41 Weeks

Are you tired of hearing from me? I guess that is what happens when I find myself with endless days I wasn't expecting to have.  It appears that even when I think I am at my wit's end, that I am reminded how blessed I truly am. 

I mean, how awful can life truly be when you are (hopefully) within a few weeks of finally holding a baby you have been so excitedly waiting for? I have too many friends who have to struggle through the  almost unbearable trials of infertility and miscarriages. I have no room to complain for a second about feeling mildly like a teenage-sized hippopotamus. And really, I feel pretty excellent all things considered. We even went on a six mile hike through the woods yesterday and I did two hours of Zumba today. I wasn't miserable during any of that fun activity (sure, I was doing it to induce labor and absolutely nothing is happening….but both things were really fun outside of failing to get things going).

Sel seducing a butterfly right in front of me

Also, I have had the opportunity to do a bunch of fun things this last week. Sel had a medical conference in Columbus that we had definitely thought he wouldn't be present for. Since our little boy was considerate enough to stay put so long, we were both able to do some pretty fab things at the conference. Sel got to learn a bunch for his research project and I got to tag along for some of the highlights. We got to go to the botanical gardens and hold butterflies. We sampled some really "interesting" hor d'oeuvres at a garden party. We even got invited to a 4.5 hour dinner with Sel's advisor at a biodynamic, local and organic restaurant. You might be wondering what that even means because I certainly had no clue. Turns out, it was a lot like that episode from Portlandia where they keep asking questions about the personality of the chicken they are considering ordering. I felt like the chef implied in the menu that he personally drove to pick up any animals he would be serving, gave them a deep tissue massage, painted their talons/hooves, sang them a lullaby and then turned them into dinner. I would recommend at least checking out their menu. Till is the name of this fine establishment.

This butterfly whispered to me that it would send me some eagles if I ever got into a tight spot like Gandalf did.  

I got to adore all over this little girlfriend of mine twice this week. And her lovely parents too :) 

I also got to chill at the pool with one of my favorite friends, hang out with my familia a whole bunch, eat too much food and see my precious little niece, nephew and sis-in-law.  

Finally, a friend showed up at my door today with goodies for me and it melted my heart. I have been intentionally ignoring my phone (sorry mom and dad). I actually have taken to burying it in our bed first thing in the morning to keep me from staring at the time slowly ticking by. I am the wooorrst.  Anyway, back to the friend that is amazing. I am so happy she stopped by! Especially because I probably would have been a total jerk and not called her back until August if she had called beforehand. She also makes some wicked awesome cookies that I have embarrassingly been chowing down on ensuring I will still resemble a large zoo animal after the baby comes. It just couldn't have been better timing. I have had three friends expecting babies after my due date and as of this morning, all of them have had their beautiful little babes. I also got a stupid notification from Baby Center this morning congratulating me on my newborn turning one week old. Still pregnant you piece of junk app. So this morning I had myself a pathetic little pity party and said the upteenth prayer begging today to be THE day. Instead of answering my prayer the way I thought it should be answered, Heavenly Father sent this friend to remind me the world is a beautiful, wonderful place filled with incredible people. Oh! I also have been feeling the Facebook love so a BIG thank you to all the commenters who keep encouraging me. You are all the best of the best!

Gifts from my angelic friend

I have been majorly stressing about all of Sel's family coming this week and being sans child. Part of this is totally my fault because when we originally had our first ultrasound they told me the baby was four days ahead of what I estimated from my LMP. I started measuring my weeks every Friday with the idea that I would ignore the due date of July 11th and estimate that he would actually be here closer to July 14th since I had a feeling from the beginning that he would be late. Of course, I was estimating a few days overdue opposed to a few weeks. Hence, why the plane tickets were booked for this upcoming Thursday instead of a bit later in the month. The thing is, it will still be waaay fun to see them all and still be massively pregnant. I don't know why I kept worrying so much about it because I love them all like crazy and I at least think they won't care that they will just get to stare at a very rotund version of myself instead of an adorable little newborn. 

There I am in all my roundness. Whoa! I am soooo large!

 So, as I am now entering the 42 week of being pregnant I will continue to remind myself how lovely life is despite the mild hold being placed on our lives.