YO QUIERO BAMBINO!

OK, this whole pregnancy thing has gone on long enough. Joke's over, time for the little baby to make his way out of my canal. I'm tired of waiting. Let's get this show on the road....

This past week was Thanksgiving...and BOY did the Hamdens have a lot of Thank to Sgive! We split time between both of our families, and had our family baby shower at Raymond's sister's (Diane's) house on Saturday. She and Janelle had such a cute set-up at the house for the shower, and the food was UH-may-zing!! We feel so blessed to have so many people celebrating the future arrival of little Ryder...now if he would just COME OUT ALREADY!?!?! C'MON MAN, YOU HAVE SO MANY CUTE OUTFITS TO WEAR AND FUN TOYS TO PLAY WITH!

I had another appointment yesterday, and no news is good news, right? No more dilation, although my cervix is continuing to 'soften'....so that basically means we're not really that close. If no more progress is made before the next appointment, we will schedule an induction for December 18th or later, depending on whenever's the soonest availability at the hospital. If I begin dilating more before next Monday's appointment, but don't deliver...then Doc will 'strip the membranes' and I could likely deliver some time next week. Little does the doctor know, I stole one of those big, silver crotch protractor things that OBs use to OPEN SESAME!!! for their exams. I plan to give Raymond a little crash course in PAP 101...and maybe we can pry this thing open ourselves! Lots of people tell me I should be walking, but that would take energy and me getting up off my fat ass to do so. So we'll just stick to car jacks and protractors for now....anything of artificial means that we can get our hands on :)

Tomorrow, I'll be going in for a prenatal massage...compliments of my parents as an early birthday present. This girl prides herself on knowing how to molest certain 'pressure points' on one's body to help to instigate labor. Hopefully she can work her magic on me, because BOY could I use a massage at this point! I'll let y'all know how that goes down, and if it works or not!

OK, for all those who've been asking to see belly pics....here's one we took this weekend. I'm completely and utterly adverse to taking actual belly shots...as I've been groped so much during this pregnancy by complete strangers, that I'm a little freaked out by the bare belly thing. I'm glad we got to get these done, though, as I've taken virtually no pictures during the pregnancy, and I know Ryder will probably want to see them when he gets older. And now, I'm off for a walk!