My feet are officially swelling up, much longer and I will have cankles. I no longer even try to put my rings on, for fear of them not coming off.  I’m 40w2ds pregnant and feel like this baby is not coming out any time soon!

I have my 40 week appt today, so we will get to learn if anything has changed and will possibly talk induction. I’m going to wait as long as I can, but I’m just getting so excited to meet Raspbaby!

Scott is so excited for Raspbaby to arrive as well. He claims I’m hogging him/her (and have been for 9 months for that matter!), and wants me to share!

Here’s the video that Leah mentioned on Babywatch 2010. I took it on January 17th, the day before baby’s due date, I think it was celebrating early because my belly was going crazy that night!

Baby movement from kateblonde on Vimeo.

I’m officially 39 weeks pregnant- 7 days until January 18th, my due date! I realize that due dates don’t really mean that much, it’s just an estimate of when the baby might come. Only about 5% of babies actually arrive on the due date, but it’s nice to have a date to grow towards. In reality I may have to wait up to 2 weeks after my due date, but because my blood pressure is climbing higher I think that the most I’ll have to wait is a week after my due date and they will probably induce me. I have an appointment on Wednesday, so I’ll know more then.

At this point I think I feel like the majority of pregnant ladies out there- thinking that this baby will never come out! I do think I am not as uncomfortable as most pregnant ladies though. I was blessed with a small baby bump and I am very thankful. The baby hasn’t been moving around as much these days, probably a mixture of running out of room, and *hopefully* getting ready to make it’s grand exit!

I’m starting to think this pregnant nesting urge is all made up.  I have not really received any huge cleaning urge, just the normal lazy Katelyn.  I did clean out the drawers in the bathroom today, but I don’t really consider that as counting as nesting.

The baby room is mostly complete. I just need to re-hang all of the alphabet prints- we used tape first to see how they would look and they are slowly all falling down- I think the alphabet has about 14 letters left. I need to pick up some good sticky tack or a tape that will work better. Here’s your sneek peek. I’ll get the whole thing posted later this week.

As for diapering- I’ve mentioned that we are cloth diapering.  We do plan on using disposables in the first month and probably throughout when we travel, just to help us get used to this whole baby thing. As you may know I have a pretty talented mom, who knows her way around a sewing machine. Mom has been making us pocket cloth diapers- I’m not sure how many she has made at this point, but as for the ones I have seen/received already they are adorable!  Mom used the Jalie pattern for the diapers- I don’t know if she had to alter much in the pattern, we’ll have to wait to see until she does a review of the diapers on her blog.

Here’s one of the cute yellow diapers.

The diaper unfolded- with a liner.

Showing off the pocket and an insert.

And one of the red ones.

Wouldn’t it be exciting if for my 40 week photo I was holding a baby?! Keep checking for updates!

Sometimes it’s hard to believe I have only about 2 weeks left until my due date, 14 days! In some ways I’d say this pregnancy has flown by and others it crawled (hello horrible morning sickness).  But at this point I’m just so close to meeting Raspbaby that I’m really excited and the last months are all a blur- good and bad moments. We had our baby shower on Sunday and then last night Scott and I went to pick up a few things that we still needed before the baby arrives and I would say I think we are almost ready. The last major thing is to pack my hospital bag.

I’m hovering around around a 30 lb weight gain, which is a normal weight gain for my BMI so I’m fine with that. And with only 2 weeks to go I don’t expect to gain much more, except there certainly is a lot of chocolate around my house these days and I have no will power.  We had our 38 week appt yesterday and the doctor checked everything out. Basically there is nothing to tell and I now think that I’m going to have to wait until after my due date for the baby. Scott decided that the 22nd would be the best day to have Raspbaby, so on the 21st he is instructing me to do jumping jacks, eat spicy food or anything else that will help convince Raspbaby to come out.  I think sooner would be better (it’s getting tiring carrying this baby around), but with all the work Scott has to do in the barn over the next week (shipping and getting new pigs) he is really hoping baby can wait.

Did I mention that baby is now the size of a WATERMELON. Holy cow a watermelon, that is huge!

At the end of Leah’s Best Group Blog nomination- 20sb Bootlegger Awards post she mentioned that my best friend and a regular reader and commenter of ours was in labour! Her water broke on Saturday morning and her big (8lb 11oz) baby BOY was born on Sunday morning!  We are overjoyed for her and the excitement that we all felt calling eachother to announce that it was a boy was just amazing.  She asked me when we went to see her yesterday, if after this I wish I had found out the gender and I answered NO not a second later. So many of us thought that she was going to have a girl that when we found out she had a boy was just so shocking and exciting. Scott and I visited twice already, we just can’t stay away! I love that we got to experience pregnancy together and now will get to experience labour (already for her, I’m still waiting) and raising our children together. And I can’t wait for everyone else to catch up.

Yesterday I got maternity photos taken by Stacey of VdK Photography.  She was so quick getting me sneek peek photos, that I can show you some today. Yes that’s right, the day after I got photos taken I can show some off!  I love how they turned out and lucky for us it wasn’t that cold- only about -1. I’m really excited to see the rest.

Me at 36 weeks pregnant.