Something to celebrate!

37 weeks and we have officially made it to term!  Baby is as long as a stalk of swiss chard.  Sunday my mom and sisters threw me a baby shower to celebrate.  We had a lot of fun!  We took on some ambitious projects--we love these, but so often they don't come out right. This time I was thrilled with the results!  Take a look:

Fruit cradle!!!  SOOOOO YUMMY!

Baby cupcakes

Gotta have chocolate cake!

Having fun!

It was a fun party and it was nice to celebrate AJ's coming arrival!  I got some adorable things too!  His room is shaping up!

A gift from big brother!! Tyler painted this!  I love it!

Friendly monster from Aunt G!

Love these sparkly letters from Aunt Patty!

Monster decals!

This adorable blanket is super soft and matches the set we picked out for his room. Thanks Auntie Roxy for sending it!

Frame, monster book and toy!

I also got a huge surprise at work!  My coworkers pitched in and gave us a great new glider for the baby's room!  We had just agreed that we were going to have to make due without a second glider because we just didn't have the extra money right now.  I was so surprised I cried!

LOVE IT!

Tuesday I had my OB appointment.  AJ was lazier during the NST this week, but they got what they needed and he aced the u/s.  He's estimated at 7 lbs 10 oz and measuring about 40 weeks already!  Apparently some contractions were showing up on the NST so that give me hope that my body will do what it's supposed to!  My belly measures 38 weeks and my blood pressure and everything looks fine.  However, my OB decided that it is time I slow down and stay close to home, so I am officially on maternity leave.  It was hard to go to work and set everything up and know I wasn't going to come back until after the baby is born!  It was harder than I thought to let it go and leave!  I'll miss my coworkers, but staying home has already improved the pain I've been having and it's nice to be able to get some extra rest while I can!  Tyler is enjoying having me home and he likes to come in and "visit" me!

I can't believe how close we're getting to AJ's arrival!  I feel so lucky!  The last couple of weeks has brought some great news to several of my wonderful online friends that have had terrible struggles with infertility and pregnancy loss.  Four friends that have have had devastating losses are expecting again.  One has had a ton of miscarriages and the terrible loss of her son who was born at 23 weeks.  Another gave birth to her son early in the second trimester.  A third has had too many miscarriages to count and the fourth had an ectopic, two chemical pregnancies, and then a horrific loss of her baby daughter at around 20 weeks, who had a severe heart defect and chromosomal problems.  These ladies are true survivors, but they have been through hell and I am praying my hardest that these pregnancies will result in healthy babies for them.  My rainbow baby will be here soon and I hope they will get this same this time.  It really reminds me just how lucky I am!