It's been quite a busy week on the baby front ...

[caption id="attachment_443" align="alignright" width="383" caption="later rearranged to spell "CAN RATS GO APE!""][/caption]

Sunday - My Boston gal pals threw me a lovely baby shower.� It was so awesome to have (most of) my best girlfriends in the same room at the same time, especially since many of them never cross paths.� We had a lot of fun eating yummy food (and rearranging some of it to spell funny things - "CAN RATS GO APE!"), "ooo"ing and "awww"ing at cute monkey outfits and stuffed polar bears (AKA "Buddy Bear"), and chatting about Baby Lump.� Thanks to everyone who came, and a special thanks to Kara who hosted the party and made tons of delicious, homemade food!� Mmm - spinach and artichoke dip ...

Monday - I had my 35th week doctor appointment, where I withstood a pleasant little group B strep screening, found out that according to the ultrasound Baby Lump is in the 40th percentile size-wise and also learned I've been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions unbeknownst to me.� For some reason - I guess I didn't pay close enough attention to this part during our natural childbirth class - I was under the impression that Braxton Hicks contractions were supposed to be discomforting or painful, when in reality, they don't have to be.� Apparently all those times I've called James over to "Feel how incredibly hard/tight my belly is!" I've actually been having Braxton Hicks contractions ... who knew?

Tuesday - James and I took a tour of the labor/delivery and postpartum floors at the hospital.� It was really comforting to familiarize ourselves with the hospital, and it was especially fun imagining how we would be back there again soon to meet Baby Lump! We keep joking that Baby Lump's ETA sounds sort of like a shipping date ("expected time of delivery - two to six weeks").� The coolest part about the tour, however, was when were strolling past the NICU and one of the nurses brought out a one month old, 4 lb. premature baby girl (of a set of triplets) who was getting ready to go home in the next couple of days.� Definitely the smallest being we've ever seen, and completely adorable.� But man - imagine having to spend one whole month without your newborn!� It made me very thankful that Baby Lump should be coming on time.

Oven Timer: 35 weeks, 4 days

My oldest sister, Adrienne, is pregnant!!!

Can you tell I've been holding this in for a while?� Ever since she told me about about a month ago, I've basically been harassing her via phone and Facebook message about when I was allowed to blog about it.� Well, I've finally gotten the green light, and I'm ridiculously excited!

[caption id="attachment_430" align="aligncenter" width="464" caption="the mommy- and daddy-to-be"][/caption]

The baby will be Adrienne and my brother-in-law, Mac's first.� Their due date is July 11, so it looks as though Baby Lump is going to have a cousin very close in age, which I think is awesome.� While it is a bit of a bummer that Baby Nutter (Mac and Adrienne's last name is Nutter) will be stationed far away in Michigan, it will still be nice for the two rugrats to have each other's company at least during family gatherings.� And although Baby Lump will have bragging rights as the first grandchild in our family, I can bet both babies will be spoiled equally by both the grandparents and great-grandparents.

What I can't bet on, though, is that A's pregnancy will be anything like mine.� As far as I can tell, she'll be finding out Baby Nutter's flavor ASAP.� And the natural childbirth route?� Fuhgetaboudit!� Either way, I'm going to be a mother and an aunt all within less than a year - how exciting!

Congratulations, Adrienne and Mac!� May your 9 week old tadpole grow into a lovely little Nutter Butter :o)

Nutter Oven Timer: 8 weeks, 6 days

My lovely friend, Amanda Gravel tagged me in a meme last night.� Basically, you grab the sixth photo on the sixth page of your Flickr photostream and write about it on your blog.� Unfortunately, the Little Baby Lump Flickr page only has a total of four pages so far, so I snatched a photo from my regular Flickr page, which you can find here.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="James in the Park "][/caption]

The sixth picture on the sixth page of my photostream just so happens to be a pretty cute picture of Baby Lump's dad (wearing my BU Terriers hat - thief!) sitting on a swing in the park across the street from my old apartment.� Something tells me the next time James and I will be visiting a park, it'll be Baby Lump's first time at one.� What a fun thought!

To keep the meme going, I am tagging Rebecca Corliss, Mike Volpe, Joe Cascio, Julia Roy, Shelley Greenberg and Yianni Garcia.� Have fun, guys!

Oven Timer: 34 weeks, 3 days

Well, I had my ultrasound on Monday after my doctor's concern that my belly was measuring slightly smaller than normal, and I'm happy to report that everything is A-okay with Baby Lump.� I guess I must just hide it well, huh?

[caption id="attachment_406" align="alignright" width="352" caption=""Congratulations Pamela!!""][/caption]

So Lump is estimated to currently weigh 5 pounds (though I think it's hilarious that there is apparently a 13 oz. margin of error when determining weight via ultrasound).� (Raising a glass of sparkling cider)� Here's to hoping he/she doesn't have some crazy ridiculous growth spurt in the next several weeks before birth!

What's also cool is the ultrasound technician was able to tell for sure that the baby's head is down, which means Baby Lump is starting to gear up for a (hopefully) smooth landing.� Apparently it's highly unlikely the baby's position will change at this point, so it looks as though I won't have to worry about Baby Lump being in a breech position.� Hurrah!

In other news, I wouldn't be surprised if Baby Lump gained a whole pound of weight from my cake consumption alone today.� My wonderful colleagues at the Office of New Media at BU threw me an awesome little baby party today, where they all wished me "Happy Baby!"� (Because, seriously, what else are you supposed to say at baby parties?)� Check out the cake they got me - definitely not a Cake Wreck, that's for sure!� Special thanks go to my boss, Pam, who made all of the arrangements for the little shindig.� I had a great time!

Check out the latest ultrasound pictures on the Sonograms page!

Oven Timer: 34 weeks, 2 days