Happy April!

Igor and I can't believe it, but it looks like our baby will be born in April. After my 36-week appointment, Igor was sure that I was going to deliver sometime last week. And there were a lot of anniversaries last week:

• 27 March 2001: I defended my PhD thesis.
• 29 March 2002: Igor and I closed on our house.
• 1 April 2003: Igor proposed to me.

My 37-week appointment (actually, 37 w 2 d) last Friday showed that my cervix remains 3 cm dilated, 70-80% effaced. Baby is stationed at zero. My OB doesn't think the bedrest will affect when labor will start, but I'm still taking it easy anyway. We also had an ultrasound, which turned out well. The baby is 5 lbs, 7 oz., pretty much the same size as when Nikita was born: 5 lbs, 7.8 oz. at 37 w 1 d. I was surprised because I've gained more weight with this baby (almost 21 lbs as opposed to 18 with Nikita), but then again, size measurements are +/- 20%, about 19 oz. in our case.

We also got some shots of the baby's face with this ultrasound (baby was facing my back at my 32-week ultrasound), which my parents particularly liked. They came up this weekend with tons of food, and got a huge dose of Nikita as well. Nikita gets pretty insistent about who he wants to change or dress him. So, when he went outside, he wanted only my mom to dress him up. He even got my dad to change his diaper, probably the first time my dad's ever had to change him. For the first time, Nikita even wanted to sleep with them overnight. My mom didn't get any sleep, but my dad did, which is a good thing because he's the one who drives.

Unfortunately, Nikita recently got sick. This is part of the reason why I'm up: he's coughing, and doesn't know how to get rid of the stuff. But he's really hooked on a book I got for him from the library on Saturday, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. He likes it so much that he hasn't realized that I returned two of his Thomas the Tank Engine books. I'm surprised how much he likes the book because as you know, food is not one of his favorite things.

This weekend, I continued my slow preparations for the baby. I got buttons for the (otherwise finished) Baby Surprise Jacket, but I'm still working on the coordinating flat-top cloche from Modular Knits. I also got Cook's Illustrated The Best 30-minute Recipe from the library, which looks promising.

Finally, Igor got out the car seat and car bed from the basement, but also ended up cleaning out 2 inches of sewage waste from the (obviously unused) shower stall. In the five years that we've lived here, we've never had a problem with the drainage, but this winter, the laundry sink and toilet have clogged up. We didn't realize the extent of the problem until now because the shower stall is used for storage. Fortunately, there were only paints and empty crates, and the stall has a rim! Igor says this is the second time in his life that he's ever had to deal with (literal) shit: he once had to help clean the outhouse of a dacha. Ah, the joys of home ownership!