Birth 101

Today Casey and I attended our birthing class. It was an all-day-long event at the Winchester hospital. Although we decided not to deliver at Winchester, we chose not to cancel our class there and I am really glad we didn't! Our instructor was great and we learned a lot about labor and birth, including different birthing positions, stages of labor, possible complications, the role of the coach, etc. The only part of the class that wasn't as relevant to our situation was the talk she gave on pain medication (you are not allowed any medication at the birth center), but we listened closely anyway, just in case.

Casey and I got to practice all different types of breathing for the different labor stages and both took a turn on the birthing ball (they are wonderfully comfortable... I might get one for our living room, just for fun). Casey even got to play the role of the neonatal nurse in a skit the instructor had the coaches do to teach us about cesarian sections.

During the lunch break, we headed down to the emergency room to see my stepfather. He was very happy that we had come to visit and gave us a full tour of the ER unit, introducing us to all of the nurses along the way. It was fun to see him in his element... he is a great doctor.

During the second half of the class we watched a movie with three different births. One of the couples in our class was so squeamish about labor that they left so they wouldn't have to see the movie! I hope that they do okay... they are due before us! 

The only trouble I had with the movie was that every time the nurses placed the baby on the mothers chest after birth I got teary-eyed. I don't think anyone noticed because the lights were dim but wow am I an uncontrollable sap! Casey, who has watched hundreds of episodes of "A Baby Story" since day one, was less affected. I am confident that he is going to make a great coach.

Well, that is all we have to report. I can't decide if life is moving really slow or fast right now. We have three more days until we enter the window of "term." Pretty much, the baby can come whenever he wants after that. I think that we are going to have a party on Wednesday to celebrate the milestone.

We will check in again soon. Hope you are all doing really well!

Love and hugs.

Back to the World of the Working

Great news! Casey has just found out that he got hired at Whole Foods Market! He is really excited... it was the only job he had any interest in. It is less than a mile from our house, so he is going to be be able to bike to work on nice days, he gets a good wage, full benefits (starting soon), 401K, and 20% off all groceries. Also, he will probably be able to transfer to a Whole Foods in Oregon once we get back home and the people that interviewed him told him that they thought he would move up in the company very quickly. 

He starts tomorrow.

Tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate. Then maybe we will go grocery shopping with our new discount... 

Hope you are all well. XOXOX

Where in the world are we going to put all this stuff?

Sorry I have been neglecting the blog for so long. I guess I should go back to the last entry for a full update.

Last weekend, we went to Cape Cod to hang out with Colleen, Cody, and their super cute son Rowan. I had brought my camera with high hopes of taking tons of pictures of the new baby, but after only one shot, it ran out of batteries and shut down (I forgot to charge it the night before). I was crushed.  Now you will have to wait until our next visit to see up-close bubbly baby pictures. 

Casey finally got to go fishing (he and Cody went while Colleen and I talked about baby stuff). He caught his first east coast large mouth bass. He wanted me to tell you all about this in the color orange.

On Monday, baby stuff began to arrive. The first thing that came was our "Bum Genius" cloth diapers. For those of you that don't know, cloth diapers have really changed over the years. The kind that we got is called a "pocket diaper". It has a waterproof shell, soft fleece lining, and a pocket on the inside  where you stuff a liner. There a various sizes of liners, depending on the needs of your baby (overnight versus daytime etc.) In addition to the inside liner, you can use a flushable liner on top of the fleece to catch poop. We ordered some of those as well. In the box with the cloth diapers, we also got two BPA-free, all natural pacifiers.

On Tuesday, we began our search for the perfect car seat. We had originally intended on buying a convertible car seat that would last 5 years, but there were quite a few people that told us this was not a good idea: we apparently need an infant car seat for the beginning stages of life. Because we are pretty pinched for money, buying a new infant seat that would probably last 6 months and then a convertible, did not sound too appealing. But luckily for us, there is Craigslist: the best invention since stackable tupperware. 

After an enormous amount of research and a flood of emails, we found a lady with a really great quality infant car seat. We made an appointment to pick it up on Wednesday morning. However, on Wednesday morning before we left for the pick-up, another man called... he had the same car seat, so I told him we would stop by to check his out after our first appointment.

We got to the first house and fell in love with the car seat. The lady was super nice and right away asked us if we needed anything else. She didn't want money for any of it... she just wanted it to find a good home. She brought out a swing and a bouncer, then disappeared again and came back with a infant bath tub and an entire box of toys. It was all really nice stuff and we just couldn't resist... we took everything, justifying our actions by deciding that we could give it all away before we left MA or leave it with my mother who believes strongly that she needs "grandmother toys."

After such good Craigslist fortune, we decided to go to the other house anyway to see about their car seat. Infant car seats come with bases that you clip the seat into and it is nice to have more than one base, so you can leave them in different cars. Just the bases for these car seats cost $75, so we decided maybe we should get the other seat so that we would be able to exchange bases. So off for another adventure, to meet more really awesome people and buy another really great car seat. It was a good day.

Later that night, Casey and I headed off to our "36 week meeting" at the Birth Center. There were about 12 other couples there and we were all briefed about pre-labor, labor, and post-labor. 3 months ago, I would have been scared about some of the things they told us, but at this point I am so excited to have a baby that I don't even care about anything else. Our entire apartment is filled to the brim with baby stuff... it is really becoming so real now.

But I have even more exciting news that is not baby related. However, it deserves its own blog.

Boppies, Baby Beds, and Boston

Today was the first whole day that my mother has been home since Casey and I arrived in Boston (she has been bouncing around to various out-of-state work conferences). We decided to celebrate by heading off for a little shopping at Baby's R Us. 

Due to my recent rapid growth, Casey has become concerned that I am going to have the baby early and thought that we better get the rest of the essentials, mainly the crib, just in case. (I think he was looking for an excuse to get the crib set up in our bedroom so that we can spend long hours staring at it longingly, but either way we did need to purchase it at some point.) 

But if there is one thing that is certain about shopping for baby things, it is that you never can just get what you came for. The first unplanned purchase was a "boppy," a nursing pillow, which I have heard is an item that is nearly impossible to live without. After picking out our boppy, we got our crib (made from 100% organic cotton) and then headed for the clothing department. We decided to get a few soft caps for the little one and a 3 piece oh-so-cute organic cotton set with 2 matching one-sies to go with it. My mother added four adorable one-sies, including one that says "I love my grandma"and two with the Boston Red Socks logo... this kid is definitely going to have good taste in sports teams!

After lugging home our new purchases, we were ready to set up the crib. Casey assembled the whole thing in 5 minutes flat with barely a glance at the directions. What an amazing husband he is! 

Now the crib is sitting by our bed, looking empty and expectant.

We are sitting here too, staring longingly at it.

Only 5 more weeks!

Tomorrow we are heading off to Cape Cod to visit my best friend Colleen and meet her super-cute 2 and 1/2 month old baby, Rowan. We are really excited. Hopefully, we will not forget the camera in the morning rush.

Wishing that you are doing as awesome as we are! 

XOXOXO

This one is for you Andy!

This blog is dedicated to my lovely sister who is currently caught in a crossfire of political instability in Haiti. She is camped out in her apartment waiting for the end of the violent food riots downtown and could probably use some mild entertainment. 

So I have decided to try to give her a few laughs. She recently commented that I looked "huge" in the last picture I posted on the blog... 

If you thought I looked big in those pics, check these out! 

Mom now calls me the human basketball.

It is definitely getting harder to navigate around the house without running into things. But the midwife says that I look great and that the baby is doing really well, so that is all that counts, right?

Well, hopefully by the time you read this things will have settled down a little. We will all be praying for you.

Love you!

The Scene of the Action

Yesterday we went on a tour of the second possible birth location (the first was a hospital, this one is a birth center) and we fell in love with it! Well, I did anyway, Casey just fell in love with the wooden boat in the living room. He vows to make one for the baby.

The birthing center is great. It is a house on the campus of the Beverly hospital. When you walk in the door, there is a living room and a kitchen. Down the hall are exam rooms for prenatal care and two large bedrooms (both with jacuzzis) for labor and birth. While you are in labor, you can hang out outside (both bedrooms have doors to a private patio, make food in the kitchen, or (if you are in very early labor) head to the beach or the mall.

There are about seven midwives that work there and they all get to know you before the big day so that you have an established relationship with anyone who may be in the delivery room with you. They are big advocates of natural labor and try to keep you active during the late-labor process (unless you are in the tub, which is okay too). Next week, we are going back for the official tour and a what-to-expect-in-the-last-weeks meeting with some other expectant parents.

While we were there, I also had a prenatal check-up. The baby is doing great and is already settled into the proper position (head down) for birth. Hopefully he will stay that way.

We are off now to run some errands, but we will check in again soon.

Love and Hugs.

Tie-dye Socks

Great news! We finally accomplished two very important tasks: we have made it to Boston, thus ending the active part of our pre-baby roadtrip and, even more importantly, we found Casey a pair of organic tie-dye socks. He has been looking for tie-dye socks since the beginning of the trip when he saw me pack my organic tie-dye socks. His drive to find these socks increased every time I wore my pair on the trip. So finally, here we are in Boston, both rockin tie-dye socks.

"Do you have anything else to say in this blog... maybe something important?" you ask.

Of course we do.

After waiting for the van to be finished for the entire day on Friday (they were supposed to have it done on Thursday afternoon), we left NC and headed to the Virginia border where we spent the night in a rest area (we are both sick of Walmart). The next day we drove 15 and 1/2 hours the rest of the way to Boston. Why did it take so long? because we were driving 55 in a 70 the whole way in order to let our new motor break in. I don't think we passed a single car the entire time.
We also got stuck in traffic in NY for an hour and a half, which is actually great for NY... last time I idled in my car for four hours. The traffic jam gave me time to teach Casey how to be a proper east coast driver... which includes not letting people merge who rance up in the Easy Pass Lane and then put their blinker on to get over 100 yards from the toll booth. Nobody wins when you drive like that. Casey made me proud though... we held our ground.

The next day (yesterday) we unpacked the entire van and settled in to our new home away from home. It was really fun... we got to argue about where the crib should go and we unpacked all of the baby stuff that we had collected on the road (see pic number 4). After we unpacked, we toured one of the two hospitals where we might go to have the baby, but we forgot to take pictures. We are heading off to tour the next one in a couple hours.

ITS ALMOST BABY TIME!!!

We are beyond excited.

We'll check in again soon.