Update- 36 weeks

Everything's going very well on our end. Besides a cold, and beginning to feel a bit more and more uncomfortable, I'm feeling well. At last week's doctor's appointment, the baby's heart rate was 148 bpm, and is head down (which means it is highly unlikely at this point in time that it would flip around to be breech). The doctor briefed us on the 5-1-1 rule for heading to the hospital and calling them (contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute, lasting for 1 hour).

This week is Pitt's spring break, but as most of you know, to a graduate student that doesn't mean anything, whatsoever. So I'm still working on data collection for my experiments, and making my infamous lists of tasks and ideas for things that I can do at home after the baby comes and I feel up to it (I'm not kidding myself by expecting to be productive immediately after the baby's born).

We're still working steadily on the basement remodel. This weekend we took out the copper pipe water lines and replaced them with Pex tubing, as well as installed a new hot water tank. As with every project we've taken on, we've found more reasons of why we're taking the time and money to do it right now, since it seems that we're just averting imminent disaster if we were to leave things as they were. I can't imagine going through this process with anyone other than Brian, and am infinitely blessed to have someone as knowledgeable about everything (and I mean everything) as he is. We still have a long way to go, but it is immensely satisfying to me to see all the things we're getting checked off the list fairly quickly, since research at school is a never ending process. However, my "help" has become tidying up the basement's staging area, and trying to anticipate what tool Brian will need next, versus actually doing anything. I know this is helpful in it's own way, but I do wish I could do more. At least part of my job is making sure the baby stays where it's at for at least a few more weeks so we can get the carpet in, and move into our new family room!