I Used To Have Ankles, I Swear...

Other possible titles for this post....

No more nice shoes for me, or pretty much any for that matter...
Barefoot and Pregnant...
Holy Crap, I still have 4 weeks to go....
Holy Crap, I only have 4 weeks to finish everything...
How am I going to last 4 more weeks...
My mind has stopped working...

That's basically it I think. And that pretty much encompasses everything that's going on right now in my world. I just passed the 4 weeks left mark and am super excited that I only have 4 more Sundays, 4 more Mondays, 4 more Tuesdays, etc. etc. For some reason when I put it like that I am able to make myself almost feel like I can make it. Now, if I go over my due date and I have more than 4 of each day left I just might cry, but then I'll run to my doctor, tell him I'm done and to hook me up to some Pitocin or whatever to get things moving. But hopefully, I won't have to do that. I do want to make it pretty close to my due date as my Mom is coming the long way down from Canada to help us out and she's only going to be here a couple of days before my due date and I'd like for her to be able to be at the birth (she's been at the other two), but part of me is so done that I almost don't care (I said almost, not that I don't). But I'm not sure I can handle the swelling that's started this past week. My feet were swelling a bit about a week or so ago, but nothing major. Then this past week they exploded. I think it started last Tuesday when Jeff and I took the kids to Lion Country Safari for the morning. After standing and walking all morning in the crazy South Florida heat, my feet were big. Okay, they were more than big... basically they swelled up so much that I could feel the water moving around as I walked. The swelling seemed to go down for a few days, but it's back with a vengeance the past two days and seems to just keep getting worse. It was just my feet and then it started moving it's way up to my ankles and now, well, it seems that almost my whole lower leg has grown dramatically. The water feels crazy, the weight is weird and the skin is so tight that it feels like if I put any extra pressure on them they may just spring a leak. One thing that seems so contradictory is that my skin is so dry... if I have that much extra fluid in my body shouldn't some of it seep into my skin? I never had any swelling really with either Sydney or Noah so this is all pretty new to me. Well, that's not entirely true, my feet would swell, but only after delivery and then only for a couple days. Not so lucky this time. I'm really not sure how I'm going to last 4 more weeks of my feet like this.

Anyways, that's where I am. Ready to be done, but still not really all that close. And I guess that's a good thing because I've pretty much done nothing to actually get ready for this baby. If the baby were to come today we'd be in a bit of trouble. We have everything we need, the only thing is I'm not totally sure where everything is and I know that it ALL needs to be washed. I've been waiting until the last possible minute because we don't really have the room or space to put anything. The baby will be in our room for the first while but then we have to figure out rooming arrangements (I'm pretty sure I've already blogged about this, but as previously stated I've lost my mind, so I guess I'll just end here and if you're completely lost, well, don't worry, so am I). Along with where the baby will sleep I need to figure out where to put it's clothes and "stuff". Also I have to figure out how to minimize the amount of space the other two kids use for there clothes because there's no room for an extra dresser or anything for the new baby so someones going to have to start sharing. Once I finally figure out where to put the clothes then I get to have the joy (it really should be sort of fun at least) of washing a folding them. It will be fun because of all the memories that all the clothes will bring of when Syd and Noah where babies, but still work as seriously, who really likes doing the laundry? Anyways, because we don't know if it's a boy or girl I know have to wash double the clothes so that whatever it is it will have something to come home to and not just a cranky new mommy that has to wash a bunch of clothes. Thankfully I've kept all the kids' clothes so I don't have to go out and buy a bunch of new ones. I will probably go and pick up at least a new "coming home" outfit (or outfits, one for either boy or girl) just so it has something special to wear, but that's about all the shopping I need to do at this point.

That leads me to my fun for this post. I was thinking of working up some sort of Baby Pool. So here's the deal... You decide - boy or girl, date of birth (estimated due date June 22nd), and weight. To give you a few helpful (or maybe not) thoughts.... Sydney was born 3 days after her due date and weighted 7lbs 15 ozs. Noah was born 7 days early (by elective inducement) and weighed 7lbs 13 ozs. This baby's size seems to be a little on the larger size, but that hasn't been confirmed really other than by some passing comments that doctors and ultrasound techs have made. So there's your info. If you have any other questions that will help you, go ahead and ask and I'll do my best to answer them. Then post a comment with your best guess and I'll figure out some way to keep everyone updated and we can see who will win. What will you win, other than the bragging rights and self satisfaction of being right, probably not a whole lot, but maybe, just maybe I'll figure something out. So go for it, you decide - boy/girl, date of birth and weight.

Now for what you've all been waiting for, this weeks belly pics. I took a picture last week but then got lazy and never posted it, sorry. But here's yesterdays.

Current Belly...
Noah Belly...

Sydney Belly (not totally sure on which week this is, but it's my best guess that it's 36 weeks)...