Let the Waiting Begin

Christie finished week 34 on Tuesday, and reports that she is ready for this whole thing to be over. For those of you who are not oriented to pregnancy math, the end of week 40 = due date. Delivery before 38 weeks is "premature," but anything after 38 weeks is "normal." Anything past 41-42 weeks doesn't happen much anymore, because most doctors feel the need to "do something" at that point. Scientific studies are inconclusive on whether the "do something" need is caused by the 42-week pregnant woman grabbing the doctor by the collar and saying "DO SOMETHING!" or not. Although I think pregnant women might be able to survive past 42 weeks, I'm not sure their doctors would. More research is needed.

Christie has been busy nesting over the past few weeks. For you fathers-to-be out there, "nesting" is a polite term to describe how everything you thought about the way things should be for the new baby is wrong. Seriously, the quickest way to figure out the best arrangement for baby furniture is for the father-to-be to pick the arrangement. That way, the worst possible arrangement (WPA) is immediately seen and the mother-to-be can see clearly to the best possible arrangement (BPA). Note to fathers-to-be: The BPA can and will change...sometimes daily.

On a more serious note, Christie really does have things coming together here. The nursery is 90% put together, the car seat is in the car, and the hospital bag is packed. Newborn diapers are stocked (have they always been that small?), and the infant toys have been unpacked. Soon we'll start cooking some food to throw in the freezer. That's for the nights to come when achieving cold fusion looks easier than cooking dinner.

In other news, Evan is saying lots of things now. Our favorite is "stop" and "go." He knows what red and green traffic lights mean, so he is quite happy when he sees one while we're out and tells us what to do. Occasionally at a red light, he gets impatient and says "go," and thinks it is funny.

Evan's second birthday is rapidly approaching, and NBG's due date happens to be about a week before that. We're doing all we can to get things taken care of while being mindful that we could actually have a second child anytime before, on, or after Evan's actual birthday. To that end, we're celebrating his birthday a few weeks early with one of his friends whose birthday is on July 4th. Evan's only two, so I don't think he's got the actual date of his birthday pegged in his Blackberry just yet.

Christie has also set up a registry for Evan (and NBG as well). We're experimenting here and trying out myregistry.com. Please understand that we're not asking for gifts here...it's just a way to answer that question of what to get if you were planning on getting something but hadn't yet. On the main page, you just put in first and last name (Evan or NBG, Ariail) and the appropriate registry comes up. It's pretty neat, and Christie reports that it was very easy to set up.

Other than that, we're keeping busy here with Evan. We're enjoying the last few weeks of one of us being able to take a break while the other one plays with Evan. According to knowledgeable friends, that period of life is going to come to an end very soon. We'll take it while it lasts.