My doctor appt. yesterday went well. I’m 2 cm dilated, 80% effaced and her head is in position (-3 for those of you that know the terms). The midwife had me make an appointment for next week, but said they might see me in the hospital before then! I made my appointment for next Wednesday AM because if I wake up the day after my due date, I want to know what the heck is going on. We’ll keep you posted.

The nursery is ready, the clothes are washed, and the car seats are installed. Now we just need a baby to use all of these things. We still need to set up the playpin, bouncer and swing, but we were waiting until after the house was cleaned today to do that. Yes, we had someone come in and clean the house for us. It was very nice to have a team come in and clean all the places that I never get to or rarely think about, like the tops of the entertainment center and fan blades. Cleaning out to prepare the nursery and straightening up for the cleaning service also forced us to do some Spring cleaning around here, which I was happy about.

One of the things I didn’t expect from pregnancy is the incredible hunger and thrist that it brings. 

When I get thirsty, I get REALLY thirsty.  I actually cried in Italy because I got so thirsty walking around the Roman Forum (and this isn’t my normal pattern, just ask Travis). 

I also get really hungry and need to eat immediately.  The first trimester, not eating led to unpleasant nausea and occasional throwing up in inopportune places.  Since then, the hunger just makes me very cranky.  This means no waiting for nice dinner to be finished cooking, I’ll just have cereal and milk for the 1^st course.  It also means that if Travis drives ‘the long way’ to the restaurant we’ve chosen for dinner, then he gets in trouble because it’s going to take 10 minutes longer to get there, AND I’M HUNGRY NOW.  Fortunately, there was food in the car (cheerios, just like you’d feed a cranky toddler).  Occasionally, the incredible hunger of pregnancy leads to rapid fire eating and I can actually consume a lot of calories in a relatively short time span – some chips and queso, 2 big glasses of milk, left over pasta with sausage and peppers, a stack of graham crackers with peanut butter, an apple, followed by chocolate – all in 15 minutes. 

Hmmm. I’m 24 weeks or so and it seems like my belly is bigger every day.  There’s no hiding I’m pregnant now and people are even less shy about asking if I am.  Seems that most people do have a mom that told them ‘never ask if a woman is pregnant unless you’re absolutely sure she is or she’s wearing a tshirt with ‘baby’ and an arrow on it pointing to her belly’.  I heard this growing up and it’s advice that has served me well.  But now, it’s definitely obvious, particularly if I’m wearing what Travis describes as a ‘pregnant-woman shirt’.  This shirt is the one with an empire-type waist with tie under the breasts and above the belly. It really accents the belly and makes it obvious that no, the wearer is not just chunky or gassy, a baby is present. 

Yep, now the belly button sticks out all the time. You can even see it through some clothing.  It doesn’t stick out through a shirt, sweater, and white coat for work, but certainly can be seen through one layer of clothing.  Travis’s mom told us that when she was pregnant with him back in the 70’s that it was thought to be embarrassing to have your navel stick out, so pregnant women would put a bandaid over it to keep it flat.  I’m glad styles have changed, so that as long as I don’t dress like a pregnant Britney Spears, I’ll look acceptable

We may have waited a little longer than normal to get the nursery together, but Baby Girl finally has her own room! Take a look. Make sure you check out Chad’s video walk through as well.

We’ve also posted pictures from all of the baby showers.

Shopping hungry.  I used to do this on occasion post-call when I was working ridiculous hours.  Often I came home with chips, velveeta and rotel for cheese dip, frozen pizza, and multiple chocolate containing foods. 

Now that I’m preggers, shopping hungry has new meaning. Today, shopping with Genghis involved buying meat.  Apparently the little guy is not a vegetarian, but is craving chicken (a few pounds), shrimp (a few pounds), and hot Italian sausages. No chocolate or pizza purchases at all.  Of course, I also bought a lot of fruits and vegetables, but typically Travis and I aren’t huge carnivores.  OK, off to cook.

You can actually use a standard US hairdryer in Europe, even if it doesn’t have the 220 to 110 volt switch.  In Germany, I wondered why the hairdryer was blowing hotter and with more wind than at home, so I used it on ‘low’ power and could still dry my hair in 3 minutes.  On ‘high’ I could’ve used it to strip paint.  When we were in Italy, Travis pointed out that the hairdryer wasn’t okay to use in Europe. But, I only shorted out the electricity in Eric’s apartment once, and my hair got dry really fast. 

Finally I’ve started looking pregnant.  Winter clothes and a white coat kinda hide the evidence, but now it’s getting harder to ignore.  So far I’ve only gotten 2 spontaneous ‘belly rubs’ from people who found out.  One of them was completely unexpected – from a physician researcher at work (who I’ve always found fairly intimidating).  He found out, gave my belly a rub (good luck, like Buddha?), and proceeded to talk about how great kids are.