Work shower

The proud papa!

An in-action-shot of Clint biting off the bottle nipple to aid in his chugging ability.

Chugging baby bottles is a little bit different than chugging beer bottles...

This was a game called "tinkle in the potty" where the participants had to hold a quarter between their knees and race to one end of the hall. There they had to drop the quarter in a beaker. Hilarity ensued...

Cincinnati/Kentucky shower

Mom and Deb opening the grandparents' baskets that Kenny and I put together for them as a small thank you for the everything they have done to help us get ready and to just be supportive.

Lisa's little girl, Cadence, helping me open gifts.

A very cute and very delicious cake!

Mansfield Shower

The girls helping me open gifts. They were really waiting around to steal the white tiger chair.

Danny and I comparing bellies...

Isn't this cake adorable!?!

Nursery pics

The first two pictures are of the glider and the pack 'n' play bassinet that we have set up in our bedroom for his first few months. The bags in front of the glider are the hospital bags, so yes, we did finally pack those.

This is the actual nursery. The only thing missing is the crib, which should be on its way soon. We've got the walls decorated with jungle stickies. We still need to get a shade for the window. Another thing on the to do list...

Update

37 weeks

34 weeks 1 day

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! It seems like it has been a really long time since I last posted. Maybe it's just because a lot has happened in the meantime. We had our 37 week appointment on Monday. I was 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced, so I'm still progressing nicely. The doctor said she could feel he has a full head of hair! She also did a size estimate by feeling my belly and said he appears to be around 7 lbs. 14 oz. We made another trip to the doctor on Thursday because I'm paranoid... I had been cramping for about 24 hours pretty constantly, though with varying intensity. I had also noticed that the baby's movements were a lot less. I wasn't contracting and was pretty sure I wasn't in labor, but we just wanted to make sure that everything was okay. And it was. Apparently, he was just really sleepy, and I was not in labor. I took the rest of the day easy, and the cramping subsided. However, we're trying to all kinds of home remedies to help work him out. We went for a walk at the mall and at the art museum today. We had spicy Indian last night and spicy Skyline today. I'm on the verge of trying castor oil. It's my spring break this upcoming week, so if he were to arrive then, I would be able to spend an extra week at home with him before I had to start back to school. Just so the O'Briens know, I'm aiming for Dan's birthday. Sorry, Candie, but I don't know if I can hold out until the 7th... Plus, if I go too much longer, I might end up with a ten lb baby. Keep your fingers crossed.

35 weeks!

First, I'm writing this while I'm keeping Kenny company while he's working late. So I don't have access to the pictures I wanted to post. I'll probably get to those this weekend, but I have a new belly pic and pictures from both the Mansfield and Kentucky showers. The shower this weekend was wonderful, and we got a ton of much needed gear! So thank you very much to everyone who helped. Once we figure out where we are going to put all of it, we'll also post pictures of the nursery. It is definitely coming along, but it's kind of a mess right now while we sort through all of the gifts. But to Deb and all of the party planners and participants, thank you so much!! It was a great shower and really meant a lot to both Kenny and I. For those of you keeping track, I was officially 35 weeks on Monday, which means only 5 weeks to go! We had a doctor's appointment, and it's beginning to look like that may even be a slight overestimation. I'm already 1.5-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. And given the family history (Mom delivered me 2 weeks early and Lynn and Dave 6 weeks early), signs are pointing to a delivery before the due date. But as we know, labor kind of happens when it wants and doesn't follow predictions. So this is all just speculation. The doctor wasn't overly concerned by this development and scheduled our next appointment for 2 weeks. This struck us as a little odd, since we are supposed to be going once a week now. But she is the expert and must have a good reason for postponing the appointment (we hope...). That's all for now. I apologize to everyone that has tried to contact me that I haven't gotten back to yet. School and work are kicking my butt, and I haven't had a whole lot of time to socialize or catch up. I'm going to slowly start trying to get a hold of everyone, but please be patient with me.

Interesting note on dr's appointment

I had a doctor's appointment on monday. It was pretty standard. My fundus height is right where it should be and his heartbeat is going strong (the doctor remarked that the baby was "showing off"). The coolest part was when the doctor felt around to see which way the baby was positioned. This brought two really cool revelations. 1) He is positioned head down, which is a good thing for birth (woohoo!) and 2) she showed me how to feel where he was. So now Kenny and I can feel my belly and figure out what body parts are where. He generally hangs out on my left side and you can feel his little butt poking out. It also helped me figure out that his feet are what are constantly kicking under my ribs, and his head and hands are what are constantly putting pressure on my left hip. Sometimes it feels like he is rubbing my hip bone really hard and repetitively. I don't know if I mentioned this before but we are rotating through the obs in the practice because they want us to have a chance to see everyone since anyone of them could be on call when I go into labor. For the most part, the doctors have been great. There is one exception, and she will, of course, probably be the one we get come delivery time. I'm sure she's knowledgeable and very competent, but she's not very nice. So keep hoping she's not on call when we go in.
Our childbirth class was cancelled this week due to the horrible weather, so no new freakouts. It did push the schedule back a week. We had originally scheduled a c-section information class in mid-February, just in case, but that's been replaced by the make-up childbirth class- which will hopefully be more useful... And in addition to all of the frightening info that we learned last class, we also learned a lot about helpful laboring positions and exercises/positions we can use to expand our pelvic bones during labor or get baby to turn around in case he's coming out sunny-side up. Sunny side-up is when his face is up rather than facing back. This causes his skull to rub on the back part of the hip bones, which leads to "back labor." So childbirth class isn't just scaring me, it's teaching us useful things too. (Perhaps the most useful was when she taught the coaches how to give soothing massages.)