Bloodied but Unbowed - or Something (Spoiler - STILL PREGNANT)

Let me get the whiny part of this entry out of the way first. This is the current state of my left leg after falling down on the sidewalk on Tuesday afternoon.

Also - check out my swollen feet! Giving new meaning to the phrase "little piggies!"

Yep, scraped knee, hideous bruising and all. The worst part was not being able to actually get UP from the ground while L danced around me "you okay Maman?" That and the ugly crying because HOO BOY IT HURTS. Ironic, right, since the next big thing on my agenda is to give birth? Maybe I can poke my wounds during the really big contractions to distract myself.

Any lingering attachment I had to being all glowy and pregnant pretty much took a nose dive the same time my knee crashed to the pavement. That and a completely disappointing visit to the spa that morning pretty much did me in.

Why yes, the spa! Dear friends of mine gave me a gift certificate for my birthday (which my SIL documented brilliantly here on her blog) to go and float for an hour in a salty bath at Ovarium. Thrilled at the idea of actually being weightless, even for an hour, I practically skipped down to my appointment on Wednesday morning.

Imagine my disappointment to find that a) floating on my back doesn't make it stop hurting and b) guess what! just like massage, floating makes me nauseous! Awesome! I lasted about 20 minutes before hefting myself out into the longest shower EVER. I availed myself of every beauty product they had to really get my gift certificate's worth. Then I ate a sandwich at Subway and felt fine.

I had my weekly OB appointment yesterday and the good news is that getting my membranes stripped this time around was NOT the horrible painfest that it was with Liliane. I also got kind of excited because it kicked off a bunch of contractions that lasted all day AND a total tidying frenzy that saw my washing the floors and finishing all the baby laundry and organizing, organizing, organizing.

Well, that was yesterday. Today I'm nauseous and sleepy and frankly a little grumpy. I'm not even past my due date yet (Sunday) and already I can't WAIT for this to get going. A combination of dying to meet this little girl and really REALLY so tired of being pregnant. Buh-bye heartburn! Buh-bye pelvic pain! Buh-bye hideous snoring that keeps my husband awake! Buh-bye random mood swings! Buh-bye serious problem with dropping things and/or knocking things over and then not being able to bend enough to pick them up! Buh-bye random 3rd trimester nausea!

Liliane is excited as well, although a little unsure about what's all going down. We explained that when it's time for the baby to come, she'll be going to stay with Grandmaman and Grandpapa, then she'll come and see us for a visit at the hospital to meet her sister before she comes home. We have our friend Pierre standing by to come and stay should we have to run off in the middle of the night (just like the movies!) I'm so grateful that we have Stéphane's parents standing by to take over. One less thing to worry about!

Our doula is checking in with me every day and keeping things positive. She lent us a kid's book about childbirth that depicts a Mom with three other kids giving birth at home. Liliane is completely fascinated by it - particularly the page where the new baby is actually being born. The mother is standing up so in the pictures it looks like the baby's head is emerging from her bum. Yeah, this has been a little tricky to clarify. At the moment she believes that babies come out like poop. So.... there's that. We'll have to work on that.

But otherwise our hospital bags are pretty much packed. The baby laundry is done. There are a few things that we could pick up to be REALLY ready, but if not, no big deal. The house is clean, arrangements with friends and family are done, now we're just kind of waiting. No big plans for this weekend, but hanging out together. No stress. The weather is gorgeous. I'm grateful for that.

Speaking of grateful, I asked our friend Ariel (fancy pro photographer) to please take some family/bump pictures. We met up at Jarry Park on July 1st and these are some of the results.

I'm so thrilled to have these photos! Also BB II won't have quite as much ammunition for the whole "you always loved HER better" argument 15 years from now or so. See! Professional photos! Who needs more lame ultrasound images? Pfff.

Ariel also took this photo of Liliane on the dancefloor at Stéphane's niece's wedding last weekend. Oh man, we had so much fun.

The flowergirl with her very own flowers.

It was a really lovely ceremony and reception. You'll have to take my word for it as I didn't bring my big camera so my own photos aren't that great. We had a great time hanging out with family and I'm telling you, L tore UP the dance floor. Truly a sight to see. Did my heart good actually.

On that note I will close this bloated post (see what I did there? It's a THEME) and promise to compose something a little perkier for the next one. Possibly including newborn baby photos?