39 weeks... but who's counting?

I can't believe baby #2 is due this Friday.  I have three days left until the due date!  Ahhhh!  I still think the baby is coming late, but I can't help but hope he/she will make an appearance any day now.  
I have been such a slacker with the belly pictures this pregnancy.  Matt did take some good ones last week, and I think I have the courage to let you all see them, too.  Here you go:

38 weeks

Loving my two babies!

Yikes!  The bare belly!  It is getting big.  :)

We have the room ready, the baby's bag is packed, and Matt has the car seat base installed.  Phew!  So all we need now is the baby.

I had some cramping and contractions last Sunday night.  They were pretty painful and they stuck around for about three hours, but they were short and very sporadic.  Then, at 4:30am, all contractions stopped and I went back to sleep.  Since then... nothing!  Boo for false labor!  It really got my hopes up and now I am more impatient than ever.  I am so excited to find out if Steven will have a baby sister or brother and I am very anxious for labor at the birthing center. 

After a less than satisfying experience with the hospital during my labor and delivery with Steven, we decided to try something different.  This time we are planning on having the baby at the Mountain Midwifery Center.   It is a birth center near Swedish hospital.  My good friend, Shantelle, delivered her second child there and Matt and I decided to check it out last November.  Once we completed a tour and an orientation, we were hooked!  The center is run by midwives and if everything goes well (no complications), we will get the labor experience we want.  It is going to be a drug-free attempt (yikes!), but Matt and I are both believers in natural childbirth and we think a woman's body can do powerful, amazing things - so I can do this!  (Hopefully.  I'll let you all know in a few weeks how it went.)  

I will update the blog with pictures of the family once we have expanded... until then, wish me luck!
C