In the home stretch!

I still can't believe I have less than 3 weeks until I meet our newest addition. This pregnancy has gone SO quickly that it doesn't seem like the baby is almost ready to come, but the calendar and my belly size tell me otherwise!
TheBump.com's calendar of things to do told me to pack my hospital bag around 20 weeks... I'm now 37 weeks and the bag is still not packed... I will definitely have it done by the end of this week, I promise! (FYI: I've ignored 99% of their list, at least their timeline for doing things.)
Anna and I toured the Labor & Delivery wing of the hospital last week and I liked what I saw. The rooms are LDRP rooms which means I'll be in the same room for everything and so will the baby. They have a baby station where they do measurements, first vaccinations, bath, etc, so Baby P won't have to leave the room at all.
The other nice thing is that the nurse mentioned some of the standard procedures which gave me a lot of peace about having the baby there! One of the things that I'm most happy about is that unless there is something wrong, they let us bond with the baby before doing all the neonatal stuff. Since Anna was delivered by C-section, I got to see her for just a few minutes before they took her away while they finished with me in the operating room.
The other thing that made me very happy is that they only make you stay 24 hours after the baby is born (unless you deliver in the middle of the night, then you stay an extra night so they're not discharging you when you'd like to be sleeping!). Since our guess date (March 19) is so close to Daniel's graduation (March 23), I am praying that I am able to be there for his graduation so I can pin on his career badge. I'm stressing too much about this, I know God has a plan and He knows how important this graduation is to us!

One thing we did this time around that we didn't do last time was to have professional maternity photos taken. We used our self-timer feature to get some when I was pregnant with Anna and that was enough for us. This time, we were lucky enough to find wonderful photographer who was giving away 2 free sessions to help build up her portfolio. We took the pictures at a beach in nearby Ocean Springs and we are so happy with how they turned out. Here are a few of them. I'll be picking up the CD with all of them this week- I can't wait to see more!

The gloves are off... and by gloves, I mean rings...

Yesterday was the day it hurt to get my rings off and I decided to retire my engagement ring and SMC class ring. These rings aren't just fashion accessories for me, they're very meaningful and I rarely take them off. It was a little sad to know that I probably won't be able to wear them until after the baby is born, but it won't be long until that day arrives. I can still get my wedding ring on and off comfortably, but it's definitely a bit snugger than usual- we'll see how long it lasts!

In other baby related news, we've purchased paint for the nursery and plan to work on that this week. Our plan is to paint broad vertical strips of light yellow on the already white walls. There are two 'panel' sections- one above the closet and one above the door- that we're thinking about using as canvases to do some stenciling that incorporates dragonflies since they're featured on the bedding. A trip to Hobby Lobby this afternoon should help further that along.

We attended our childbirth class on Saturday which was helpful and very informative. Daniel was a very good coach and I feel more confident about my choice to try for a natural labor. The instructor was a L&D nurse who has over 30 years of experience and has been on both sides of delivery- as a mom of 4 and a coach for her daughters. We went over breathing exercises, the different stages of labor and what kinds of medical interventions are available including the pros and cons of them. Daniel said I was the most 'put together' mommy out of the group and I think he was the best coach... since he didn't answer the question "What is a focal point?" with "A point where you focus."

The countdown to Daniel's departure to Colorado is quickly ticking down so we're soaking up all the time we have together. We're hosting Ben, his younger brother, for a few days while he's on spring break, which has been great. It's wonderful to have a visitor in our new house!

Baby Update

To bring you all up to speed here's a summary on how our first little miracle is developing:

I am almost 19 weeks along and this pregnancy has been very uneventful and 'normal.' I have been extremely thankful for this fact. No morning sickness at all and the only concerning thing was some heart palpitations which were checked out and found to be caused by the extra blood flow and simply a normal symptom of pregnancy. (They have since gone away.) The baby has been moving for the few weeks which is really exciting. I'm the only one who can feel it right now, but in a few weeks the kicks should be strong enough to be felt by Daniel who is looking forward to it.
Even though it's fun to compare our little one to fruits and vegetables, I love visiting www.babycenter.com to see exactly how the baby is developing. Just click on the timeline to see what the baby looks like at specific weeks in the pregnancy. My little sister, Grace, likes to visit the site with me even though she says the baby 'looks sorta like an alien.' 
Here's a picture of my baby bump at week 17. I'll be posting these kind of shots as I grow so you can see the difference in size. 

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!