Freak out time yet?

One week from today BugBat will be considered a full-term baby!  Crazy.  Actually, I thought it was two weeks from today, but one of my online baby guides informed me this morning that it's technically the beginning of the 37th week, rather than the end of the week, which is great news because the sooner she's full-term, the more likely she'll be healthy when she makes her appearance.

SO......time to:

• pack the car seat in the car;
• pack the hospital bag - going-home outfits (layers for baby, diapers, paci, swaddle blanket), sweat pants and loose top for me, change of clothes for Wombat, girlie magazines to read, mini-hotel toiletries, cameras and batteries, and a post-postpartum care kit (*cough cough* tucks, prep H, nursing pads, maxi pads, lanolin, metamucil, a boppy, and more lovely recovery items that I hope I won't actually need);
• give mom/dad a key to our house to watch the pets on short-notice;
• begin keeping a detailed list of work projects so the office can pick up where I leave off;
• clean the nursery and linens one last time;
• make my final visit to the hair salon and treat myself to a pedicure (thanks cousin Sara!).

I'm dreading the post-birth recovery more than the actual labor, oddly enough.  At least the labor has an ending point.  All this talk about sitz baths is making me shiver.  

Wombat is comfortingly calm right now, although he says he'll probably wait to freak out until we get to the hospital.  BugBat is definitely not calm; this week she's been kicking harder than ever - she either wants out or she's getting crowded or both.  Occasionally I have to gently press an appendage back into my belly when it begins to stick out several inches and actually hurt.  She still loves doing her acrobatics the second I lie down to try to sleep, which isn't helping my plan to get the last few nights of good rest this month haha.  

I'm considering cutting back my hours at work the further I get along, but so far, I've been able to handle sitting at a desk pretty well all day.  The mornings are the worst since I still have faint nausea until around 10:30, but considering I can't sleep past 6:30 anymore, I may as well be there.  I've fallen into a new routine of switching beds during the night too (between the master and the guest room) which has helped my back and hips so I'm not so achy in the morning.  The animals love this since they're allowed on the guest bed with me.  

Atticus (cat) recently impressed us lately by catching and killing his first mouse INSIDE the house and leaving it for us to find in the morning.  Yay for free pest control!  He also climbed his first tree yesterday morning and came down on request when we were getting ready to leave and needed him to come inside.  He's definitely making it easy for us to trust him and let him outside often, which is nice because he loves it.

Jack (dog) is becoming increasingly more needy for some reason, and I wonder if he senses the impending arrival of his rival for attention.  He may have the hardest time adjusting when BugBat comes home, though it's hard to tell.  Hopefully he'll just enjoy the fact that we're home more often in the beginning, since he has a bit of separation anxiety. 

Now for the fun stuff - 

I was recently honored with not one, but TWO baby showers!  The first was a good law school friend, Catherine, who hosted a small but lovely party in Columbus, which happened to be a great mid-way point for law school friends from Dayton, Cleveland, and Athens.  Catherine is such a great hostess, and I warned her not to do too much, but she nevertheless went all out - enjoy these beautiful pictures (compliments of Ashleigh).  Catherine clearly pays attention to detail!

 A special thank you to Adrianne, Amanda, and Ashleigh, who each drove more than 4 hours round trip to be there!  I love you all very much!

My second shower was a surprise, and it was wonderful that it was a shared shower with Wombat - our coworkers sneakily planned a huge lunch party last Monday, complete with decorations all over the conference room, a dad-to-be straw hat for Wombat to wear (haha), yummy finger foods, delicious cupcake desserts, games, and gifts!   I feel bad that they spent anything on us, but it was a wonderful gesture and a fun time.  More pictures (excuse the blurriness since they were taken on my phone):

BugBat will LOVE all of her new books - we cannot think of a better gift.  Thanks again to everyone!

In other news, Wombat and I volunteered at my stepdad Ron's Tour de Cause in Lancaster two weekends ago, which had fantastic results - raising tens of thousands of dollars for drug awareness and rehabilitation in Lancaster.  Here is a picture of my cousin Jeff's kids after their leg of the ride (sound asleep) haha:

More news - recently found out that brother Jon and SIL Margot are relocating to Boulder, Colorado in a few weeks!  Margot was offered a fantastic promotion, so they decided to spend at least a few years there and enjoy an adventure before possibly moving back to Ohio to start their family.  I'm excited for them and excited to visit them there and teach BugBat how to ski/board at a young age.  It will also be an ideal stop for us on the way out to visit Wombat's family in WA.  Cheers to them!