1 week until my due date!

WHERE does time go?!?!

This pregnancy has been just as easy as the first.  The only notable difference has been that I was MUCH MORE fatigued during the first trimester this time around.  It could just be a different pregnancy, or it's a result of chasing around an extremely active toddler all day every day!

16 weeks pregnant: Isn't the bump supposed to be in the front?

Another difference is how calm this baby has been.  Maks used to kick me like a jiu-jitsu professional (his personality was shining through way back in the womb).  As a result, I never could understand the other pregnant women who would swoon over the movements that their babies would make.  Mine hurt!  Thankfully, this baby has been a bit more low key.  I still always struggle to not find it completely strange that a bump on my belly is actually a protruding limb or body part of another human being...but that's just me!

26 weeks and growing.

I firmly believe that Maks has no idea how his life is about to change.  He has a baby doll that has been around since we first found out that we were expecting a second child.  After a week of gentle kisses, swaddling and walks in his wagon, Maks made it clear to me that he had changed his mind about being a big brother...by sneaking his baby into the trash.

I'm thinking he might prefer to have a 2nd dog instead of a sibling!

Fortunately, he's come back around and spends a large portion of each day carrying his baby around, sharing his food/water, changing his "diaper" and making sure he's buckled tightly into the infant car seat next to him on road trips.

Why the baby is wearing 3 pair of panties, I'm not sure.  He also used a baby wipe on the doll's feet - always a good idea!

Somebody broke into his little sibling's Christmas present early.  Apparently the baby doll has first dibs on the moses basket!

Luckily, he's excited about this arrangement!

In much the same fashion as my pregnancy with Maksim, we only finalized our birth plans near the final month of pregnancy!  But, I'm pleased to say that we'd decided to pursue a home birth with baby #2!  Prenatal appointments have been a breeze!  My midwife comes to my house and we basically have a quick little chat, making sure I'm feeling ok and all of my questions/concerns are answered.  There's no packing up Maks into the car, driving to a doctor's office, waiting for hours on end in a waiting room, etc.  So convenient!

33 weeks pregnant and Maks has declared this the best pillow in the house!

Birthing at home just felt right to me.  I toured a local birthing center, but it still just felt too hospital-like for my liking.  Of course, I am limited to Certified Nurse Midwives via my insurance, so that could have played a role as well.  The birthing centers were beautiful - private rooms with attached flower gardens, birthing tubs, etc.  But as I toured a laboring mama came through the front doors.  I just couldn't imagine giving birth in a building with a bunch of random people present - knowing my midwife was attending to others (prenatal appointments, etc.) while I was delivering my baby.  I loved the little 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom home that I delivered Maks in.  Just Bryon, myself, my midwife and her 2 birth assistants.  It was quaint, homey, quiet and warm.  I just couldn't bring myself to accept the sterility of the birthing center, as gorgeous as it was.  I was looking for a comfortable, natural birth - not a stay at a 5 star hotel.

37 weeks pregnant and wearing Daddy's workout shirt...

...Desperately wishing there was an app that allowed you to skip the final weeks of pregnancy... 

...and travel back to a time where SOMETHING in your closet actually fit!

Needless to say, we found the one and only Certified Nurse Midwife in the area who does home births!  And she was available for my delivery date!  She's delivered nearly 3,000 babies in her career - which includes hospital births, birthing center births and home births.  I rest assured that she knows what she's doing, and that she will be more than skilled enough to identify any kind of situation that might require an emergency transport (Tampa General Hospital is about 2 miles straight down the street from us).

Belly kisses for Mama!

Modeling our midwife's behavior with the fetoscope.

I'm loving the fact that I can labor in my own house, in my own clothes, with access to all my own comforts.  If Maks is napping or sleeping, there is no need to wake him and find childcare.  When our baby is born, he will already be exactly where he belongs - at home and in our arms.  No uncomfortable hospital beds, no bad hospital food, no cold floors and stark white lights, no halls flourishing with the germs of sick individuals, no shoving a newborn into a carseat and nervously driving them home through inner city traffic...you get the idea.  Everybody has the right to pursue the birth they envision.  A peaceful home birth is what I strive for this time around (in addition to a baby that is smaller than 11 pounds...but we'll just have to wait and see about that!).

I can barely stand how he manages to curl his little foot around my belly.

He's one proud brother.

Fingers crossed that this love continues once baby #2 actually arrives!

I'm 39 weeks pregnant as of today.  1 week left...or maybe later today...or in about 3 weeks.  It's such a waiting game.  Part of me wishes to have this baby right now (I'm ready to physically be done with pregnancy) while another part of me is so incredibly nervous and unprepared to have 2 children under 2 years old on my clock!

Head over heels for my double pearl mama bird's nest necklace!  Our 2nd little egg will be here soon!

Maks and I continue to get into more of a groove with one another.  It's so difficult to imagine adding another member into our little circle.  I know it will be great.  But I truly believe it's something that you can't wrap your head around until it's actually here.

Why couldn't he have liked this form of transportation throughout the previous 38.5 seeks of pregnancy? 

In the end, he'll forever remain my first born.  And he has taught me so, so much (about myself, parenting and life in general) in such a relatively short period of time.  We're soaking up the last few days of our special bond before we open our arms to another little man to love!