burn, baby, burn

*disclaimer: i cannot figure out why there is phishing within my blog body texts. i've tried switching host sites and had the exact same problem. i give up. so for now i'll just keep blogging. just please don't click on any links! i did not put them there!*

so back to the blog...

less than 8 weeks until i no longer have a pregnant belly and instead have a baby. EIGHT. gulp!

as christmas approaches, part of me wishes little monks was already here so we could spend the holidays with our little bundle. but the other part of me knows that i will probably enjoy having the stress of the holidays over so that it's just us and baby. the closer my due date gets, the more and more anxious i am to the time when baby gets here. i want to know the sex, i want to know if he or she will look like me or jeremy. i want to know if he or she will have lots of hair and big feet and be fat (like the both of us were). i want to know i will pass down my surprising newborn alertness or if our kid will get my husband's 4-day-old jabbering (that apparently never stopped from that day forward). i want to know who this baby is!

but i also have really enjoyed pregnancy, for the most part. apart from minor aches and pains, pregnancy is a breeze compared to my normal life. i don't know how to say this politely, so i just have to say it: my "time of the month" was hell. i dread it's return more than labor and delivery. mood swings, depression, breaking out like a 16 year old, cravings, and feeling like my body wants to kill me. in fact, one of the tip-offs that i was pregnant was how normal i felt when i knew i should have been hunting down cheesy carbs or crying over the thought of smelling a real french bakery (why so specific, you ask? because that has actually happened...i have actually teared up while daydreaming about the smell of a french bakery). so maybe, juuuust maybe i'll be one of those lucky cases who's hormones level out a little after pregnancy. if not, i have no choice. i'll just have to get pregnant again and repeat the cycle until i decide i'm done. and i'm only half kidding about that.

in other news, we got swindled into going into babies r us. talk about overwhelming. who knew you need so many things for a baby?? well, i guess you only need very few items, but with all these cool new things they've developed to make parenting a newborn easier, why not? so we now have 2 registries. i have yet to look at babies r us online to check the list because (much like our wedding registry) my husband was in control of the scanner. and he gets a little out of control. he's the reason we have 2 sets of nerf guns.

anyway, here are some new things pregnancy has brought on in the last couple of weeks:

• heartburn. ay! i guess i'm at that stage. whatever i eat leaves me burping and my throat sore, so that my voice gets froggy from time to time. 
• i also can hardly breathe after i eat. not big meals. normal sized ones. it's getting crowded in there! just getting situated in bed leaves me out of breath. i feel like an incredibly out-of-shape person.
• i cannot shave my legs by myself (partially because there is no ledge of any sort in our shower for me to rest my foot, but mostly because i cannot bend over that far anymore). my husband had to do it for me before a wedding
• i also need my husband to help me take off my boots
• shirts that i never thought i'd grow into...well...let's just say they fit
• our baby moves all the time, sometimes to the point where i hope my skin holds up and a baby foot doesn't bust through my mid section like an alien
• hiccups! it took me a little while to realize what they were until one day at work i kept wondering what baby was doing in there to create such rhythmic bumps. and then a light bulb came on! 
• i've developed a peace about my "health care provider." she is amazing. the more we spend with her the more i feel like she really respects me and that i'm not just another job to do. she knows the answers to everything, and i love her honesty. i truly feel like i'm in good hands. if you're having a baby in pensacola, please ask me about her! i would highly recommend her.
• i'm very much looking forward to my maternity leave (despite that it's unpaid and i haven't quite figured out how we're going to swing that). i haven't had a vacation from work in about a year, minus the holiday here and there. although it won't be a vacation per se, at least it will be some time to focus on something other than the 8-5. 

so the real countdown begins! so glad i have Christmas to distract me from my impatience. i am so ready for that little peanut to be here!