Baby Prepped

I think Derek and I have both gained 200% more knowledge in the past 3 or 4 days than we had before. We took an all day "preparing for childbirth" class on Saturday which was good to hear about all the medications and know when to go to the hospital, what to bring, etc.

We also took the tour of the hospital I'll be delivering at and we decided it's more of an office building/hotel mix rather than a hospital...not a bad thing! It's super nice and they make it so simple and non-intimidating. There are 8 labor and delivery rooms, 2 c-section rooms, and a ton of post-partum rooms. All the rooms are private and have giant flat screen tvs that have cable (yay!), movies, music channels, relaxation channels, and "informative" channels on how to take care of a baby. They also each have a nice pullout bed, giant whirlpools in the bathrooms, etc. They promote "rooming in" with your baby so you get to have your baby in your room as much as you want or you can send him to the little nursery across the hall to get some sleep. There was only one tiny little girl in there when we passed by, so cute and fun to see! Basically the place is awesome and we will be bummed to only be there for 48 hours, assuming all goes as planned. It'll be a mini vacation with the minor additions of coming home with a baby and experiencing the worst pain of my life...:)

Derek has mastered the side street route to the hospital and it takes maybe 6 or 7 minutes to get there. Even though I know labor is a little more lengthy process, it's nice to know we're so close.

I have another doctor appointment this Friday (with Mpls/St. Paul's #1 OB/GYN I might add) and then I'll start going every week in July. It's hard to believe it's only a matter of weeks until he gets here!

Not so hard to believe for people that I work with though because today I was asked by the mailroom guy if I had the baby yet. Let me point out that I am CLEARLY pregnant. I waddle, no clothes fit me, I have bags under my eyes, swollen ankles, and can't see my feet. He was looking right at me and asked because he saw a big Congrats, it's a boy! sign in my cube leftover from my work baby shower. Boys.

Anyway, we also are working hard (or hardly working?) on the baby's room. We set up the crib on Sunday night and I've rearranged a bunch of times already. I can't decide how I like it so my guess is it will be a work in progress until the big guy arrives. Derek's main contributions to getting the room ready have been putting money in the Green Bay Packers bank and putting together a baby bouncer. Oh, and donating his troll doll to the toy basket. I guess I'll have to get a little more bossy once I make up my mind how to set it all up. My guess is he is just doing his best to avoid my moodswings....smart kid. :)

We are both excited to head to Waukesha this weekend for the baby shower at his parent's house, although I'm predicting double digit rest stops on the drive there! Maybe that's exaggerating a little much, but it sure feels like I'm making a beeline for the bathroom more often than not. All in a day's work!

Things are slowly but surely coming together! My dad hauled all the baby things we've been collecting over to our apartment last Saturday and my friend Kristen helped me sort and organize baby clothes for the afternoon. It was much fun to see everything that we have for him! We'll be getting the crib set up sometime this weekend and I think then it will finally look like an actual baby room (as opposed to just an empty room to throw my junk in and Derek's games/sportsish stuff). My mom and I also picked out curtains and fabric for the rocking chair this weekend so it'll be fun to get that all up as well.

I meet the pediatrician tomorrow and then we have our first of two classes this weekend. I'm sure Derek is super excited to spend 9am-4pm learning about labor and delivery. :) I guess it will be good for us both to feel a little more informed about the whole process!

The funniest thing about being pregnant is the kinship that other pregnant women and moms seem to have with me. I can hardly go to Target or the mall without someone striking up the "when are you due, is it a boy or a girl, is it your first, what will you name it" conversation which usually ends with little pieces of parenting advice, which is of course, always welcome and appreciated.

So there's the update! Hopefully by the time we get internet this weekend we will have made some major progress on the baby's room AND be well informed for D-day.

Moved In

We officially moved in to our apartment this weekend. We had a ton of help from our families (thank you everyone!) and I can't tell you how happy I am to not have to think about moving for at least 12 months. We are still in the unpacking process, but I'm sure the official "nesting" of the baby room will begin for me soon enough. When that happens, you can expect an update in pics of the new "crib" complete with the borrowed actual crib.

In other news, DEREK HAS A JOB! He starts Monday already and I'm so happy for him. Now I won't feel guilty leaving him every morning to fend for himself trying to pass the time without cable and internet and trying to navigate his way through the suburbs.

Sweet Baby James

First and foremost...LOVED the James Taylor/Carole King concert tonight. It was so great. Naturally the baby was all about Sweet Baby James, as was I.

The shower was so good too. My co-workers were overly generous and got us a video baby monitor that I vow to keep until he is a teenager. We also got more diaper money to use at good old Target and a few other cute baby things. I have a Martha Stewart-ish co-worker who went all out with the food AND to top it off, they had a MN Twins theme...Twins plates, Twins signs, Twins everything. I'm hoping it doesn't lead people to think I'm actually having twins or they will be pretty disappointed when I come back with just one baby. I work with an awesome group of people and I can't tell you how much it meant to me that they took so much time to plan this for me. We definitely are so lucky with the outpouring of support and gifts and offers to babysit....which I WILL be taking everyone up on :)

Single Digit Week Countdown

We are down to less than 9 weeks until the big debut! Part of me feels like this will never end...mainly the part of me that hates these 96 degree days. But 61 days makes me feel like I blinked and gained 25 lbs and can't believe we're so close to finally meeting him.

I have baby shower number 3 tomorrow AND baby has concert number 3 tomorrow too. Big day for us! My department at work is throwing me a baby shower over lunch and based solely on the food I heard will be there, I can tell you I am very excited about it. Then Kristen and I are going to the James Taylor concert, courtesy of an awesome birthday gift from Sonia, Abby, AJ, and Katie. (thank you!!!!!)

Derek, the baby, and I also all experienced our first Target Field game this weekend. I can't believe how nice it is there. Derek cheered for Bernie the Brewer before the game started, but unfortunately had very little to cheer for after that. I was a little preoccupied with not having enough personal space, but overall, I'd say it's pretty great there. We left when the game was 6-2, a little boring, and I was at my boiling point. Little did we know the Brew Crew tried making a little comeback in the 9th and the game went 3 extra innings. I'd like to say we learned our lesson and will never leave early again...but outdoor baseball and being 8+ months pregnant is a bad combo in June/July.

We also got to check out the baby room this weekend while Derek was in town. The place is super nice and we'll be hauling everything over there in just a few more days. I've had the "nesting" urge for probably the last 3 months, so I think finally being able to set his room up and see everything we have will make us feel a little more ready. (If that's even possible!)

29.5

My doctor appointment today went very well aside from the fact that I gave them the wrong insurance card (apparently, I had 3 to pick from...I'm not sure why I held on to those old ones) and had some trouble with the urine test. But I'll spare you the details on that.

The place was awesome, super easy to find (connected to the hospital so it was kind of hard to miss) and the people were great. I won't have a doctor that I see consistently there since you just kind of make appointments with whoever you want, whenever you want. Whichever doctor is on call when I go into labor will be my go to person. I already have a nice variety of doctors lined up since I will be going every 2 weeks for the next month or so and then every week once July hits.

Also, I found out I have to pre-register for the big day and get it in asap so we can start talking PAYMENT PLANS. I was not thrilled to hear about that, but I guess it has to come up sooner or later.

The good news is, all is well with the baby. His heartbeat sounds perfect and he was moving around a lot while the two of us got measured and checked out. I've been super paranoid about knowing how much he should be moving and so it was nice to have a little refresher about all that. We got the H1N1 vaccine, scheduled my appts. and called it a day.

TGI Mother's Day!

This week I have my first appointment in Maple Grove. I'm hoping they don't make me sit in the waiting room for an hour before each appointment like my old place! I had a glucose screening test on April 30 and finally got the results this weekend...we are doing a-ok! Everything they tested for was right in the middle of the "normal" ranges so I am super happy I don't have to go on a sugar free diet or something for the next 10 weeks.

We visited my Grandma and Grandpa this weekend for Mother's Day. This will be Great Grandchild #6 for them! They gave me some nice examples of names NOT to name the baby courtesy of the people that live behind them. No offense to anyone who likes the names Bladen and Boedy and Brecken, but I think we'll end of going with a little more normal name (not that we've decided yet!) The Baby is due the same week as their 60th anniversary.

The baby kicks and moves around a TON these days and I've done my fair share of complaining about it along with how uncomfortable this is starting to get. But I just heard about two girls that had miscarriages this week...one at 16 weeks and one at 26 weeks. I cried my eyes out for them and promise I will never complain again about my baby moving too much or being uncomfortable! I'm so thankful we are both healthy and doing well. I am about 29 weeks and with everything we have going on in May and June, I know the time is going to fly by!