Belly shots

Now that we're just over three weeks away from...well, possibly from nothing more than a date on the calendar that could come and go without incident, I thought I'd put up a few more belly shots. I really envy those people who have the wherewithal to take a photo of their growing stomach every week throughout their pregnancy. For some reason, I tend to reach a point where I think , "Oh yeah, I guess we should take a picture for the baby album" followed soon afterwards by the thought, "Oh yeah, I guess I need to get a baby album."

Before we see any shots of MY belly, Jack wanted to show you guys where his belly button is:

Is there anything cuter than a kid trying to look at his own belly button? He's actually gone face down in the bath water in search of it. His favorite time of day is in the morning when I'm getting him dressed and I give him a little diaper time between jammies off and clothes on. He runs around the living room as if to say "Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!"

Ok, so now for my belly. These are from Friday at 36 weeks. Now, I have an online friend who is pregnant with her second baby, and still has the nerve to lift her shirt to show off her beautifully bulging belly. I wish I did, but I do not have that nerve. Not only do I just feel funny doing it, but an interesting thing happened to my stomach during my pregnancy with Jack: For the entire 40 weeks, I had no stretch marks whatsoever. As I went overdue, I ended up getting one smallish one just beside my belly button and actually thought it was kind of cool that I got one. When I went into labor, ten days overdue, that was still the only one that I had. When I took a shower after delivering, I looked in the mirror and shrieked. My entire stomach was covered with reddish-purplish stretch marks that looked as if somewhere between the delivery room and my regular room, I'd been mauled by a tiger. I have no idea how it happened. Maybe my hips separated during the delivery just enough to stretch my skin to its breaking point? In any case, these same stretch marks, that had just faded to a silvery hue before I found out I was pregnant again, are now back in their full reddish regalia.

So without further ado, here she is:

I not only cleaned the mirror, but I also brushed my hair this time! And did I mention my $13 haircut from the Cuttery? Hello!? I love it! If you live near the Park City Mall in Lancaster, go see Amanda there - she does a great job.

My belly button is not sticking out in those pictures - that's the knot in my sweatpants. I never seem to "pop". I seriously think it has to do with that extra-long torso. I don't really stick out too far, it's all up and down. I can just picture the baby in there, legs stretched out, ankles crossed, kickin' back. What I do like, though, is that my waist is actually narrower from the front because all of my rolls are pulled forward. It's the only time I don't have any semblance of a "love handle" lately. Yeah, after this baby, it's time to get in shape, Eileen.

So there you have it, folks. Not much longer now until we meet this new babe. And I see that we got some more boy votes, so for the first time in the history of this poll (since my initial boy vote on day one), the ratio of girl to boy votes is less than 2:1. The suspense is killing me!