Our "due date" is just under a week away and the calls and emails have already started. I don't mind though - It's kinda fun knowing that most of my friends and family pause for at least a brief moment nearly every day to wonder if we've birthed the babe yet.
We had one of our weekly appointments yesterday. Everything checks out well. The babe continues to have a nice strong hearbeat and is growing. He/she is head down and lying along my left side (i.e. well-positioned for an easy birth) and has started to drop. I personally think the baby will arrive about a week late. I just hope he/she makes in September - I prefer September's sapphire birthstone to October's opal.
I took 4 showers on Sunday! I've never been so well bathed in my life.
The first was in the morning, before church. Since I washed my hair yesterday, I used this shower to shave my legs - something that I'm kinda surprised I'm still able to do in my advanced state of pregnancy.
The second was to remove the vaseline from my body after Elizabeth did my belly mold (which looks absolutely wonderful). I had to scrub my belly at least 3 times during this shower, and I still don't think I got all the vaseline off.
The third was unplanned but exceedingly necessary. Stepan and I took a long walk through Walnut Creek Park with the O'Reilly's. The walk was longer than any of us really wanted it to be, but that was because we witnessed a lone mountain biker take a tumble down a steep embankment. He wasn't seriously injured (nothing gushing blood and no head trauma), but he thought he may have broken his wrist. Since he had gotten separated from his trail buddies, we felt obligated to help him and his bike to the parking lot (the opposite direction from home). That's not why I had to take a 3rd shower though. The park is amazingly overgrown this year with all kinds of grasses and wildflowers. On a particularly steep ascent from a creek crossing, we all got covered in brambles and burrs from the overgrown grass. In the past, I've exhibited signs of skin sensitivity to some grasses so in order to avoid a rash or itching, I took a shower as soon as I got home.
The fourth started out as my nightly bath. A routine I got into when I developed hemerroids and also when we started our perineum massage. I always rinse in the shower afterwards. To avoid taking yet another shower on Monday, I went ahead and washed my hair.
And hence, I got to bed extremely clean.
Roberta Romano is Joanna's mom (Joanna is my brother's girlfriend). I am saddened to hear that she passed away today. There's a beautiful obituary for her on the funeral home's website. Joanna and her family will be in my heart and prayers thoughout the coming days.
Check out this year old journal entry and the comment that was left on it this week.
I'm taking the entry down in a couple of days, but I wanted to get a general feel for what you all thought of this issue. I don't think this entry is anything someone could "take measures against me" for: this site is a personal-use, non-commercial journal, and the photographer was credited, and I provided a link to her site.
So, what do you think: Fair Use or Infrindgement? and why?