What will YOU be doing 2 weeks from today?

Whoa. 13 days and counting. Everyone keeps asking:

"any day now, huh?" or

"is your bag packed?" and

"getting excited?" or

"are you nervous?"

My answers are:

"Maybe, but probably not. My body doesn't "feel" ready yet."

"Yes, mostly."

"Yes, I'm really looking forward to meeting him" and

"Eh, not really. He's gotta come out one way or another!"

My Mom was kind enough to bring my Grandmas and Aunt Cynthia to visit on Saturday afternoon. It was a good excuse to clean the house and get the nursery in order after the great baby stuff washing marathon of 2007. My grandmas oohed and aahed their way around the house and shared stories of their pregnancies, childbirth experiences and first homes. We ventured over to west Lansing for Red Robin hamburgers (delish!) and bottomless steak fries. It was very fun having them there, but when it was time for them to leave I wanted my Mom to stay! I forget that my Mom has introverted tendencies like my sister, Melanie, so she was quiet through a lot of the visit. I know we'll have time together after BBC arrives, but talking to my Mom always makes me feel better. More relaxed. And a little more prepared for all of this.

Me and my grandmas. :) My Mom also managed to stay out of the few pictures we took!

The car seat is installed, and David had installed it correctly! Way to go, Cute!

I feel good, but man am I PREGNANT. Rolling over in bed is quite a chore. I put a stepstool next to our super-fluffy mattress so it's easier for me to get in and out of bed at night. It really helps with my achy pelvis. I know things are spreading out and loosening and all of that jazz, but it still surprises me just how much my hips hurt these days. Pregnancy is a neverending journey of surprises, that's for sure.

I'm down to about 4 pairs of pants/shorts that are comfortable and I'm living in my black flip flops. On the few cooler days we've had, my brown sandals fit, too.

The "end of the road" fatigue has set in. I'm a pretty consistent napper after work every day. It's nice having David home. He drops me off at work (close to the door!), makes sure I have lunch and snacks (and iced tea!), encourages me to lay down after work for an hour, cooks dinner and rubs my back at night to help me get back to sleep after my achy runs to pee.

I'm a lucky, lucky gal. I know a lot of women handle pregnancy alone or with asshole husbands. It's nice to have a true partner in this journey. Hell, I know if David could trade places with me, he would. Not that I want to, but he would. He's that amazing.

The $1.59 bottles of Lipton iced tea were adding up, so we bought an iced tea maker for $19.99 at Meijer this weekend. I think it's already paid for itself. Mmmmm, iced tea.

Other than the fatigue and achiness, the surprising thing is that I'm not hungry. I have to remind myself to eat. I'm thirsty all the time and want to drink EVERYTHING. Yesterday, I brought a 32 oz. waterbottle full of iced tea, a travel mug of milk, a quart of apple cider and a bottle of Frappucino in with me to work. There's still some apple cider left in the fridge, but the rest was gone by 1 and I was already on my second 32 ounces of delicious Culligan water from the office cooler. I know! It's nuts! If I get a craving of any kind it's for something sweet.

Adding to my lack of appetite is the delightful addition of a rubberband to my orthodontic regimen. The whole right side of my face ACHES now. Right, because I need another part of my body aching right now. David assures me that like everything else, the pain will subside in a few days. For right now, it stinks. And "Dear Mr. Tylenol: Your product blows. Ibuprofen is a far superior product, thanks for subpar pain relief that is safe for my fetus."

I'm definitely more emotional and, I'll say it, a tad unpredictable in my moods. One moment I wish everyone and their brother would call me to see how I am and tell me about their lives and the next minute I don't want to talk to anyone. I finally caught up with my sister Meredith this week and that felt marvelous. But I'm already not a very good phone person, so these "eh" moods I've been in aren't improving that skill.

We finished up our childbirth class without incident. Our instructor was kind of a wet blanket and we didn't learn anything earth-shattering, but I am still glad we took the class. This final week we talked about postpartum recovery, newborn characteristics (they want us to be prepared for a cone-headed, puffy-faced, pock-marked, vernix-covered little old man baby, not the plump, perfect babies they show in the movies) and feeding. I took a whole breastfeeding class a couple of weeks ago, too. Now, it's time to "learn by doing" I guess.

The pack 'n play is set up in the spare room. No, it's not a Kolocraft, so it's not one of the recalled ones. This is daytime napping and changing central in my head. I had to take a doll to my breastfeeding class, so my two favorites are holding BBC's spot for him. I just can't stand to take them back downstairs and put them in the big yellow trash bags in the shelving unit...

My Mom leaves for Connecticut tomorrow to help my sister Melanie move into her new and non-University apartment! She's gone until Tuesday, so as much as my secretary keeps teasing me about going into labor BBC needs to stay put until at least next Wednesday. I think my Mom needs a respite day after travel. That and I have stories about switchgrass, the UP experiment station and manure slurry seeding to write before I say "Hasta" to work for a while. That reminds me, I need to get back to work.

Here are my 38 week updates! The updates now come with a link to change your "due date" to a "birth date" so they can start sending me baby information. Yeah. Whoa. And all those cute "developmental" pictures they used to send? Now, they just look like a crowded baby all stuffed into some poor woman's abdomen. BBC is as active as ever. More squirmy than kicky, but definitely making my belly move in some interesting patterns. It could be all of the iced tea, or he could be as excited as I am to meet face-to-face.

BabyCenter: Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs between 6 and 7 1/2 pounds (boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls), and she's nearly 20 inches long. She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

BabyGaga: As you know, you've arrived at the final leg of your pregnancy journey, and if you're still carrying your little love around, they've just about reached their birth weight (somewhere between 6 to 8 pounds is average depending on whether they're a boy or girl). There really isn't a lot to report on baby this week, so lets do a quick recount of where we're at: all internal organ systems are pretty much ready for the outside world, they've got their meconium stockpile building up (their first black baby poo), lots of healthy baby fat, a rapidly developing brain (that'll keep growing with them for years to come), and they've more or less reached official baby status-- all they need to do is "head out" and say hello to the rest of the world and especially their ready-to-pop momma.