a whole week of grandma!!

My mom stayed with us last week, much to our deepest appreciation.  She helped tremendously with chores and Josephine-- essentially taking over all the main responsibilities-- and played with her and read to her endlessly.  I don't think Josephine's ever had that much undivided attention for such a long span of time, and she. ate. it. up.

My camera sat on the shelf the whole time, despite about a hundred different instances of watching them and thinking, "oh, man, would I love some photographic evidence of this!"  I focused on baby prep, though, and some intentional episodes of rest and relaxation.

The idea was that she would come down and be with me while we waited for Sean to join us on Friday, just in case something happened.  But by Monday, I was calling Sean and saying he ought to come home early, as I thought there was a good chance the baby was on his way.  I won't go into graphic depiction of the symptoms that concerned me, but suffice it say, I thought the risk was real.  Naturally, Sean's arrival on Tuesday coincided with the abrupt halt of all such symptoms.

Lucky for us, though, my mom still hung around the remainder of the week, which also enabled a couple of dates for Sean and me and gave him time to settle back into things here in Austin and get some work done before really having to tow the parenting line.  We are SO grateful for her tireless help this last week!

I did insist on taking a couple pics before she headed out yesterday...

I think it's funny that they're making the same expressions in these.

In terms of baby prep... we got the clothes and gear washed and mostly in place, figured out how to arrange his stuff without disturbing Josephine's little world too much (which involved a lot of disturbing OUR room), packed hospital bags (mostly), I took a "coping skills" class with my doula, Kim, read about 5 more baby name books (still undecided), prepped a bunch of paperwork and other needed stuff, had another check-up, and below are pictures of us on the hospital tour yesterday. 

There's still a short list of things that need to be ironed out before I can truly stop fretting about an early arrival, but that list is a LOT more manageable than it was a couple weeks ago.  Considering my exhaustion level and the pace at which I'm moving lately, it feels like just about the right amount for what I can get done before my due date.
Without a doubt, having my mom's help and Sean's early arrival and help all enabled progress without the heaps of stress that would have come if I were trying to manage it all single-handedly.   So thankful!