Getting nowhere fast

I had another weekly OB appt today, and I learned that I will likely "shoot right past" my due date... I apparently haven't started dilating or effacing, so it looks like Mia's awfully comfortable and not trying to go anywhere soon. But the reason I was dreading getting to this part of the routine is that I could still go into labor tomorrow. And even if I'd dilated a couple of centimeters, labor could still be weeks away. But I now have something else to fixate on, which is probably the last thing I need! So how about a blog pool (sort of like an office pool, but w/o the office...or the cool cash prize) to guess the correct due date? My mom threw out 9/21 as a date b/c my sister and I were both ten days late. Jeff's new guess is 9/20. I'm gonna throw out 9/15, just to be hopeful. ;o) Any other guesses??

Baby Shower - Aug 27th

The women at my church threw an amazing shower for me over the weekend. We played a fun game where we were all quizzed on the meaning of our names. Luckily, it was a multiple choice quiz! (Kristy means "anointed", Jeff means "gift of peace", and Mia means "mine".) We also played a bingo game where we had to find people in the group who fit various categories like: gave birth in September, is a grandmother, is a little sister, etc. It was a pretty fun game and gave my mom a chance to meet many of the people I go to church with in a short amount of time! :o) The food, drinks, and decorations were amazing. The tables were covered with beautiful roses and green tulle and we drank two special drinks in Mia's honor: "the Mia"

• one part Martinelli's sparkling cider
• one part pink grapefruit juice
• splash of pomegranate juice
• garnish w/ a green grape

"the Momma Mia"

• one part champagne
• one part pink grapefruit juices
• splash of pomegranate juice
• garnish w/ a green grape

Obviously, Mia's mommy stuck to "the Mia". :0) I had a wonderful time, and Jeff and I are still amazed at everyone's generosity. Mia is going to be one of the best-dressed babies in the Pasadena area, and her parents are thrilled to have everything they need to welcome her to her new home! Thank you to everyone who was able to come out and make this such a special day!!

Actually done nesting... :o)

I'm pretty amused w/ myself. One day last week I woke up and decided that all of the comforters, blankets, and pillows in the house needed to be washed...that day. I had already assembled the nursery and re-arranged & re-folded everything in the hall closet & in Mia's closet, so this was the last major task. So, I stuffed my car full of blankets and drove to the laundrymat, where I did several loads of laundry in the super-sized machines. Then I came home and washed the rest of Mia's new clothes and folded everything up and put it all away. Last night I dragged Jeff to Babies "R" Us to grab the last few things I still wanted to get before Mia's arrival, namely the stroller and a diaper pail. And now after two wonderful baby showers, lots of laundry, tons of assembly, and a few hours spent folding, I can't think of anything else that needs to be purchased or washed, so I think I'm finally done nesting...and ready for a nap!! :o)

A Peek at the Nursery

As you can see, I've got most of the nursery put together. The wall border is still on back-order, but everything else is here, at least decor-wise. :o) I love all the animals and the bright colors. It's such a happy room! I'll post a couple more pictures when the border is finally here & put up, but that probably won't be until after Mia's arrived.

We have a pediatrician!

I have prenatal appointment scheduled for next week with Mia's pediatrician. I'm pretty excited about what I know about the office so far, but I'm supposed to come up with a bunch of questions for the appointment to make sure that my parenting philosophy jibes with that of the doctor. How on earth am I supposed to know what kinds of questions I'll have about Mia once she's here?? I already have the answers to most of the things I wanted to know about...

• There is an MD or RN available after hours to answer an emergency questions that come up.
• The office takes walk-ins from 8:30 am - 9:00 am Mon - Sat for sick appointments, so you don't have to call and try to schedule an appt if your kid gets sick overnight.
• The practice is pro-breastfeeding and has a lactation consultant on the staff, & you can chat w/ her during well-baby visits or over the phone.
• There are three different waiting areas: one for sick kids, one for healthy kids coming for well-baby checks (that way they aren't getting sneezed on by sick kids), and a private waiting area for nursing moms.
• The office staff seems super nice & eager to help over the phone.

So as long as I like the doctor when I meet her in person, I think we're good to go. I can't believe we have a pediatrician! A couple of other notes... I had another weekly OB appt this morning, and I still have no news to report. He said he could answer any question except for, "When is she coming?" ;o) But all my vitals are still good, so we're just waiting & she'll come when she's ready. At least we don't have to worry about her being preterm! Also, Jeff and I took a Baby Care Basics class last weekend at our hospital. That was pretty informative. The major emphases were things like what's normal vs. what requires a call to the pediatrician and what a normal newborn really looks like (i.e., not the Gerber baby). Jeff and I were both horrified, however, when in the discussion of "what's normal" the instructor handed out laminated legal-sized posters with 9 different photographs of soiled diapers... The captions said things like, "normal at 1-2 days" or "never normal - call doctor". The funny part is that as the posters were coming around, everyone gasped & groaned in unison. But within a couple of minutes, she'd said something like, "And if you ever see this, call your doctor immediately!" Then every couple in the room was intently bent over the poster to get a better look at the diapers as though it were...normal. *Sigh.* This is how it happens... This is how you go from being a perfectly normal person who doesn't talk about such things to being a parent who can't understand why everyone doesn't want to hear about how many bowel movements her child had yesterday. And Jeff and I got tossed into the deep end of the pool - with pictures and everything!!

T-minus three weeks (or so)

I had my first weekly appt a couple of days ago, and my doctor says that everything still looks boring (i.e., great). As we were wrapping up the appt, he starting making sure that I know to call his office first (before I call the hospital) when I go into labor, and he gave Mia the green light to come whenever she's ready now. And I couldn't help thinking, "Holy crap! This is actually going to happen soon." :o) It's funny b/c every time I go into the doctor's office, there is usually at least one couple there who are just wrapping up their first marathon OB appt & leaving w/ their armful of literature & freebies. When that was Jeff & me, I remember feeling like I'd snuck into the senior prom or something while looking at all the women who were about to pop and thinking I'd never actually get this far. Well, here we are! We have the cradle set up by our bed now, complete w/ mattress pad, sheet, blankie, and a mobile. We've got the labor bag packed, and we even have the diaper bag packed. Packing the diaper bag was hilarious. It's the last item listed on the checklist I received in my Lamaze class of things to bring to the hospital. So after my shower, I was feeling pretty good about now having everything I needed to take to the hospital. Then I realized that I had no idea whatsoever what one puts in a diaper bag, besides the rather obvious diapers. So I found several online checklists of what typically goes in a diaper bag, and now I'm feeling pretty good. ;o) Now all we need is for Mia to decide when she's going to make her debut!

Baby Shower - Aug 12th

Finally, here are some pictures from our baby shower! We had the shower last Saturday at a park near our place, and we had such a blast visiting with all of you who were able to make it out. :o) Thank you all so much for coming out & making our day so much fun! Those in attendance learned many new bits of trivia about Jeff & me...including how Jeff tortured his Aunt Melody's poor, sleeping dog as a child and how I was able to defeat the child safety gate installed on my bedroom door in order to watch early morning cartoons. Hopefully Mia will prove to be less devious than either of us!! All of the men were challenged to nursing down a baby bottle of "beer" as fast as possible. Due to park regulations the beer was actually sparkling cider...and due to the slow-flow nipples, the men were encouraged to begin cheating to speed up the game. (The pictures were still priceless!) Congrats to Pat, who chugged his the fastest! ;o) The food was absolutely amazing... Many thanks to my mom, Pat, & Regina's mom (Linda Ames) for cooking the bratwurst, chicken, hamburgers, and all the salads & side dishes. I've received many compliments on the food since Saturday, including a couple of questions about who catered. And the pregnant lady was thrilled to indulge in brats, potato salad, & 7-layer bean dip!! ;o) A million thanks to Regina & my mom for organizing everything. We loved the games, decorations, food, location, and the opportunity to visit with everyone. And thanks to Melissa Murray for the adorable chocolate favors! (If anyone is interested in ordering chocolate favors for a special event, Melissa can be reached at melissaschocolatecreations@hotmail.com). Let me know if you'd like me to email you copies of any of the pictures above. And if you have pictures I haven't seen yet, I'd love to get the full digital files. I'm adding all of them to Mia's scrapbook. Thanks!

"Nesting"

But not like you think. ;o) I am now so huge and it is so impossible to get comfortable at night that the process now requires four pillows. And I feel like I'm building a little nest around me every time I do it...which I do about a billion times per night. So I've got your basic under-the-head pillow. Then there's the between-the-knees pillow, which takes some small amount of pressure of my aching pelvic bone. Then there's the tucked-behind-the-back pillow, which keeps me from rolling flat on my back and not being able to breathe. And finally, there's the tucked-under-the-belly pillow, which supports the huge belly a bit and reduces the strain on my back. And I have to rebuild my little fortress of pillows every single time I switch sides or get up to pee in the middle of the night. I have no idea how Jeff is getting any sleep...or how there is still room for him in bed with all my pillows! On a side note, I figured out how we're going to keep poor Friday out of Mia's crib. :o) I was reading through the history of this crib tent on the manufacturer's website, and it started out as safety thing to keep babies from jumping out of the crib and on to the floor. Mom, feel free to add your comments below... ;o) But all of these people who had aggressively cuddly cats (like Friday, apparently) started writing in that they were going to be able to keep cats that they'd thought they were going to have to get rid of b/c they couldn't keep them out of the crib. So the company teamed up with the Humane Society and started a "Keep Your Cat" campaign. See, Mom? If I hadn't been jumping out of my crib when I was one, I might not be able to keep Friday today! :o)

Info on the first baby photos

The hospital where I'll be delivering posts 3 or 4 pictures of every newborn, & their website will probably be the fastest way for everyone to get their first peek at Mia when she's born. I've added the link to the right sidebar under "Pregnancy Links", & I intend to make Mia's photos password protected. So when the day finally comes, you can click that link, and the password will be our last name. When you follow that link, click on her name and you can click on the giraffe that says "next" to click through however many shots we get. How exciting!

"Normal-sized"

My doctor told me this morning that Mia is still head-down (yay!). She guessed that Mia probably weighs about 5lbs right now and that I'm on track for a "normal-sized" baby at delivery, which I'm very happy to hear b/c I certainly don't want to give birth to anything super-sized! ;o) I apparently get one more two-week break between appointments, and then I'll be in every week until I deliver. She also told me to get my hospital bag packed and to make sure that the car seat is ready to go. I can't believe I'm close enough that I need to start packing my bag!

34 weeks

I hit 34 weeks yesterday, which means I've got about 6 weeks to go. Mia's squirming all over the place, and I can tell that she's getting stronger everyday. In one of our favorite moments so far, Jeff came home a week or so ago and gave me a big hug. And as soon as he did, Mia kicked him really hard in the stomach as if to say, "Hi, Daddy! I'm here, too!" It was pretty funny. We're both getting really excited and can't wait to meet her. I can hardly believe that she'll be considered full-term in three weeks. I have my next doctor's appointment tomorrow, and then I'll be going every week until I deliver. I can't believe I'm already at this point in my pregnancy!