The story so far...

So our humble couple has found out that they're pregnant. What entails is a series of thoughts, memories and pictures as they get closer to becoming a family...

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

30 weeks - 3/4 of the way thru. What?!!


With my magical powers,  I will make this baby appear... in ten weeks! 

What have we been up to the past couple of weeks?  I went to my breastfeeding class (by myself) and enjoyed it much more than the CPR class.  You wonder, how difficult would breastfeeding be that someone would have to take a class? Well, I hear it can be very difficult to figure out.  It's all about technique apparently, and I think I picked up on a thing or two.  Hopefully I'll be able to execute these skills I've learned with ease.

Spencer and I then attended an all day Saturday childbirth class. I think I pretty much knew everything childcare wise already. I was mainly interested in what was going to happen at the hospital: when I could show up, when I could get the epidural, and was it true the hospital has a menu I could order from.  I suspect Spencer found the class much more enlightening.  When we met up at the hospital for a tour of the facilities toward the end of the class, I reminded Spencer to memorize the hallways because he would be by himself getting from the parking deck to L&D. He would also need to be able to instruct relatives on how to get there. I think the first thing he memorized was where the Starbucks and cafeteria were located.

Seriously though, Spencer has been hugely supportive.  I couldn't ask for a better father-to-be.  He's up and at-'em when I need or ask for anything.  He has had his nose in the few fatherhood books we've bought.  He has massaged my aching back even when I haven't asked. He has emptied that litter box exclusively without complaint since the beginning of all this.  He has loaded and unloaded my photo equipment in and out of the car when needed.  He has offered to drive to wherever to pick up whatever I might have been craving at that moment (although, I haven't taken him up on it). He has even been eager to decorate the nursery.  My favorite thing I have noticed him starting to do is quickly ask me if I'm OK when I let out my uncomfortable groans. Poor guy, since the weeks are starting to whittle away, I think his nervousness is beginning to form. I'll have to keep my moans and groans in check.

Speaking of nursery, we're still getting things organized and decorated, and I promise I'll share photos of the room once we are finished. For now you can check out a couple of wall decals we ordered:

 


I 'm looking forward to the baby shower my sisters and mom are hosting this weekend. It will be so nice having our families get together along with family friends. Spencer and I are especially excited my sister Robyn and our nephew Gavin will be here to visit.  We will also be having a joint birthday celebration for him and niece Lynlee. We've got so much to celebrate this weekend. It's going to be so much fun.

But wait, there's even more to celebrate! Our step-sister Christie and her husband Clark have just found out their also having a girl.  What's that saying: Girls rule and Boys drool.  Our babies are only 3 months apart. How wonderful to have the two girls so close in age. We just can't wait for cousins Simpson and Werner to play together!

Monday, March 7, 2011

28 Weeks

So we went to CPR class last week. It was both lame and educational, which pretty much describes all classes ever.  We realized it was the first time we had ever sat in a class room together.  Hard to believe but true.  We are so old, we could know each other for 7yrs. now and never have known each other from class or at least been taking classes while dating one another.  Anyway, the class consisted of us following along to a video while blowing on the mouths and pushing on the chests of adult and baby dummies. The instructor's job pretty much entailed pushing the remote buttons, and looking to see if we were doing the method correctly.  Any questions asked to the instructor were then relayed to another woman in the next room who proceeded to answer the questions for us.  The whole thing was a little weird, like maybe our instructor was doing this for the first time or something.  We spent much of the evening going over adult CPR, then infant CPR, then quickly covered adult choking and infant choking.  All in all, we were disappointed that we did not go over the infant heimlich more, given that this would be the situation most likely to present itself to us and more often than say, declaring "the scene is safe" (which apparently you have do a lot before administering CPR). Instead, it was the last thing covered in the class and seemed almost an after thought.

Marcy had her 28 week appointment at the doctor.  At this point she has gained 22 lbs. and Violet measures in at an appropriate size (or at least the uterus does).  The glucose screening test was performed at this visit, so Marcy had to go without eating any sugar for about 12hrs.  The syrupy juice the nurse gave her to drink didn't taste as bad as she thought it would. Kinda like a thick, flat, and sweet orange Crush.  The lab drew blood after that and then gave her a shot of RhoGAM in her backside because of her Rh negative status.  The doctor's appointment was pretty uneventful. If we hear back from the lab soon, it means Marcy has got the dreaded gestational diabetes.  Let's all hope not or we'll all be dealing with an unhappy Marcy for then next few months.  Speaking of Marcy's love of sugar, before her doctor's appointment, she made a half joking- half serious comment on facebook about requesting a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts afterwards. If you didn't see it, she was willing to give away all the money in her purse if someone brought them to the hospital waiting for her. Well, low and behold she got her doughnuts. A kind and generous co-worker of hers had them for her when Marcy arrived at her photo shoot that morning.  It made for a very happy Marcy, except when Spencer ate the last one without telling her.

The nursery is still coming along.  We bought a lavender side table and bedside lamp with a floral shade from Target. Marcy found a couple of silver picture frames from a consignment store, and a  handful of stuff from the Trussville Methodist Consignment sale.  It was her first experience at a church consignment sale, and an eye opening one at that. Jeneane, Marcy's mom, had advised Marcy to arrive at the door a few minutes before it opened the first night, but because of leaving late from work and having to eat supper first before going anywhere, she showed up about 30min. late.  The parking lot was full when she got there, and women were already taking arms full of clothes and misc. items to their cars. Inside, women were dragging around laundry hampers full of stuff, and baby gear was claimed already with "property of..." notes taped to them. It was all so overwhelming. After picking out about 6 outfits, some socks,  and a couple of other little items, Marcy was ready to checkout, but first had to stand in a line that rapped around the perimeter of the gymnasium.

Our more recent trips to Babies-R-Us have been more pleasant.  We went ahead and ordered the crib conversion kits with the gift card we received form our bedroom set purchase.  This time, the employee knew how to use the computer to place the order, and we lucked out again by receiving more coupons at checkout.  We then used those coupons this past weekend to order the upholstered glider Marcy wanted.  All in all, we think we saved about $650 on Babies-R-Us coupons and promotions.  It might just have been worth the bit of frustration we had dealing with the store staff and delivery man. Now let's just hope the chair will fit in the back of the CR-V.

Marcy is officially in her third trimester now.  Less than 12 weeks to go.  Her need to get things done before Violet gets here is growing along with her belly.  She now recognizes Braxton-Hicks contractions and it makes her a little nervous. She also has begun to pile her pillows up behind her when she tries to sleep. Sleeping propped up is a bit less painful than sleeping down lower.  Poor Spencer tries his best, but there are not enough back massages to alleviate that pain. Marcy's energy level is still pretty good and constant most days, but occasionally it will drop suddenly and drasticly to quickly put her in a crabby mood.  The only remedy lately has been doughnuts and ice cream.  If none are available Spencer has resorted to this for defense:


CAT ATTACK!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

26 weeks

So February is down and all that is left is a March, an April, and a May!  February finished with some furniture, a painted room, a 32-year-old husband, and a case of some very uncomfortable feet.
We saved some serious bank when we ordered our furniture a couple of weeks ago. Of course that made Marcy very happy.  We went through Babies R Us (not sure what keyboard shortcut does the backwards "R", so you'll just have to use your imagination), but that was not without its issues.  First, we had quite a few instances of under-trained store employees.  No one knew much about the furniture, no one knew how to order properly, and no one knew how to have something shipped.  At one point we had four employees helping us at the same time, all of them not quite sure how to use the computer, but on the upside, they were very insistent on several coupons and promotions.  So we ended up with some gift cards and a hefty percentage of the price tag reduced... the delivery is another story, one that took place the following Friday.

That evening, a Saturday, and we were late for it due to the ordering brouhaha, was Spencer's celebratory birthday dinner (the actual day was Sunday) and we had some sushi.  it was actually birthday dinner number three of four for the 32-year-old dad-to-be.  One thing Violet won't be light on will be plenty of loving family members (and gramma's and grandpa's), so we had to visit and catch up with all of them.

The following Friday was the awful delivery day.  It started with a 2 to 4 dropoff time that ended up being 730.  The driver was not the most courteous individual with regards to our property or our bodies.  it was just one guy and a truck (and there was a woman in the passenger seat, we assume was his wife) and he had a handtruck and thank goodness Spencer was there or we never would have gotten the stuff in the house.  He proceeded to nearly take out a chunk of the wall on several occasions, and rammed Spencer in the heel with his handtruck at one point out of sheer clumsiness or on account of rushing to get out of our house.  Speaking of rushing, as he drove off, backing down the driveway, he took out half of our crepe myrtle, leaving a mud flap from his truck as a souvenir.  On the plus side, our furniture is great:




It's still for the most part covered up in sheets of thin Styrofoam and the crib isn't even constructed yet.  Marcy's mom has been diligently painting the nursery and finishing up this weekend.  Here's a pic of the room with a coat of our gorgeous new wall color, the covered furniture, and the much appreciated free labor:



We are actually a week and a half behind posting this blog entry because we ran out of time uploading the 26th week photo before Marcy headed off to Fairhope for work, and also out of sheer laziness.  While out of town, she experienced her first case of swollen feet, a major downside of pregnancy.  Long days of working on her feet will do this to a pregnant Marcy:


Still at this point in the pregnancy, it's not all bad.  Violet gives us little kicks to the tummy that can been seen even under a sweater, so it's exciting to know how much bigger and stronger she is, meaning how much closer we are to meeting the little girl we're both already so madly in love with.