Hanging in and Dropping Low

Arna has been gone for a week now. I'm hanging in there. The first few days I invited (made) my friend Lyndsey over. We watched movies and I cooked her dinner. It was nice to try and keep up with a routine.  Thursday was my last day of work and my coworkers threw me a baby shower. The baby girl got some outfits, including a hand-knitted set, blankets, toys, etc. I headed for my parents' house right after work was over and made it there around 10pm at night. It wasn't any fun driving at night but I had this girl to keep me company:



That weekend my mom hosted a baby shower for me. The shower went great except for the moment when I sat down to open up presents. My mom scooted a chair out in the middle, everyone was staring at me and as I was preparing to open a gift I realized I had to pee. Which happens to me about every 30 minutes. I can't even be shy about it anymore. I had to announce to a room full of people, "Thank you for your attention, but I have to go to the bathroom. So sit tight, and I'll be right back."

Here is what the nursery now looks like:



"Welcome to Babyland!"

My parents just moved so while I was home, I went through my stuff that I'd been storing there. Among the elementary school writing projects and junior high notebooks, I found a few momentos from when Arna and I were younger, including two pictures a poem from Arna and a note from Arna. I won't post the contents of the poem or letter. They were pretty romantic! However, here are the photos:



This was taken at my sister's birthday party in 2002. Almost ten years ago!


This was taken at a park in our hometown in 2003.

Here is another picture I found of me when I was seven or eight years old:



I don't know who the nice girl is looking at the flowers, but I'm the one making the skeptical face.

Also these past two weeks I've noted a new fabulous side effect of pregnancy. The Braxton Hicks contractions. If you don't know what they are, they're basically "practice" contractions. It feels like...well to be honest, there isn't anything that it really compares to. But if I had to describe it, it's like having someone step on your stomach. It doesn't neccessarily hurt, but it's pretty uncomfortable.

When looking at this week's belly picture in comparison, the result of these BH contractions is pretty evident. Little girl has started to migrate south:

  
 
12 more weeks to go! The end is approaching!