32 weeks down.

This week marks the 32nd week of my pregnancy. My due date of Jan. 25 looms over the horizon. In 8 weeks or so I will be the mother of 2. I will have a daughter. Those two facts alone are enough to knock the breath out of me.

Cole can't wait to hold his baby sister. In the same breath that he's asking me why my belly keeps getting bigger he's also asking me if he can hold the baby and give her a kiss. When I explain that she's growing inside my belly he gives that a kiss instead, content to wait for now. I joke with my colleagues, who have multiple children, that he really has no idea what he's in for. But, really, neither do I.

I'm still getting regular contractions. They are only made worse if I don't take my medicine every 4 hours or if I become dehydrated. The only time I don't take my medicine is at night while sleeping. If I wake up in the early morning with a contraction (which I often do) I take it and try my hardest to go back to sleep (which I often don't.)

I drink as much water as I can during the day but since we only use a water cooler at work we sometimes run out of water and have to wait a while for a delivery. Everyone warns me NOT to drink the water out of the fountains since IBM is right down the road and God knows what they've dumped into the ground over the years. The water is deemed okay by an independent inspector but no one drinks it. The fountains are dry and rusted and even the substitute teachers have warned me not to drink it. If you look close enough you'll find water coolers hidden in many of the schools department and administrative offices.

Other than contractions I have normal pregnancy symptoms- fatigue, shortness of breath and sometimes the worst indigestion where I feel like I'm burping up my meal for hours on end.

I've talked to the office manager at my Ob practice and told her my concerns that I mentioned here in my last "currently" post. She said she was going to share my concerns during a meeting today and get back to me, but I never heard from her. I'll probably follow up tomorrow.

I still need to hire a doula, and I wish I could figure out why I waited until now to start my search.

The good news is that we found a replacement for me at work while I'm gone and Keith and I are really leaning towards me taking the rest of the school year off, which has been another source of stress for me. I want to do that more than anything, but I know it's going to mean we will be struggling financially until I return to work in September. And it probably means one of us borrows from our retirement so we can make our mortgage payments. That scares Dada and I a lot, but this is a chance for me to be home full time for 8 months with our daughter and that's a once in a lifetime opportunity I just don't want to pass up this time around. I made the mistake once (of not doing what my heart desired), and I don't want to repeat it.

Baby Girl is doing well. She moves around a lot and continues to spend her days dancing on my cervix and punching my arm when I lean on my belly. She hiccups quite often and seems to be on the small side, according to the tech during my most recent ultrasound to check on the status of my cervix. I'm fine with this for obvious reasons. I'd rather not have to push out a baby bigger than Cole was when he was born (7 pounds 3 ounces).

Below is my 32 week bump. Looks humongous to me when I look down at it, but this picture shows me how "small" I really do "carry" my babies. Next pic is the bassinet we received as a hand me down. I'm so in love with it I had to get it in here as soon as possible. Cole loves it too (as do the cats) and whenever he sees something in it or on it he promptly throws it off and says "That doesn't belong here. This bassinet is for the baby." Already defending his little sister. What a great big brother he's going to be.