Week 35 -- Happy 35/35!!!

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant and I have only 35 days until our due date! It seems to be both an interminable period and like it will just fly by. We still have so much to do.

Well, we got one thing out of the way this weekend, and that was our childbirth class. Yes, the instructor actually showed up this time. Though not without informing us that she was actually the director of the program and our usual instructor was now no longer with the program. Hmm....I wonder why? The class is a one day intensive class that's 9 hours long with some breaks. For the most part, Rob and I found it pretty informative, if unnecessarily long. The regular classes are about six weeks long for three hours each. We never would have made it through that. Of course, most of the information, I was already aware of, due to my reading up on all this stuff. And neither of us process information well by having someone just talk at us. We both like to read. So Rob read through all the hand outs and booklets that we were given at the class, and he felt pretty set from those. The most helpful part was probably the hospital tour. We found out where we come in and when and got a look at the rooms (though I had already seen one of the labor and delivery rooms). Of course, the best part of the class is that it was free, because of the debacle two weeks ago.

I have to give a shout out to the woman sitting next to me during the class, who wins the award for the stupidest question asked in 9 hours. She asked whether, when you have a c-section, they remove your organs and your intestines and then put them back in after they remove the baby. That was quite entertaining. I now have a visual of the doc pulling your intestines out hand over hand like a clown pulling handkerchiefs out of his mouth.

After all the shower excitement, I felt like Bagel and I were getting so spoiled, but we were even more spoiled this past week. My coworkers surprised me with a mini shower when we were down in Richmond for our hearing! Bagel got his tummy time mat (Monkey Island!) and a gift card and a really cute and snuggly outfit. It was so nice of them to do that. Despite the fact that there isn't a whole lot going on in Richmond, Bagel and I had a nice time down there. We ate lots of fried green tomatoes and even had some fried okra to almost rival Mimi's. While Bagel isn't keen on vegetables, he seems to enjoy the fried part quite a bit. :)

This week, Bagel is continuing to fatten up like Hansel and Gretel. His body has gone from 2% fat at about mid-pregnancy to more like 15% fat. Can't wait to cuddle that chub. We learned at the childbirth class that one reason I am continuing to fatten up as well is to grow some fat stores to get me through labor, since the lame doctors won't let me eat. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not do well with not eating. So I'll try to pack on some poundage to get me and Bagel through the horrific time when I can't eat anything. Bagel is still rocking the honeydew size. He's about 5.5 pounds this week (allegedly). He is still quite active, and I can feel his little feet pushing out quite a bit on my right side.

Next week will be quite exciting. I'll have my first internal exam at the doctor's, and then I start weekly appointments.

I know you guys feel so spoiled as well with all the pictures I posted from the shower, but I'm feeling just so generous. Here are some belly shots that Aunt Julie took at the shower. So these are 33 (almost 34 week) shots.

Here is Bagel with a few bites of his namesake:



And here, I'm showing Bagel how much I love him: