From here to Maternity (Leave)!

6 weeks! 6 weeks! Woo hoo! That's right, 42 days till my maternity leave!
Some of the more astute people may be scratching their heads and wondering why in the world I'm starting my maternity leave 5 days AFTER my due date. Primarily, it's because I'm a first time mom and I know I will go over my due date. It also coincides nicely with leaving for the Thanksgiving holiday. There are financial reasons, too. If I work up until the Thanksgiving holiday I will get paid time off for Thanksgiving just like any other employee. However, if I leave the office before Thanksgiving I won't get paid automatically for those days. I'd have to use days from my cache of PTO or go without pay.
Also, since a due date is basically impossible to pin down, it's easier to get excited about a day that I can say will definitely happen as opposed to counting down to my due date and then getting deflated during every day that passes.
6 weeks! 6 weeks! I can do this!

Sentences I never thought I'd hear a doctor say

"Well, that's a head...or...nope...maybe she's been doing Buns Of Steel..."

She's my dancing queen, young and sweet, only unbooooooOOOooorn...

I'm really hoping that this dance party in my uterus means Ava is flipping. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE feeling her feet and head and hands and knees. I'm actually kind of sad that in the next 4-5 weeks she'll run out of room and her movements will start to decrease. However, she's still breech and I'm getting anxious about it. About a quarter of babies are breech at this point in pregnancy (30 weeks) and that goes down to 5% by the time the actual due date rolls around. I'm just a worrier and I can't find any information on first time moms and being breech this late in the game in relation to actually being breech when labor starts. I can feel her pedaling her little feet, which I know means she's trying to turn, so keep it up little girl!

Shower Apologist

I'm super uncomfortable with my baby shower. I didn't have any wedding showers, or engagement parties, or formal pictures, or bachelorette parties, so it's just very weird to be the center of gift-giving attention. After all, these people didn't get me pregnant, so why should they be responsible for my stuff?
I used to really roll my eyes at people who put expensive things on their registries. Do you really think your friends are going to buy you a crib or changing table or fancy stroller? Then I learned that many baby stores have discounts on items you registered for if you purchase them after your due date. Though it may not be the best idea to wait till after the due date to purchase a crib, I can totally see waiting to buy a stroller or breast pump or changing table after the due date if it means saving 20-25%.
Basically, if you're reading this and are coming to my shower, please don't think that I expect you to get us a big ticket item!

What I feel like after every meal.

This is not a complaint! Every meal or snack makes me feel like I've just backed away from gorging myself at a Golden Corral buffet. I never thought I'd get the itis from 6 ounces of yogurt.

Things that I just can't stand.

Do you ever feel like you're the only sane person in the world? There are a few things about pregnancy that just boggle my mind. In order from "stabby" to "eye-rolling", they are:

1) Gender Reveal parties

2) Babymoons

3) Maternity photo shoots

Gender reveal parties...UGH. I swear, we are about 5 years away from pee-stick reveal parties where you'll have to go to your friends house to see the overly annoying couple dramatically unwrap a gigantic box that contains a positive or negative pregnancy test. Not every aspect of pregnancy deserves a party, OK?

Babymoons and maternity photo shoots are just the biggest, most self involved wastes of money, IMHO, especially when the couple involved is also having a baby shower. I feel like they're saying, "Hey! Look at us spending money on frivolous stuff! Disposable income! WHEE!!! Now buy our kid a gift that we preselected."

That was easy.

So I postulated earlier on our daughter's name. We're not ready to announce it quite yet, but we have the name all picked out!
I posted some name options and all of a sudden got some new followers and reblogs from more PG-13 sites. One of the names we picked out is the stage name of an adult entertainment model. Not that there's anything wrong with that; it's just not want we want people to find if and when they google our little tiny princess.
Thanks for making name selection easy, adult sites!