Well, so far, so good.

Diana is doing well, aside from some minor aches and pains and soreness. She woke me up last night with a gnarly cramp in her calf, and I had to pry her ankle back to stretch it out. That was pretty exciting. But no major complaints.

Little Spraggette, as far as we can tell, is doing well. She continues to dance around, and like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, appears to be systematically testing the perimeter of her enclosure for any vulnerability or structural weakness. It’s still so weird to feel her rolling around in there. Last night, we could pretty much tell where her body was, and when I put my ear up to Diana’s belly, I’m pretty sure that I could hear her heartbeat. That was pretty exciting.

Aside from some finishing touches, I think we’re about as prepared as we can get. We have cribs and clothes and diapers (and other various “ass accoutrements”, as we privately say around the house), and all sorts of other tools and instruments and toys. Since I’ve never changed a diaper before, I figured I’d check them out. Diana went and got a monkey stuffed animal, and I did some practicing on that. Easy-peasy, except for the tail getting in the way. Hopefully that’s not a problem with the real version. The car seat has been installed, since that needs to happen to get the baby home from the hospital, and, of course, the monkey (still in diapers) had to test it out.

Diana said she read somewhere that 80% of people install their carseats incorrectly. My gut-reaction, decidedly un-PC response was “Yeah, well 80% of people are retarded”. I installed the carseat, and was pretty sure I did it correctly. It goes without saying that safety is important, and I wanted to do it correctly, but after my little comment I wanted to make VERY sure I did it right. Diana took it to some place where they check carseats, and apparently they said it was “way too loose”. So either Diana got scammed somehow (unlikely), or I’ve got some words to stuff back in my mouth (much more likely). Oh well.

We graduated from our childbirth class, which proved to be the worst class ever. The teacher was friendly, but awful. I wish I had Eryn’s aptitude for mimicry, because she had a really distinctive way of speaking, but I could never do it justice. She seemed to start off a thought, then switch topics multiple times during the same sentence, and finally trail off with a little giggle, and move onto the next thought. At the end of the class, she handed out an evaluation form. “Let me know if you run out of ink”, I said, as Diana offered some friendly advice on how to be a better teacher.

We had a baby shower a week ago, thrown by Diana’s sister and a family friend, and it was very nice. To be honest, I was a little worried that it would be filled with activities that I wasn’t comfortable with (not only for myself, but for my friends), but it all turned out well, and I think everyone had a good time. My mom even flew in from Montana to surprise us there, which was really fun.

That’s about where we’re at. The busy summer of friends from out of town, night classes, and various other events has basically come to a close, and we’re officially entering countdown phase. I can’t say we’re prepared for every eventuality, but I think we’re in pretty good shape, all things considered. Ask me again in a month or two.