So, up, up and up I got. I showered, got dressed, ate some cantaloupe while checking e-mail and Facebook, read the morning news (at least as much as I could take). I read the morning pregnancy blogs and yelled a lot at the dog (who thinks it is her bounden duty to bark at everything that moves past the house).

The day was paved with good intentions. I planned to (not in any certain order): take a painting into the frame shop; go to the bank; the library; church choir practice; take the hound to the dog park; go grocery shopping; make important phone calls to family members, among others; get the rest of the nursery cleaned out and ready to paint tomorrow; and get all the thank you notes written for various baby showers over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, not a lot of that happened.

Psammy and I took off for the dog park about 9:20. With the Yuma traffic, we got there at 9:30, where there was butt-sniffing, barking and rough-housing galore, plus numerous trips to the water bowl to replenish Psammy’s bladder so she could continue to mark territory. She seemed to have unlimited quantities of energy; I did not. But I managed to sit down on the bench for a while after it was vacated and I chilled with the doggies. The temperature was so perfect and the dogs behaved for the most part. However, I have to say this: if you pull a dog’s tail repeatedly (even if you are 75 years old) don’t get upset when the dog snaps at you. Geez! After the second tail-pulling session, I got fed up and Psammy and I left. She seemed tired (but apparently she was just fooling me) and laid down in the truck all the way home (in the front, cause that’s where mommy lets her ride when daddy is not with us).

Home about 10:45ish and I realized I didn’t have a lot of time to get ready for the next big event of the day: Kerry and Rox’s baby shower at noon. I still had to get hostess gifts and thank you cards and I still needed to go to the bank, etc. And I had missed church choir practice since I took Psammy to the bark park. So, chop, chop, I tried to find something to wear, that was cool (I was so hot at this point of the day). Not a lot to choose from since I hadn’t shaved my legs (I can barely see them anyway, but you don’t show up to a party given in your honor with hairy legs, or other hygenic faux pauxs but I have never been a person who looks ‘put together’ so most days I don’t bother), so dresses or shorts were out. And I thought I’d better wear a maternity shirt since it was a party for a pregnant woman. Better try to look pregnant (a side note: I have looked mostly fat throughout my pregnancy, not cute and pregnant; I get a lot of the “Well, you don’t look pregnant” sentiment, as if it is the worst thing in the world to look pregnant. It’s not folks.).

By this time, I was running out of time, so I hastened downtown to do some short errand and ended up at Kerry’s house about 12:05, not too late, but not too early. Lots of good friends came, and it was a blast playing with Sydney. But at this point, having been up for almost 5 hours, I was already exhausted. Big time. I felt like I was wading through syrup for most of the party and food did not help. It is so easy to get tired here toward the end (we are almost at week 37).

But I did make it home for a nap at 3:00, slept until 4:15. Well, moved in and out of sleep for that long anyway. My pelvis was really sore at this point. Sitting was painful, laying down was painful. I couldn’t be on my left side because it felt like my hip joint was rubbing itself to bone (and probably is, given what the knees and ankles look like on X-ray). Now it is 10:29 and I have accomplished very little. Never made it to bank; or choir; or frame shop or grocery store; or get phone calls placed to family and other important stuff. Still no labor bag packed. But we did get the nursery ready for painting, I did get some notes written, the bedding in the back is spinning in the wash and the baby is fed. We get to start all over again tomorrow. Let’s just hope I don’t wake up at 7:30 again.

Oh sure, she has a regular wake/sleep pattern that I know pretty well. She does change it up every couple of days, though, I guess this is normal. I like laughing at her and how she vies for my attention or if I put something on my stomach that she doesn’t like or wants to play with (Wii controller, she likes; tight pants, not so much).With the first baby, it’s hard to know. Everyone has an opinion and everyone says something different. That just goes to show you how unique babies are as individuals even when they aren’t here yet.

And speaking of “getting here,” we hit 34 weeks on Tuesday, so baby is coming soon. A couple in our childbirth class who was a month ahead of us (timewise, anyway) had their baby on Wednesday, a beautiful boy. So, it seems more real as time draws closer. If only the nursery were done. But that’s a weekend project for this weekend (hopefully).