Hospital Tour

Monday night our Childbirth class took a tour of the hospital where I'll be delivering. We saw where to enter if I go into labor in the middle of the night, the Labor and Delivery rooms, the recovery rooms, and where we spend the rest of our time at the hospital (in the private rooms). It seemed very quiet and tranquil, I'm sure that won't be my perception in the midst of labor however!

Another neat thing, as the mother and baby are moved from labor and delivery we stop at a button, which the mother pushes and a lullabye is played over the speakers in the entire hospital (and it's a pretty big hospital!). They told us triplets were born last Thursday and it rang three times in a row. Also, a mother from our class had twin girls at 29 weeks so she didn't make it through the second half of the classes. The nurses reported the mother and the babies were doing fine (which is a concern at 29 weeks).

We also talked about pain management. We have a flexible birth plan: get baby out, keep baby and mommy safe, and keep Shannon as comfortable as possible. I have nothing against pain medicine if the baby looks awake and well on the monitor.

I think Ben really enjoyed the tour, he noticed things about safety for the baby that I didn't and told me all about it when we left. The tour was great, but after a full day of work and an hour walking around the hospital I had some SERIOUSLY swollen ankles. Yikes.

Snoogle Schnauzer

I own this pregnancy pillow called the snoogle. Lately I've taken to rolling it up in a circle to prop my feet up high to help with the swelling at night, but setting it on the floor while I'm sleeping. This morning when I got out of bed to take a shower Madison jumped down from the bed and resettled herself in the snoogle. Here you go, my snooglesnauzer.

Busy weekend

This will be a long update post.

Great news: Ben's Varsity girls made it to the state cross country meet! It's Saturday about 45 minutes from our house, so unless it's pouring I'm going to go watch the meet. He is VERY excited, and spent lots of time looking up the running times for their competition last night. He says the girls have a shot at doing really well at the state meet. Also, he's heading to a friend's hunting lodge Saturday night. Ben doesn't 'get away' a whole lot and I know he's feeling worn out working the extra sport this year so I think a day and night away in the wilderness will be good for him :)

Things I accomplished this weekend: Sewed and embroidered 9 burp cloths, embroidered an apron, three hats and seven blankets. Made a couple returns at Old Navy and Target, stopped at the sewing store for threads I needed, got my hair trimmed and even cleaned out my car! I also stocked our diaper bag, hopefully we won't need it for at least 3 more weeks. This might be the first weekend...EVER I got everything done on my to-do list.

Saturday night we had dinner with my Uncle Bo's family who lives about a mile down the road. My cousin Cynthia is expecting a baby boy the same time I am (her C-section is 12/28) and it's so fun to get together and talk babies and pregnant lady stuff. I took a picture of Cynthia and I which a friend aptly named "the battle of the baby bumps".

Sunday while I was finishing my sewing Ben did the grocery shopping and surprised me by getting our Christmas tree!! It has to be artificial because I am SOOO allergic to real trees. Every tree. And grass. And bushes. And flowers. Hey, I was mother EARTH for Halloween, not mother nature.

He asked "should we put it up?" well OF COURSE!!! This was our first year to have a tree, last year we were in Atlanta, and saving up to buy our house so we ruled out the Christmas tree. I did buy some Christmas decor at Hobby Lobby for 70-90% off so we have some tree decorations. I've decided to have a Santa themed tree. We have about 15 or 20 Santa ornaments right now and I look forward to adding ornaments every year! I just love Christmas. I do love the tree, decor and presents, but even more I love that it makes me stop and think about my blessings. Especially this year!

That's all for today, I'll try not to go so long between posts, I just have all this nesting energy that I can't sit still while I'm at home :)

It's Friday!!

Yeah! And I get off in 38 minutes.

After work I'm getting my hair trimmed, I'm going to buy thread for a sewing project, I'm making an exchange at Old Navy, running to Target for a few things, to Walmart for a couple things (including a Christmas CD, I need one!), and heading home. I also need to clean out my car when I get home (and vacuum, I love the Dyson), and do my practice test for my Excet tomorrow. Last night I finished 4 Christmas presents, wrapped them and stuck them in my "Christmas closet". I watched House and assembled our pack n play which arrived yesterday!! Here's a picture. Also, Maddie wanted her picture taken and posted on our blog.

That's about all happening here. I'm hoping for a low key weekend.

It's Thursday!!

This week is almost over. Stuff worth mentioning:

- Today is my Dad's birthday! His last birthday in his 40s. My parents are young, and especially young at heart. I love that my Dad enjoys his Floridian lifestyle now. He likes to kayak up and down the canals and he rides his bike around his neighborhood. So happy birthday Bud!

- I finished ordering the bigger baby items we needed off Amazon.com! I found great deals, and yea for no tax and free shipping! Our play yard already shipped from Kentucky!

- Ben's working a football game tonight, then he's traveling for the regional cross country meet tomorrow and Saturday. His girl's Varsity team won District, and his boys Varsity placed in third. So BOTH get to advance to regional. Let's hope they do well and make it to the state CC meet next weekend in Austin!

- Tomorrow is my half work day, (yea!). I need to run errands after work (Old Navy, Hobby Lobby) and do a couple sewing projects. I'm also getting a pedicure (I hate paying someone else to do my toes, but I CAN'T REACH THEM ANYMORE!) And I need to study because...

-Saturday morning I take the Excet test for English, Language Arts and Reading grades 8-12. I am SO glad they decided to offer the test about 15 minutes from our house so I don't even have to drive to Austin to test.

Happy Election Day!

Election day is finally here. I'm so glad the election advertising should die down now. I'm tired of the commercials. I voted Friday. Ben voted two weekends ago. I'm so thankful we have early voting, I got in and out in 10 minutes before my Dr appointment last week.

I ordered a couple baby things today, our monitors and humidifier. I have a very short list now of things I think we need to grab before the baby arrives. It just occurred to me today that babies arrive early sometimes! Hopefully not THIS early, but in a few more weeks it's fair game, she can make her arrival :) I'm convinced she's going to be overdue and I'll need to be induced, so we'll just have to see.

I slept great last night. Almost 10 HOURS! I think the time change threw me off because I got ready for bed and passed out at 8:45. I feel like a million bucks today, I'm thankful I got the extra rest.

Ben and I made the decision this weekend to turn our enormous empty dining room into the baby's playroom, rather than buying dining room furniture. The room is carpeted, whereas the rest of the living spaces are tiled so I feel like it's safer for her to crawl around and learn to walk. Maybe this will help limit the baby chaos to the nursery and the playroom (yeah right!)

That's about all for now. I'll post a couple pictures of some things I embroidered this weekend. A little chef hat and apron for a sweet little girl we know for Christmas and a few burp cloths for a friend of mine from Sam Houston. Also, here's a picture of my Halloween costume. I was 'Mother Earth'.

XOXO,
Shan

Product safety

FYI, we are taking safety concerns very seriously for the arrival of Baby B. We have our own product safety inspector who makes sure everything is secure, comfortable, and ready for the little one.