Week 32: Finally! Argh…

31 weeks, 3 days.

So I’m finally not quite so ill – I seem to be on the tail end of this crappy virus (no pun intended), although I’m still a bit uncomfortable and I’m still miserably tired if I walk more than a few blocks (and I get very, very grumpy at the end of it – please send your pity to Dr. Christian Grothoff, c/o Beleaguered Husbands of Extremely Pregnant Women, The House With All The Evil Accursed Bindweed in the Front Yard, Denver, Colorado, 80doyouthinkI’minsaneenoughtogiveyoutherestofthiszipcode?Hah!).

Being sick has made me not want to be pregnant anymore for the first time – the baby certainly needs to cook for about 5 ¹/₂ more weeks, but after that point, as far as I’m concerned, he can come out any old time. This is primarily because until now, I’ve never had a digestive tract illness last for more than a couple of days, let alone a week (not even after getting food poisoning at the Bombay Express at Purdue). It sucks. This pregnancy-induced reduced immune system nonsense is for the birds, I tell you, and I just hope I don’t catch my semi-annual cold during the next few weeks, because there’s nothing I want less than suffering through medication-free bronchitis while baking this snuggly little baby.

In other news, we’re actually starting to set the house up for baby. I finally put the co-sleeper bassinet together and attached it to the bed, an activity which required a great deal of acrobatic activity for someone as pregnant as I am. I’d just like to state for the record that the pictures on the co-sleeper website are apparently of their mini-model, because the MoFo currently parked on my side of the bed is freaking huuuuuge. It was also, I might add, nearly impossible to put together – the enclosed instructions were almost useless and I was forced to look on their website for “more detailed” (i.e. less sucky) instructions with pictures. I highly suspect those internet instructions were added when a bunch of parents complained that the original instructions were written by someone on a crack binge, but in any event, it got put together. That’s +10 Handy Andy points for me, plus an extra 10-point bonus for doing it while having a stomach the size of a watermelon.

I washed the used Baby Björn we bought and a bunch of baby clothes and bedding yesterday too, which only led to me acting like a fool, gushing over the cuteness of socks for little feet and cuddly sleepers, but, eh, so what. I’m pregnant, I’m entitled. This was much more fun than washing the cloth bits of the stroller and the car seat (bought used on Craigslist), which required a PhD in mechanical engineering to even get off to clean; I will be expecting my diploma from Graco University anytime now, and I refuse to even think about putting them back on.

I did a bunch of other baby-related crap, but frankly, I can sense your boredom, dear Reader(s), and so I’ll spare you further details. Sorry, but this is the first (and perhaps only) time I’ve had to get ready for a baby, and it keeps me from staring at that cute ultrasound picture of Small Monster and drooling for hours on end. And believe me, I’d do it…

So much still to do, though – I’m about ready to pack my hospital bag, and once I’ve gotten the basement picked up, the house will be about ready for a last Big Clean™ before the arrival of Small Monster (whose real name it becomes increasingly hard not to slip up and use). Then it’s on to finally making the curtains for our bedroom (mostly to keep it warm, but also to assist Small Monster – and Big Mama Monster – in napping, since the Colorado sun is awfully bright), and then a few weeks of NaNoWriMo to distract me from counting down days – speaking of which, the site is now working a lot faster and registration is working, so sign up and let me know your username so I can add you to my writing buddy list!

Ok, enough blather for now. Next post: long-awaited 31-week belly shot!