I cannot even begin to describe the excitement with which I anticipate your arrival.  Part of me wants to meet you right this second while part of me wants you to stay safely tucked away forever.  I wonder what you look like all the time.  Will you have my nose or your daddy’s? Are you really a boy like they said, or are we going to have one big surprise come delivery day?  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I can already picture you growing up.  I know the time is going to go by way too fast, so I am going to live each and every moment as if it’s all I have to hold onto.  I’ve already been cherishing every moment we have together.  I feel your little body testing its limbs.  You’re already so strong.  Sometimes I think you’re going to escape right through my skin.  When I’m least expecting it, your little foot reaches out and pokes my right arm.  I know it’s a foot because at the same time, I can feel your little fingers wiggling.

Your head is down, and it has been for the last few months.  You really like to lay on mommy’s left side, although you still do somersaults at 36 weeks and move in a second from one side to the other.  Sometimes I even scream aloud when you kick me.  I can’t help it.  It scares the dogs and they look at me like “What the hell?!”  You’ve even made me jump in pain when you hit a nerve in my legs.  The pain shoots right down and out of my feet, like lightning.  I never know when it’s going to happen, and it sure surprises me. I have to sit down sometimes because I’m afraid I’ll lose control of my legs and fall.

I have a feeling you know exactly when I’m thinking of you because you always start moving.  While I’ve been writing this letter, you’ve been squirming around and kicking your feet straight out into my tummy.  I always thought baby movements would feel so foreign, and so strange, but they feel like the most normal thing you can think of, like walking down the street kind of normal.

I’m going to miss you in my tummy.  I will feel a loss when you leave me, but I will feel like the luckiest mom in the world to meet you for the first time.  I can’t wait for that day.  But until it comes, I will cherish every kick, every squirmy hand, every lightening pain, and every hiccup.  We’ll never have time together like we do right now, you and me.  I already love you so very much.

Love, mommy.

I’ve been looking at our new infant car seat, trying to figure it out, and I finally get how to work all of the straps.  However, with this particular car seat you have to take all the straps off in order to take out the infant headrest.  WHY?  I am so close to just cutting it off.  Some velcro would have been nice so it could come on and off in seconds.  Who invents these contraptions?  After a little bit of swearing, the infant head rest was removed and now baby boy has a built-in snowsuit attached to his car seat.  Man I wish I was small enough to crawl inside!

I’ve washed all of the baby clothes and have them packed away for the move.  I can’t believe this kid already has enough clothes to fill an entire garbage bag!  We can’t possibly fit all of the baby stuff in the car in one go and now I understand the need for a minivan!  I still refuse to give in and trade in our sedan for a soccer mom mobile.  I think the next car will be a Land Rover, Range Rover, or an M6 (yes please).

At 34 weeks I am pretty happy with the way things are going.  So far there are no stretch marks to speak of and everyone says how small I look – although I still don’t believe them even though they threaten to punch me in the face.  They know I will just punch them back – harder.

Unfortunately, I ripped my favourite (and only) pair of maternity jeans 2 weeks ago and had to finally go buy some jogging pants.  I may NEVER take them off.  I’m measuring right on schedule at 33cm so here’s hoping this baby is a reasonable size.  Hopefully he got the memo about coming out no later than his due date and within 3 hours of rushes starting 😉

I’ve been having a really hard time sleeping lately and last night was no exception.  In the middle of the night, I had a contraction that was so intense I thought I might die in childbirth if I go through with my desire to birth naturally!

I felt the entire left side of my uterus contract for about 5 seconds and the pain was so intense that I couldn’t string 2 thoughts together.  I don’t even remember what happened next, but I must have fallen asleep.  Hours later I woke up in a panic wondering what the hell had happened.  Baby boy is happily kicking away at the moment, so whatever it was I guess it was “normal”?  Something to ask the midwife.

I was pretty lucky up until a few weeks ago with this pregnancy.  I thought I was in the clear for the easiest pregnancy ever!  WRONG.  About 2 weeks ago I started experiencing nerve pain in my chest and back.  Just under my right breast, there is a spot that is both numb and extremely painful.  Impossible you say? Apparently not.

It turns out that this added baby weight in my abdomen is causing some funky things to happen to my nervous system.  So I’ve got this pain in my ribs that is interconnected with the lower fibers of my right trapezius muscle which also hurts tremendously.

But when people ask how I’m doing, I just say GREAT!  Because that’s how I want to feel.  Like Paul Harvey used to say: and now you know the REST of the story.

Our baby shower cake made by Juanita from Sweetthings.ca!

I wanted to avoid the whole “group of women that don’t know each other and everything is incredibly awkward” party, so I resisted letting anyone throw me a baby shower for the longest time.  We eventually decided to have more of a party slash baby shower and celebrate this moment with our close friends.  I am so glad we did!  The shower ended up being a lot of fun and hopefully we started a trend in awesome couples’ baby showers!

The party was full of good friends, family, and incredible food.  I wish I had been able to find my camera, but days of searching for it turned up nothing!  I have no pictures of our delicious spread but I do have pictures that a good friend took of the event, so I am thankful for that.  The best part was that Yuri and I got to share the special occasion together, and opening baby gifts with 25 people staring at us was a little less stressful for me!  I SO do not like being the center of attention, unless I have a drink of courage beforehand, and there was no going that route this time! In fact, if we have 4 kids like I’ve always wanted I won’t be having a drink for about 8 more years!

Me explaining what the hell a Twirly Whirly is to Yuri!

I loved having all of our close friends and family here – guys and girls – and I think everyone had a good time.  Tamara made every couple a Christmas stocking with some goodies and a baby bottle for everyone to drink out of for the evening!  So cute.  She provided us with dinner and the tastiest carrot cupcakes ever! Yuri and I ordered a special elephant cake to go along with our baby’s elephant themed room that we’re planning in the new house and everyone got delicious Felix and Norton cookies to take home!

I have to admit, shower games were probably the part I was dreading the most about a baby shower, but they were fun and didn’t include anything along the lines of “guess how big mommy’s tummy has gotten!”.  Tamara planned 2 games and even had special cards made for them.  In hindsight, I wish I’d had someone take a picture of them! Oops.  They were something along the lines of “Guess this kid’s celebrity parents” and “Multiple choice about the parents-to-be.”  Good times.

Other than that the night was about having a good time with friends who will be there to watch our baby grow.  For the longest time I had thought about it as a party, so it was a bit shocking when we ended up with so many presents!  Thank you everyone!