Any day now...

So my OB wanted to check me today, and although I had committed myself to not allowing checks, I just always do what the doctor says. And, secretly, I was rather curious to know what shape my body is in. Everything continues to check out just fine with me; a pregnancy couldn't go better, so as long as this keeps up, my doctor is okay with me going late-to 42 weeks, that is. But "No one goes after 42 weeks," says the doctor, and I am okay with that, because I agree it's not good for babies to go too late. The placenta grows old and there could be meconium (like there was with Lara already at 40 weeks). Anyway, I am 3cm dilated, but what I found very interesting is that Claire is very, very low. The doctor was quite surprised at how far down she is, and I didn't realize it either until the check was done, and I'm pretty sure Claire got a little head massage. This still doesn't mean I expect to go into labor in the next two days, but I am just not feeling that heaviness like I did with Lara, so I am surprised. But maybe my body has a little better control over things this time around.

Afterwards, Lara and I took a field trip to the hospital, and I once again explained the whole process to her. Mommy is coming here to get Claire out of her tummy, and you are going to go play with your friend Kennedy. Mommy will get some owies, but it will be okay, I will just have to lay down a lot. Then you can come to the hospital and see Claire, because she really wants you to give her some hugs and kisses. I didn't tell her that there is a little present in my hospital bag for her "from Claire." I pre-registered, though they still make you fill out a bunch of paperwork anyway, but I guess I figured I'd cover what bases I could.

In other news, my mother's day present finally arrived. Dustin bought me a really nice camera, and I am trying to learn all about aperture, light meters, f numbers, and so on. I'm still not quite achieving the look I am going for, but I will get it figured out. I need to learn mainly about lighting. I basically just carry the camera all around with me, and experiment as much as possible. This was the deal I signed up for. Dustin said he would only buy me this camera, if I REALLY learned how to use it. So I have been reading all the manuals. Regardless, these pictures still have great quality compared to my previous camera. Here are some pictures that have no touch-ups.

So here is Lara doing her typical thing. She takes all the shirts out of her drawer and tries to put them all on. She is very much into the layered look. Aperture too open, so there is blurriness.

Here are the flowers I planted.

My Mother's Day bouquet.

This is Lara having a really hard time waking up from her nap.

This is the very first picture I took with my camera to see how it felt. The flash popped up off the top of the camera and scared the bigeezies out of me. Someone tell that boy to cut his gotee!!

Lara is doing great. She's been in a really good, sociable mood lately. And she's loud. Dustin says what she can't do in her legs, she makes up for in her lungs....