Beth Had a Birthday, Shout Hoo-ray!

 Chelsea has the cutest face here, hehe. Happy Birthday to Auntie Beth!

 Beth looks pretty snazzy in her new clothes as well! 

 Here we have Grandma Kelly, working diligently on a baby blessing blanket, which she has now finished. It looks wonderful!

 Grandpa Kelly is chillin' out while watching the prezzie-opening.

 Brie was in and out of the action. She's eating a bag of fruit snacks, one of which has made it to the floor. (Surprise, surprise.) She knows she's supposed to sit at the counter to eat. Good girl.

 Jennifer and I were both playing the role of photographer.

Notice the infant car seat sitting here, ready and waiting to be useful once again. Maybe soon...

Autie Beth got some nifty Hex Bug Nano things with a habitat, among other things. Science people like that sort of thing. ;) The girls liked looking at the bugs but initially the vibrating bugs gave them the heeby-jeebies! By the end of the night they were alright touching them ever so briefly, and only if necessary to get it back in the habitat. So funny!

And here we have me at 38 weeks. This is the point that Brie decided to come all on her own. I've been waiting since Wednesday for this little one to decide she wants to enter the world. I found out on my last Dr. appointment (last Wednesday, five days ago) that I'm dilated to 3cm, 80% effaced, and -2. Progress! This was more progress than I expected. So all week since, I've been very...aware...of every little movement, pain, pressure, etc. taking note if it felt even remotely like a contraction. Nothing has. Bah. I'm not REALLY antsy for the baby to come quite yet. The only real reason I would want baby to come early is a selfish one: it is FAR easier to recover after having a smaller (aka early) baby. I'd rather have a baby that is "done" though and suffer a little bit more in the process personally than have to deal with breathing tubes or feeding problems or any such thing. 

Dr. was none too gentle with his exam last week. I'm wondering if he stripped a couple membranes (sorry if this is TMI) in the process. All that evening I felt pressure in my lower belly and baby has definitely dropped more. Well, we'll see if I've made any further progress at my next Dr. appointment. My next Dr. appointment is Wednesday afternoon, RIGHT before I go in to work for the evening. Should be interesting if Dr. prods as aggressively as he did last time...

:)