I think that it will be fun announcing to the whole world at once what our baby's name is. Andy and I still remain the only people in the world who know the baby's first name. Due to extenuating circumstances, two people in the world know the middle name.

At the time that I brought the name up, I hadn't heard of anyone actually using it other than one family that I had come across at a gathering very early in the pregnancy. Now it is popping up a lot more, including by people that I know who plan to use it for potential boys. Those people will get phone calls or emails prior to the announcement to reiterate that our baby has been named since October. I wish I had taken a date-stamped picture of the wall hanging with his name on it that I had made to prove it. I do have a picture of our baby's wall-hanging and the one that I made for our friends, and they can vouch that we gave them theirs on Thanksgiving. I made theirs while watching the UGA/Kentucky game, and I made our baby's long before that. The name ain't changing!!!

We started out with it very slowly. It was very, very tentative at the beginning, but the more we looked at names, the more we realized that there isn't anything we like better. I tried my very best not to pressure Andy into it and to tell him to speak up if he would prefer something else, but the other day he told me that the more time that goes by, the more he really really likes it. We're using it more and more to refer to the baby, so we couldn't think of him by any other name. I'd like to see where first and middle names fall on the SSA Top 100 for 2007. Hopefully that'll come out soon.

We set up the Pack N Play in the living room today. I know it's early, but I am glad we did it now instead of closer to time. It was complicated to figure out the first time with all the accessories and turning it so none of the excessive warning labes would show (all baby things are COVERED in ugly warning labels). It'll be easy to work with from here on out now that we know how it works. It's just lacking a baby now ;)

So, I have reached the dreaded "last month." I kept thinking, oh, this'll be a breeze - it has so far, so why should it change now? Oh, but it has. I think that the baby has dropped. I am feeling a lot of things physically that would indicate that, and both my mom and my sister-in-law commented that he's looking a lot lower than he had the last time they saw me. I'm feeling a lot more pressure down towards the bottom of my belly, and the heartburn has subsided for the most part (still creeps up every now and then, but rarely). Suddenly I am unable to sleep without waking up with horrendous hip and thigh pain. I spend the first half of the day waddling - not because of the baby weight but because of the pain.

I am also pretty immobile. Yesterday I sat down on the floor cross-legged to blow-dry my hair and then realized that I needed to get up to use the mirror. No dice - I was on the floor, and that was where I was to remain until I could use all the energy in the world to get myself back up.

I had one of my very occasional glasses of wine last night for Christmas (call DFACS), and apparently I have no tolerance right now. Not in that I got even buzzed, but I just started feeling jittery (like I'd had a double-shot of espresso) and knocked out. I had to go upstairs and lie down until the jitters subsided (probably had something to do with the cheesecake as well).

My appetite has become reminiscent of first trimester. It never fully recovered, but I still maintain that I am a much better eater when I am not pregnant. People think it's the pregnancy that is responsible for my demolishing weekly Mellow Mushroom calzones, but it really isn't. I begrudgingly eat my three meals a day now and try to get some extra protein and other stuff in me as well. Lately it has taken everything in me to eat at all. When chicken is out, that eliminates about 3/4 of everything, and then I try to limit the red meat some. Of course, by the time I can eat it it is no longer red, and that completely defeats the purpose of red meat.

In one month I am going to eat the reddest, most juiciest piece of beef ever. I'm not sure yet whether it will be filet mignon or prime rib, or maybe one one night and the other the next. A bottle of beer will accompany it. It's going to be great. In the meantime, I will just grin and bear it and waddle and do my best to stay as mobile as possible. Almost there!!!