Good (Medieval) Times

What's a 30 year old to do for her birthday?  Watch jousting, eat with her fingers, and cheer on the Red Knight of course!  

For Katie's part of the shared 30th birthday she decided on Medieval Times for her celebration.  I hadn't been there since another friend's birthday a few years earlier, and this time it would not involve alcohol.  I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous.  All that was for naught, as it turned out to be a pretty entertaining time.  We sat right next to the King and his daughter, we rooted for the Red Knight (who didn't end up winning) and switched our allegiance to the Rogue Knight... and of course gambled on who we thought would win the various jousts and who would come out the victor.  Not too shabby for a Saturday night.

John and I in our Red Knight crown glory.

The King and his daughter - they got to eat pizza - not fair.

Chris got a carnation from the Red Knight - he was pretty psyched - the knight even kissed it before throwing it to him.

The birthday girl!!  

After Medieval Times, we went out in Rosemont.  They just opened an entertainment district which has about 6 or 7 bars in a small area.  The Monster Truck Rally had just gotten out at Allstate Arena, so Toby Keith's was packed with a line out the door (yes, those are all real things that happened... monster trucks and a bar called Toby Keith's).  So instead we headed over to Hofbrauhaus, a German beer hall modeled after the original in Munich.  They have a live band and litres of beer, and apparently a large contingent of Jersey Shore rejects.  I swear 80% of the people we saw were overly-fakely tanned, wearing Ed Hardy v-neck t-shirts, with faux-hawks, and just looked ridiculous.  I have never seen so many of the same person in the same place.  It was hilarious... and bizarre.  

The big drama of the night was Katie losing her diamond in her engagement ring..... that was a terrifying 5 minutes of when I looked up and saw Katie sobbing into her hands, not knowing what was going on, then transitioning to reassurance that it had to be in the car or somewhere easy to find, to John looking under the table and seeing it on the floor of the beer hall underneath Katie's seat on the bench.  That was one of the biggest floods of relief I have ever had, so I can't imagine how Marla and Katie felt.  It all ended well though, and we had a great time.  If only Hofbrau wasn't so far away, it would be a fun place to go out for a couple of beers.  We got one of our friends to go in the conga line, heard the best reason to not have or want kids ("I like pickles").  Loved every minute of it, but geez was I happy to get home and go to bed.  

Impatience is a virtue, right?

Doctor's appointment today (now yesterday) showed ...... NOTHING!  Ha.  Essentially what we expected.  Sure, I'm not due for another 2 weeks, so I shouldn't be surprised, but I guess I imagined her looking at me and being like -- the baby is totally on track for getting here early!  Or something that when said out loud sounds pretty silly.

The only thing we found out today is that I'm still measuring right on track, and he seems pretty comfortable in there and is essentially making no progress to make his grand entrance into the world.  BUT, he is still head down, so at least he's making some sort of effort in there.

Also, the doc said I'm only allowed to go an extra week and a half before they induce.  While that's fun to know, that means that I'm a month away from the absolute deadline for meeting him!  I'm impatient already and we have 2 weeks.... I don't know if I can wait a month!  I mean, of course I'll have to, but geez.... he's already making me crazy.

So, I'm thinking opening thoughts, and relaxing thoughts... and just trying to keep my patience up so that I can be ready if it still takes another 3.5 weeks.

As a girl in my Pilates class said, "I don't know why I keep thinking I'll go into labor early, they say 40 weeks and I'm not at 40 weeks yet, so I shouldn't be surprised if it actually takes the entire time."  Good call girl who's due a week ahead of me.  Good call.

And here's a picture of me at Week 38..

Full term madness

So, I should probably say something like this:

The bag is packed, we have clothes clean and ready for him to come home, and we are just so excited to meet this little guy now that he could come at any time.  

This is what I want to say:

Holy crap, he could come at any time and he would be a fully developed human, we have enough clothes to keep him clean for like 2 days, and our house looks like we vomited baby stuff everywhere.  I would keep in the fact that we are excited to meet him and I'm starting to get pretty impatient - so on THAT note alone, I would be okay with him coming out to meet us.  :)

John and I just can't believe how quickly the last part of everything has gone.  The first 12 weeks took what seemed like forever, the time until the body scan ultrasound never came quick enough - and now here we are like 15 weeks later and we don't know where the time went.  It's so insane.  But, it's good too.  We are much more excited, and generally much more prepared.  We have a few things that we still need, but he can at least come home and I don't think we'll have to wrap him in towels or something if he runs out of clothes.  So that makes me feel much better.  :)  

At the doctor's appointment yesterday we got an exciting little surprise.  We were there for our full-term appointment so she was making sure he was head down and all that jazz -- turns out he is -- phew.  Then she was like "well, if you want to, we could get a quick ultrasound, we can do that if she's available"... umm, yes please!  So we got to see him really quickly - confirmed he was still a boy, confirmed he was head down, and that he's hanging out in there with a stomach and a good heartbeat.  I like it!  So that was extremely exciting.  I think it was the best ultrasound for me, because I am actually starting to be impatient.  (As I said John, I don't know that I've ever waited this long for anything in my life....)  It was nice to see him, especially since he's been a little bit "slow" these last couple of days.  I never know that fine line between stupid freaking out and legitimate freaking out on the "fetal movement scale".  Wednesday you would have thought he was trying out for the NFL as a punter -- then the other two days you would think he was competing in some sort of nap tournament.  This fluctuation is KILLING me because I just don't know what his "routine" is that makes it so that I need to call my doctor.  I guess this is the first of many that I wish there was just an explicit instruction manual.  

I had another first the other day -- someone touched ... correction, poked, my belly.  Yeah... what the f man?  I was at a happy hour/meet and greet for work and earlier in the night some guy came up and introduced himself to me and was all about looking at my belly and talking about it (creepy, but acceptable in the sense that it was out there and it's been a nice conversation starter/continuer) and then as I was leaving for the evening, he sees me and pokes me in the belly and says "you get that baby home!".  Uhhh... really?  First off, it's like 8:15, second off .... really?  It was a little bizarre-o.  I'm not a fan.  But I do feel lucky that I've made it this far.  

Otherwise, things are going well.  No sense of when he'll be here, other than the fact that I feel like since I've not felt any sort of sense in anything, he's going to be late.  I can also still see my feet, which is excellent.  

I wish I had more to share -- but my next post will be pictures of how awesome John is and how handy he is becoming because he redid our spare bathroom and it looks awesome!  I'll have to post some pics of that soon.  I still have to take some good ones and put them up.  

I also need to post some pictures of my awesome baby showers!  It was such a great time, and so lovely to hang out with family and friends..... and a 30th birthday celebration for Katie McD at Medieval Times - which was still entertaining without ability to drink.  :)  And the ridiculousness that is Rosemont -- I did not realize that it was where all the Eastern European wannabes and Jersey Shore cast all met on Saturday nights.  Lots of hair gel, fauxhawks, mohawks, Ed Hardy v-neck t-shirts, and waaaaay too short dresses.  Wow, just wow.  We didn't fit in, but we had a good time.  

Here is the latest and greatest set of pictures.  My belly has gotten bigger (stupid stretch marks... I had been doing so well... ugh), but I think it's hard to see the difference in the pics here.  It's also gotten a lot heavier, which is not my favorite feeling, and I second my friend's description of a crowbar to the pelvis... I didn't know that was possible, but it's awesome.  Otherwise, I can't really complain too much.  It's been alright, just awfully tired.

So yeah, that's all I've got.  Enjoy the pics!

Week 34 : The Playful Pineapple

Week 35 : The Colossal Cantaloupe

Week 36 : The Collegiate Cantaloupe

Week 37 : The Wiggly Watermelon