So, less than three weeks till the due date. I think that both my brothers were born by this point, so hopefully I will follow in my mom's footsteps as I have for most of the pregnancy.

So here are all the things that have or haven't happened to me so far...
-Lots of food aversions (which change daily - chicken being the only constant).
-I can go more than a day without shaving and I don't feel like a total beast.
-Weight gain = 33 lbs. as of Thursday (!!). The weight that I had lost in my hips and thighs did come back but not past where I was pre-pregnancy. So that leaves about 20 lbs. that went to my belly, and the remaining 13 have gone to my second chin. I think I am working on my third.
-Heartburn - got better once the baby dropped, but has come back some since he's continued growing upwards.
-I have become a loud breather. I annoy myself.
-Everything that I eat or drink makes my mouth taste bad till I brush my teeth. I hate brushing my teeth because I hate the taste of all toothpaste (file that under "aversions"), but I do it anyway. It's just no-win (weird - literally at the same moment I was typing "no-win," the commercial on tv said "win-win.")
-My nose is always somewhere in between stuffy and runny when I am trying to sleep.
-My boobs have gotten bigger, but my massive stomach makes them look tiny in comparison.
-My fingers have swollen, and so have my feet a little bit. I am concerned that my finger will grow over my wedding band, but I refuse to take that off.
-The leg cramps don't happen as much anymore, and my new trick of pointing my toe up towards my body immediately as it starts to come on is pretty effective in nipping it in the bud.
-The weight of the baby keeps me pretty plastered to the sofa. When I try to roll over at night it is like moving Mt. Everest.
-My hips hurt during the night, but it goes away after I get up. The back pain only lasted a few weeks.
-No nesting - the 33 lbs. of extra baggage on my stomach don't really motivate me to get up and clean.

So, that's where we stand. Can you tell I could really do without all this??

Then of course it happened again with the baby's name...someone else said that someone she knows had three boy names she was trying to choose from, and one of them was ours. It's just so funny because until June of this year, I had known of all of one person in the world who had it. As soon as we started thinking about it, it's just suddenly popping up everywhere. I think I know why, but I can't say because it'd be too easy to research.

I just saw a thing that said Nicole Richie just had a girl and named her Harlow Winter Kate...Unfortunate. I am so glad I was not born to a celebrity.

I put the car seat in the car today since we're getting so close. I'd like to know it's in there just in case he decides to make his appearance tomorrow, plus it frees up some room in the house. It's weird...it just feels like there should be a little guy in there. We'll put the other base in Andy's car, too, but his doesn't have the LATCH system, which has turned out to be very convenient on the SnugRide. Regular seatbelt, not so much. I actually find the regular seatbelt to be much easier on the UGA Britax that I use when I'm driving Ethan anywhere.

My office is giving me a baby shower on Tuesday. Yay! Did I already mention that? I don't know. I'd like to talk about something other than the pregnancy and how huge I am at the office one of these days. Seriously, I can't tell you how many people come up to me and tell me how big I am. It's not flattering! What would make me feel SOO much better would be "wow, you are doing so well for being 8 1/2 months pregnant." Even if it's a flat-out lie. Just remember that next time you want to make any comment on a pregnant woman's size.

We will be hopeful that my next blog will be about labor, but I am not too optimistic. As of Thursday, the baby had dropped more. A little more dilation, maybe 1 cm or so. Still, none of this can give us any sort of prediction, and he still could come tomorrow or be so late he'd force us to induce. My mom is going to make my pan of eggplant parmesan tomorrow, so I will begin trying to self-induce now ;)

That's it for now.