Final countdowns...

As we near the home stretch of starting life as a family of 3 humans, it has become apparent that we have a number of different countdowns going.  Life is never slow around here, and we constantly seem pulled in so many directions.  For instance...

 

My due date is 24 days from now.  24.  I don't even know what to say to that.  Ammon and I were talking about how in one way, that seems so far off still.  I mean, I'm pretty darn big at this point, and still getting bigger - though blessedly, that progress seems to be slowing down some.  My belly is also dropping, which I think makes it seem even bigger than it really is?  I don't know.  It's just big.

 

 This picture is actually 3.5 weeks old, so it's not really accurate.  Just imagine bigger than this, and that's where we're at right now.

 

But at the same time, 24 days is virtually nothing, especially when you consider just how many things have to be done in the days leading up to delivery.  We assembled a bunch of stuff today, which is good, except that we have about 10 shipments from Amazon still set to arrive over the next two weeks.  We still have to get carseat bases installed in both cars and checked.  We have a hospital tour this week.  We need to get hospital bags packed.  Ammon needs to change the oil in both of our cars.  Laundry needs to be done.  And SO MANY OTHER THINGS.

 

My last day of work is in 11 days, which means that in 8 working days, I will be done with work.  How the heck did that creep up so fast?  For those of you not in the know, the State of California disability program allows you to take up to 4 weeks of disability leave prior to your due date.  After much consulting arguing with my doctor over the pros and cons of taking 4 weeks off before delivery, we settled on a 2 week leave.  It's a compromise for both of us.  As the day gets closer though, I am becoming more and more okay with taking that time off.  I am tired, and grumpy, and uncomfortable, and hot all of the time.  Just today, it seems that the 3rd trimester swelling everyone talks about has started to set in, which I'm guessing has something to do with the fact that it's a good 15 degrees hotter today than it's been since last October.  So that's neat.

My last day of my classes this term is in 8 days.  After this class ends, I'm done until mid July, at which point I only have 4 more classes until I graduate!  This is such a big deal for me.  I've been working towards this degree since before I started this blog.  It's been a really long time coming, and with each passing term, I am finally starting to see that this dream is actually going to become a reality.  This particular class I'm finishing right now has been exceptionally challenging from a workload standpoint, and I've really struggled with it, largely because of everything else in my life.  It's going to feel nice to have 8-ish weeks off from academic pursuits.

So, if you couldn't tell by now, starting May 11th, I plan to be laid up on my couch watching Netflix, napping, and reading as much as I can.  I'm hoping that it doesn't get old too fast, and that this whole "I'm the size of a small whale" thing motivates me to be a little extra lazy.  I know other people talk about nesting like crazy in those last few weeks, but to be honest, I haven't felt up to any of that.  I'm totally cool with not having the nursery ready when the baby gets here - they're going to be sleeping in a cradle in our room for the first few months anyway.  I figure that so long as it's done before they move over into the nursery in 3 months or so, we'll be doing okay.

What are you counting down the days to?