33 weeks & 6 days

We're 33 weeks and 6 days today; 34 weeks tomorrow. At this point, I breathe a huge sigh of relief at the end of every day that our little Houdini escape artist-wannabe stays firmly in the ute. My doctor told me that each  day the baby spends "on the inside" (which sounds like a prison term) is two fewer days they'd have to spend in the hospital if they were born early, so I'm super thankful for each day that passes without a surprise appearance from the little monster.

I've been on pins and needles this past week. Since being released from the hospital, I've left the house twice, once for a doctor's appointment and once for a prenatal class. I still hold my breath every time I go to the bathroom and don't venture too far from a couch or the bed. In the car, I silently loudly curse every pothole and bump, as if going over a rough spot is going to shake the baby right out of me. Every time my stomach tightens up (which it's been doing for weeks and weeks even before last week's shenanigans happened) I get all clenchy and start worrying and wondering, "Is this it?"even though it's happened hundreds of times already.

My doctor gave me the OK to gradually increase my activity but I'm still pretty nervous and have been a real sloth this week - definitely erring on the side of caution. I miss working out and walking the dog and just generally not feeling one ankle bracelet short of house arrest, but I'm terrified of stirring up the baby and reminding him or her of last week's diabolical Operation: Vacate Uterus plan.

The nursery is ready to go, except for our rug that's supposed to arrive this week, and our glider rocker that's coming next week. We have all the baby clothes and blankets and things washed up and put away, and when you open the nursery closet now, it smells like baby since we used Ivory Snow to wash everything. There's a lot of stuff we still need, but we have most of the big essentials taken care of.

Peter has been awesome looking after everything around the house, cleaning and errands and everything that needs to be done, and our friends and family have been amazingly supportive and helpful as well. I know plenty of moms-to-be have to go through this sort of thing alone and I'm really grateful and lucky to be surrounded by such great people.

So, another week (almost) down, who knows how many to go. Could be six; could be two or three. I'm just hoping it's not any less than that. I alternate between being excited, scared, and worried. I hope we make it to the point where I can stop worrying and just be flat-out excited to meet our little honeydew.

On the plus side? I've been wearing leggings and Pebbles buns EVERY DAY. I haven't blow-dried my hair in almost two weeks. And I've never had this much free time to read, write, watch TV and movies, and just relax since I was probably 15 years old. Silver linings!

Keep cooking, baby!