Week thirty-three.

It strikes me that these weekly posts in some ways seem written from a prison cell... which then reminds me of this video that you should watch:

Shrimps:

• Were identical blond girls in a dream last night. Which was surprisingly irritating to Laura in the dream, given that we have a bunch of boy clothes and so forth.
• Continue to stretch and roll around and jab Laura's right ribcage. They are still in a "bunk bed" position, both sideways with heads to Laura's left, feet to Laura's right. 
• Have plenty of fluid to float around in (I go in for this measurement weekly now), and heartbeats are looking good.
• Had their pictures taken at this week's sonogram, will have to scan and add here even though they look a bit scary.
• Have mattresses, a diaper bin, and a number of other items that came this week- our friends and family are awesome!

Laura:

• Magically survived managing the big annual symposium at work last Friday, with 80+ participants and 4 speakers... although she did sleep 12 hours immediately upon returning home from said event. This week brings an assistant/temporary replacement for fmla- about time.
• Is now 30 pounds above normal... we'll see how much higher it goes. My pelvic floor muscles are sad.

Andrew:

• Has his MD plates for his car, hooray! While this is not exactly baby related, it was on his list of things to complete beforehand so still good.
• Is riding the tidal waves of Laura's emotions pretty well. During dinner tonight he mentioned that he anticipated quite a beating during labor, and that he would probably just end up standing in the corner. I suggested he try holding my hand and I would smack him away if I didn't want to. Ah, such love. 

Fun things from Birth Day:

• The average obstetrician faces 2-3 major lawsuits in their career for a birth that went awry. This increase has resulted in less doctors attending births, and more trigger happy use of c-sections if anything is out of the ordinary.
• Queen Victoria was less than five feet tall, and gave birth to nine children that were, "wonderfully strong and large." Needless to say she was a strong supporter of the early use of chloroform. 
• It was thought at the time by those opposed to pain relief for labor that using chloroform or the like would unleash an uncontrollable female sexual frenzy.