A Quick Livia Update.

See that belly? That is the belly of a lady who is nearing the end of her pregnancy. Actually, my belly is pretty well camouflaged by my wrap and cape in that picture, but trust me when I say that this belly is large, and dare I say in charge. I am fairly certain that I am larger now than I was at this point with Roman... and it probably doesn't help that I gained 5 pounds in the last two weeks, but I am totally blaming that on all of the ridiculously yummy food I ate while I was on my little vacation in Seattle. But I can still shave my legs by myself, so I can revel in that little victory for a couple more weeks. This pregnancy has absolutely flown by. Dr. Nguyen still seems to be in a state of disbelief that we are well into the homestretch with baby #2. Everything is going smoothly so far; Livia is quite the active little baby once the sun goes down, but she can put on a good show even in the middle of the day. She had the hiccups a few minutes ago, but she doesn't get them nearly as often as Rome did. I am also happy to announce that I have had way less heartburn this time around... apparently this means that she will be bald when she's born, but we'll see. I am measuring a bit large; I am 32 weeks, but measuring 35 cm. Okay, side note: I don't know who or how or when it was discovered that your vertical belly measurement in centimeters lines up pretty darn closely with the number of weeks pregnant you are, but I find it fascinating. At 32 weeks I should be between 30-34 cm, so I am not that far off, and with Roman I was almost always a centimeter above, so it looks like Liv will follow in her brother's footsteps and be a large-ish baby. The big difference is that Livia won't get the chance to put on any extra weight since we have scheduled my c-section at 39 weeks. Apparently with repeat c-sections, they like to schedule them at least a week in advance so that that the mom doesn't go into labor on her own. So unless Liv decides to come super early, her birthday will be July 13th, 2012. Which means that Livia will be born on Friday the 13th! I am super excited about it! I love Friday the 13th; it has always been a good day for me, and this one will be especially great. I told Marc that we'll need to load some cheesy horror films onto his computer so that we can keep our tradition going even though we'll be in the hospital. And while I certainly wouldn't call myself an advocate for c-sections, I do have to admit that there is something really comforting about knowing when Liv is coming. We can schedule our helpers in advance, figure out when Marc is going to take his time off work, and make a well planned to-do list for everything. It's quite nice. And we are almost prepared for Liv's arrival. We still need to get her mattress, but the rest of the nursery is all set up. We were going to throw a little party to celebrate her impending arrival, but I told Marc that I just don't have the energy these days to put something together. So it looks like I am just going to have a bit of a girls' shopping trip instead with a few of my friends. That should be a fun day, and way less stressful than trying to throw a mini-shower, especially since we don't really need anything major since we still have all of Rome's baby stuff. I will have another appointment in two weeks, and I will have my last ultrasound to see just how big this little girl is and to make sure that everything still looks healthy, and I am really excited to see her one more time before July. When I was talking with Erica this afternoon we figured out that there are only 45 days left until Livia is born. That is seriously like no time at all.