Buses, babies, and all things Barnum

We'll start with the bus.  This week, we decided to have Jonah and Lilly start riding the bus to school.  This is an entirely new experience for them because we've always lived within a half mile of their schools and either walked or drove.  They've each ridden a school bus once or twice for field trips, but never every day to and from school.  I'll admit, I'm not exactly a huge fan of bus riding, but I blame that on some lovely bus experiences I had when I was growing up.  I really hated riding the bus.  Really. 

We figured we'd give it a shot with Jonah and Lilly to help save some gas and time.  Plus when the baby comes, it will be nice not to have to put him in his car seat to take them and pick them up.  I'll already have to do that to take and pick up Jayne from preschool and Nate from work.  But, that's what happens when you only have one vehicle. 

Anyway....back to the topic at hand.  The kid were a little nervous at first, but now they are bus riding professionals.  They have assigned seats on the bus and are starting to make some new friends. I'm actually surprised at how easy the transition has been for them.  No drama, no trauma, no tears.  It kind of makes me think that something was severely wrong with my own bus riding experiences, but that's a subject for another day. 

Now, on to the baby.  We had our 35 week doctor appointment today which included the lovely Group B Strep test and an ultrasound.  Last time I went in, two weeks ago, the doctor said we were measuring a bit large.  So he wanted to do an ultrasound today to check baby's size.  According to the ultrasound, we're measuring two weeks ahead (37 weeks) and 7lbs.  Everything looks healthy and perfect, just a bit bigger than usual.   It could be that my dates are off or our baby boy is just big and healthy, plus I've read that sizing ultrasounds can be off by as much as one pound either way.  I think it's a little bit of everything.  Seeing as how I've never actually gone into labor on my own, even if we are due a bit earlier I don't think it will make much of a difference.  My biggest baby was Jonah who weighed in at 8lbs 9oz.  The girls were both in the 6-7 pound range.  Maybe boys are just bigger?  Who knows?

 I'm also having gazillions of Braxton Hicks contractions which have started the lovely dilation game.  I'm not really surprised that I'm dilating already and I'm not getting too excited about it either.  To me, how dilated I am doesn't really mean much as far as when I'm going to have the baby.  Heck, I was dilated to a 3 for three weeks with Jayne and she still didn't just come on her own. 
From here on out we start our weekly appointments.  Gee, I guess all this means we're actually getting close. Maybe we should buy some diapers or something, huh?