Kickin' Katie - 6 weeks to go

I'm at 34 weeks and weigh 194 lbs (40 lb weight gain thus far... and I still have 6 weeks to go). Average is 25-35 lbs, but everyone is different. The doctor's not worried about it so I'm not going to either. I'm feeling great but am having trouble moving around (getting to sleep is a lot harder now since there's so much weight and it's hard to shift around to get comfortable. But once I'm asleep, I'm golden. Walking is also hard so I've been limiting distance. Other than that, things are fine. She's kicking a lot now. Ken put his head next to my belly last night and started calling her name and she immediately kicked him in the nose. literally. It was pretty insane. One of the bigger kicks and it was completely in time with him calling her. Weird. We both looked at each other in amazement and fear of what's to come.

The nursery is coming along. My mom and her friends are having a shower in my absence next week - very sweet. They did the same thing when we got married. Ken and I went into a baby big box last weekend and we both had a meltdown. I'm under the impression we don't need much for an infant. Ken and my mom think we need to have lots of toys, equipment, etc for her. It's pretty funny. I'm like "all she needs is a spoon and an old pot" but then ken looks at me like I'm insane. Since I'm in the minority, I've been relenting, but it's hard. Plus, the decor I like is really simple (i.e. polka dots and nothing too "baby-y") whereas Ken's first choice was a 4 piece set that I hated most in the store and embodied everything I despise in kid stuff). We compromised on some simple/cute animal stuff and we both got to pick half the items with veto power over the other. It was a fairly effective strategy. Much like the great tomato draft of 2009.

My doctor's appt today went well. I'm not sure if we'll have another ultrasound before she's born (ken feels a little ripped off by this) but my measurements look good (i.e. my belly 35 cm at 34 weeks -- i.e. anything more than 3 cm over your week # and they schedule an ultrasound to see if the baby is ginormous). So I'm happy I'm not having a 10 pounder thus far.

I haven't had any contractions (I hear braxton hicks "practice" contractions are common for my stage), but I haven't felt anything. Either my uterus is still steel or my body's a little late in this whole pregnancy thing. I was 10 weeks late on the kicking, so it's possible I'll be late on this too. I'm not worried. I work at a hospital so whenever she comes, she comes. I know they won't let me go past 42 weeks, so it won't be more than 8 weeks. Awesome and crazy we're in the single digits now.