Baby Shower Photos

It has been a pretty quick and crazy week since the baby shower, but I just wanted to drop in an show off some of the photos. I will leave it to Heidi to give her impressions, but I just wanted to make sure and thank everyone again for a great turnout and for all the great gifts which we received. I can only share a few here, but if you are interested in seeing all the photos, check out my mom's Snapfish album.


Heidi and I with the bassinet.


The cake.


Some gifts.


Heidi opening gifts.


Heidi and some Gallipolis girls.

More Miles

Hey guys, it's been pretty hectic lately. Alot of stuff going on, getting ready for the baby shower this weekend, Heidi is SO excited! Also a bunch of work stuff and a barrage of doctor's appointments now that we are going every two weeks, plus an extra check up in there and another ultrasound last friday.

Everything went well, as expected. Miles is measuring normal in terms of his head size and the measurements they took around the waist and of the fluid surrounding him. He is now so big that they couldn't get a full body shot in the ultrasound anymore, instead they focused on showing parts of the body (leg, foot, bones, etc.). He has gotten turned back around and is now facing the correct direction to be delivered head first, so that is a good thing as well.

Here are the photos we got of his face. I have to admit that they are not the clearest of shots and you may not get it at first, but I assure you it looked really cool in person. As the technician dragged the ultrasound machine from side to side you could get some great 3D-looking views of his profile, where the nose and eyes were clearly standing out. However, whenever she would stop to take a photo you would lose the depth and he view got a little more muddled. Still I think if you look real hard you may be able to guess what is what.


Can you see the baby's face?


How about now?

Labor Predictor quiz

I just went to a cute website Justmommies.com and they have a labor predictor quiz so I thought what the heck let's try it out. All you have to do is answer a few short questions about your birth and your significant others birth and it gives you this fun little prediction. Remember it is just for entertainment purposes only and there is probably no actual truth to it, but it is still fun to see what it says.

So here is my labor prediction:

I know you were hoping we were not going to say this, but don't expect this baby to come early. Your baby is nice and comfy tucked away in your womb and has no intrest in joining the rest of the world. We predict your baby after it's due date. Your baby will most likely be born in the morning. Justmommies predicts that your baby will weigh approximately 8.5 pounds and that your labor will be about 16 hours long.

Now doesn't that sound like fun I hope that they are wrong with the 16 hours part but it will probably last even longer than that so I shouldn't complain. Well let's wait and see how close there were with their predictions.

Stress busters:)

Ok so I am on Babyfit.com like 20 times a day if not more. I find it really helpful with lots of good information espically for first time mommies like myself. One of the articles that I really enjoyed recently is 7 Simple Stress Busters. I know that I am starting to feel the stress and any relief that I can get is very helpful. Stress happens to everyone but being a pregnant women it seems to find ya much faster.

Step 1:Take a walk-It helps to clear your head and it helps keep you in shape. This is one activity that I actually enjoy doing but lately I just can't find the time to fit a good head clearing walk in. No wonder I am a stressful mess most days.

Step 2: Call a good friend or fellow pregnant lady-Talking to someone that you enjoy really helps you to relax and clam down. Sorry guys I know I am horrible at staying in touch I will make an effort to change that for my own peice of mind and I really miss talkin gto good friends.

Step 3: Write down your thoughts in a journal-Expressing one's feelings is a great way to destress. Writing things down is a quick release of all your feelings at once and it never hurts to get things out of your system.

Step 4: Play a board game-This I am not really sure about who really has a chance to sit down to a wonderful game of Life these days. I guess I will get reaquainted with how fun board games can be in a few short years when Miles wants to play Candyland or any other fun game that I have not played in years.

Step 5: Work up a sweat- Now doesn't that sound like fun. It didn't really specify how to work up that sweatbut I am sure any way is fine and will help you destress or maybe cause more stress who knows.

Step 6: Plan something fun- Like a mini-vacation or a night out on the town becuase soon for Chris and I these will be hard to come by. We went to a nice dinner the other night at PF Changs and it was really relaxing and very enjoyable.

Step 7: When all else fails take a nap-This has slowly became one of my favorite relaxation techinques. I never really enjoyed naps until I became pregnant now I can hardly function some days without a little bit of shut eye.

Well these stress tips are probably not anything new but they are super helpful to this pregnant lady that stresses out easily enough not being pregnant so one can only imagine my state of mind at times now that I am worry not only about me but also about this wonderful little guy that Chris and I are about ready to bring into this world.

Catching Up

I'm not feeling particularly eloquent tonight, but I thought I better say something seeing as how Heidi has been a little too busy nesting to blog about anything lately. And I tell you, she is missing out on some good stuff too. Since she has written last there has been...

• Buying of baby books
  Barnes & Noble was having a moving sale, so she had to go grab one of those big cushy books with like only 4 pages. Something about Elmo and it makes lots of noises, etc.
  
• Doctors appointments
  Went for like 5 minutes worth of doctor time, only to have to sit with the obstetrics coordinator (yeah, I'd never heard of that either) for like 20 minutes to schedule her next 8 appointments for this month. OK, maybe not 8, but she's now at the point where she'll have to see a doctor every two weeks, plus a special visit to a neurologist because she is considered to be high-risk.
• Putting together a dresser
  This has been a few weeks back, but we got our second of three big pieces of baby furniture. It looks really nice and the room officially looks like it is ready for Miles now, but putting the darn thing together took an entire Sunday afternoon, about 4-5 hours. Guess we better get used to it, eh?
• Narrowing the weight gap
  I'm sure she will get pissed that I told this one, but with her nearing her 8th month of pregnancy and me being on a diet we are almost weighing in at the same weight. It hasn't quite happened yet, with her just above 195 and myself just under 205, but I keep saying it is really only a matter of time before we pass somewhere right around the two-bills mark.
• Lots of laundry
  Bought some special detergent called Dreft to start washing all the baby clothes we have bought. I still can't see why babies can't just sleep on regularly washed sheets, but I guess that's just me. Heidi has also been doing about six times as much laundry as normal, including some washing things I didn't even know were dirty. I think it is all just part of a process to get used to doing more laundry because I hear babies can be dirty.

That's about it for now. I'm sure there's more...specifically some little issue called unpaid maternity leave, but I suppose we will burn that bridge when we get there. Until then, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a lucky lotto ticket and pinching my pennies wherever possible.

Keeping the baby alive

I was in my Weight Watchers meeting today (yes, I'm a 28-year-old male in Weight Watchers...wanna fight about it?) and we were talking about how responsibilties change over time and how you learn to watch and account for yourself. My group leader asked me this question.

"Chris, you're about to have a baby, right? What do you think the role of a parent is for a child from 0-3 years old?"

I was stumped. I've never really been one who thinks quickly on my feet...so I just said the first thing that came into my head.

"To make sure they survive beyond that age..."

Everyone laughed at first, but then she went on to talk about it a bit and really her summation of taking care of a baby more or less came down to making sure it is doesn't die. There was more to it than that, something about a blur of diaper changing and sleepless nights of lying awake listening to a baby monitor to make sure it is still breathing. But regardless of what anyone says, that's basically what it boils down to.

And that, in a way, is why I'm not really worried about becoming a parent. If all I have to do is keep it breathing, then it should be a breeze, right? Something like eighty percent is gonna be instinct anyway and the rest I figure I can just learn along the way.

Chris

Time is flying

Well according to Babyfit.com I as of today at 27 weeks have officially entered my 3rd and last trimester which is super exciting. There are conflicting time lines to when exactly the 3rd trimester starts some say 28 weeks which is 7 months but I say that I agree with the 27 week mark just fine. I just can't believe I only have 91 more days to go if I deliver on my official due date which is June 10, 2008 just in case anyone forgot.

We are slowly getting ready for baby Miles we have already painted the nursery a nice shade of green that will fit Miles just perfect. We have already got the crib courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Mowder. The crib is an awesome sled bed with a cherry wood finish from Target that I absolutely love. It was a trip putting it together Chris and I took 2 whole days to get it done but it is done. We have a few of the stuffed animals that we already had placed in the crib and it looks so cute. We have already had to watch and try to keep the cats out of the bed Mays really loves it in there which is not good.

We are slowly getting more and more stuff for the nursery which is so much fun. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Dave have sent us a few things already. We have a nice safari hamper, some wall hangings all safari animals an elephant, an alligator with a turtle on it's back, and a giraffe. I just can't wait to finish the nursery and get it all set up for Miles.

Time is just flying right on by but I am still loving every minute of it. I just can't wait to hold Miles in my arms and see how much he reminds me of his daddy because I am sure they are going to look just alike.


Crib in pieces.


Chris tightening some bolts.


Finished product.


Baby Mays in the new crib.

I bought diapers yesterday

I'm not sure why I did it. I know full and well that the baby will not be here for another few months. On top of that, there's the fact that Heidi will most likely get a gross of them at her baby shower and the possibility that our baby could be big and grow out of newborn diapers almost immediately.

But despite the many common sense reasons not to, I found myself browsing the baby aisles of Wal-Mart (why I was at Wal-Mart, don't ask...) alone on a Wednesday evening looking for something, anything to buy. I think maybe I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it without feeling awkward or maybe I did it as a reminder that there's not a whole lot of time left before baby.

Either way, I ended up with a pack of 10 or 20 (I can't even remember how many were in a pack) Huggies diapers in size 1. They have sizes you know...I just learned that recently as well. I always just thought a diaper was a diaper. And, damn those things are expensive. It was like $10 for the small pack, which I can only assume will last me like half a day or something.

And then there's the fact of what the diaper is actually for...not particularly exciting stuff. But that's about all the diaper talk I can take for today. I'm out.

Chris

Maternity Shopping

Chris and I went shopping today for a nice dress for me to wear this weekend to Christopher's Newspaper Awards in Spartanburg, SC. I thought this would be an easy task I mean it is just a dress right? Well it wasn't as easy as one might think. First of all we went to J.C. Penny that just opened up at the Coastal Grand Mall because we had a $10 coupon. The store was really nice and had some really cute little baby clothes and accessory, but there was no maternity section which was not cool. I looked at some of the regular size dresses and there was some pretty ones but I was not sure if they would fit and I did not really want to try any of them on and have them not fit so we decided to move on and see what Motherhood Maternity had to offer. Motherhood is slowly becoming my favorite store for the time being some of their clothes are just to cute and pretty much affordable. Most of my maternity clothes are from Motherhood so I thought finding a cute dress in there should not be a problem.

Well there was a lot of pretty dresses to choose from so I picked out a couple nice pant suits to try on instead of a dress. Well the pants suit was nice but it looked to much like a work outfit and not a dressy outfit so I sent Chris on a mission to pick out a few dresses that he liked for me to try on. He brought back 2 dresses one size large and one size XL. The large dress was black, white, and yellow pattern and the XL was a pretty pastel dress. Well the Large dress was just a little to tight on my boobs so that one was out. The pastel one was just a bit too big and it made me look like an Easter egg which was not the look I was aiming for.

So off I sent Chris and the saleslady on a mission to find more dresses for me to try. This time they came back with 3 different ones for me to try on. They ranged from size Large to XL once again. The first one I tried on was just a plain little black dress which was a large and it was super cute on and it helped hide my big ol' belly so I was pretty much sold on this dress but I thought I should try on the other one just to see how it fit. It was a really cute black and off white polka dot dress that tied in the front under the chest area. It was a size XL so it should fit right no such luck my chest once again was causing a problem the dress just would not fit right around my big old chest so that dress was also out.

By this time I was tired of trying on clothes and I really had to use the bathroom because that is where I spend most of my time these days. So I said heck with it and decided on the little black number and a pair of black tights to cover up these good old white legs of mine. To dress up the dress I decided to get some pretty turquoise jewelry to match with Chris' shirt and tie that he is wearing. We will look really hot so there will definitely be some pictures to come so that everyone can check us out.

Heidi

Baby Shower

Well I have been trying to figure out what exactly is going to happen at the upcoming baby shower in April. I have spent most of the evening looking at baby shower games trying to find some fun ones to try. There are some fun games out there but most of them have been done before. I really want to try to play some different games if at all possible.

Some of the games that I am thinking of doing:
1. Using the baby name to see how many words can be made out of the name. I know this is not a new game but it is always a fun game.
2. Another one that is not a new game but it is a have to play is the measure the mom-to-be belly with string to see who is the closest to the actual size. I can't wait to see who can measure my belly size I am getting pretty round already, but I love it!!!!

These are the only two games that I am sure that we are going to play at the shower I am open for any ideas that you all have leave me a comment with you great ideas. You know me any help I can get I would really appreciate it. Hey maybe I can make this one of the games whoever has the best idea for a game gets a little prize if you are at the shower.

One game that I saw on one of the baby sites that I like to look at is a definite no go. It is similar to the measuring the mom-to-be belly but instead of using string to measure the guests put down a number that you think will match up to the measurement that you think my belly is and then I get measured with actual measuring tape. I think I am big enough and knowing how much I weigh is good enough for me.

Well ya'll give me some ideas on shower activities that we can do so that the shower is a good time for all. I can;t wait to see everybody and catch up.

Heidi