T-Minus 2.5 Weeks

Hello, hello to one and all! Well, as you’re reading this that little countdown timer over to the left has a number that is less than 17. I know we keep talking about how quickly time has gone by but this is astounding. We are both wondering if now time will begin to drag because we keep saying that, literally, Reilly Marie could be born any day. Any day. Nicole could be starting labor right now as I type this. Uhhh . .. . that kind of makes me nervous. Maybe I should call her quick. Nah, she’ll call me. I’m sure of it. Anyway, we’re hoping that the time between now and when our little Bun is born continues to move quickly. We are most definitely keeping ourselves occupied (we will be going to a baseball game tonight) so that should help. Also that picture is a fake. It’s photoshopped a little bit. The real picture of Nicole is at the bottom of this post.

Nicole has continued to feel great. We spent some time last night just reflecting on how amazingly blessed we have been over the last year. Nicole just finished up her once-a-week babysitting job that was great for so many reasons: she feels like it was a great reminder of how to take care of a baby, it was some extra income for our family, and the family she was sitting for was incredibly generous towards us in a lot of ways. It is crazy that a job that Nicole worked less than thirty days total would be such a wonderful blessing to us. We feel overwhelmed by God’s provision and foresight in our lives.

We feel like we are as ready as we are going to be for Reilly to be born. The nursery is all set up. We’ve got the car seat base installed in the car and inspected by a pediatric flight for life nurse. Our bag for the hospital is packed and awaiting our departure. We only have one of our Bradley classes left and we’ll be talking about post-partum topics. We feel like we’re ready. We’re excited because we really believe that we can do this! It’s a great feeling because we thought we could do this back in the winter when we found out we were expecting a little bun. Let’s just say that our level of preparedness is much, much higher now. It’s a little worrisome because we know that the amount that we’ve learned in the past nine months is probably nothing compared to what we will learn the first week of having Reilly at home with us. That’s not scary, though. We are just so excited.

As far as Reilly goes, it’s the calm before the storm. Changes in her weight have leveled off with only a few ounces of fat added this week. At this point the Bun should weigh in at around 7 lbs. and 20 inches. Happily, as far as internal organs go, they are now developed enough to function in the outside world although the oh-so-important immune system is still developing and will continue to do so after birth with a large boost of antibodies provided by breast milk when nursing begins. Fighting infection and staying healthy should be well within Reilly’s physical capacity when our little Bun is born.