Days go by

In light of the obvious, that baby really loves hanging out inside me, I have hired help.

Meet Rupert (see photo on Right), my handy helper. I hired him to make crazy sounds and sudden movements to scare baby out of the womb and into our loving arms. So far it is not working, but I have high hopes.

I guess I am trying to take advantage of my "free" time before the baby comes, as people keep telling me to savour it.  So I am dedicating all my time to sleeping as much as possible, since I hear you don't get any sleep once you have a baby.  Why am I not sleeping right now? you ask... excellent question dear friends and family.

The Final Leg

One day till my due date and baby is still healthy and kickin', inside me.  I don't feel like I am getting any more pregnant, but I am still growing ever so slightly.

Now don't be alarmed by the picture you see here.  I assure you skin pigmentation changes in pregnant women are completely normal.  Hopefully, our next blog will include a picture of our new baby... so excited...

Sympathetic pregnancy? Or is Jarad just eating at McDonalds a lot?

As you can clearly see, Jarad's breasts and belly grew and now look much like those of a pregnant woman. He is also suffering from spotty memory issues, similar to those experienced by many pregnant women.  Now at our apartment, things go missing everyday.  Ordinarily, upon misplacing a library CD that I know was last seen in this apartment, I might think to myself, "I must have put it somewhere that it definitely doesn't belong when I wasn't paying attention".  (I currently have a higher tendency to put utensils in the desk drawers, or pens in the refrigerator.)  But now I have to wonder, could Jarad have done something strange with the missing CD? He claims to know nothing, but with his "pregnancy brain" like symptoms you never can be too sure.

Couvade Syndrome, also known as Sympathetic Pregnancy is a common condition of people living close to pregnant women. This, however, includes mainly the behavioral and internal pregnancy symptoms, such as labor pains, food cravings and postpartum depression. So it does not account for changes in physical appearance.  Thus, I have two theories to explain what you see in this picture.

Theory 1: Jarad has been eating at McDonalds a lot. The hormones and chemicals in their food increased his estrogen hormone levels causing his body to develop more feminine features and a gut.

Theory 2: Jarad is experiencing a more advanced version of Sympathetic Pregnancy. He's taking the syndrome to a new level never seen before by humans. Who knows, he may actually give birth too.

When is baby coming?

I finally have the sensation of carrying a light bowling ball in my belly. I think that is good news on the development front.

For a while, even though I could see that my belly was bigger, I couldn't actually feel it protruding.  I would often find myself getting stuck in spaces that I used to fit through.  When Jarad and I would hug I would think to myself, "why is he sticking out his belly at me?".  Then I would remember my body actually existed several inches beyond where it used to. But times are changing and with it my sensory perception.  Hopefully this means I won't get stuck between the doors of bathroom stalls any more.

Now that I am starting to feel more of a load I think it is time we let the guessing game begin.  When do YOU think baby is coming?

Guesses:
Talia: December 4th.
Jarad: December 16th.

Nesting

According to the charts I'm rounding week 34, which roughly gives us another month or two until baby arrives at our front door. How perfect! Oh yeah, there's that birth thing we have to do...

Actually, I'm looking forward to giving birth. But lets focus on these darn nesting tendencies. Now when I watched a video a month or two ago that followed several couples through pregnancy and birth, I laughed at the woman who kept re-folding and re-organizing her baby clothes. "Ha", I thought, "I'm definitely not going to do that!"

Well folks, I admit it. I have re-organized our baby clothes several times and I am always looking for an excuse to count them, look at them, smell them, hang them on the walls, etc. At least I finally have them organized appropriately. The top drawer has all the smaller clothes we will use first and the bottom drawer has the bigger clothes. Eh, eh...great idea huh? No? Bad idea? You're right I'll go re-organize them right now.

I'm not sure if I'm doing anything else that might be considered "nesting" because this overwhelming urge to prepare as if the baby will be here tomorrow feels so normal.

Does anybody else have any fun "nesting" stories?

P.S. More pictures are coming soon.

Baby is still growing and so am I!

Our little sprout will nearly triple its size before plopping out of me. Yes, there will be lots of plopping...

As for me, it is a mystery how much more I will grow before the plopping brigade. Some scientists estimate by the pound telling me I will likely gain another 8-10 pounds. Others rest assured by my ever increasing waist line measurements. However, the simplest of all is a measurement of time. How long can I lie on my back before my organs scream out to me in pain, "flip over lady or we'll really make you sorry"? On occasion I have received a threat or two, but so far not so bad. I anticipate many more threats to come, which means a lot more growing to do.

WARNING:

The next picture may be considered extremely graphic.

View at your own discretion...

Aah... the belly button.

For those of you who have never seen my "normal" belly button, this picture shows that my button has begun its long-awaited journey to becoming an out-y. Hopefully it will continue this journey and we can all celebrate its full outyness very soon.

Until then, feel free to ask me any questions pertaining to this baby-growing, if your fancy is tickled.

It's Official! I'm growing a baby.

While the public eye is just starting to notice my lovely bump I've been feeling the little sea monkey doing acrobatic routines for over a month now.

We've also been encouraging Almost-baby to talk to our house plants. They are getting along impeccably well.

Jarad has a belly too!

As you can see Jarad's belly is coming along as well. In order for us to get equal belly attention, Jarad shows off some of his belly skin for several hours each day during his afternoon naps.