Looks Good!

Today was yet another doctor's appointment (32 weeks, if you're keeping track) and we saw our buddy Dr. V this time. We do like him an awful lot, even though he is not, shall we say, the perkiest person in the world. I think he is very calm and would keep his cool if anything unexpected happened. Anyway, I got my hemoglobin tested and it was very good, and so was my blood pressure. And we were glucose-free this time, which is also good! Not much else to report there.

I also broke down and got a boy outfit and a girl outfit. I'd love to take them both to the hospital and use whatever we end up with, but then I couldn't wash them beforehand if I wanted to return the "wrong" one. Maybe we'll just take them both anyway. As much as I tell everyone how I would love to have a boy, baby girl clothes are really, really cute. Hopefully the newborn size (up to 8 lbs.) won't be too small...we tend to have big babies in our family.

Tonight is Class 2 for Labor and Delivery, so we are having a baby-filled day!

Now we are baby experts

Well, maybe not quite! But we did go to our "how to take care of your baby" class on Saturday morning at WakeMed. It was good and interesting and they covered a lot of topics. I think we both feel a little better about taking care of the baby, especially at first when it is so small. We practiced bathing and diapering on dolls, as well as some other stuff. They also gave us a book of information about health care, cord care, feeding, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I used my nursing school knowledge and the expert nurse/moms in my family to figure out that a couple of the things they told us were a little outdated, but at least we know better!

In other news, our beloved Taurus is giving us problems. It won't start. I know, such a minor thing. Bob got a new starter and put that in yesterday, but it still wouldn't start all the time, so last night he got a new ignition switch, and so far it seems to be starting up consistently. He was also suspect of the starter relay, but they didn't have one to sell him at Advance Auto Parts. For more details, you will have to talk to him, but that's what I know.

I am down to 3 more days until the NCLEX on Friday morning - good thing since I am about burned out on studying. Then we are off to Boston for the weekend to see Tom and Pam!

Baby class

Last night was our first in the five-week series of labor and birth education classes at the hospital. It went fine - the first class was mostly an overview of anatomy, pain in labor, and talked a little about pregnancy discomforts. Out of 9 couples there, we are the only ones who don't know "what" we're having! I thought that was interesting, and I had assumed that more people would like to be surprised, but I guess not. We got the usual reaction from people who can't imagine not knowing. Surprises are fun and exciting, people!

The class seems to be slanted towards the all-natural approach, which is just fine, but we/I still don't know if we/I can handle (or even want to attempt) that. Even after seeing the videos, as well as several births in person in nursing school, I still don't know what to do. We are definitely not the only ones unsure of all-natural, because a few other people kept asking how things would be different with an epidural. It looks like we get some time in one of the classes where they will talk about medication options and c-sections...hopefully there will be no videos of that!

So, all in all, I think it will be good and interesting. This Saturday morning is our 3-hour class on how to take care of the baby, which will be much more fun and less scary...though I realize we will spend much, MUCH more time on that than the hospital stuff!

Camcorder and Dresser

After some deliberation, I ordered a camcorder for the family yesterday - it's a Canon ZR950. It should be here in a couple days.

I also spent most of yesterday working on the dresser. As Gina had mentioned earlier, the polyacrylic was starting to flake in spots. While I'm still not exactly sure of the reason, I got rid of all the bad areas and recoated it. Initially, it looks good (though it did after I finished it a few months back), so we'll just have to see how it goes.

Check out the new poll to the right!

Doctor (again)

I have come to respect people who have a lot of doctor's appointments...they sure take up time! Today we met Jessica, an extremely perky (even by my standards) midwife. She was nice, but Bob said if she is on call when the baby is born, he may end up punching her. Oh dear.

Anyway, everything is looking good. She said the baby is very active, which we knew, and she told me again to lay off the sugar and white bread/pasta/rice/etc. Considering that is most of what I eat, this is going to be difficult. So I came home and had ramen noodles and yummy leftover baby shower brownie dessert for lunch. Don't worry - I added vegetables to the noodles to negate everything else.

We have been in super baby-room-preparation mode now that we have all the wonderful stuff from the showers. Monday, I went to Target and got some of the few remaining things off the registry with gift cards that we have received, and we are set to go! Here are some pictures of the room - the pack and play, stroller, bouncy seat, high chair, and infant seat are in the dining room for now. Thanks to Bob's boss Adolfo and his wife Kari for loaning us their bassinet!

We are contemplating getting a video recorder but haven't actually started looking at them yet. And if anyone has experience with finishing wood furniture, we need help figuring out why the dresser is flaking and how to fix it. We are befuddled.

Baby Shower!

The only thing that could have made our beach week even better would be a baby shower...which is what I had yesterday! HERE are pictures from the shower, again, not edited in any way yet. I had such a great time with everyone and the shower was just perfect. So many thanks to everyone who came and helped out with it. Many people had quite a drive to get to Holly Springs and it was so great to have you all there!

It was at Elizabeth and David Williams' house, which was so nice for me to not have to worry about cleaning and cramming all those people into our house. Special guests were Bellamy, Connor, and Oliver (who were all so good the whole time), and Gramma for coming all the way from Concord! Also thanks to Mom for the adorable cake, Liz, Leslie, Melanie, and Whitney, for all the delicious food, and Shannon for the super cute invitations. I could go on and on, but I will stop. Of course, Bob and I (mostly Bob) had everything put together within 2 hours of getting home and we love it all.

Thank you all again - we are so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends to share our baby excitement!

Ocean Isle 2008

We had such a great time at the beach this week (Ocean Isle, NC)...we got to play in the ocean and the pool, saw Bob's mom's and John's new condo, had excursions to Fort Fisher and the Oak Island lighthouse, and Bob had quite an adventure on the deep sea fishing trip. Let's just say that he's not going to quit his day job to become a fisherman!

We didn't take many pictures ourselves, but HERE are ours and some that my parents took. They are out of order, don't have captions, and some need to be rotated, but I wanted to get them posted now and will fix them up soon. Bella overcame her hunger strike for the first half of the week with the help of doctored dog food and started to enjoy herself after we let her up on the couch. Of course, we all had fun playing with Logan too.

Surprise Shower Pictures

Here are the pictures from the surprise shower that the "GNO" girls had for me on July 31st. Thanks again, everyone, for everything!

Surprise Shower!

Last night, the "GNO girls" (Girls Night Out) surprised me with a little shower at our regular monthly dinner! They had decorations, delicious - and very heavy - cupcakes, a card, and a Pack and Play! I was so surprised and I thought it was so thoughtful of them to think of me. Many thanks to Vanessa, Tricia, Christina, Dina, Reagan, Jenny, and Josephine! Poor Bob had to help put it together at 10pm last night because I was so excited. Turns out, the Pack and Play is quite large when it has all the parts attached...it has the playpen part, a bassinet part with a rocking/vibration mechanism, and a diaper changing area with storage compartments that is elevated to adult height. The diaper changing part looks funny because it is so high, but I'm sure we will appreciate having it at our height. It also has music, nature sounds (Bella was not a fan of the nature sounds, but she did like the music), lights, a timer, and a little mobile. Here's a picture of it, and another one of Bella supervising the assembly effort. Both Bob and I wished it didn't have a weight limit because we really wanted to get in and test it out. Thanks, everyone!