Everyone else seems to be much more worked up than I am about the fact that we are still a family of two rather than three.

Personally, I'm feeling pretty relaxed about it. Whenever this little person wants to join us is fine by me -- assuming, of course, that we don't start getting into weeks with numbers like 43 and 44. Paul is a bit more edgy than I am at the moment, but he's promised that whenever I start getting stressed, he'll become the pillar of stability that he magically turns into whenever I'm a wreck.

If anything is going to cause me to go that route, it will be the phone calls that begin with "Why aren't you in labor yet??" I'm wondering how much the frequency of those phone calls will increase if/when we hit my actual due date (Saturday) and go beyond it. I may have to stop answering the phone. (Don't get me wrong -- I like phone calls. I just don't like people trying to convince me that I should be concerned about still being pregnant!)

What an organizational pre-rabbit weekend we have had, here at the conclusion of Week 39!

Our new desk arrived, so we finally got all of the residual paperwork dealt with -- the second bedroom is now officially empty and awaiting the arrival of its new inhabitant. We have cleaned out closets, thrown stuff out, done all manner of filing from the last three months -- we are on a tear! (Note to those of you who keep track of such things: there is no nesting instinct kicking in on Kim's part -- this is all Paul's doing. I'm just along for the ride. And I've finished two paint-by-number colors!)

We also picked out a new washer/dryer combo, the very funky Equator EZ3612 CEE, to replace our so-old-Sears-doesn't-even-have-the-model-number-on-file-anymore Kenmore. This is exciting for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is this: because the Equator is a joint washer/dryer, it means that instead of a stackable unit, we will have but one smaller appliance. Why is this so cool? Ah, if you don't live in Manhattan, the significance will surely be lost on you: we are not simply buying a new applicance, but we are buying a new closet! I dare anyone to show me any way to buy a new closet in Manhattan -- without losing any pre-existing space -- for less than a thousand bucks. It's like discovering a gold mine in your back yard. Life is good. And the rabbit will have clean clothes.

As of today, we are officially full term! Sometime between today and four weeks from today, there will be a free-standing rabbit! And I wrapped things up at work a couple of days ago, so now the big question is how to amuse myself for the next 0-4 weeks. No major -- or even minor -- nesting instinct appears to have kicked in to date, so my detailed list of projects to tackle is currently in dust-gathering mode. I've bought a couple of items to entertain myself with -- a book of crosswords and, of all things, a paint-by-numbers set -- but I'm nervous about starting them for fear that they won't hold my attention either, and then what will I do? So the crosswords and paints are waiting for a moment of desperation, when I absolutely must find something to do or start banging my head against a wall.

Leaving work was strange. It didn't feel like I was leaving a job, because I know that I'm coming back in a few months. It also didn't feel like I was leaving college for summer vacation, because I'm the only person leaving and everyone else is staying put. The best analogy I've been able to come up with is that it feels like I'm leaving for a semester abroad: I'm leaving for an extended period of time, everyone else's lives will go on as before, and then I'll come back some number of months later and reinsert myself into the world.

In any event, the whole departure thing was odd and anti-climactic, particularly because it was the day before a three-day weekend and lots of people were out of the office. (There's a weird Wall Street phenomenon pursuant to which any time we get a day off, everyone uses that as the springboard to take off for a week or two of vacation. It was true to a lesser extent in the legal world, but people at Goldman take it to crazy extremes -- inevitably, a dozen people are off to the Caribbean or Europe every time they can do it while using up one less vacation day than they would otherwise need to. And of course, the whole thing is self-perpetuating: because all these people take off, the markets are always very quiet during the weeks surrounding this one day off, so it ends up being a great time to take a vacation because there's absolutely nothing going on. Weird.)

Paul is home! Paul is home! The rabbit has been informed that it may now lock and load at will.
3 weeks and counting . . .

Since I'm home with a cold, doing nothing but watching an absurd amount of snow fall on NYC in April (!!), I'm seeing what I can do on here. Click here to see the most recent tummy photos, taken yesterday.

(Note: you will need to sign up for the NiehausPhotos group on Yahoo before you can get to the pictures!)

As a side note, it cracks me up that BlogSpot seems to gear the ads it places on the top of the blog to whatever it perceives the content to be. Consequently, until "The Rabbit's World" is replaced with the real name of the Niehaus Offspring, I get ads for things like "Tango River Rabbitry: Pure Bred Meat Rabbits Shipped Nationwide." Bleech!

So here we are at 36 weeks. I'm due on May 3 -- four weeks from yesterday. Paul is in LA on the Business Trip That Would Not End. And all things considered, I'm feeling pretty good and pretty calm, for someone who really doesn't have things prepared for the advent of a new person in the apartment.

I'm not sure why I'm not more stressed out. Before Paul left on this trip (a week and a half ago), he got down on his knees and had a little chat with the person inhabiting my tummy, who was instructed to hang out and stay put until Paul got home from California. Despite the fact that said person is related to me and thus must be expected to disregard instructions wherever possible, I feel pretty comfortable that I'll have time after Paul gets home to do all the things we need to do. And I'd really love to be able to do all the final preparations with Paul rather than on my own. So all of our fingers are crossed.