36 weeks along now...less than 3 weeks to go!

I am now in the middle of the 36th week of our pregnancy. I can't believe we are so close to the end. I am so excited to finally have this precious child in my arms. And I am very ready to not be pregnant anymore! I am now 9 months pregnant, and I definitely feel it. My low back hurts after standing up for only a few minutes. That means I have trouble cooking, doing the dishes, decorating the Christmas tree, cleaning, etc. But I want to be productive, and there is still a lot to do around here to prep for the arrival of Cupcake.
On Tuesday morning I had another NST. Cupcake did just fine, thank goodness! Then I walked next door to Dr. Burman's office for my weekly OB appt. The doctor acknowledged we are getting near the end, and he understands I am very worried and paranoid. He listened to the baby's heartbeat and measured my fundus (length of my belly). Then he checked my cervix to see how it was doing. He advised that my cervix is still closed and the baby is still pretty high up. He then said something that relaxed me a bit. Dr. Burman said that if my cervix doesn't change as we near 39 weeks, a c-section may be the best bet. He said that if my cervix is still closed and in no way ready for an induction, then an induction really isn't the best route to proceed. And that's exactly what I had learned, so I was pleased to hear him say this. So we'll just take it 1 day at a time, and we'll see how my body does or does not progress as we reach the end...39 weeks. Dr. Burman didn't feel the need to perform an ultrasound at this recent appt. He mentioned that if the nurses notice anything during the NST appts that is a concern, and if he doesn't feel comfortable with the baby's status, then we'll get the baby out at that time. We're close enough to the end now that if there is an issue with the baby's health/status, they'll just immediately deliver the baby.
Now that we are through Thanksgiving, it's time to decorate for CHRISTMAS!! Our tree is up, and we have 500 Christmas lights on the tree! We've got lots of ornaments and a beautiful angel tree topper on there. When attempting to put our lights on the tree, we discovered that our current tree lights weren't working well, and about half of each strand had lights that wouldn't light up. So we invested in the new LED lights for the tree, and they are great so far. We also purchased some LED lights for the exterior of the house, and this is the first time we've had lights on the outside of the house. Everything looks great!
My best friend Marianne just gave birth to her little girl yesterday, and I am so happy for her! This is Marianne and Garrett's first child, and they delivered the baby in Hawaii, which is where they live. I don't have many details right now, and I haven't even seen a photo of their baby yet. I can't wait to see how cute she is! All I know is that Bailey Gresham was born on 12/1/10 at 11:31 am weighing in at approx 8.5 lbs and she is 22 inches long. I hear that Marianne did a great job through the labor and I am so proud of her! I will post a pic of her and the baby once it is available.




Avalon's special Christmas ornament. Her tiny hand print is so precious.




Our beautiful Christmas tree!


Our lovely mantle! The stockings L to R: Edward's, mine, Avalon's, an Avalanche stocking in place of Cupcake's, and Sawyer's stocking. Once Cupcake is born, I will immediately buy a personalized stocking for our newest addition.


The beautiful sunset from yesterday evening.



Edward put up the exterior Christmas lights last night!


Here's my belly shot at 36 weeks pregnant with Cupcake. Unfortunately, right now I can't provide a comparison shot of my belly when I was pregnant with Avalon. My PC is not working, and I am praying that Edward can fix it and salvage all my photos and personal documents. So in the meantime I'm working off of my laptop, which doesn't have many of my photos on it. If I can, I will update this posting in the future with a photo comparison.