I can't believe I've been on maternity leave for a week already! It's flown by. Between sleeping in and going to bed early, there's not time for much else! I'm really enjoying it so far. I stopped running about a month ago because it got too uncomfortable and it's too hot, so I had been walking since then, but the doctor asked me to tone it down a bit since all these non-stress tests came back wonky, so now I'm just doing my pregnancy pilates video and taking really slow walks with Adam. It's hot and muggy here now, so even when we walk at night, we come back all sweaty.
We're taking care of all the loose ends on the house and whatnot - getting the A/C units tuned up, renewing our car insurance, buying renter's insurance with hurricane coverage, getting together all the requirements for baby's US citizenship. There will be a lot of paperwork in the next few months. First of all, here in Mexico they do not give out birth certificates at the hospital. Instead they give a piece of paper called a "certificado de nacido vivo" (certificate of live birth) which is not legal proof of citizenship. We have to take this paper, along with our ID's and two witnesses (don't ask), down to the Civil Registry in order to request his official, legal Mexican birth certificate ("acta de nacimiento"). Then we take this along with a whole bunch of other requirements including medical documentation, photos of me and Adam, our marriage certificate, forms detailing the exact dates that we've been in and out of the U.S. during our entire lives, etc, down to the American Consulate here in Cancun to request Junior's US citizenship via a procedure called "Consular Report of Birth Abroad." At the same time we can apply for his passport. I'm also going to take advantage of the opportunity to officially change my last name on my passport, which will be the first step in changing it on all other legal documentation both here and in the U.S.
We've also been talking more about names for the baby. I can't believe we're less than one week away from the due date and we still don't have a name! It's frustrating, but so far the perfect one hasn't come up yet. We have a few good options, but nothing's standing out yet. We've even started trying some of them out to see what sticks. Worse comes to worse, we hope that once we see his face we'll say, "hey, it's (fill in the blank)!" That's what I'm hoping at least.