Picking your child's birthday is sort of surreal.

Claire still hasn't flipped and doesn't seem to show any signs of doing so, therefore we are planning a c-section. Claire should be arriving at 7 a.m. (edited: actually 12:30 p.m.) on February 12, 2009-- exactly a week before my due date. I would prefer to keep her in there a little longer, but this way everyone (meaning Krissy and Katie) can come for the long weekend and I get my husband by my side instead of at work!

Fortunately, this means I only have to deal with this crippling discomfort for SIXTEEN more days. Unfortunately, that means I only have 16 more days of just me, Christopher, Willie and my parents. It's so hard to just try to slow down and enjoy this last little bit when I am so anxious to meet her and not be pregnant anymore, but I am trying my very best. I've channeled all my energy into several fruitless things:

1) Making lists about everything we need for the new house.
2) Making lists of every single item I have found while "shopping" that I want to purchase for the new house; divided by store and then by room.
3) Sorting, folding, sorting again, and folding all of Claire's clothes. I have so, so many cute things (courtesy of many generous and loving people) but I still haven't found "the" perfect outfit for bringing her home. Trust me, I realize how vastly unimportant this is, but like I said, I have way too much nervous energy that has to be channeled into something.
4) Eating. Yes, eating. I reached my ninth month, realized I had been fortunate enough to avoid gaining 70+ pounds like the horror stories I had heard, and lost all self-control. Thankfully, it hasn't started showing on the scale yet... hopefully it will stay that way. I figure this is the last two weeks for a long while that I will feel little to no guilt about a little indulgence, so I may as well indulge. Unfortunately, my "indulgences" are only a few bites at a time since there just isn't much room in there for food.
5) Watching A Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby. Two of the most boring shows ever on television. I dvr them, fast forward through all the boring stuff where they try to give the family some personality (it seems like none of them ever have even a smidgen) and just watch for the cute baby to make its arrival. Then onto the next.

In other news, Chris and I registered at the hospital yesterday and we saw something unlike anything I have ever seen before. My belly button hasn't popped out, instead it did this weird, fold over thing. I can assure you it is not at all attractive, but at least it isn't visible from the outside. This other woman there registering had a belly button that was protruding at least a FULL INCH. I've seen plenty of popped belly buttons, but nothing has ever compared to the beast of a belly button this woman was rocking. For a brief moment, I forgave Claire for the constant heartburn, back aches, and bags under my eyes and thanked her for not destroying my belly button.

Possibly not homeless?

So here's the deal on the house: The owner of the house we had planned to move in around Christmas has been dragging his feet trying to get together enough money to get his second loan to go away and avoid foreclosure... We knew we were in for a "short sale" aka, a long sale, from the beginning, but it started to get a little frustrating when every week we were promised a new close date. So in the meantime, I got to work finding similar houses in the area in anticipation that this house could never go through. I found a house last week in the same area with amazing views, double the lot size, and a lot cheaper. Chris and I put in an offer on Friday and we found out this morning it was accepted! Seeing how things have gone in the past, I'm trying not to get ahead of myself until the house is actually titled in our names but I'm so excited that this house may be ours! If it doesn't go through I will have to get back to work finding more houses. I hate, hate, hate house hunting.

Still pregnant, homeless, and feeling frumpier by the day.

Who is Willie???

This is Willie. When I was eight years old my dad decided it was time for the family to get a dog and he let me pick any breed I wanted. I picked a Bichon Frise, Dad picked Willie out of the litter. He is the best dog in the whole world, but I don't know how he is going to deal with Claire coming along (especially if we haven't moved into our own house by then.) He has been the baby and snuggler of the family for 12 years, and he sure takes advantage of it. Since we have been home I've learned just how needy he has become-- he climbs up on the couch next to us and cuddles up and cries and cries until you acknowledge him, then if you take your hand away for even a second, he cries again. He may not like me so much when I bring home something that threatens to steal all the attention away, but for the time being we are BFF.

Today is Chris' first day of work... and I'm already incredibly bored. Today I have eaten two giant cookies, a plate of nachos, a banana, and a bowl of cereal. Very unhealthy. I have watched two episodes of Bringing Home Baby and one of a Baby Story. I gave Willie a bath and blowdried him for an hour. I finally took my own shower at two o' clock so I would be dressed for the day by the time my dad gets home from work at 4.

Six more weeks until baby comes along and I wish for 'boring' days like this.