Blame the Pleats

Here is another of the famous self-portraits of me sitting at my desk, looking down at the beach ball, I mean belly.  For some reason today struck me as looking rather large, so I'm blaming the pleats on the dress.  I mean, I don't like to wear pleated pants due to the effect on my hips, so I figure it must be the pleats on the dress that make me look large :)

I did hear from a couple of students that I had a cute pregnant belly (keep those types of comments coming!) and since I'm not teaching this school year it couldn't have even been hopes of a good grade that made them say it!  Same with the girl today who said I didn't look that big for being just 6 or so weeks away from my due date (bless her, she even said it with a straight face!).

All was good at the 33 week checkup this week, just plugging along, growing, gaining weight, good heartbeat.  I keep hearing Dory from Finding Nemo in my head now "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" when I think about the next few weeks.

Baby Monkey got to go to his first college football game on Saturday, and it was a FABULOUS day to be a Spartan!  Jay and I, his parents and sister made the trek to Iowa City to watch my Michigan State Spartans play the Iowa Hawkeyes.  We tailgated (check out the awesome can of O'Douls I'm holding) before and after the game and had a great time (even if the hormone monster might have made a slight appearance when it came to picking the parking spot...luckily both it and the pouting was short lived).  Best of all, for the first time in ten years, I was present for a Spartan Victory!  A perfect first game for Baby Z...not that Jay agrees with that opinion!  Below is our crew...despite the scarves, it really was just perfect weather for football, especially for mid-November.

The Karate Kid

Halloween 2011 was probably one of my more tame holidays, particularly for a year in which we had a fabulous party to attend.  Jay and I were a team this year, reaching back to the good old days of the 1980s for inspiration, to the classic Karate Kid.  This was right before I stole his move and swept the legs ;)

Let me tell you, there's nothing like feeling you are wearing a robe or pajamas to have a comfortable Halloween costume!  I think the costume however, has given Baby Monkey some ideas, as it feels like he is practicing for his black belt in there some days.  No internal organ or nerve is safe from those feet, fists, knees or elbows!

Halloween Day was also my 31 week appointment, where again all was well.  We measured right on track, had a good heartbeat and were reassured that all those lovely weird things occurring to my body were "normal".  We also got to talk to the doctor a bit more about planning and timing and the concerns we're watching for related to the lupus.  At this point, other than the next regularly scheduled appointments at 33 and 35 weeks, we're going to do some testing at week 36 that will give an even better indication if all is going well there on the inside.  If it is, then they are tentatively planning to have me proceed along to week 39 and induce somewhere between the 27th and 31st of December.  there's a lot of factors that will play into that whole decision, but that's sort of the overall plan at this point.  Baby Z might have his own plan though, which could trump all of this :)

Hard to believe though there's less than 2 months before the due date, and with the holidays, this time is bound to fly by!

And one last picture for this post, tomorrow we are headed to Iowa City for the big Michigan State/Iowa football game!  Time to instruct Baby Monkey on the proper way to tailgate, and of course, to ensure he knows which of these two teams is the RIGHT team to cheer for!  Go Green!