Our Busy Saturday

Today we had our 'baby daddy/baby mama' class, Part II. Just like the first week, today was very informative. First, I'd like to introduce you to our baby for the day, Diana Hospital.
Seriously, that was her name on her hospital arm band. I thought it was pretty funny. We started the day by doing our breathing techniques. At this point, Diana Hospital was exercising her super baby knowledge and was reading about the breathing techniques.
Next we did some little games/quizzes, learned about hospital procedures (apgar scores, the gunk that they put on their eyes, shots, etc.), saw pictures of babies that had just been born, and talked about postpartum stuff. Then came the fun part...ha! We did swaddling (which Chris was very good at and I was very bad at...my baby kept ending up half naked), diaper changing, giving baths, how to dress them, how to take care of the umbilical cord, feeding and burping, etc.
As you can tell by the pictures, we had a great day! I looked like a goober taking pictures (with my phone) during class but I just HAD to have some for the blog! :-) Really, the classes were very informative and I'm glad we decided to take them (the doctor I saw last month said they were pointless unless you were planning on a natural birth...obviously, he had no idea what he was talking about because we learned about so much stuff!!).

I'd like to title this next part, Sara Kate's NEW LOOT...and WHAT A DEAL!! :-) Her new loot includes some adorable stuff her Auntie Laura sent her. Thank you, Auntie Laura!! We love you and miss you!
The 'WHAT A DEAL' refers to this awesome stuff we found at Dillard's today on clearance. We found this 3 piece set that Chris calls her first tailgate outfit for $6.
These next 2 are size 18-month, but they were such a great deal we couldn't resist. They were about $7 each...3 Razorback onesies (that came as the set of 3) and an Adidas track suit for $7 each!! WHAT A DEAL!! :-)

31 Weeks

We're down to single digits now, and we've had several baby related things going on lately. I finally ordered the bedding last week, and it's in! Yay!! It's so stinkin' cute! I seriously don't think we could have picked a better paint color. Everything is matching so perfectly. Here's a little sneak peak. We don't have a mattress yet so the bumper is just kind of sitting in there, but you get the idea.
I also have a little project to work on, and here's a little sneak peak of that!
I realized the other day I've posted quite a bit lately about the baby but I haven't written much about how I'm doing. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good. If I'm on my feet too much, I definitely feel it in my back. I've been bothered by my sciatic nerve in the past, but by the end of some days it certainly is shooting a pain down my leg/side...not sure if that's b/c of the way Sara Kate is laying or just because I've been on my feet too much. Speaking of being on my feet, work sucks these days!! Soil sampling while 30 weeks pregnant is not fun! I'm super busy right now plus I'm trying to cram most of my sampling in before I hit the 36 week mark. So on top of being on my feet alot and my back hurting by the end of the day, I'm also exhausted by the time I get home. Fortunately, sleep is still awesome right now! Chris bought me a body pillow a couple weeks ago, so that combined with the fact that we kicked the dogs out of our room, makes me sleep like a baby! I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Ha! As far as cravings go, I'm still LOVING Goldfish crackers...we went to Sam's yesterday and bought a big box. Yum! I also still really like oranges, but I'm not eating them as often because I don't want to peel one while I'm out in the field with dirty hands. Oh, I really like Special K Blueberry cereal, too. I take it to work with me every morning for breakfast. Now for other people's opinions of how I look - in the last week, I've had 4 people tell me I'm carrying really low. I find it interesting that it has come up more than once. Also, people are still telling me I'm not very big. As far as that goes, I guess everyone is different! Speaking of big (haha!), here's my 31 week belly picture.
And this week, she's still the size of a squash!
Baby's now the size of a squash!

Baby's going through major brain and nerve development these days. Her irises now react to light, and all five senses are in working order. (She won't pick up anything from her nose until after birth, though -- smell is transferred through air, not amniotic fluid.)

Finally, we're in the midst of taking out childbirth classes...or as Chris calls them, his 'baby-daddy' classes. We decided to do 2 Saturday's instead of 1 night a week for 4 weeks. Our first class was yesterday and we finish up next Saturday. We found it really informative! We talked about labor signs, active labor, options for drugs, delivery, relaxation breathing, took a hospital tour, and some other stuff I'm just not thinking of right now. Next week is more about what happens after the baby comes...how to change diapers, how to give a bath, how to deal with the umbilical cord, how to swaddle, etc. Chris (and I imagine most of the other dads) is looking forward to next class. There are 5 couples in our class...3 couples having boys, and 2 couples having girls. Chris and I found that interesting because we know a bunch of people having girls right now, but we don't know anyone having boys. All the couples from our class that are having boys say they don't know anyone having girls! Ha! Guess it's all in who ya know!

Happy 2nd Birthday Hannah!!!!

*I wrote this on 2/17/2010 but am posting it on 2/18/2010. Not sure why the date still says 2/17. Hannah's birthday is 2/18!

Our adorable niece, Hannah Grace, turns 2 today (*2/18)!!! It's been really great for me to be around a baby the last 2 years. Before Hannah, I had never really been around a newborn before....I didn't even know how to hold her. I know having my own baby is going to be totally different, but I still think it's been a good experience. She's so much fun these days...she recognizes us, can call us by name, wants to come to us, wants us to play with her - she especially loves her Uncle Chris!! My in-laws hosted her family birthday party this past Saturday, and I think she had a great time!

A little look back....

The day she was born...
Hannah turns 1...
Hannah turns 2!!
We got her this cute little summer dress and she wanted to wear it over her clothes.We also got her a Ms. Potato-Head!! Fun for all!!
And now a picture that will live forever...Jason will regret that he let me take it...
Ta-da!!!!! She'll love this when she's 16! :-)

Happy Birthday, baby girl! We love you!!

A bowl full of jelly!

I've hit the 30-week mark! T-10 weeks until my due date. Wow, that's gonna be here before we know it! She's still an active little thing. She was having Dance Party USA the other night about 1:00 am when I was awake with Cody. I'm getting worried she's going to have her nights and days mixed up when she gets here. Although, she's pretty active during the day, too. Maybe we're just going to have a super active little one. Or maybe she's getting all her activity out now and she'll be a peaceful little thing when she gets here. I like thinking about it like that (thanks, Laura for putting it that way!) Ha! :-) I felt her having the hiccups for the first time this past week. They don't feel very strong to me yet, but it was a very rhythmic motion and then they stopped after a bit...I figured it had to be hiccups. One night last week I could feel her moving around and so I pulled my shirt up over my belly because my belly was moving around. Chris asked me if Sara Kate was hot...ha! I told him to watch my stomach move and he said it's moving around like a bowl full of jelly (hence the title of this post). Very clever. Here's my 30-week belly picture.
And this week she's still the size of a squash.
Baby's now the size of a squash!

As baby's skin smoothes out, her brain just keeps getting more wrinkled. All those grooves and indentations increase surface area, meaning more room for that oh-so-essential brain tissue. She's also adding some brawn -- her grip is now strong enough to grasp a finger.

What else...

We have the dresser, and it's all built! Chris said the directions sucked, but he got it together in about 3 hours. I took Cody to the park yesterday afternoon to walk, and when I left the frame was up...when I got back it was finished. Yay! It looks great!

Yep, it came in 2 boxes. Fun, fun!

This wasn't even all the pieces.

Making progress!

Done!

Thanks to Phillip's girlfriend, Holly, we also have some art work for the walls. She did a great job!

In sad news, we've had our first baby stuff related casualty. See these cute little socks?
Well, we got 2 sets of these socks for Christmas, thanks to my mom and sister-in-law. I thought about taking 1 set back and exchanging them but just decided to keep both sets. Sara Kate is gonna need socks, right? Apparently Cora thought SHE needed a set, too! I have baby stuff in a box on the floor of the spare bedroom, and I had left the door open one day. Cora went in there, got the socks out of the box, and proceeded to shred/unravel them. I wasn't home from work yet but Chris said they were completely destroyed. It's definitely going to be hard to teach her that Sara Kate's stuff doesn't equal Cora's stuff! It was the first casualty, but I'm sure it won't be the last!

And finally, I'll leave you with a picture of the first outfit Chris has bought for his daughter. He went to Target between school's one day last week and thought she needed this outfit. I thought it was sweet...plus, it's a pretty cute little summery dress!

29 Weeks...a few days late

Thought I'd do a quick update of this past week before it completely slips by me. This past week brought a doctor's appointment. I didn't care for the doctor I saw this week; Chris didn't mind him, though. He was short and sweet and didn't have much to say...that's the reason I didn't care for him. I am hoping he won't be the one on call when it's time to deliver! He did say my weight is good (glad he didn't have any complaints...2 friends have said he was a meanie to them about their weight), I'm measuring fine, and my blood pressure is good. I asked about my levels from my 3-hour glucose test. Turns out I passed the 3-hour with flying colors...all 4 blood draws had my levels between 60-70. Yay! I go back to the doctor on March 1 (which will be about 32 weeks). After that, I go every 2 weeks, and then at 36 weeks, I go every week. Yikes! That'll be here before we know it! We also took an infant CPR class this week...it wasn't a certification, just a class. The only difference between the class we took and an actual certification was that we only covered infant and child CPR and there was no test. It was interesting; I remembered alot from getting certified while lifeguarding. So check that off the list. Another thing to check off the list is registering! That was kind of stressful. We ended up registering at Target and Wal-Mart. Target was fine, even though we were in there forever. But the trip to Wal-Mart annoyed the ever-living daylights out of me!!! We go to get the scanner and they tell us they only have 1 in the store. I was like, you're telling me a retail GIANT like Wal-Mart only has 1 scanner??? That was the most rediculous thing I'd ever heard!! Also, turns out these 2 girls had it (and apparently they had had it for a while) and they were in NO hurry. We followed them briefly...they seemed to be just hanging out. They even had a cart with groceries. I was super annoyed. Anyway, Chris called the other Wal-Mart and their 1 scanner wasn't in use so they held it for us until we got there. Really, we didn't find much baby stuff to register for there...think we probably had a little too much fun on the baby toy aisle but we were grasping at straws. I REALLY wish we had a Babies-R-Us...now that would have been fun! :-) Let's see, what else....oh, we have a new "fruit" of the week! I use quotations b/c I really don't think squash is a fruit. And I also have to say BLAHHH!! When it's time to give Sara Kate veggies, the idea of giving her squash grosses me out b/c I think I'll have to taste it. Chris can introduce her to that veggie. :-) I can't get the picture/info. to copy/paste this week! Will try again next week (guess that would technically be later this week). Also, no belly picture this week...never got around to taking one. Will be sure to do that next week, too (also, technically this later this week)! Oh, and hopefully I will be posting pictures of the dresser/changer soon b/c it's supposed to be here Wednesday. Yay!