Waddling the time away

As I head into the 10th month of pregnancy, I'm finding myself more and more frustrated about the lack of progress in moving Evan out of me and into his completely re-done bedroom. I'm pretty proud of the job Brian and I (but mostly Brian) did on this room. It's probably the nicest room in our condo. It's definitely the most thoroughly thought out room. It would be nice to start getting some use out of it.

The other night I woke up because it felt like the lower half of my rib cage was about to explode. HE'S MOVING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! I spent the remainder of the night sitting straight up and trying to push him out of my ribs.

On my birthday, we spent the better part of the day watching a stopwatch thinking, "Wow, maybe this is it." When we went to the doctor to do a labor check, we found out that contractions don't count unless they have you doubled over in pain. This concerns me because pain is a pretty relative concept. Do the contractions need to compare to cramps, or do they need to be the same intensity as say, dislocating a knee or separating a shoulder?

My mom said she didn't know she was in active labor with my older sister. She said her back was sore. The next morning she had an appointment with the doctor who informed her she was in labor and told her to go to the hospital. She had no idea! With the exception of an extra 3-4 inches in height, I'm pretty much the same body build as my mom. Right down to the horrible uncorrected vision in our left eye and mole on the back of our right calf. So, could this be my experience? Will I know when it is time to go?

I have been doing all that I can to try and help Evan move along. I am walking about as much as I possibly can. Not an easy task when you have about 20 pounds hanging off your front end. As one colleague pointed out, not really so much walking as waddling now.

When I am home, Truman is more or less glued to my side. He's my fierce protector. Brian wrote about giving Evan his "first zerbert" a little more than a week ago. What he didn't say is how Truman LUNGED to get between my belly and Brian after he did that. He didn't attach or snap at Brian, just wanted to create a physical barrier between Brian and my belly. I don't know why, but he is not a fan of people getting zerberts and there will be no zerberts on his watch!

I'm sure he is going to be an excellent protector of Evan, which will be nice when we go for walks. People who don't know bulldogs tend to shy away from Truman. I'm sure the big, slobbery tongue and huge teeth that are sticking out contribute to that. You know me. I don't want a bunch of randoms coming up and touching and cooing over my son. Truman, will help prevent this.



I imagine something similar to Jacque the giant Great Dane that watched over my sister, brother and I, when we were at my grandparents house. NOBODY came near us unless Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa were there and told Jacque it was okay - and even then he would keep an eye on you. And, if we tired the poor dog out, Jacque would just hold us down for a nap as you can see in the picture to the right.

Truman doesn't have the intimidation factor that Jacque had in terms of sheer size, but I think he can hold his own. He definitely has the tough guy look down.