Lead Baby

Of Birth class!! :) I think we know as much as we're going to know -- I suppose it's a lot like most things -- you learn as much as you can to be prepared but have no idea how the actual experience will pan out. Well, I guess we know a baby will be arriving...but the rest of the details are beyond us. Maybe it's alot like learning a language -- you can talk in class, but out on the street using that new language is a stretch, but you try your best.

Tomorrow is the start of week 36 -- 9 months! I know it sounds cheesy - but it really has gone fast, I can only imagine how the days will fly by once little Victor arrives.
Before my brain gets overwhelmed with new baby excitement - here are some memories from the last 36 weeks that I don't want to forget ---

• Hearing Victor's heartbeat for the first time, on Valentine's Day - Yuri responded 'It's REAL!' I started to laugh, so we couldn't hear it with my jiggling, laughing belly.
• When we thought we were having a miscarriage, Yuri held my hand, and said 'Don't worry if this baby doesn't want to be born. We can try again later.' Somehow, it was the perfect thing to say- it relaxed me to realize I couldn't control what was happening.
• When we found out I was pregnant, we had to pick up our car from the dealership - Yuri told everyone there that we were expecting -- so much for waiting 12 weeks. Of course, the next day, I told everyone at work.
• Max, our 5 year old neighbor, wanted to know when the baby was coming so he could play with him. I told him that the baby needed to bake some more before he was ready to come out. A few weeks later, when Max met a new baby, he said 'this one is done baking!'
• Sometime in February, driving from my morning job to my afternoon job, listening to "Come Dancing" by The Kinks -- and realizing the the song is actually about childhood passing by, and is sad...and starting to cry -- but wait there's more. So I called, in hysterics, my friend Erika in Maine, and left a message about how sad the song is...but then in hysterics, I was laughing at myself on the message for a couple minutes. Later that day, she called back, still laughing at the message and my pregnant hormones raging

• After a particularly stressful cardiology appointment for myself, I threw a plant into the sink to be watered. It was half dead and in critical condition. Not knowing, by doing that I had closed the drain, I took the dog for a quick walk, and called a friend. A long while later...I was sitting on the steps, still on the phone when I heard water running, pouring really, perhaps a waterfall sound captures it. "What's that?" I wondered "Where is that water sound coming from?" Going upstairs to investigate, I found our bathroom was filled with a 1/2 inch (at least) of water. The water had spilled into the hallway, wetting the carpet. Realizing my goose was cooked, I ran to the garage to get the wet/dry vac, just as Yuri was standing in the garage looking up at the water that was coming through the light fixtures in the garage. "What's going on?" he asked..."The sink got clogged" I responded. "How?!" he asked...."I watered a plant" He quickly ran upstairs to assess the damage and I was having a meltdown. I tried to apologize and grovel - he responded 'No talking, just clean' he said this several times, until finally I snapped out of my tears and started to help with the clean up. Within 10-15 mins we had it dried - he took apart the light fixtures to let the water drain out. I used a hairdryer to dry the carpet. We painted over the waterstains (not as bad as it could have been I suppose) and I got the new nick-name 'house destroyer', and we were laughing about it all by 7:30 that night. The next day one of Yuri's co-workers shared a story that was much worse, and Erika, in Maine, her mom had a runny toilet that caused part of the 2nd floor to fall down on the 1st. All of these stories helped to make me feel not so dumb. In the end though, the plant died because over time the water got hot and cooked it. Geez.
• At a local BBQ place, a worker took me aside and confided she just found out she was pregnant and was horribly constipated - what advice did I have.....'uh, I'd like a large fry with that'
• Last week, feeling much like a semi-truck, dressed in my "walking the line' Johnny Cash, all black outfit - Yuri said 'wow! You need to get more clothes like that - you look great!' He doesn't really get 'sucking up' so I know this was his honest reaction - it made the day a little brighter.
• The first night we noticed my feet swelling, April 1st, I asked Yuri to rub lotion on them for me -- he looked at them and said 'Oh no! That's what my grandmother's feet looked like before she died! That's what dead people's feet look like!' - he still puts lotion on them everynight despite their nasty-ness.

I'm sure now that I'm thinking, more ideas will come to me, and I'll try to share them! In the meantime - here's another photo! It's us in Virginia Beach, in April at the Prairie Home Companion Show (we're big fans). We had just run over a mile to the theater because we had gotten the wrong directions. We were all a little sweaty.