I almost forgot, this is the 10 year anniversary of when Andy and I started dating.  These are the earliest pictures of us I could find - we look so young.

Gonna party like it's 1999.

One month ago today I had a baby.  There are approximately zero things that were fun about the actual baby coming out of my body process, which finally ended with a c-section.

Here is Michael Andrew - he is the best kid ever.

Just born

I made him that hat while I was sitting around on maternity leave waiting for him to be born.  He has already outgrown that outfit - he was 7 lbs 14 oz when he was born and he is over 10 lbs now.

This picture is dedicated to all the people who wanted to see pictures of me pregnant:

See - not pretty.  I was several days past my due date when this was taken.

And this picture is dedicated to the Loucks family:

Imagine what kind of trouble Michael and Nora could get into if they ever hang out with each other...

Well, here I am living out the last few weeks (okay, the last 8 weeks) of my life being about me.  I keep thinking about all of these things I need to do before Michael is born because I am convinced that once he is born my life will be over, and by over I don't mean over - it will be different and exciting, but it won't be about me anymore.  Then, I catch a glimpse of some woman with young children and I look at how she has on a coordinated stylish outfit and has obviously gotten some semblance of a pre-baby body back and I realize that somewhere in there she had some time for herself, so I probably will too, just not as much. 

Here's a documentation of my life over the past few months, just so that someday I can look back and remember:

I got into a car accident in July, my car got totalled and it actually turned out to be a good thing (no one got hurt).  The ways that God has worked this situation to our benefit continue to unfold.  After much frustration with our insurance company we finally got some money from them so we could start car shopping, and then the week I had to give back the rental car I was driving Andy found out that he was getting a work car, so now we don't have to get a new car.  Now we both get to drive nicer cars than before the accident - I got his car, which was better than mine but since I drive farther to work I had to have the more fuel efficient car, and Andy's work car is better than any car we would ever consider purchasing, plus it's an SUV, which is turning out to be pretty handy.  Also, we have the money from my car left, which turns out to be another good thing because right after Andy got the work car we found out that our escrow account was short a couple thousand dollar, but no worries there because we happened to have the car money.  I see this as one of God's ways of protecting my sanity at this point because not much stresses me out more than spending large sums of money I was not planning on spending., especially with a baby on the way.

We finally have made headway in making space for all of the baby stuff.  We have our "room of shame" almost under control and it now resembles the home office it was always intended to be.  Last weekend my dad redid the closet in what will eventually be Michael's room, so now there is room to put his ever-expanding wardrobe (however, this now leaves my wedding dress homeless - maybe now I will finally take it in and get it cleaned...) and my mom and I picked out and bought a crib and stuff to decorate the room with, so maybe he will actually have a room before he's born.

My stomach gets larger daily, sometimes it seems by the hour.  I noticed the other day that I now lean back while standing to offset the weight in my belly.  I also wore a shirt this week that, after I received it in the mail I almost sent it back, because I thought to myself -  there is NO possible way I will ever be this big.  I looked in the mirror while I had on said shirt and noticed that not only does it fit, it has to stretch to fit around my body. 

Things I am tired of - I am tired of people telling me that there is no way I can get any bigger, because guess what?  He's not due for 8 more weeks, so clearly I WILL get larger - but thanks for pointing it out to me on a daily basis.  Also, I am tired of hearing people's opinions on how there is no way I will ever make it to my due date because I am so large.  Well, thanks for your opinion, but last time I checked you had no sort of medical degree, so please forgive me if I believe my doctor over you.  I am also tired of having to stand around and be polite while people have these conversations.  Swollen ankles - luckily these have only been a slight annoyance so far, but they look really gross. 

Good things are that my wedding ring still fits, I haven't had any of the dreaded pregnancy heartburn, the swelling in my ankles does go down if I elevate my feet, and most days I make it home before I am completely exhausted.