The past couple of days have been so hectic.

On Thursday, Jay and I took off from work and cleaned and fixed and patched and made things pretty in our house. Then we met my mom in Baltimore and had dinner at a seafood restaurant.

On Friday we picked up his cousin (Veronica) at the airport and did some last minute errands like pick up the decorations, beverages (both alcoholic and non) and cleaned some more. We ended the night with Kobe steaks for Jay and his cousin (and chicken for me).

On Saturday we rearranged the furniture and then people started showing up. His aunt and uncle arrived latein the morning to start making the rice and beans and then his mom showed up. Veronica had already done most of the decorating (which was FABULOUS!) so all we had to do was wait for the caterer to arrive while we set up the games.

There was so much food (our neighbors also contributed and made a potato dish, arroz con pollo and flan)… and we were so worried that there wouldn’t be enough. We had so much fun and our little boy received so many great gifts — we can’t wait for him to see them all! We have tons of pictures; the digital age is great — you can get other people’s pics in a matter of seconds. Jay also has video footage which he’ll be putting on DVD’s and shipping out to the family.

Once the furniture arrives, we can start finalizing the room. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’s delivered before the baby.

From babycenter.com:

How your baby’s growing: Your baby’s getting big. He weighs a tad over 5 pounds and is just over 18 inches long. Because it’s so snug in your womb, he isn’t likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he’ll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

How your life’s changing: Your uterus — now up under your ribs — has expanded to about 15 times its original volume, and you may feel like you’ve run out of room! If you could peek inside your uterus, you’d see that there’s much less amniotic fluid and much more baby in there now. Your ballooning uterus is crowding your internal organs too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and have heartburn and other digestive problems. If you don’t have these problems, you’re one of the lucky few.

Your doctor or midwife will probably want to start seeing you every week until you deliver. She may ask you to count fetal movements, to track your baby’s activity level. Between now and 37 weeks, she’ll also do a culture to check for bacteria called Group B streptococci (GBS). This is done by swabbing the lower end of your vagina and your rectum — the swab is the size of a regular cotton swab, and it won’t hurt at all. Group B streptococcus is usually harmless in adults, but if you have it and pass it on to your baby during labor and birth, it can cause complications (like pneumonia, meningitis, or a blood infection). Because 10 to 30 percent of pregnant women have the bacteria and don’t know it, it’s important to be screened. (The bacteria come and go on their own — that’s why you weren’t screened earlier in pregnancy.) If you’re a GBS carrier, you’ll be given IV antibiotics when you’re in labor, which will reduce your baby’s risk of infection by 70 percent.

This is also a good time to fill out your birth plan. Using our form will help you focus on specifics — like who will be present, what pain management techniques you want to try, and how long you want to stay in the hospital. It will give you a starting point to discuss your preferences with your medical team. Labor and delivery are unpredictable and you probably won’t follow your plan to the letter, but knowing ahead of time what choices you have to make can take some of the anxiety out of the process.