Burn

Hi, Baby Girl

You are not so much making life easy for your Mama.  I know I still have 7 weeks or so til your expected arrival, but man, I can't wait.  I think this entire pregnancy I've had about 10 weeks of feeling pretty good.  The rest of the weeks have been pretty much filled with the feeling of needing to vomit all the time.  Given how much I HATE to vomit, it's...  not fun.  Currently water makes me ill.  WATER.  You know, that fluid that's kind of imperative for life's functioning.  Yes.  WATER is making me want to puke.  So I am filling up on juice.  Empty calories are my friend.  And if the doctor tells me to lay off on the juice because I am gaining too much weight, I shall soundly punch her.  Right in the nose.  OK.  Not really.  But I will want to.

Anyway.  Enough of me grumbling.  Pregnancy sucks, blah blah blah.  You, my dear girl, are doing well.  I now go to the hospital twice a week - once for a non-stress test where they put a fetal heart rate monitor and some sort of belly movement monitor on my belly and watch you roll and kick and see how your heart rate responds when you are kicking my guts out as compared to when you are relatively quiet.  And once to do an ultrasound to see how things are measuring, how huge you are, how much amniotic fluid you have to swim in, how the placenta is looking, etc.  We follow up the ultrasound with another non-stress test to listen to your heart again.

I saw you on Friday for the first time since week 19 or so.  You still look a bit like an alien.  No offense.  All babies do.  You were sticking your tongue out at me.  Many thanks.  I see how this relationship is going to go.  You're going to be like your Aunt Jeanne, aren't you?  Anyway, the ultrasound tech said oh, yes, you are a girl.  Definitely a girl.  She's never seen so clearly that a baby is a girl.  Your daddy laughed until he cried when I told him that, because he knows I've been holding on to that tiny sliver of hope that maybe the first ultrasound was wrong.  Not that I don't love you, little one.  But, in all honesty, girls scare the living CRAP out of me.

Your brother is excited, I think, about your upcoming arrival.  Today at Longwood we talked about you, and Dexter said he would show you all his favorite fountains.  He has promised to teach you how to swim, and I think one time he might have told me he would teach you how to play with trains.  Although when that time comes, he may well take it back.  He's not big on sharing sometimes.  He's being very helpful in trying to curb the dog's barking while we are outside.  And he also helped Daddy put together the crib this weekend, so you would have some place to sleep.  I do believe he fully expects you to come out walking and talking and ready to play.

So I think we're kind of ready for you, little one.  We've got eight trillion clothes in the basement for you, with thanks to the huge generosity of friends who have girls.  We have a crib.  We've got lots of other stuff in the basement that needs to be set up.  We have a car seat.  Not installed, mind you.  But it's in the house.  If you came today we could manage.  Except that we have zero diapers.  But we can steal some from the hospital.  It'd be fine.  And then maybe I could drink some damn water again...

Look forward to meeting you soon!

Love,
Mama

Here you are, swimming in the creek with Dexter on Saturday

Your brother and I, on my birthday.  He looks psyched, right?

Dexter and Daddy try to remember how the crib goes together

Dexter is in charge of hammering.  I know, I know.  Lack of pants.  Sometimes pants are just too much work.

Dexter also takes a turn with the allen wrench.

Teamwork from the boys to build you a bed.  I did nothing.  Except take pictures.

Dexter finishes up the frame.  And then Daddy put in the mattress, and Dexter picked out a sheet for it.  And then he got in your crib.  And, yeah.  He is WAAAAAAY too big for it now.

So here's your crib.  In your room.  We installed some new blinds and curtains to keep your room pretty dark during the day (it faces the sun, all day long).  And we cleaned all the stuff out of the closet.  Aaaaaand, that's pretty much it.  I have a dresser on order for you.  Grandma's going to bring you a book case she doesn't need any more.  And I need to figure out what kind of a chair I am going to get for that room.  And then I guess we'll be ready.

Here you are with Daddy and Dexter, getting ready to eat some of Grandpa's OMG AMAZING Too Much Chocolate and Chunks ice cream.