31 Weeks and Growing

Today marks Katie's 31st week of pregnancy. It also marks the first day of my new life. That's right, good people, Jeff changed his first diaper last night.....well, sort of. During our weekly birth class last night, our instructor asked me to get off my posterior (harder than you'd think right now, following a Thanksgiving weekend game of football), sit on the floor, and change the diaper of one "Pebbles the doll." I must say, while this exercise was undoubtedly easier (and cleaner) than the real thing will be, I received high marks from both of my teachers. Jennifer evaluated me on my technique, including minding the baby's head at all times during the change, while Katie weighed just how soon she might hand over all poopy diaper responsibilities. Had I known my efforts were to be met with such praise, I might have sandbagged just a bit to potentially delay my participation in this most illustrious component of child rearing. As it is, however, I'm sure to be in the thick of it when Lily arrives.

By the end of the night, Katie and I had been introduced to all things post-partum. From the good to the bad to the ugly, we now know that we can expect lots of fun even after the baby is delivered. Yikes! It's amazing the things people don't tell you! Nonetheless, we are even more excited now for our baby girl to get here. Katie is still feeling about as well as can be expected, and we are making sure she's eating right and drinking lots of water, staying somewhat active, and doing her prenatal exercises. We both know that she is going to experience increasing discomfort over these last two months, but so far she has taken everything in stride, and I'm very proud of her.

The last bit of information to share is the dogs' reaction to having Baby Pebbles in the house last night. As soon as Jennifer walked in with the doll in her car seat (to teach us about car seat safety), both Jay and Buster were immediately interested. They of course mobbed Jennifer as usual, their Shih Tzu guard dog training evident in the number of debilitating kisses they landed, but they soon forgot her and focused on the baby. In fact, after Jennifer got settled and the initial interest in our visitors had seemingly passed, Katie and I glanced over to find Buster, not sitting quietly as we had believed, but rather inside the car seat itself, sitting on Baby Pebbles' chest and sniffing her plastic face. Needless to say, we hope not to recreate this scene upon Lily's arrival at home. While we know the dogs will both be excited and somewhat threatened by the impending addition, we are hopeful that their curiosity will soon give way to love for their new little sister.

30 week check-up

This morning Jeff and I went in for my 30-week appointment and sonogram. Lily is getting bigger! The nurse said everything still looked great, and we got to see her little face again. She even blew us a kiss. She was positioned on her side with her head down, her bottom up, and her hands and feet all together on my side, which confirmed why I was having so much side pain last night and this morning. What a stinker. Everything looked to be functioning properly, and we were even able to see the lens of her eye and some hair on the back of her head. Technology is so amazing! The sonogram showed me to be right on target for my due date and projected her birth weight to be between 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 pounds. After the sonogram we met with Dr. Thorton, and she said that I was looking good and that I seem to be in great health. We have been very lucky with how smooth this pregnancy has been to this point...knock on wood. This past weekend Jeff and I went to the Shirk Center and walked two miles so I could get some exercise. I am still going to pilates once a week and enjoying that, even though it is getting much harder. I bought a pilates ball on Saturday for exercise purposes both before and after the birth. The pilates ball will also come in handy during labor, allowing me to lie down on it so that Jeff can massage my back and anything else that is aching. I should mention that I already used it for that purpose last night, and it was great! I will try and keep all the massaging to a minimum prior to labor because I think Jeff will be doing plenty of that then. Jeff is still being a wonderful supporter, husband, and birthing coach. He is already practicing keeping me calm for labor by not freaking out now whenever I freak out about any wierd ache or pain. He is very good at reading me and my emotions ( a little too good at times), so I think that will really help during labor when I need him to take care of me and know what I need even if I am not able to communicate it. Time is still flying by, and we can't wait for her to get here! Jeff has so many plans for her, inlcuding things that we will not be able to do with her until she is quite a bit older, but it is fun to think about the future. She is going to be a total daddy's girl and she will have him wrapped around her finger. He is already totally in love with her, and she isn't even here yet!
We have some fun sonogram pictures to show to everyone, including the one of her blowing a kiss, which Jeff would rather not share because he swears he can make out a moustache and buck teeth. I guess we'll find out in two months!

29 Weeks

* 29 weeks of belly

Lily and I are still doing well and feeling pretty good. I have had some lower back pain, but nothing too debilitating. Lily still loves to kick and stretch and roll around all day long. She is getting better at going to bed when I go to sleep, but unfortunately, I don't think there is necessarily any correlation between her current schedule and the schedule she will keep outside of the womb. Jeff is now almost done with his basketball league and will soon start indoor soccer (aahhh!). Luckily, the season is fairly short, and he will only have games once a week. So hopefully, we will keep the injuries to a minimum. Work has been pretty busy with all the hockey games, concerts, and trying to get stuff in place before the baby comes. Thankfully, although I have been busy, I have not been too stressed out. At this point, all the clients I work with have the routine down and really require very little of my time at the events, which has been a nice change. Also the Game Time (food & beverage) staff has figured out their role, and they are handling everything really well. Knowing all of this makes it a lot easier for me to relax at the games and not wear myself out. It also is a relief to know that everything should work smoothly while I am at home with baby. I will probably work a little from home while I am on leave to help with all the Club Seat renewals, but hopefully they'll be mostly completed before I'm out of the office. Nonetheless, if I need to process renewals from home, I now have a nice new desk for when I am at home with little Lily. Just two and half months away now...and most likely time will keep flying by. Lots of little milestones to reach between now and then, what with the holiday season and all...and Monday is our 30-week sonogram. Look for news on Lily's 30-week development soon!

Jingle Bell Run/Walk

Lily's First Charity Experience. Of course we had to have brunch at our house beforehand. We needed to have strength for the long race and all.
ready for our ...walk.

Preggo girls finish! We weren't sure if we were going to make it, but we pulled through.
A littly chilly, but feeling good.
Relaxing inside after our awesome race!

Getting Ready for Lily

Not only are we getting the nursery ready for Lily's arrival we are also spiffing up the rest of the house with the addition of new furniture in the living room and the finishing of the basement. We purchased a new T.V. stand, coffee tables, cubby unit, and a desk for mom to work from home on when she is on maternity leave. Jeff also refinished the french doors that are original to the house and put those up between the dining room and living room. I will get some pics up of the basement later. Jeff and his dad worked really hard on tiling, painting, putting up the ceiling, and finishing off the bathroom down there. It looks great and it is so nice to have another full bathroom in the house!

Braxton Hicks

We had our second birthing class with Jennifer last night, and we learned about all the stages of labor and the different contractions that go along with them. She asked me if I had any Braxton Hicks contractions (a.k.a. false contractions) yet. I told her I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure because I didn't know what they felt like. She explained that during one of these contractions my tummy would get really hard and knotted--but not in a painful way--and then relax. It occurred to me that I actually had felt this before, but I had always believed it to be Lily just coming up to the surface of my belly. It is nice to know now what I am looking for and to have an idea of what the real contractions will feel like. So far the ones I have had don't hurt and mostly just take my breath away for a split second and make my belly feel really heavy. I even had one during our lesson last night and asked Jennifer to feel it to confirm. Pretty cool stuff! In addition to the stages of labor, we learned about different coping techniques, including massage, focusing, and visualization. After Jeff found a massage technique he was comfortable with, we moved on to thinking about helping me cope, too (just kidding)! Jennifer tried to illustrate for Jeff all the possible moods and emotions I may or may not have throughout the labor process, which ended up being pretty humorous. She said that some women are loud and hate their husbands and don't want to be touched, while others are weepy and emotional, and some are a mixture of everything rolled into a rollercoaster of emotions. While Jeff and I can see me reacting in any and all of those ways, it will be very interesting to see how I really handle the whole thing. I hope I can surprise him and hold it together and be really strong, but neither of us are holding are breath for that one. Thanks goodness we learned how I can help Jeff cope!