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.