All my bags are packed...

Well folks, the hospital bag was packed:

the car seat has been installed:

I'm SO ready to be less uncomfortable:

the little guy's "take-home" outfit was chosen and washed (it's a secret!)...

and we're as ready as we'll ever be.

I mean, let's be honest, I don't think I'll ever be ready.  At my OB appointment yesterday morning, I was getting so anxious and nervous that I was sweating through my clothes!  There's so much to think about (the pain, the labor, the delivery, BWL's health...can I handle this???), and it certainly can be overwhelming at times, but I'm trying to focus on the positives at this point and realize that Benjamin could be here pretty soon. I have always considered myself a strong, capable woman (if you didn't know that, we may have never met), but all of a sudden, I'm having doubts about being able to actually do this.  Like, actually give birth to a baby....  let's not even start on everything that comes after that! :)

I'm definitely not jumping up and down about being induced; of course I would have rather him get here in his own sweet time.  But learning to let go of expectations is certainly nothing new and a lesson I often need reminding of.  And I've never done this before, so who really cares about my expectations anyway?!

Judging by how much time we'll have at the hospital to keep everyone updated, we'll try to use the blog as a means of posting the major happenings over the next few days.  It's going to be a wild (and painful) ride! :) 

Oh, and while finishing my birth mix for the hospital, I came across this song and (of course) started tearing up a bit (or maybe a lot).  (Plus, isn't his voice just so beautiful?)

The Things We've Handed Down

Marc Cohn
(sound below)

Don't know much about you
Don't know who you are
We've been doing fine without you
But, we could only go so far
Don't know why you chose us
Were you watching from above
Is there someone there that knows us
Said we'd give you all our love

Will you laugh just like your mother
Will you sigh like your old man
Will some things skip a generation
Like I've heard they often can
Are you a poet or a dancer
A devil or a clown
Or a strange new combination of
The things we've handed down

I wonder who you'll look like
Will your hair fall down and curl
Will you be a mama's boy
Or daddy's little girl
Will you be a sad reminder
Of what's been lost along the way
Maybe you can help me find her
In the things you do and say

And these things that we have given you
They are not so easily found
But you can thank us later
For the things we've handed down

You may not always be so grateful
For the way that you were made
Some feature of your father's
That you'd gladly sell or trade
And one day you may look at us
And say that you were cursed
But over time that line has been
Extremely well rehearsed
By our fathers, and their fathers
In some old and distant town
From places no one here remembers
Come the things we've handed down

(sorry, I couldn't find a link to the mp3 alone)