Hear my baby coming...

So, our 36 week appointment was interesting.   Because of needing the learn the ropes at her new job, J wasn't following her pregnancy profile too well.  The midwife stated that she guessed the baby was 7 lbs, and based upon where the baby and J's body were with everything she also guessed that the baby would arrive at 38 weeks rather than 40.  Interestingly enough, she refused to make an exception to hospital policy to see us again at 37 weeks.  She did, however, strongly reiterate the need for J to follow her profile because if she didn't it could cause the baby to arrive even earlier.

This put us in end-game mode.  I made sure to submit my medical school application, we both made sure our bags were packed for a potential several day stay at the hospital (we heard that putting the bags in the car is a good idea, so we're trying that), and we're now just tying off a few loose ends in anticipation for the little one to arrive.  Thanks again to everyone for the gifts they have given.  I know that many will want to see pictures of the baby, so I'll post them as soon as I am able.

This being our first, J is understandably anxious.  Thus far, everything has been proceeding quite normally, so I'm confident it will all work out well.  I do know that I get to look forward to being the stay-at-home dad very soon, so I might be soliciting advice from others in the near future.

I can't really take a picture of it, but I absolutely love how clear the sky is here at night.  You can easily see the Milky Way, and it makes me want to crack out the telescope I have to see if I can get a good view of planets and even maybe even Andromeda.

In other news, I was able to repair the riding lawnmower that comes with the rental property.  The previous owners really beat it up.  After replacing the battery and using a pipe wrench to un-warp the blade guard, it now works quite well.  That thing is crazy fast too, going easily 15-20mph at full tilt!  It almost feels like an ATV at that point, but with no shocks to speak of.

Last thing.  I don't know if I mentioned this, but we were able to get the cats back a few weeks ago.  It's been pretty wild the romping at night, lap snuggling, and counter surfing.  It will make things interesting for sure once baby shows up.

(Sorry, no pictures today :( )

Hits just keep on coming...

Wow.

The amount of things we accomplished in the past month have been almost unbelievable.

We flew from Germany to the states with our dog, visited family for a short while temporarily dropping our dog off with them, discovered that our car was still not available from customs, rented a car for roughly two weeks, bought a car, rented a house, moved into the house, unpacked all of our stuff, got our dog back, got our car back from customs, set up new medical appointments, all while my poor wife is getting in-processed with a new unit in a new position while 7 1/2 months pregnant.

It's only been this week that we've been able to settle into a routine.  The house we've moved into is near a national forest, so the wildlife is ridiculous around here.  The first days we drove around we saw a doe and two fawns, two turkeys, a fox, and some crazy looking animal that we affectionately have called chupacabra.  Since we've moved into the house, I've seen a praying mantis, two massive slugs, a blue-tailed skink, and a stealth bomber.

 Quite honestly, the biggest slugs I have ever seen...just hanging out on our A/C unit.

 These things are so huge, quiet, and unusual that at first you think it's a UFO!