Only a week to go?

Well, hopefully this is the home stretch. And yet, nothing really seems that different! I don't feel like I'm about to become a mother. I don't feel like my life is about to change forever. I don't feel like this big belly is about to turn into a real live baby that I can hold and talk to. I suppose you just can't imagine until it happens.

We had a big scare the last couple of days...we found some bugs in our bed (yuck) and elsewhere that we really thought were bedbugs. I was so distraught to think we would have to bring our newborn daughter home to an infested apartment! So then we called the exterminator and if you want to get rid of bedbugs, you basically have to clean your apartment out completely, emptying all the drawers and closets and doing all the laundry. We felt a task of that magnitude would be simply impossible, with John needing to spend as much time as possible on his dissertation now and me possibly going into labor at any time (not to mention, I can no longer cart laundry baskets back and forth to the laundry room). But then the exterminators looked at a specimen of the bug we gave them, and decided that they WEREN'T bed bugs! YAY! I never would have thought I'd be so happy to have beetles in my house, and apparently they don't bite humans and you can get rid of them with store-bought insect spray. This is a HUGE relief!

Meanwhile, I think everything is ready for the baby to get here. All her clothes are washed and ready for me to dress her up, we have all our other supplies (diapers, bottles, etc), and I've been keeping on top of the clutter and cleaning so that when I do go into labor, it won't be too messy when we get back. We even just did most of our laundry, so I don't have to worry about that for a while. My girlfriends are coming later this week, and assuming I'm still pregnant we're going shopping so I can get some nursing bras (my old bras totally don't fit anymore), some really comfy clothes to wear post-partum, and some durable sandals I can wear on walks with my new little girl.

People are starting to make real guesses now about BL's birthday. Annie said March 30th (also her birthday). Sara says April 1st (conveniently the last day she will be here visiting me). I say April 16th, by induction (since they don't let the babies stay in past 42 weeks). John, of course, found data on when women give birth in relation to their due dates and used that info to calculate the probability that I will go into labor for each day from now on; he updates it pretty much every day. According to those calculations, as of today the probability of going into labor rises above 50% on April 4th. Oh, the anticipation!