ONE WEEK TO GO (maybe)

We saw the doctor this morning. For those of you who really dig prenatal lingo, I'm 80% effaced, at a negative 2 station, and 4 cm dialated. For those of you who don't speak Prenatal, I'm 4 cm dialated, which means that things are moving along well, but the baby hasn't dropped much (which doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot - it can happen very quickly). Pregnancies vary, but it's not uncommon for some women to be at the hospital and getting an epidural at 4 cm. I'm at work still. I'm feeling pretty good, but we think I had my first few Braxton-Hicks contractions (translation: fake contractions that mean nothing) yesterday. So, this baby is ready to go whenever it feels it's time! We're keeping our fingers crossed that it holds out until my dad gets to town on Friday night. And Friday is scheduled to be my last day at work. We'll be sure to keep you all posted!!! EEEEKK!

Big Belly

Here's a belly pic from this morning. Already this morning I've already had four people comment independently about how much I've dropped in the last couple days. I can't see it from my top-down view, but I'll take their word for it. :)

PLACE YOUR BETS!

It's time for the guesses to begin officially! So, what's your bet? Please click on "comments" below and post your guesses for:

• Date (I'm due Feb 7)
  
• Weight (Jason weighed 7 lbs 4 oz, I weighed 6 lbs 2 oz)
• Gender (I am a girl, Jason is a boy)
• Name (just for fun!)

The winner gets to change the first diaper!!

When you post your answer, if you post under Anonymous, be sure to sign your name to what you type so we know who wrote it. Note for my mom - i don't know if I was born early or late, so you might want to write that in your guess so everyone can know, in case that's useful. Thanks!

Surprise Shower at UH

Today at lunch the great staff and faculty at the College of Technology threw us a surprise shower. Catered lunch, games, gifts, cake and even Jason showed up! Surprisingly, and to the credit of the gender, every game except one was won by a man! There were folks there from both the college and from development, which was great. Oh, and by the way, we hope you all like the name Sturgis Lustberg.

Our Amazing Friends

We have amazing friends. They are kind, generous, thoughtful, brave, and possibly even slightly daredevilish. We have received tons of wonderful gifts (thank you notes are slowly being done, but they ARE coming, i promise). My friend, Elisa Adams, threw us an "Un-baby shower" on Friday night, where we had fajitas -n - 'ritas with about 12 good friends. It was a great time to hang out and talk with everyone while we still can. Bobby Shah is coming to visit from Missouri this weekend, which we believe is the daredevil feat of all. He's a gutsy guy to risk being the assigned driver to the hospital if baby should come early. Luckily, he's finishing med school, so we feel we would be in good hands. (Actually, he's coming for a residency interview here in Houston, so keep your fingers crossed for him.) And Mike & Melissa Eggleston are bravely coming to visit in March from STL, to see us and the baby. Hopefully we'll have figured out how to shower daily while maintaining some sanity by then! We just want to publicly tell our friends how thankful we are for everyone's calls, gifts, funny stories, emails, and blog comments. Though many of you live far away, we know we are surrounded by your love and support every day!

The Un-Shower

Tonight my friend Elisa Adams from UH threw an "un-shower" for us at a Mexican restaurant. We had 12 or 14 of us there and it was very relaxing! Here are a couple of pics! The pic in the middle is us with Elisa, our fabulous hostess. And the pic on the right is the three pregnant ladies at the party, Nancy Wiilson, Susan Hlavac, and me. Thanks for such a great un-shower, E!

PAY THE MONEY!

HAVE YOU EVER PUT ONE OF THESE THINGS TOGETHER?? Oh my god! For those of you who haven't, take the advice my dad gave us (which we didn't follow), and pay the people whatever price they want to put a crib together for you. The parts don't match up (we still have several pieces we hope we didn't really need), the instructions aren't clear, and it takes MUCH longer than they tell you it will. The furniture people told us that the model we had wasn't too hard to put together so we could probably do it ourselves easily. I think they tell you that just because they are sick people who get joy out of the moment the phone rings and you call them saying "I'll pay whatever you want if you'll get over here and put this @$%* thing together."

It's done, seems secure, and we didn't have to make that phone call, luckily. But now that it's done, Jason has earned at least an hour of Xbox to unwind (and yes, that's where he is right now, with his new NFL game).

And a public Thank You to my Mom and Dad, who bought the crib for their new little grandchild!

Who wants to hold the baby??

http://www.thehumorarchives.com/humor/0001140.html

Photo Upon Request

Alright, you asked for it! Here is the most recent belly picture. It was taken Dec 28, 2005, at about 34 weeks along. Soon I'll actually post a picture where you can see the shape of my belly AND i'm wearing clothes.

34 DAYS TO GO (roughly)

We were SO excited when the crib arrived last week, but alas, there was a huge flaw with one of the pieces (a 3-foot deep scratch/groove, right on the front rail where baby will grab and gnaw), so we are waiting for a new piece, which should come this week. We'll be sure to post pictures when it's together.

We saw the doctor last week - all is well. I've put on 23 pounds and probably won't put on much more, since we have just under 5 weeks left. This Monday (Jan 9) is when they will check to see if the baby has gotten into the right position. I wouldn't be surprised if the baby is turning itself around right now as I type this, because I am getting kicked hard in the ribs! Starting Monday, we see the doctor every week and she starts talking about scary terms like dialation and effacement (eek!!)! I'll post more soon.

New Year's Eve

I don't think I've ever been outside on New Year's Eve at midnight BAREFOOT, but it happened this year. Our friends, Kelly and Eric Herrera came over and we all gorged on food and played games until midnight, which I shockingly made it to. At midnight we went out to the driveway where neighbors were shooting off highligh-illegal fireworks and cheered in the new year.