wait to put it on.

It was kinda a bummer because it was on track to be the fastest I had ever sewn a full dress, and the first time I never needed to use a seam ripper for mistakes, and I ended up having to rip out multiple seams for the stupid thread. Anyway, it’s behind me, and I’m going to stock up on that stuff now.

Since the full moon has passed, and I saw that as my one opportunity to go into labor early, I’m no longer expecting it to happen… Ever. Or at least until I’m induced. But that’s ok. It’s a win win. My mom and little sisters will be coming to help with Lil’ J in a week, and if I’m going to be late, it’ll be nice to have them here. If I go into labor on my own, that’s ok too I guess.

For all of your procrastinators who still haven’t guessed on Leechie’s arrival date… I asked the good people over at WhatsInMyBelly.com to re-open the pool til Sunday night. So you have a couple more days to get your guess in and win $50 if you’re the closest.

If you don’t want to sign up on the site but still want to enter, just write your guess in the comments including your guess for 1. baby’s gender 2. birth date/time 3. birth weight 4. birth length 5. hair color 6. eye color. I’ll enter your guess for you.

And here’s last week’s photo. I’m almost completely caught up on editing these. Finally, right here at the end. I can’t wait to meet this kid!

Whelp, it’s a full moon tonight, so if any night is a night to have a baby a little early you’d think maybe it’ll be tonight, right? A friend of mine had mentioned the full moon the other day and it’s had me dreaming about it since. My standing outside at night, willing the gravity of the moon to send me into labor.

It didn’t even work in my dreams so I’m not counting on being so lucky tonight, but we’ll see. Although my due date is Monday I’ve mentally set it for a week from Monday so I’m not disappointed… And so I can keep procrastinating the stuff I still need to get done.

Here’s another pregnancy update letter from a couple weeks ago. Almost caught up on sharing these things!

The countdown continues. And to be honest it really doesn’t feel like I’m so close to having a baby. I mean, the huge stomach, occasional contractions and uncomfortable pressure in my groin does remind me, but it’s really weird to think I’m having this baby at any moment… At the latest, in just under two weeks.

I haven’t had much progress as far as dilation or thinning out. Stupid cervix. But I know that can change whenever.

Lil’ J is getting extra excited about the baby, asking about my doctor’s appointments, if I’m “checking on the baby,” and she just loves lifting my shirt up and looking at my belly, talking to the baby, singing to the baby. I think she is going to be a spectacular big sister.

Here’s a slight blast from the past, a few weeks back. Lil’ J wanted to be in the photo with the baby. And she wanted to accessorize us with princess crowns. I told you my yoga pants made a return. I’ve basically had a pair on every day the last 3 weeks.

Yesterday I had my 38 week OB appointment and I was 1-2cm dilated and a little effaced. If I’m closer to one or two I don’t know, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. I’m still feeling contractions throughout the day and usually at night they get sorta regular, but they don’t hurt except maybe a little every once in a while. Definitely NOTHING like my pitocin induced contractions.

The nursery is just about done. Last night Lil’ J and I painted the final letters of the funky alphabet wall we’ll be hanging up in the baby’s room tonight. I had the letters laid out on a table at a friends house and Lil’ J walked by and shouted “ABCDEFG!” then proceeded to sing entire the alphabet twice and ask if she could help. I made sure to set aside a couple for her, and she loved it.

A few friends of mine helped me pull the whole thing all together in less than a week and I think it’ll look really nice once it’s all up on the wall. Then I just want to make some yellow chevron curtains to hang with some kind of giraffe print valance or trim accent, make/buy a cute sewing machine cover that matches the nursery, stick 70 vinyl leaves to the naked vinyl tree branches on the wall, and then find a glider chair cover or new pads that coordinate with the room. WHEW! That’s not so bad… I’ll take some pictures once I have the letters up, so I can at least show mid-way progress.

Now another blast from the past. Don’t let my cute style in these last few weekly photos fool you, I definitely have moved on to wearing yoga pants on a daily basis the last few weeks, you’ll see…

Oh, and don’t forget to put in your arrival date/ boy/girl guess by Monday, that’s the last day to enter and the winner gets $50.

Shirt: Ross; Jeans: Old Navy (they are unzipped and I’ve got a belly band on); Necklace: Burlington Coat Factory

It’s time once again for me to dump my weekly photos out and do a blog catchup since I’ve been SUCKING so bad! I was doing so good at the whole blog/work/mom thing but I guess once you throw in pregnancy I just can’t keep it all up, and my blog has taken the brunt of the neglect.

I’m 38 weeks pregnant now (ack!!!) Leechie is almost here, and I’m getting SO excited! So, I’m hoping to share weeks 33-38 every day til’ Sunday and then Monday I’ll be 39 weeks and caught up. Then I’ll just have a week or two left depending when baby decides to make his/her grand entrance. Whoop! (And you can make a guess at when that’ll be and win $50 if you’re the closest!)

Also gonna show off the going-home outfits I finished, and the nursery is ALMOST ready! So I’ll share some pics of that too.

But for now we’ll travel about a month back to my 33 weeks photo.

Shirt: Ross; Jeans: Old Navy; Necklace: The Icing