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It has arrived - the Third Trimester. I can't really believe it. I am both excited and stunned to be here. I realize I owe you a belly-picture and will try to get on it asap. (The pregnancy websites/books weren't kidding though, my belly really grows an additional 1/2 inch each week - it's a little crazy.)

I can tell the baby is starting to put a hurtin' on my body. I took Buddy (our "special" dog) on a 2 hour walk at Umstead Park yesterday. I was so proud of myself because I was going at a much quicker pace than we had gone the previous weekend . It was a gorgeous Fall day and Buddy was behaving himself nicely (for the most part). But the the back & hip aches that began last night & kept me awake until I finally took some Tylenol at 3:30 a.m. have brought me to the decision that hikes will be limited to a more reasonable time-frame from now on. I have yet to see another pregnant lady wandering through the trails of Umstead - maybe that should have been a clue to me?

In more exciting news, the nursery is officially "under construction" now! As I write this, Richard and Craig are painting the baby's room. It's really cute because I think Richie is very excited & proud to be working on his son's room. The baby's bathroom will be painted next and then an old dresser will be given a new life as a changing table. Yahoo!

And to clue you in on my current state of mind, one of the pregnancy sites for this week started with a quote that really sums it up: "Billions of people have children and figure it out. So I must be able to do it too, right? Right! Right?" Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I'm not freaking out, I swear. At least he'll have a bedroom :-)