#22

Well, it's been a few weeks and I have been so busy I haven't had much time to even procrastinate. LOL I'm 36weeks pregnant now and seriously feeling it. Even though I haven't gained a lot of weight, I feel heavy and everyday tasks like putting on underwear and pants takes the energy of running a marathon.....okay, maybe not that much, but I do get short of breath. I've been having a lot of braxton hicks contractions and they don't really hurt, per say, but are very annoying. When I have them I have to stop what I'm doing and breathe through them. My back hurts more days than not now and I am definitely waddling. I don't look at all of this a bad, I just look at it as the home stretch...almost there. I'm so excited to have our Lil' (hopefully girl) that I'm kind of looking forward to labor. I mean, I know it's going to be scary, it's going to hurt and I'll probably think I'm dying at several points...but I also think that my attitude about labor is good. I think it's pain with a purpose, I think I can handle it because women have been doing it Forever. It's like the most natural thing you could do, right? LOL So we'll see how it goes.

In other news, my last day of work is next Friday the 22nd. It's very odd to think about not working for a few months...I mean, i KNOW i'll be WORKING...it will just be a different kind of work. I've been doing the same thing for the past 5 years with very minimal time off, so it's going to be weird to have such a large chunk of time off. I'm sure it will fly by and I'm sure I won't want to go back...but I'm also sure that I will go back, because frankly, we can't afford for me not to. LOL

Oh, in other other news, after studying for four months I passed my 1st LCSW exam. I am seriously surprised, not because I wasn't prepared, but because of my mental state going in. We had to put out lil ol' lady Ava to sleep in the middle of the night the night before. It was horrible...i miss her terribly and there is def. a void in our home and hearts. I think about her every day and I stop myself like 3-4xs a day from talking to her or referring to her so I don't upset Justin. He's having the hardest time with it, I think he's started putting more energy on the baby stuff though so he can not think about her all the time. It's weird not to have a dog around...

Changing the subject... I have the most amazing friends and family! We were thrown two of the most wonderful baby showers in the universe. My family shower was at my Aunt Marion's Home. It was simply beautiful and I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our family friends. I was also excited to get so many beautiful hand made blankets and some heirloom pieces as well. Our friend shower was thrown by Livier, Nicole, Kim, Megan, Helen w/ some assistance from Kindra as well! Livier let us demolish her home and cooked a great meal and Nicole made some really beautiful/fun decorations, it was seriously great! It was a Baby Fiesta! I will attempt to post pictures later and write more about it later (but, yeah, you all know how good I am at doing things "later"). lol I am so lucky to have so many people in my life who care about us. Our child will be lucky as well to have so many excellent aunts and uncles! :)

Okay, i better get to work. ...one more week...super weird.