Today's the day..... or not.

Well today is my due date. Yippee. Unfortunately there hasn't been much sign of progress and it's never good when your OB at your last appointment says "We can talk about induction dates at the next appointment". I really would prefer not to be induced especially if my body isn't showing any signs of laboring (right now I'm not dilated and the baby is still high up) because those labors can be very long and can end up in a c-section. It seems like she'll let me go until next Thursday, Aug. 9 which works for me.

I'm still hoping for the full moon to help get things going. It was full last night and there have been studies that show many women will have their water break around that time. I'm all for that.

Also, if you haven't voted in "the poll", I moved it over to under my profile. I find it funny that I've had 8 votes yet over 100 visitors since then. I know some are repeats but there are many that aren't. So if you don't know me, don't be bashful about voting. It makes things more interesting.

So to get labor going, I found this article online about eggplant parmesan. This restaurant boasts that over 300 women have gone into labor within 48 hours of eating their eggplant parmesan. They will even give you a free meal gift certificate if it doesn't work. It sounded pretty good, so Mr. Ellis and I took it upon ourselves to make the recipe. We had no idea what we were in for.

This is the tomatoes boiling in preparation for the marinara sauce.

This is after Mr. Ellis cut up THREE eggplants that the recipe called for. It said to weigh them down with something for an hour.
This is the marinara sauce once it had all the spicy goodness added to it. Although I would say it could use a little less crushed red pepper flakes since I found it almost too spicy and couldn't enjoy the other flavors (I'm sure Lisa would disagree!).


This is the beginning of the eggplant frying.
This is after an HOUR of eggplant frying, and we were only halfway through.
These are all the eggplant slices we had left to fry!
This is when I finally finished all the layers and topped it off with the 1.5 LB of mozzarella cheese.
And this is the finished product.
It was quite tasty although as Mr. Ellis commented, he didn't think it was so great that it needed 3 1/2 hours of preparation! It's almost like a eggplant parmesan lasagna. There is so much cheese, so you'll either have a baby with this or a major heart attack. Either way, you're guaranteed to end up in the hospital.

(By the way, these pictures were taken with our new Canon S5is. We had a Canon G3, and we still really like it but this has more megapixels and we originally thought of getting a video camera, but decided against it and looked for a higher quality camera that takes movies as well. We looked into the G7, but for $100 more we didn't think we were getting much more for our money. We also looked at the Sony DSC-H9/B that Lisa uses but ultimately we were more used to using the Canon menu and interface, although it was a very tough decision.)

Boy or Girl?

So as most of you know, we have chosen not to find out the sex of the baby. I decided to add a poll to this blog for you to weigh in on what you think the baby might be. Feel free to post a comment, as well as any suggestions for names or when you think the baby will be born, etc.

I'll give you a list of things that I've experienced through my pregnancy if you think it might sway your decision on the gender.

• I experienced hardly any morning sickness.
• I carried the baby very high.
• My belly looks more like a basketball than a watermelon.
• My original gut instinct was boy, Mr. Ellis's original gut instinct was boy, but now we've both been feeling girl.
• Every time they've checked the heartbeat it's been over 150 (highest being 167).
• The Chinese Lunar Calendar predicts a girl.
• I craved granny smith apples, pineapple, and ice cream.
• I never had any acne breakouts, and my skin has stayed soft.
  
• Almost everyone has said boy, except for my boss, a 3 year old boy, and Mr. Ellis's co-worker (who told us yesterday he is 68 for 75 on guessing the correct gender).
• We've been pretty solid on a girl's name (although we have a couple others) since before we were pregnant, but we've had a much harder time narrowing down a boy's name.
• My hair did not seem to grow very fast while I was pregnant, which is unusual since I normally have to shave every other day.

Ok go at it!

I'm back and bigger than ever!

As Salvatrice pointed out in the last post, I dropped out of the blogosphere. I apologize. I'm just not good at it, but I do promise to make this post a good one.

So I pretty much have 10 days left (after today) until my due date, July 30. I would love to have the baby in this month, but quite honestly I'm not holding my breath. And neither is my doctor, who said apologetically last appointment "Yea, I'm thinking 41 weeks." I do have an appointment this afternoon, though, so I'll update with any progress, but I'd be surprised if there was any.

As my pregnancy winds down to a close, I figured I'd post some things that surprised me or were at least unexpected.

• I didn't know how much my back would actually hurt, and how soon it would start. I was in significant pain in April where I ended up sleeping sitting up on my couch for a few nights because it was so bad. Amazingly, this past week my back hasn't hurt at all. I'm guessing the baby moved and I can at least have relief from that. I'm sure if I were to stand for quite a while, though, it would come back quickly.
• I also didn't realize your pelvis could feel like it was cracked in two starting at about 14 weeks. It got so bad at points that I couldn't walk for more than 5 minutes. It's not at the point where I just deal with it. I never thought I would be ok with the feeling of having my pelvic bone feel like it was broken at all times.
  
• How few people touched my belly. I was all ready to be on guard, but even friends and family hardly touched it. I never had a stranger or a co-worker come even close to doing so. For this, I am grateful.
• I never had anyone say "Oh my god, you're huge!" Thank the Lord.
• I DID have people ask my how much weight I've gained. I'm always taken aback at how bold people can get with questions once you're pregnant. Luckily I remained in the recommended weight gain so I could answer without feeling embarrassed.
• The reaction I got when I told people we didn't find out the sex. Many people told me "That's how it should be" or "That's great, we did the same thing". I've only had two people (who will remain nameless) give me a hard time about not finding out the sex. Oh and I did have one other person say "What are we suppose to get you for your shower?". Are you kidding me? Clothes were the least thing we needed.
• How many people really do ask you "How are you feeling?" And how I would feel unable to answer the question. I think most people want to hear "Fine", but quite honestly I have a small person growing inside of me, so I'm probably not feeling 100%.
• How generous people were at my shower. We got 99% of the stuff we needed/wanted. And had to return almost nothing. (See picture below)
• How it would actually start to feel normal to feel my belly shift to a completely different shape. There are even times I don't notice the movement anymore.
• That I would see the inside of my belly button, and that it would turn completely flat.
  
• How I would not be apprehensive about going to see my OB anymore. I've lost almost all modesty, which I guess is good since a whole bunch of strangers are going to watch me push something far too big out of something far too small in a couple days.
• How I would be an expert on my veins and having blood drawn. I have horrible thin veins that "roll", as the nurses like to say. I know a butterfly needle should be used at all times, unless you take blood for a living and have done so for 20 years. I know which veins are good and which aren't. I know which blood labs to go to and which to steer clear from.
• How I could fall in love even more with my husband, and the baby isn't even here yet. He has helped me so much, and has put up with my impatient nature lately.
• How NON-impatient I have been about finding out the sex and waiting to have the baby. My husband can't believe I still can handle not knowing the sex. I mean, I do want to know, but I know I'll find out when the time comes. I'm also not feeling desperate to have the baby yet either. Maybe when I'm 2 weeks overdue it'll be a different story, but I know it has to come out sometime!
• How we still don't have finalized names at this stage of the game, and I'm pretty sure we're going to go with the whole "look at the baby and see what name fits" scenario.
  
• That's all I can think of for now.

So here are some belly pictures I had taken.

These are either 31 or 32 weeks.

These are today at 38 weeks and 3 days.

This one is my bellybutton with my heart shaped hands.

This is Mr. Ellis and myself at a wedding reception in the beginning of June. I look ginormous, and the angle is taken from above because my father-in-law is 6'6".

This is all the stuff we got at my shower! OH! And someone sent us the Chicco stroller (in ORANGE!!! YAY!) that we registered for, but it had not information on who sent it. If you know who might have sent this, PLEASE let me know. I would like to thank them!

This is me trying to sit in the middle of it all. (Mr. Ellis's idea, not mine)

This is the diaper bag, quilt, and diaper cake my mom made for me. She is so crafty! I LOVE the diaper bag.

Mr. Ellis and I spent a weekend in Boston at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. My brother works for them and could get us a great deal on a room. Two sides of the room were complete windows looking over the Charles into Boston.

These are some of the views Mr. Ellis took pictures of.
And that's all for now, folks. I will try to be more diligent about posting.