Some Final Preparations

Today is March 1st, which means (cue the drumroll and fanfare) I have reached the 9th and final month of my pregnancy. Woo-hoo!! In honor of this special occasion, I'm posting a picture of me taken just a few minutes ago. Does it look like I'm about to pop? Yeah, it feels like that too. My skin feels like it cannot stretch anymore (although I still have no stretch marks!) and it itches all the time. I rub nice-smelling lotion on my belly, though, and it makes me feel happy. :D

So yay! Our baby is due at the end of this month. In fact, I was still awake at 1:00 this morning and I told Todd, "Honey, our baby's going to be born this month!" Do you know what he said to me? Without missing a beat, he answered, "Or next." NOT the right thing to say to an 8-month-pregnant woman who is struggling to remain patient for the last month as it is. The first 6 months flew by, but the last couple feel like they have dragged on for an eternity.

Todd has been forgiven, though, because he spent yesterday evening putting together our new travel system for me! I've been lusting after this specific one for months now, and I finally dragged Todd to Baby Depot clutching my precious 15% off coupons. As it turns out, the travel system we wanted was on blowout sale and we snagged the last box. We were really excited, thinking that we were going to save even more money, but we were only allowed a single discount. Actually, using the coupon saved us more money than the blowout did, so we used that instead. We were a little irritated that we weren't allowed to use the coupon on the sale price, but at least we ended up paying what we were planning all along, so no harm, no foul. And we were able to get the cutest travel system of all time! I was super proud of myself for not ripping the box apart as soon as we got home. In fact, (Todd was proud of me too) I waited two whole days!
Todd spent all of 15 minutes putting the stroller together, so I had to hustle to get pictures of the process. Since the instructions were so simple, we had a fun time laughing and making fun of them. The first picture is Todd being "proud" of his handiwork: clicking the wheels on. In the second picture, he's attaching the rear wheel axle, but when he saw the picture, he laughed and said that it looks like he's birthing the baby. :D It kind of does.

This is me, the very proud expectant mommy with the finished product. And look at the super cuteness of that finished product!

In other news, I have started packing my suitcase for the hospital trip. I figured that the false labor I've been having means that the real thing may happen anytime, so I should be prepared. I have a cute coming-home outfit picked out for both me and the baby, but I still need to find one for Todd that will make our new-family photos look really adorable.

I am so excited to have our baby! So far, the third trimester has been the most difficult. Evie is getting so heavy that it sometimes hurts to walk. In fact, it hurts to move my legs at all. In order to get up every morning, I literally have to roll out of bed and wait for gravity to kick in. I don't have room in my stomach for very much food anymore, but I'm still hungry all the time, mostly for munchies. That reminds me: my sweetheart got me several boxes of brownie mix, so I have been able to sate my craving for hot fudgy brownies! Hooray for me! I'm so excited to bring our baby into a world that has such a wonderful thing as chocolate. I'm looking forward to having her and pushing her around in her cute new stroller. I'm going to have such fun being a mommy!