33 weeks

The countdown continues! We're now at 33 weeks, or roughly 7.5 months. I'm definitely not hearing "you still have time" from people anymore, and now it's a constant refrain of "wow! you're so close!" Ugh... don't remind me! I'm really excited to meet you, but also getting more and more anxious about being ready for you. Assuming you arrive full term, you could be here in as soon as four weeks! Yikes!

Fortunately, things are moving along. I had a conversation with my HR department at work this morning, about my maternity leave, and it went better than I expected. It looks like I will be starting my leave on July 2, and not returning to work until about October 8. Daddy is planning on taking off the two weeks before your due date too. So, assuming you don't come right at the beginning of my leave, it should give us a little time to finish getting ready. I'm trying not to count on it though!

Last weekend we weren't very productive (or at least, I wasn't). On Saturday, Aunty Alicia and Aunty Jess took me for a fun girl's day in Capitola. The weather was perfect -- warm, with a very slight breeze. We had lunch outside, at a place on the beach, and then did a little shopping at the cute stores in the downtown area. Then we bought some locally made ice cream and rented some beach chairs, and hung out on the beach for a little bit. We ended the day by hitting up the last few stores on the main street, winding up in this little surf shop where the shopkeeper, Vince, hooked Alicia and Jess up with a free beer, and then let us hang out on their nice back patio for a bit. Some other customers were back there too, so we hung out for a while chatting with them before heading home. It was a really fun day out!

Then on Sunday, Daddy and I took a trip to Ikea to pick up a few more items for your room. Afterward, we headed up to the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley to watch the annular solar eclipse. They gave us these special viewing glasses so that we could view the eclipse without damaging our eyes. It was a really neat thing to see! There won't be another one as good, in this area, until you're about the same age as Daddy and I.

Tuesday morning I woke up and noticed my belly was lower than it had been the night before, so I think you've dropped some. We had another doctor's appointment on Thursday, with Laura Ahn, and she said you most likely did. She also thinks you may be head down (let's hope!), but that we'll have an ultrasound in a few weeks to assess your position. You're certainly pushing on my belly a lot harder now, but still favor my right side, and love to forcefully shove what may be your butt right into the upper right corner of my belly. Sometimes I get what might be a foot firmly wedged on the upper left, until I poke at it and you move it away quickly. And then other times I feel these tiny little movements (almost like tickles) down near my pubic bone, and from what I've read it's possible that's your hands. And then just a little bit ago I ate a bunch of strawberries, and you started going wild in my belly for like half an hour -- hopefully that meant you liked them. Even though your movements are so pronounced now, it's still crazy to think that you're probably somewhere around 17 inches and more than 4 pounds already!

Taken at 32 weeks and 6 days