40 & 15

It's my due date! Here is my last belly picture of this pregnancy, at 40 weeks:

SO, Jen was the winner of the Bertha guessing game. She was so remarkably close to having all the details correct! After I got her guess, I emailed her and scoffed - SCOFFED! at her ridiculous suggestion that I'd have an early, small baby. Oh well. I wanted to wait to see who won before I announced the prize, and I'm so glad it was Jen. We've wanted to get together to meet with some other FL bloggers and whenever we get around to it, Jen, your lunch/dinner is on me! Not a million-dollar prize, but still - free meal! I hope we can make this happen soon (as in, before I go back to work full-time!).

Some have asked where Maria Katherine gets her name; while I do have a relative named Maria, she's actually named after me! Some of you might know that my name is someone else's nickname - my mother's family hosted an Austrian exchange student who went by the nickname Maresi, and her full name is Maria Theresa. Why should boys have all the fun of being named after their parents? The middle name Katherine is obviously in honor of my sister.

Maria has been eating really well - she prefers to nurse on one side per meal and eats every 2.5-3.5 hours. Her umbilical cord came off today - her belly button is a true button. It's really a small umbilical hernia, which her pediatrician says should correct itself in the next couple of years. Maria is a noisy sleeper, and even when she's not needing me I have trouble sleeping... but we're getting by. She is spending more time awake more each day - it is so cute to see her looking around, taking in the world as it goes by.

AND, I can finally tell you all some very awesome news that I was privileged to know quite some time ago - my sister is 15 weeks pregnant!! When we were in CT together in July for my cousin's wedding, we took our one and only side-by-side belly picture (she was 7 weeks and I was 32 weeks):

Everything seems to be going perfectly for Katherine and her husband through this pregnancy. I can't wait till she comes to visit in October and I get to see that belly in person, and then to meet that little baby in March! Here she is today:

YAY! A new niece or nephew!