No, I have not been on a jury this entire time....

I'm just getting really lazy at this end of my pregnancy. So, let me try to sum up the last week and a half or so.

1. Went to jury duty. Very interesting process. There ended up being only one case that day, and they needed a 6 person jury. I was juror #11, so I figured I should be pretty safe since 5 people had to get bumped for me to make the jury. Four people got bumped. They took through juror #10. Whew! Dodged a bullet there.

2. Office party last Thursday went well. Catering was only an hour late. But we had a lot of fun and good food. We had a white elephant gift exchange. A white elephant gift in our office seems to be crap you don't want. The gift exchange is one where everyone draws numbers. Number 1 gets a gift from under the tree and opens it. Number 2 can then "steal" the gift from number 1 or get a different gift from under the tree. There were a couple of neat things, but mostly weird stupid stuff. I say at least get something people could use. But, that would probably defeat the purpose. There is a vase that has been circulating around the office every year during this exchange for about 15 years now. Scary.

3. Monday, the boss bought us lunch and we had a gift exchange between the secretaries. That went well. Spaghetti is always one of my favorites.

4. After lunch, we had our 36 week appointment. Woohoo! Everything looked good--BP normal, baby measuring right on, I gained a pound, so that puts me at 199 (maybe I won't hit 200). Apparently I'm not drinking enough water because my urine is cloudy or something like that. Whatever. If you had to drink the stuff that came out of the water fountain, you wouldn't be getting enough either. I make up for it in the evening when I'm dying of thirst. And then I make up for that overnight when I have to get up to pee over and over again. Bottom line, I'm getting enough water. It just didn't happen to be right before my appointment. I had my group B strep test and he checked my cervix. Absolutely nothing is going on. No dilation, no effacement. My OB assured me she hasn't dropped. No shit. I think she's clinging to my ribs like a little monkey right now. But, the most exciting part of the appointment...dum-da-da-dum! We have an induction date! If the little bugger doesn't try to escape early, I will be induced on December 27th. Yay!

This is a good date for many reasons. It is before December 31st -- very important -- need that tax credit. This is after December 23rd -- very important -- need to work through the 23rd so that I get my holiday pay for the last week in December or else we are what is known as "financially screwed". So, all the stupid idiots in my family who think it would be cool for this to be her first Christmas better just shut up before I scream when they mention it. Sorry, I'm getting a little hormonal anymore. And I will scream if anyone mentions to me that they think that's a sign that she's coming early. Just kidding. Sort of.

So, in short -- I must work through the 23rd. My husband needs (not necessarily a must) to work through the 24th. Since I would kind of like to have him around when she's born, baby cannot be born before 9:00 PM on the 24th or after the 31st. I don't think that's too much to ask. Obviously, if she chooses a different time, I can't really argue, but my preference would be between those dates. And I don't care if she's a Christmas baby. As long as they can get the anesthesiologist in to do the epidural and I don't get a crappy nurse and my OB is in town (which I get the feeling he won't be since they moved the date to the 27th rather than the 26th so that he would be here), she can arrive on Christmas. The anesthesiologist would be the most important of those 3. I can deal with a bad nurse, and my 2 year old was born on a Sunday, so my OB missed her birth as well.