32 Weeks!

8 weeks (or more?) to go. The reason I ask "or more?" is b/c on Tuesday we had our 2nd home visit with our Doula. Doula says typical gestation for a 1st time mom is 41 weeks and 6 days. Like hell! I want this baby out at 40 weeks! But she says if he's not ready to come out he's not ready to come out and we have to trust him and my body. She says don't worry about him being big (I want to birth a 7 lb. baby, not an 8 or 9 lb'er) b/c I don't have gestational diabetes or anything so she's sure he'll be a manageable size even if he does decide to wait. She also said I need to UP the protein in my diet, and when she arrived I was making a banana smoothie and she suggested I put peanut butter in it, and I did, and it was AWESOME. Note to self: do that always now! Then she palpated my belly which I found fascinating. She really mashed my belly and said to not be afraid to do that myself. She found his head and his little butt and I think a leg. El Bebe was pissed and kicked and punched back at her--that's my boy!

We went for a 4-D ultrasound and video on Friday, which was a gift from Reg's neighbors. We saw the baby up close and personal. He had his hand wrapped around the umbilical cord; he furrowed his brow; he opened and closed his eyes briefly; he licked the cord; it was AMAZING. We saw his baby boy parts again and he's 100% boy! And certainly not to MY surprise, he has a full head of hair already. The technician even mentioned twice how much hair he has. No kidding, with my constant heartburn!!!  We got a CD of fotos and a DVD to take home and some printouts.

We had our baby shower on Sunday at the Big Easy and it was an incredible event. JFu, Janie, Suzy really went all out and the food was killer and there was a Cat in the Hat cake and so many of our friends and family came and I couldn't believe all the gifts. It sort of didn't feel real, I mean, I NEVER imagined a baby shower might be held for ME someday. I was really overwhelmed and touched by everyone just being there. Paul and Ryan and Max and I played a set and JFu came up for a couple of songs; it was great. Even Tito J rode in on the megabus from S.A.! (Ok, I guilt tripped him into coming, but he needed to be there!) Lots of Reg's friends came too and lots of beer/booze was sold so I'm glad Tom did decent business at the bar! At the end of the night we had to really cram all the gifts to get them into my car and again, I was just blown away by everyone's generosity. I felt so lucky and blessed and feel my baby is also enormously lucky and blessed.

Yesterday I split town shortly around 1p to drive to Scott LA for our gig at Biker Night at the Harley-Davidson. I felt it was my "final" road trip as the person I am now, living my life as it is now. It was a great day for a drive and I made sure to enjoy the feeling of the open road and to just be aware of my final trip ever as not-quite-somebody's-Mommy yet. The gig was cool and the guys had picked up our order of Koozies, Tshirts, and limited pre-release CD's to sell. The Koozies came out incredibly well; they're decorated with the pregnant Bella bass player design that Scott created for me and with creative design/arrangement by Paul. I hope to sell all of them before the baby gets here. The drive home was pretty easy and I only stopped once to get cheap gas ($3.25) and an ice cream sannich, arriving home around 1:15a.

Good Dr.'s appt today. The baby's heartbeat was in the 150's all over the place, my blood pressure was good, the nurse said I was so cute b/c I'm all belly, and Dr. E has ordered the fetal growth ultrasound to take place next week, probably. I'll go back to the perinatologist Dr. H for that. I weighed 151 so I've gained 26 lbs. total and only 2 lbs. in the past 5 weeks. Dr. E said not to worry about that, just eat my protein and I'll probably gain another 5 lbs after 34 weeks or so.

Week 32