36 weeks and a few days.

Ladies in less than a week I hit "safe dates" to deliver at home. My excitement can't be contained, the end is in sight!!!

Baby continues to take up more than its fair share of room in my abdominal cavity. Ribs are sore (back still feels great tho!), can't breathe too well, and leaning over to take care of my patients is proving quite difficult these days.  My 80 year old patient told me yesterday when I winced while leaning over (and  I think I had a braxton hick contraction) "Don't go into labor sweetie, I don't think we can handle that right now" :) 

36 week pictures just a few days late.  We were out of town on Wednesday and then I worked Thursday, Friday.  It is dark when I leave and dark when I get home these days so pictures must be done on a day off! 

I have been saving crazy amounts at Safeway these days and I am loving it! 

I have a friend getting married on the 21st of December and I hope to be at the wedding super pregnant or with a baby ( I would prefer with a baby).  I just got this gold foil vinyl for my machine and love how it looks!  I made her card as well as my brothers (whose birthday is Jan 30th) with my fun new vinyl. 

Monday when I got home from work Paul and I headed over to Leavenworth.  We stayed at our friends cabin. No electricity, no internet, no running water, no heat.  It was 12 degrees outside in the morning and everyone was too lazy to keep the fire stoked overnight so it was so frigid every morning when we woke up!  We had the most amazing sleeping bags though and I was hot while laying in bed even tho it was 12 degrees!  Paul and I stayed up in the loft.  Do you know how hard it is to climb vertical stairs in the middle of the night to walk out to an outhouse through a foot of snow to go to the bathroom?  Well, its definitely not easy while 36 weeks pregnant!  It was so so so fun being in Leavenworth tho!  I told Paul I didn't think I could go if we had to walk the quarter mile uphill through 1-1.5 feet of snow to get to the cabin but it wasn't that bad, I did it many times while there.  

On Tuesday morning the boys went hunting while I hung out at Starbucks and enjoyed warmth and wifi.  They didn't catch anything so we went to Pizza for lunch. 

We went back into town to watch Catching Fire but I misread the theatre and it was actually closed.  I was looking at the Wenatchee times.  So we ended up walking the town, taking awesome pictures of the lights and eating Mexican for dinner. 

Wednesday morning we woke up and the boys started a fire while I made oatmeal (they have a propane stove and fridge) and hot cocoa to warm us up.  We played Catan and Monopoly.  Its amazing how fun long games can be when there are no distractions and nothing else to do!  I seriously loved being away from it all.  We don't have cell service at the cabin so everyone was praying I didn't go into labor.  Cell service was only a few minutes away though...well after we hiked down to the cars that is. 

We set up the baby monitor and it detects motion and sound.  These are screen caps from my phone of what Eric does while Paul and I are working.  Silly boy, baby might have company in the crib. 

Friday I had to work till 3:30, then I went to Gabes house to take a nap for an hour ( I ended up fiddling on my phone for half an hour and sleeping for half an hour) before heading over to a coworkers house for our triple baby shower.  It is so fun being pregnant with friends!  They are both having girls and as you know ours is unknown.  

I spent this morning eating baby shower cake, drinking coffee, and going through the millions of presents baby and I got.  My coworkers are amazingly generous and even though no one bought off my list (amazon is confusing to most people I guess- especially because I didn't register under the baby registry) I ended up getting the last of all I really wanted/needed before baby came.  Some sleepers, bath towels, wash cloths, blankets, toys, baby wash and lotion, and butt paste.  

After sorting everything, folding the tissue paper (yes I re-use it, I can't help myself) and putting all the bags away I undertook the process of detaching all the little plastic pieces from the toys/clothes/blankets.  This took probably half an hour.  Its crazy how they package that stuff!   Then I washed/dried/folded everything and had a big smile on my face because that basket holds my favorite kind of laundry! 

We took the carseat out of the car because we should actually need it in the house, not the car since we are delivering at home but every time I see the base and mirror it makes me happy.  Little one will be there so so soon! 

Only one more row of belly pictures till the end (and hopefully less than a row and not more....).  I am so so happy I kept up with belly pictures this whole pregnancy and I hope I do it for all future ones to come, it's so fun to look back at the progression. And to look back and see when I thought I was big, and then now.

I am off to lay in bed and write thank you notes and watch netflix now ladies.  I had to skip out on an MS conference at Virginia mason today because I have been so so tired lately and sitting makes my ribs hurt like you wouldn't believe.  Even riding in the car makes my ribs hurt and I decided that sitting for a 6 hour conference, as much as I wanted to hear the information, probably wasn't the best idea because I would have been thinking about how uncomfortable I was the whole time and also thinking about napping.  My in laws are going to fill me in and also bring me back any paperwork they got there.  Amber and Joe went as well so I can't wait to hear about it!