Why Don't You Ever Post?

Sorry! We've been pretty big slackers since last we posted here. Actually, we've stayed pretty busy with Jan, Mindy's mom, here helping out. Mindy and her have set up all the furniture in the "nusery" and some other places around the house. Chris...well, he played golf today. But in his defense, it's Memorial Day and he thought he had earned it.

Our last birthing class is this coming Tuesday night...and it should be interesting. They're making all the helpers (mostly dads) go through stations where they have to change diapers and other fun tasks. Last week, Chris got volunteered (because he was the only person taller than the instructor) to "assist" in the breathing examples. Now the intructor calls him "the rock." Little does she know he's going to drop like a sack of potatoes when he sees that baby coming out. We also got to see all the cool stuff the doctors and nurses will use for the delivery, like forceps, sitz baths, catheters, and inducement tools. Yikes. Then we went in to the breathing examples, and Mindy had to get in all fours and swing her hips like an elephant while Chris sat behind her laughing at the whole thing. That earned him no points.

The nursery is just about ready. The crib is up, we've got the different storage shelves and stuff in place....all we need now is a baby. Here's some pictures of the nursery in progress and another of Mindy at 38 weeks.

Full Term Ahead!

Well, it’s 36 and ½ weeks into this thing called pregnancy. My last doctor’s appointment went well. Baby seems healthy and growing daily! The midwife said my cervix was soft and opening, so that at least shows my body is doing what it’s supposed too.

My parents arrived Monday! It’s so nice having them here! My dad did have to head back home yesterday for work, but my mom will be staying until the baby comes – and my dad plans to come back up when I go into labor. Mom and I have been working on washing baby clothes and getting everything sorted so we’ll be organized when baby does finally decide to come.

In our last birthing class we got to see videos of 2 different births…one was with the Epidural, which pretty much sealed the deal on me getting one. I know it won’t take all the pain away, but anything that helps, I’m signing up for.

I went to get my hair cut today! It’s super short and super easy to take care of (as you can see in the picture.) We’ve also been walking a lot (take note of my sunburned face) to help the baby drop…so far he’s staying fairly high, but every now and again he’ll shift low and I can breathe again…which is such a wonderful feeling.

In other news, Chris found out that he has a reserved place in the January Capt. Course at Fort Gordon, GA. So it looks like we’ll be moving in December! Other than that, he’s been playing his video games a lot…=)

Well, that’s all for now. We’ll write more next week!

Oh, That's What A Kegel Exercise Is...

Tuesday night was the first of four childbirth classes over the next four weeks. We went over to the hospital at 6pm and into the new ward for labor & delivery that was completed recently. It looks pretty nice- we had a tour of it after the class- and the rooms are huge! It looks so much better than the old rooms which were incredibly small. Now we just have to make sure our baby is born here- with our luck we'd have it on the way to Topeka in the back of our car. If only a trip to Topeka would bring on labor...I'd be heading out tonight!

Anyway, our first class consisted of talking about the basics of pregnancy, discomforts of pregnancy, breathing and relaxation exercises and the tour of the labor and delivery ward. It was pretty interesting. We're supposed to go in more detail as the classes progress. We're taking the class with good friends from our church who are due this fall, so that makes it more fun. One of the relaxation exercises we had to do was to create a calming place in your mind - unfortunately my imagination is to wild to stay in a calm soothing place in my mind. The teacher read this 10 minute reading to help you find this calm soothing place - by the time she said we could have anyone in that place in our mind with us, I had the anesthesiologist there administering my epidural. I've pretty much made up my mind that unless the baby comes super fast (and really, what are the chances of that with my first baby?) or some type of medical issue arises, I'm getting that epidural. As long as it takes properly, I'm sure all of us will be happy with that decision.

I am 35 1/2 weeks at this point and completely miserable and uncomfortable. =) Some days are better than others, but I pretty much feel like a dying beetle unable to flip myself over with arms and legs flailing in the air...or a beached whale. I know I'm average as far as how big I am and how much I've gained, but man alive - if my stomach gets any bigger, it will explode. I haven't felt the baby drop yet, although it amazes me that he will drop much lower than he is now. I do look forward to the dropping though...that means I should be able to breathe!

Chris and I are slowly getting all the things we need for the baby. Today we picked up the baby's crib which Chris will be putting together tonight. I'm excited to get it up so the room will look a little more like a nursery.

My parents are coming on Monday and we are really excited! I can't wait until they get here! My mom plans to stay until the baby comes (my dad would love to stay, but is unable to because of work). Luckily my mom works from home on a church webpage business, so she can bring it with her and stay as long as we need. She's going to help me get organized and ready for the baby. Chris is looking forward to handing over the cat litter duty once she gets here. =)

Well, I think that's it for now...I'm going to try to convince Chris to start setting up the crib! We'll write more later!

I'm Yard Sale-ing!

Saturday we got up early to see if we could pick up some baby items during Ft. Riley's post-wide yard sale. They do this every six months or so; the last time we sold a bunch of old stuff we were trying to get rid of (and took the leftovers to Goodwill). So at 8am (late for many die-hards) we grabbed $200 out of the ATM and headed out to find some deals.

We hit the places down on Main Post (where we live) first. Some neighbors had told us they were selling some baby things, so we roamed around to different areas. Nobody seemed to have what we were looking for. Chris had also set the ground rules that we could only get baby stuff, so we walked by several possible good furniture bargains.

After failing miserably at every sale- although we did get a little Miami Dolphins windbreaker- we decided to head up to Custer Hill, another section of post. It was like a street bazaar up there. People were selling hot dogs and drinks, and music was playing. We'd definitely started in the wrong spot, and by the time we got up there, it was picked pretty clean. So, with $199.50 in our pockets, we decided to hit the PX for lunch and see what they had.

We ended up with a new stroller and baby carrier/car seat, a pretty nice one, although Mindy discovered it had a recall on the carrier part because the handle can inadvertently come loose and throw your baby face first into the ground. Which would be funny if it happened to anyone but a little helpless baby. So we still need some stuff, but hey, we have a month right?

Tonight is our first in a series of four birthing classes. We'll let you know how that goes- although Chris is already dreading next week's class, since it means he might miss his first softball game of the season. The sacrifices...

Fetus on Board

We created this blog so we could share with folks who want to see what we're experiencing as we approach D-Day...the day our son will be born. We're both excited for the big day, and anxious to get the next chapter of our lives started. Plus, Mindy's tired of lugging the little guy around all day and night, and really wants Chris to pull his weight in this thing too.

We found out last September that Mindy was pregnant- and Chris promptly left for the field for four days. After 10 pregnancy tests (didn't she know how accurate they are?) and a visit to the doctor, we knew there was definitely something growing in there. Chris finally came back, and we waited to tell anyone but close family. We traveled to Godfrey, IL, to tell Mindy's parents (who guessed it right away), and on the way there called and told Chris' parents in Salisbury, MD (who seemed very reserved, but finally came around when they grapsed that they were in fact old enough to be grandparents).

We were a bit curious as to what it was. Mindy's mom swore it was a girl. Mindy had a gut feeling it was a boy. Chris thought it might be an alien; plus, wouldn't it be awesome if the thing just broke out and started running around the room? So, ok, it wasn't an alien- but you can imagine what it would be like if it was. Turns out he was a he.

Anyway, to make two and a half long trimesters short, Mindy had a VERY difficult time with nausea early on, and was reduced to laying on the couch watching ER all day. The doctors at the army hospital where we are stationed were less than enthusiastic about finding the cause an/or cure to the whole thing (there's a chapter for this blog sometime), but they did finally give Mindy some good drugs to counter it (Zofran). She finally "grew" out of it, and only takes it once a day now, as opposed to the 4-5 times before that. We'll see if the kid has three arms or something when he decides to pay us a visit.

So the due date is June 12th, and we wait. So in the meantime- between when Mindy prays for him to come early- we'll post here as often as we can and update folks on how things are going. Feel free to comment or criticize or whatever.

Our First Blog!

Sooo...we have a blog...

This is our first post, so we'll keep it short and sweet, but we set up this site to talk about and show pictures of our soon-to-be addition to the family.

Stay tuned, and we promise it'll get better from here.