A year ago...

I was 37 1/2 weeks pregnant and looked like this:

It pretty crazy to think back to those days in contrast to where we are now. I had just started maternity leave and was ordered by my dr to be a "couch potato". It wasn't bedrest, thank goodness, but I had to take it easy because my blood pressure was creeping up. I was seeing him every other day and each time wondering if I would be ordered an induction, and we also knew that we had a big baby (or "solid chunk o' baby" as my dr would say) and she had been head (or "coconut" another dr term) down for weeks...

The fun part was collecting 24 hours worth of urine to test protein levels for signs of preeclampsia. The ultrasound showed a healthy baby, but bloodwork and pee was needed. Can you imagine how annoying it was to collect pee in a "hat" in the toilet, then transfer it to a big jug that has to be on ICE on the bathroom counter? Oh and at this point I had to pee every two minutes! That's a lot of pee, so much that the first huge jug was almost full the next day with a few hours to go, so we had to go back to the hospital to get another one! It was a sign of true love when we returned later with both jugs (wrapped in garbage bags) which the hubby carried for the hobbling prego through the parking lot and hospital!

Luckily everything checked out ok with the tests. We spent the next two weeks stationed at home on the couch and getting all the final preparations done. I remember looking at my huge belly as I got more uncomfortable by the hour, wondering if it would be "the day". I would go through freak out moments (nervousness, anxiety, fear, frustration) but tried my best to relax. More than anything I wanted to get out of the house, take a walk... What a weird feeling of being so ready and prepared but also completely NOT ready to face the unknown of parenting. I am a huge planner, so the anticipation was killing me (along with every imaginable side effect of late pregnancy). Now I wonder, how do women make it PAST their due date, I can't even imagine how much worse it gets!

Fast forward to today, and our baby girl is almost ONE WHOLE YEAR OLD! How can that be? This little girl...