What is THAT attached to my leg?!

"They" say that some pregnant people have certain hunches of when their due date will be. Well, my hunch has come and gone. For some strange reason, June 9th kept sticking in my head as my baby's due date, but alas it has come and gone. *sigh*

I thought SOMETHING was happening yesterday, but evidentally all my body was telling me was "slow the heck down", because once I laid down and rested for awhile, I felt fine. All morning, I had been getting those sharp pains in my cervix (the ones I've had for what seems like FOR-EV-ER), but also everytime Aly moved, I got period-like cramping and aching in my lower back. It kept up for awhile, so I started getting worried (and excited, though!) It would all go away once she stopped moving though. Guess I was just being teased. So, with all hopes of going into labor gone, Russ and I ended up going to a graduation party, then out shopping for a bit. Took my mind off things, so that was good. Guess I HAVE been kinda overdoing it lately, though... I've been MAJORLY nesting. I scrubbed the whole downstairs bathroom yesterday, and even got down on the floor and scrubbed the ceramic tile grout with a TOOTHBRUSH. LOL. I'm just trying to make sure the house is in tip-top shape for little Aly's arrival. Especially since Russ's mom, my mom, and other guests will be staying here at different times. Stress stress stress. :-P

Today I feel good so far, though I had a weird feeling in my right foot, and was surprised to see that it resembles a partially-inflated balloon with toes this morning. LOL. I haven't done much today yet either! I woke up early with Russ and made us breakfast, then worked on Aly's baby scrapbook at the dining room table for awhile. Just being on my feet/having my legs dependent for that long made my foot swell up! Grr. I can't even bend my toes all the way now. it's so weird that it's only my right foot... guess 'they' (whoever 'they' are) are right when they say the foot you favor more is the one that usually gets more swollen during pregnancy. I'm right handed, so I guess I'm right-footed too...lol.

So for now, I'm just resting in bed with my leg elevated up on a pillow in hopes that my balloon foot will go down. The construction guys are back to work on the upstairs bathroom this morning, so I can't do anything in the nursery until later today. They usually work until 4 or 5. My parents are supposed to stop over later and help do some last-minute things in the nursery (put that ceiling fan up, and help me assemble some baby stuff.) Mondays are really busy for Russ, so they offered to help me with some things that I wanted Russ to do. They've been such a big help to me... I don't know what I'd do without them!

Dealing with work, I'm counting down the days until maternity leave. 6 more workdays to go, then I've decided I'm going on leave. I've mentioned on here in the past that my OB and the nurses are all surprised to find out I'm still working... well, they told me that whenever I feel I can't take work anymore, just let them know and they'll write me a work release note. I figure that I'll more than likely be having Alyson fairly close to my due date, so at my appointment this Friday, I'm going to have them write me a note so I can start maternity leave. My clinical manager scheduled me night turn on the 21st AND the 22nd (my due date!!!), so if I'm still feeling ok, I'll work just up til then. I'll be 40 weeks, so that is MORE THAN LONG ENOUGH to stick it out with working! We'll have to see though... if I'm swelling more during this week, I might just tell them to start my leave a week early. I don't want to be walking around with balloon feet 24-7. Plus, at work I've been increasingly more uncomfortable. I'm just trying to stick it out as long as I can. I've already used 2 weeks of my maternity leave back in December when I was spotting, so I want to have as many weeks off after Aly's birth as I can.

Well, I'm starting to ramble, so I'm gonna end this now. Have a wonderful Monday!

Sincerely,
Betsy Balloon Foot....hehe