Almost 39!

Just a quick post to say I'm still pregnant...which is totally, completely, and utterly fine! I didn't update last weekend because it got pretty crazy since I had a friend from college come to visit, and I spent very little time on the computer...and getting on during the week is still a challenge. I will post a 39 week belly picture as soon as I get Joe to take one, and will update you all on my last (and possibly last two) prenatal appointments.

Officially "term" already?

Wow...37 weeks already! I'm having a hard time believeing that I am at the point where this baby is considered "full-term." Even stranger to think about is that this baby could come anytime. Odds are he or she won't, but it's still exciting and weird to think about. Joe and I set up the birthing room last night, and that really hammered home the fact that we're going to have another baby very soon. I'm really pleased with how well everything came together down there. The bed and pool fit perfectly, and everything is within easy reach and will be easy to find for us and the midwives. It may sound strange, but pulling out my nursing pillow and thinking that "I get to use this again soon!" made me smile.

Baby is still nice and active (often overly so in my opinion). S/he is still head down, but was posterior at my last position check. I certainly don't want to be back-laboring with a posterior baby, so I'm doing a whole bunch of pelvic tilts and really watching my posture to encourage this little one to rotate to anterior. I still have some time, so we'll see what happens.

I'm seeing the chiropracter about every two weeks, since I've found that my back and hips go wonky pretty easily now. I'm really looking forward to my apointment today, since my right hip has been driving me nuts. I've also started taking liquid calcium with magnesium every day, as I've been having quite a few episodes of Braxton Hicks and some round ligament pain. Other than that, I'm still feeling great...tired, but great. I know I could (and probably will) be pregnant for another few weeks, but I'm really anxious and excited to meet this baby. Since I'm having another pretty comfortable pregnancy, I wouldn't mind this little one staying in there longer (because as strange as it sounds I really do enjoy being pregnant). But I'm already feeling a little frustrated because of wanting to meet them and finding out who they are. Oh well, they'll come when they're ready!

The quilt is finished! All said and done it took a little over 42 hours start to finish. It was completely worth it though. I'm thrilled with how it came out. I really enjoyed the whole process, and definately plan to do more. I think I'll stick to smaller sized ones for now, like baby-sized and lap quilts...no big bed ones yet! Here is a picture of the finished product:

And a detail shot:

We also had our maternity portraits taken this past week. I absolutely love how they came out!! I want to make a note about the ones with the "older" looking shoes on my belly. That is a pair of Joe's shoes from when he was a baby that his mom gave us. Here is the link to our proofs on the photographer's website:

http://www.ninemonthslaterphoto.com/kolodinski.html

And here is the obligatory 37 week belly shot:

That's all for now!

Could this kid be any more active?

I couldn't nap today because the little bugger was moving and wiggling so much! I seriously wonder if there is such a thing as a too active baby. Neither of the boys was this squirmy...maybe that means it's a girl...who knows. I know the kid still doesn't like the binder, but it seems to be working. Baby's position was much better at my last mw appointment, head down and "on the way" to being engaged, as opposed to almost transverse. I just wish is wasn't so dang HOT! Being outside with this thing on is really tough.

Let's see, what else...we've got all our supplies except for a couple of shower curtains, and some new nursing PJ's for me. I get a couple of new sets for each baby...kind of a "new mommy" gift to myself. Outside of getting those couple of things, we just have to blow up the pool to full capacity (our battery powered pump doesn't have enough juice to blow it up fully) and we're good to go!

I'm getting my maternity portraits done next week, so I'm really excited about that. We're going to do most of them outside at dusk, so the lighting should be great. I'll have to post some of those when we get them in. We're going to do some family ones too, which will be nice since we haven't had a family portrait done since Dom was six weeks old...so that's almost two years ago.

I don't have a new belly picture yet, because I forgot to get Joe to take one before he left for WI this week (another three day trip for work). But I'll have him take one this weekend when I'll be 36 weeks.

I do have some pictures on the quilt though...I'm almost done!! I had to do some creative editing to get the border I wanted, and I'm really pleased with how it is coming out. This is the template I bought to use:

It is supposed to be 'diamond, loop, loop, diamond'...but doing that pattern didn't fit the width of the quilt. Joe helped me come up with a variation that did fit...this is a picture of what I'm doing with it (I left the pencil lines on hopefully it will be easier to see):

I've got 2 1/2 sides of the outer border done, and then I just have trim the edges and do the binding. Zack has started "helping" me with it too. It's pretty cute, I push the needle about halfway up through and he pulls it the rest of the way. I'll have to see if Joe can get a picture of him doing it, so I can prove in his later years that he did, in fact, quilt in his lifetime.