40 weeks and counting...

So, my due date came and went and we still had not met our little lady.  We were all very anxious for her arrival, but in the end, it was kind of nice to not have the craziness of an early/unplanned delivery.  My parents were basically 'on call' up in Michigan for the week or two leading up to June 17th.  If we actually had had to make the "we're headed to the hospital, pack up the car and head here" call, I have a bad feeling the chances of them making it here safely as well as on time was probably slim to none.  Between my dad's already lead foot and my mom probably egging it on for fear of her not making the birth of their first grandchild would essentially be a recipe for disaster.

As my due date neared and our doctor scheduled an induction for Thursday the 20th, my parents decided they'd head here the day before the due date (Father's Day).  However, the anxiety of potentially missing the birth as well as the encouragement of their friend Jim to 'just leave now', they decided at the last minute to head here on Saturday, June 15th.  I had been having contractions, but not nearly as often or as intense to be in labor, but we all started getting anxious that she was on her way.  No such luck.  My parents made it here in one piece and with only one minor hiccup...they forgot basically all of my mom's clothes :-)  That meant a little mother-daughter shopping (and lunch) trip the next day.  Neither of us were complaining.

I had the next few days off of work so my parents and I got to spend some quality time together before BGB's arrival.  We cooked dinners (including the supposed labor inducing eggplant parmesan), got the nursery organized, went to the zoo, shopping and out to lunch.  We also tried to ride over as many train tracks as possible (so what if it was only the kiddie train at the zoo), walk as much as I could....anything to try and meet BGB on her own schedule as opposed to getting induced.  They also got down to work and have been a huge help cleaning up the yard and the house.

Wednesday arrived, which meant we were off to the hospital (a night of cervidil to soften the cervix before being induced on Thursday morning).  Both of our parents came by to hang out that evening, we watched a movie and settled in for one last fabulously uninterrupted night of sleep before meeting our little gal.

Some of our 'luggage' for our 3-night stay

Last photo as a family of three

38 down, 2 (wow!) to go

This dress is probably starting to look very familiar :-)
It was definitely a great purchase!

Here we are, at the 38 week mark.  Our doctor appointment last week showed no signs of BGB making any attempts to grace us with her presence sooner than expected.  While hearing that was a bit disappointing, as we're very anxious to meet her, we're definitely embracing the last few baby-less weeks...and weekends...and sleep-filled nights, while we can.  We're probably embracing it a bit more than the normal couple, but that's how we roll.  As Corey told me the other day, "you're crazy!"  This was in response to an additional dinner date that I put on our calendar between now and BGB.  I might as well take advantage of how lucky I've been in this pregnancy and the fact that I'm still feeling well, right?!?

Last weekend we fit in one last trip to Chicago for my high school friend, Tim's, wedding.  Saturday night we had dinner with my dear friend Adrienne and her husband, Tom, and then met up with our other friends and the entire wedding party for an evening of drinks and catching up.  Sunday morning we had the pleasure of meeting the 7 week old twin boys of Corey's college buddy Tom and his wife, Heather.  Lots and lots of babies in our life these days :-)  Meeting them made us appreciate the fact that we're easing into this whole parenthood thing with one little miracle, and not double-the-fun.  We spent the rest of Sunday, just the two of us, enjoying the city we called home for many years.  We went out to lunch, walked around downtown, napped and grabbed drinks all before heading out for the wedding festivities.  The wedding was beautiful down to every single little detail!  The ceremony was at the Tiffany Garden in Grant Park with views of the Buckingham Fountain and that glorious skyline.  The rain held off just enough for us to watch Tim and Lucy say their 'I do's' and head over the the Chicago Cultural Center for the reception.  The night was filled with delicious food and drinks, catching up with friends and lots of great music and dancing!

Cocktails (mocktail for this gal!) before the wedding
festivities at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse.

Congrats to Lucy and Timmy!

My gals (Adrienne, Carly, Katie and BGB) and I at the ceremony

This past weekend we had plans to go to dinner with our friend's Niki and Joe that were in town from Michigan.  A last minute sickness at their friends household, meant house guests for us for the night.  Selfishly, we were happy about this as we got to spend some bonus time with them before they left to spend the rest of the weekend with the rest of their friends in STL.  We're not used to our visitors having other friends here but Niki and Joe actually used to live here in STL, with Joe's old place being only a mile or so from our current home.  It was just about 6 years ago to the day that I had been down here in STL for my first time to visit Niki with her and I swapping stories of our good guy friends from work.  Little did we know (Ok, so maybe I speak for myself as Corey insists he knew at that point that we were quickly headed to 'more than friends' zone) that 6 years later, roles would be reversed with her visiting me in STL and we would now be referring to those 'friends' as our husbands.

One might think that we would have taken it easy on Saturday night.  No such luck.  Corey and I headed out, yet again, for dinner with our friends (and Corey's cousin) Mike and Cara (who we went to Disney with just a couple of months back).  As we were leaving dinner and retrieving our car from valet, we overheard some live music and luckily Cara was intrigued enough to ask some additional questions as to what was going on.  As it turns out, the pool at The Cheshire Inn, has a bar and live music on Saturday evenings.  We cozied up in some comfy chairs and spent the next couple of hours enjoying the beautiful evening with some live music.  We then headed to a local favorite spot for some dessert.  All of that and we were home and in bed before 11:30.  That's what I call a perfect night.