36 weeks

Wow, here we are at 36 weeks, just a month left in this pregnancy!

While waiting to pick up Jonathan at Intel
(In the hubbub of my Mum's visit, we didn't take our usual
pregnancy photo, so this one from 35+3 weeks will work instead.)

The past week has been great! Last Wednesday evening Jonathan and I had the privilege of going to an Andrea Bocelli concert, one of Jonathan's favourite tenors, which was a wonderful birthday present for Jonathan (whose birthday was the day before the concert). We both really enjoyed the event, although we both agreed that we preferred the songs and pieces in the second half of the concert a bit better than the more operatic ones in the first half. Baby G seemed to enjoy the flute pieces and "The Prayer" the best. There was a lot of excited kicking going on during those numbers. :) Might we have a flautist or singer on our hands? We had a nice relaxing evening of great music. Thanks, Mom and Dad G., for the sweet gift!

The day after the concert, last Thursday, my Mum flew in to the area and spent the majority of six days with us. I can't believe that it's almost been a year since I last saw her in person, when I was home last June and July for two of my friends' weddings! How does time fly by so fast? It was so fun to have Mum here visiting. She was able to come to a prenatal appointment with us on Thursday afternoon, and we spent the bulk of the other days shopping for baby essentials and food items. Mum cooked up quite a lot of delicious food to fill up our freezer for the busy weeks ahead. She also took quite a few maternity photos of me and the baby bump, and Jonathan and I together throughout the days she was here. We'll share some of those pictures here when she's had time to edit them and send them to us. Below are just a few of the ones she's shared with us so far. Thanks so much, Mum, for taking the time to fly down and visit us, make amazing food for us to store away until we'll need it, and especially for taking special maternity photos for us to treasure!

Morning mug shot

Testing out the weight of different car seats (that doll was heavy!)

Saying goodbye at the airport

As I mentioned in my 34 week post a couple weeks ago, lots of people, ones we know as well as perfect strangers, have been asking us if our baby is a girl or a boy. I read this article a few days ago, which made me grin and nod about some points - numbers 6, 5, and 3 in particular - and I decided to share it here, as well as add some other random commentary of my own on the subject.

(Note: there is a bit of language, so read at your own discretion):
7 reasons not to find out the sex of the baby - The Daddy Files

I know some people have told me that they are planners and they could never stand not knowing ahead of time if they're having a boy or a girl. This feeling of needing to know obviously varies a lot from person to person, but it's not a concept I personally really understand. I mean, I'm a planner, too, but I have thought and thought about this perspective and I'm just not sure what really needs to be planned out ahead of time that would make it crucial to know if the baby is a girl or a boy. As far as I can imagine or have been told, a baby needs the basics to survive: a method to get food into their bellies, a place to be changed and a stack of diapers to use, a pile of clothes for them to wear, a place to sleep, and of course, in this day and age, a car seat to get them home and take them out to all those post-natal appointments I've heard so much about. If you've got those basics down (which I'm sure most soon-to-be parents do, as well as quite a few others), I'm not sure what else you need to plan for. And none of those things I mentioned above require knowing if the baby is a girl or a boy (although gender-neutral clothing isn't the easiest to find, so I guess I can partially concede that point). Anyway, that's just some random baby gender commentary to add to what I wrote in my 34 week post.

We do have some other pregnancy updates to share soon. I think this post is long enough, so we'll share those updates in a separate post. Stay tuned.

All photos in this post are from my Mum, Glenda. The last one was taken by Jonathan on her camera.