Dear god I hope this is the last belly picture. 39 weeks today on the Fourth of July, and it’s now looking very unlikely that we’ll have a Betsy Ross baby. Baby’s as big as she’s going to get and fully developed and ready for the outside world. We took this picture right after we got home from (yet another) a long walk. It’s still quite warm out, but on the other hand, it’s done wonders for the veggies we’re growing, which you can see right behind me in the picture.

I feel so much more pregnant than I did just a few weeks ago. It’s so hard to sleep now and so uncomfortable to move around. Just putting on yoga pants is a momentous task because it feels like there is a watermelon lodged in my pelvis. Despite that, I managed to do a lot of cleaning on Friday. The kitchen, vacuuming and mopping floors, the baby’s room, the dog bed, the toilets, laundry, organizing—I went on a real spree. Andrew was thrilled to come home and find the couches completely unusable because I was washing and drying the cushion covers. I was sitting on them on Friday morning and realized I simply couldn’t imagine a baby touching them. It occurred to me they have never been washed since we bought them two years ago, and since then, they even came across the Atlantic on a freight ship. Yuck.

Other baby prep we’ve completed: went to Costco yesterday to stock up on some things, taped phone number list by the phone, finished (mostly) packing hospital bag, finished baby laundry, bought baby nail clippers, had final meeting with the doula, got my TENS machine, topped up our mobile phone credit, arranged Southpaw’s potential dog care for while we’re at the hospital, and got Andrew’s hair cut. It’s looking like a dramatic improvement…

So, pretty much all set for baby’s arrival!