30 days to go

A few things happening around our house as the days wind down to "D" day................

• We are overly prepared with every possible baby item, the hospital bag packed and the car seat ready to go yet feel under prepared
• The shorty is becoming restless which results in minutes to hours of what feels like a 5 lb barbell rolling from side to side in my belly
• People keep telling me how great I look which I interpret as oh my goodness she is getting soooooooo big
• Guthrie and Lucy are beginning to notice that the baby room is off limits to them (gate in the door) and therefore lay directly outside the gate or mope around the house (we're certain this rule won't last long with their sad eyes)
• Deb has officially taken on the roll of "sock putter on-er" as I can no longer reach to put them on. I have however figured out a way to untie my shoes and loosen them before dropping them to the floor, stepping into them and then standing at the bottom of the steps with a foot up a couple of steps in order to tie them
• We now have a leather recliner in our bedroom to help me sleep at night, thanks Mom & Bob!!! It's only a temporary loan because it's Bob's favorite chair but it does help me get back to sleep when my hips and legs go numb from trying to sleep on my side

Each day we are more and more excited about the baby's arrival. We're amazed at how fast the month's have flown by. We're still apprehensive about bringing the baby home and not dropping it, which i'm sure all new parents have similar fears, but are so excited to add this little member to our family.

Cheers,

Mic

The countdown begins........

Only 5 more Dr's appt's to go!! Wahoo! We met with another new Dr. as we rotate through the OB/GYN Dr's at Medical Associates and this one was great. I measured at exactly 34 weeks, my blood pressure has been rising a bit but is still out of concern range and I did test positive for protein and sugar. I was then handed a glass of water to down and then sent downstairs to the lab to have blood drawn and another urine sample. We waited all day wondering if I would have to start testing my blood with the little finger prick doo hicky and at 5:15pm they called to say that I didn't have to but I really need to watch my sugars and walk after every meal. The protein was gone the 2nd time around so no worries about pre-eclampsia and early induction at this point. Yay!!! We're ready for this baby but not THAT ready!

I also attended the nursing class at the hospital last night. I spared Deb this experience. :-) It was very informative and the benefits clearly outweigh the drawbacks so I'll give it a go. That's all I'll say about that. :-)

My Loras colleagues threw a baby shower at work on Thursday afternoon which was a BLAST! I work with such an awesome crew of supportive yet squirrely professionals. We played a slightly gross game where candy bars were melted into diapers and we were charged with the task of identifying what candy bar (aka: poo) was in each diaper. Neither Deb nor I did well on this game but were reassured that in real life, we won't have to stick our noses in diapers to determine what's there. Little shout out to Kim for almost starting the office on fire while melting the candy bars into diapers!! (Sorry Kim, I had to, i've been harassed about burning popcorn in the office since last September!!) We then had yummy cake and opened awesome gifts for the little one. All I can say is we are officially set!!! One neat gift was a small stuffed lion that rattles from my Dean of Students daughter Eliza (aka: Lizzie Lou). It was her toy when she was a baby and she wanted our baby to have it. She's insistent that she'll be the dog sitter (however refuses to deal with dog poo) while Annika and Maja are the baby-sitters.

We're prepping for Launch into Loras (first year student orientation) next week which will be a blast but also a bit challenging as I waddle around campus. I've accepted the fact that I'll be an excellent photographer that week while my students traverse the high ropes course and teambuilders at Four Mounds and help with tasks at the Humane Society during our service project. I'm sure I can still hold puppies though so that's a plus! Deb's got plenty of work to do preparing her syllabi for classes and back-up plans for when the little one arrives.

That's all for now. 41 days until D day!!!

Cheers,
Mic

The Sneeze and Pee

Just thought I'd add a little humor to everyone's Monday morning. Last night Deb and I were in the kitchen chatting as she was putting groceries away. I was sitting at the kitchen table and happened to sneeze. This was no ordinary sneeze though as one typically just blows their nose following a sneeze. I on the otherhand made a mad dash for the bathroom due to the fact that at the conclusion of my sneeze, I PEED MY PANTS. Yes, you read that correctly. I literally PEED MY PANTS. Upon realizing this, I said "Oh shoot, I peed my pants" very matter of factly which Deb thought was quite hilarious. No worries though, a quick shower and change and I was good to go.

So, when you're having a stressful day, just be happy that you too are not experiencing the "Sneeze and Pee".

More Shower Pictures

• The Diaper wreath
• The paper plate game
• Irish Onesie
• Todd Parr Books

Shower Pictures

Diapers, Desitin and Delicious Cakes

We had a fabulous baby shower on Saturday, August 2nd at my mom's house. We were blessed to have so many friends and family from near and far join in a celebration for the little one quickly growing in my stomach. The weather was tolerable, after a week of 90 degree weather with 100% humidity.

My brother Ben and his partner Jeremy roadtripped from Iowa City to cater the event with yummy chicken kabobs, orzo pasta, tabouli, hummus and pitas. Deb's sister Jul worked her magic as usual and made an amazing german chocolate cake, did I mention it was a sheet cake and my favorite cake of all!!! Probably not such a good thing for someone with borderline gestational diabetes but we spent plenty of time running around so i'm sure I worked it all off. She also made a white tiered cake with raspberry and lemon filling which I didn't taste because of my fixation with german chocolate but from walking around the tables you would know that it too was amazing.

Thanks to our wonderful friends and family, we are set for the baby to arrive with a car seat and stroller, swing, high chair, diapers, desitin, sleepers, onesies, toys, blankets, and much much more. Deb and Jul spent Sunday assembling the stroller, swing and high chair which was quite entertaining. I washed all of the clothes and blankets and attempted to get the nursery orgranized. Had one slightly overwhelmed feeling as we looked at all of the stuff and realized that OH MY GOSH in a few weeks this little thing is actually going to be at our house!!!

So, with 7 weeks to go, we have a bag packed for the hospital, are taking Lamaze classes, the base to the car seat is safely buckled into the backseat and we will make one last run to Babies R Us this Friday to pick up the remainder of items we need.

Speaking of Lamaze classes...........we had our first one on Tuesday, August 5th at Mercy Hospital. We had heard mixed reviews of lamaze classes so we weren't quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be a quite pleasent experience aside from a few things:
1) The 18 year old couple with the boyfriend who walked around the room with a puffed chest, clearly proud of his abilities to procreate and not quite mature enough to hold back his giggles when the instructor used anatomically appropriate terms.
2) The woman who groaned or commented every time that the instructor talked about anything related to epidurals, contractions, birth, etc.

Other than that, we watched a few videos about the stages of labor, learned about the different types of pain meds, EPIDURAL ALL THE WAY, practiced breathing techiques (he ha, he ha he hoo, he he he ha he hoo) and learned about the importance of a good coach. It's a good thing Deb's got such a lenghty resume in the coaching field. We have one more class next week where we watch the live birth video and get down on the floor to practice breathing and pain relief techniques. I'm sure that will be an entertaining experience with our "classmates".

I'll post pictures up when I get more!! But a few above are:

• Deb's present from Mic's mom, see the Bear story in earlier posts
• Deb, T and Grocho (T and Grocho played volleyball for Deb in Defiance, OH and are rock stars who flew to Dubuque to suprise Deb)
• Deb looking slightly alarmed by baby presents
• Deb and the diapers
• Mic, Big G (Mic's grandma) and Deb

Cheers,
Mic