June 27th - 36 Weeks!!!!! SOoooo Closee!!!

Took this picture having just woken up this morning ..... you can see the sleepiness in my face, haha!

I am tremendously anxious-excited!! 

I can NOT even begin to believe how fast time is flying by! Little Olive will be with us before I even realize it -- which is SCARY and AWESOME but SCARY!! I am loving maternity leave and the time off to settle my head, prepare the apartment, get things ready, and just reeeeelllaaxxxxxx. I honestly can not thank Google enough for allowing me this time!

Everyone I talk to, family, friends, co-workers, are all telling me:

"Diana, spend this time Sleeping! Literally, sleep all day and all night !- hibernate! Because your about to have at least 2 months of very little of that!" 

-- yikes!! But of course ... all that talk does is force me into thinking - "How do I make the postpartum as easy as possible?"... and off I go into not resting but instead Do-ing and Plann-ing mode.  :D

Either way, I am very proud of myself for how organized I've become, how active I've continued to be, and how all around amazing Nobie and I have been throughout this whole process. 

This week 36: Things I have done that I am VERY proud of: 

Prep for Birth/Labor: 

• Doula: There's a ton of TEDtalks and youtube videos that praise the use of doulas, but even above this.. for my cousin Titina- her doula undeniably a God send and for cousins I have talked to that have been through the US hospital birth experience... as Alina beautifully put it - "Hiring a Doula to advocate and represent you for your birth is just as necessary as hiring a lawyer for a lawsuit." - aaaaaaand I'll choose DOULA. 

          This weekend was jam-packed with interviews, and after meeting 3 very different doulas - 

          our 4th interview, Lori, was a total personality/experience match and I am SOOO HAPPY!!

• Spinning Babies: Great website to assist baby positioning during pregnancy. I am doing all of the daily and weekly exercises (as long as I remember) to get the best case scenario for labor-day!

• Babywise: Starting to get very serious about routine, routine, routine, and learning what we can now while we have time to prepare ourselves for the months when we'll likely be running around crazy.  Recommended by my cousins who have very happy, well-slept babies, I am hoping this system works on Olive to get her to an easy 7-9 hours of sleep a night in the first month. Fingers Crossed!

• Pediatrician: Meeting 2 potential pediatricians this week! Boom Boom getting things done!

• anndddd Pregnancy Photos: I've decided that I'm not the biggest fan of beautiful, expensive photography and I've had a lot of fun with Nobie taking our own photos week by week. Since it is nice to have some great beauty shots to look back on, we're dedicating sometime this week to capturing our pregnancy with our nice fancy camera :)

          We did a really short test run last weekend and here is what we came up with :D

So Beautiful!!! I can't wait until we do some more later today :D