Let's get this party started!

Here's a nice little... ha, did I just say little.... big pic of me during my last week of pregnancy! I officially gained 40 lbs and weigh about the same as my dad- like whoa!!! I had a Doctor's appt. this morning (May 12) and I was spilling a little bit of protein and due to my swelling, the Doc decided he wanted to get the party started!! HOLLLA! (Can I still say that when I'm a mom?) Big Joey and I are going back to the hospital at 6:30 tonight to get induced. Apparently there is some type of suppository that induces natural labor, and if that doesn't work the Doc will use Pitocin in the morn. He's hoping we'll have little Joey sometime tomorrow!! According to the Born on Sweepstakes we have going, Joey's colleague, Bo Hart, and my best friend, Carrie Cleavenger, are in the running for May 13th. If I have the baby before 3pm, Bo wins. If I have the baby after 3pm, Carrie wins!! The winner will receive $50 and a picture with the newborn. The rest of the funds will go toward little Joey's college fund. It will go to an institution of higher leanring, however, the money is not applicable in West Lafayette, IN.

During this pregnancy I have had a huge craving for chicken salad and fresh fruit. Today, Joey and I were able to go to the Bay Window one last time for this!! It was awesome! There were about 4 restaurants that I was a regular at during pregnancy... the Bay Window, Chick-fil-A, Roscoe's Tacos, and Olive Garden. I was such a regular I would run into the people that worked at these places at the mall or the Little League diamonds and they would ask if I have had my chicken burrito for the day. Whoever I was with at the time thought I was crazy. But hey, a craving is a craving!!

Last day of work!

Looking GINORMOUS in my scrubs!!!

May 7th was my last day of work before my maternity leave. It worked out perfect because my cankles were so huge the swelling was spilling over my socks. Also, little Joey was punching about every other patient. He tended to pick on the 40-50 year old men who didn't know how to react to a baby in a woman's stomach kicking them. On my last day of work, we all went out to lunch and they bought me a beautiful cookie cake!!! Man, I have had a sweet tooth during the third trimester. The other two girls I clean teeth with are Emmie and Sadie. They both had babies in January. They have been my best friends, my mentors, ears that listened, full of information on breast feeding and baby talk, and truly kept me sane. There were two other girls at work, Jamie and Julie, that were extremely helpful too. I couldn't have asked for a better work environment. Poor Doctor Oller- out of his 9 employees, 5 of us have had or are having babies in 2008!!

The Baby has dropped!!

I just woke up from a nap, hence the crazy puffy hair. I guess at this stage of pregnancy I started to give up on trying to look cute, hah! Nice swollen face, Leah :)

2 Words: Pitting Edema

You are probably more familiar with the term "swollen ankles," but "pitting edema" is what the doctor referred to when he saw my swollen cankles filled with fluid, scary huh? I guess this is normal toward the end, but man, I had no idea my thumb print with stay for 6 minutes on my ankle! Gross!

Hangin' with the girls from the Wood

The above pic is a group of all of my closest friends from high school. As you can see, I'm the third who is having a baby boy!! Dylan, on the left, is Marcy Mayhew's 4 year old. Acen, on the right, is Aimee Jones' 9 month old. It was so fun to have them at the shower!! The pic below is of Tiffy, one of my greatest friends, who came home from LA to throw us this baby shower. She'll be Little Joey's God Mother.
Britto and I Nanna and I
It's so nice to still be good friends with all of my girls from high school. The shower was a blast. We had Pizza King (my favorite pizza) and a chocolate fountain, which I made 4 trips to. I'm not too sure this yellow dress flatters me much, but I only fit into about 5 tops right now- ha!! I can't wait to start working out again!

Into our 36th Week... like Whoa!

This picture is after a long week at work- still working Mon-Thurs!! Today, the most unbelievable thing happened. I was working away cleaning this nice man's teeth (new patient to our practice) when all of a sudden Little Joey kicked his arm through my belly!! My patient had never felt a baby kick before and was so excited. Little Joey continued to kick him throughout the appointment, and when the nice man left, I apologized for the abuse, hehe! Big Joey is the greatest!! I'd go crazy without him!

Just last week a mama duck decided to lay her nest at the very foot of our doorstep. We now have her sitting there every day on her 11 eggs! We named her Peaches. She's a beautiful duck with gorgeous royal feathers on her sides, and we've been feeding her whole wheat bread (keeping her away from bad carbs) and ducky food from the Tractor Supply Store in Whiteland. It has been so fun checking on her and watching her take care of her baby eggs while I'm pregnant. I'm not exactly certain how much longer she has to go, but I do appreciate her putting my life into perspective- I could NEVER have eleven babies at once and sit on them by myself all day and all night long for weeks!! Animals are a beautiful thing!