April Showers Bring May Babies

I can't believe how fast time is going. I really expected this to be the longest month of my life as I grow enormous and wait for the baby. What really happened is I blinked and March was over and May is nearly here. So, as Wesley's big birthday fast approaches, here are the things I have found myself grateful for this month:

1. April showers-- the rainy kind. I love April rain. It's so fresh and clean and rejuvenating. I love the freshly-bathed-earth smell right after a good rain. I don't love the giant pile of wriggly earthworms on my front mat after the rain, though. One even managed to squeak through a crack between the door and the wall and found a home in my flip flop. Gross. Regardless-- I love rainy April days. However, what I love less is April blizzards. Sometimes the snow will mix with rain and that's bearable, but earlier this month we had a full on blizzard. Here's photographic proof:

The day this storm came, a lot of people had ridden bikes to campus because the morning weather was fine. Once it started snowing, a lot of bikes got left on campus overnight. The snow just kept coming and bike owners found about 5 inches of powder riding their bikes the next day. Some places got up to a foot of snow! Nuts...

2. April baby showers! I teach a Monday and Wednesday night yoga class at a dance studio in my neighborhood. It is really fun and I've gotten to be close friends with the group of women that regularly attend. On Wednesday April 8th, I showed up to teach as usual. As I entered the dark studio and flipped on the lights, the class yelled SURPRISE!! My first thought was, "Is today my birthday?" Wow I must be pregnant to be that confused... Here are some pics from the surprise shower. Keep in mind, I wasn't wearing any makeup because I was planning to be teaching yoga and getting sweaty.

Thanks so much to all my wonderful friends for loving me enough to throw me a party! It was so nice to sit around with experienced mommies and be able to ask all my questions and get great answers and advice. Love you ladies!

Also, on Saturday April 18th some different dear friends threw me another baby shower. HUGE thanks to Jena, Michelle and Brittany for all their hard work and organizing to pull it together, to Gwen for opening her beautiful house for it, and for all my friends and family that could make it for making such a special and memorable day for me.

3. Getting ready for baby-- now that Eric finished his semester, we had a little bit of time to get some things in order without having to worry about homework. Here are the things Eric assembled this weekend: 2 bookshelves, 4 dining room chairs, a glider, and an ottoman. He also disassembled an old bookshelf to make 2 smaller ones. Where would I be without him? We sold our older dining set within 3 hours of posting it on Craigslist (awesome) for $10 more than we initially paid for it (from Craigslist) almost 2 years ago. I should get into the furniture-flipping business. :) Anyway, so we're basically all set up for baby now! It's such a nice feeling. Our apartment feels brand new and exciting. I finally feel settled and at home. Bring on the baby!

4. Jobs! I've been a little stressed knowing that I'm leaving stable, full-time, benefitted employment to be a mommy when my husband has another year of school left. We've been stocking up on diapers and food storage, saving everything we can and preparing for the worst while praying for the best. With the economy in shambles and unemployment rates rising, I was really wondering if Eric would be able to find a good part-time job to support us for this next year. And then, true to form, the Lord blessed us at exactly the right time. Eric starts working for UPS tomorrow morning and will resume teaching at the MTC at the end of May. The timing is perfect, the jobs are great, and the Lord always answers prayers.

5. Along those same lines, I was feeling stressed about leaving my job also because BYU is in the middle of an indefinite hiring-freeze, one of my co-workers left to have a baby in March, another left for another department at the beginning of this month, and I have been planning to leave once Wesley comes in May. I was beginning to feel like I had too much responsibility at work to be able to leave and was trying to see if I could work out options for coming back to work. Yet again, the Lord answered my prayers. We got rare permission to hire my replacement and soon found a great employee that could start right away. Now I can confidently stay at home with my baby knowing that I'm not leaving my employer in the lurch. Thank goodness!

So, the showers have been thrown, the baby's room is set up, Eric has an income and my job is taken care of. Will someone tell Wesley it's time to come on out? I'm ready for him! I'm ready to be able to bend forward again, squeeze through tight places, reach across my kitchen table to the other side, sleep on my stomach/back again, fit into normal clothes, run/bike/swim, walk up stairs without getting lightheaded and panting for 5 minutes afterward... the list goes on. I'm ready for the next life adventure to begin! Bring it on!

Today at church I heard the following comments:

"Any day now, huh?"

"I'm surprised to see you here! You still haven't had your baby?"

"You are due next week, right?"

Bless their souls. I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but the "due date" is still 4 weeks away. I believe in a merciful God, so I think we can cut that down to 2 weeks.

My favorite comment was from the 2 ladies I was sitting by in Relief Society that both recently had babies. They decided that I win the "Cutest Pregnant Belly" award. I felt honored. :)

Another favorite recent comment was when a lady I had just met said, "You still have a ways to go, right?" guesturing at my belly. "Yeah, I'm due in 4 weeks," I replied, to which she said, "That soon!? You are so little!" Well thanks for thinking so!

So here you go. Here is my belly today, just past 36 weeks along (though I'm measuring at 38, for those of you who even know what that means). You decide for yourself whether I'm huge, small, or right on track. Just don't bother telling me. :)