What is a Mommy Shower?

It is what happens when amazing family members and friends decide to throw a party for me to celebrate the fact that I'm going to be a Mommy in about 4 1/2 weeks.

What happens at a "Mommy Shower"? Well, start out with my favorite appetizers (pickles and cream cheese rolled up into slices of ham) and non-alcoholic sparkling apple or grape juice, and then throw in some fun and games and presents. Oh, and did I mention the belly cast that was made?

Mommy Shower Pictures


How Fun! 


The girls



The painted cast

Halloween

Last night was our annual pumpkin carving party, but we spiced it up a bit by also making it a costume party.

We had about twelve guests show up. It was great. We had one bumble bee, e-coli, a rodeo clown, strong-sad, two i-pods, a football player, two zoo-keepers and their elephants, a pregnant Shyla, a Winnie, and a Wilbur, and a Mime.

Here are some fun pics of the night:

Updated belly pic: 33 weeks

Hi all,

Thanks for being patient with my sporadic posting lately. I've had lots going on. This past weekend, Josh and I were able to just hang out together the whole time.

Friday:
We actually went to a "big" theater to watch the movie "The Departed." By "big" theater, I mean that it cost us more than $1.75 each to buy a ticket. Usually, we see movies at the "Cheap" theater only.

I found that "The Departed" was Shakespear-like in some ways, but I'll not spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it yet. I highly recommend it for those who are sick of the same plot lines in movies.

Saturday:
We slept until 9:30 am, had breakfast together, washed some baby clothes in expensive baby detergent, and then we sat down to watch...on TV...the NDSU Bison play the U of MN Gophers in football for the first time in 69 years.

After watching NDSU almost beat the Gophers with a 9-10 score, Josh and I went to Home Depot to get some much needed things for the house...it's odd how much we spend on "Much-needed house items" now. We also traded a number of Josh's X-box games for store credit at a local Video Game store.

We purchased a Game Cube game that we both have wanted for a while now, and then we played that together the rest of the evening.

Sunday: Josh played Bass Guitar in church, while I stayed at home to do more laundry. We played some more Game Cube when Josh came home, and then I took a well-needed nap. I woke up just in time for half-time in the Vikings vs. Seahawks football game.

After the Vikings won, Josh and I decided to go out to eat to finally celebrate the fact that he succesfully defended his thesis two weeks ago. After dinner, we spent about 2 1/2 hours at Barnes & Noble.

Overall- this weekend was perfect! I enjoyed every minute of it. I enjoy it when Josh and can spend time together doing things that we both like to do.

And finally, because I told my mother that I'd post another belly picture, here's a pic of me today, at 33 weeks along. Notice the goofball in the background.

White rabbit vs. War horse with spikes

I've been contemplating whether to share this little bit of hilarity with everyone for a few days now, but I cannot hold it in any longer (no pun intended).

The other night, my husband and I were lying in bed reading and he passed gas. Our conversation begins here:

Me: "That's not nice...how would like it if I farted right now?"

My Husband: "That's different."

Me: "How is it different?"

My Husband: "Mine is like a little white rabbit and yours is like a War horse with spikes."

What? the baby's umbilical cord is not attached to the mom's belly button?

Josh and I often get a kick out of one of the other dads in our lamaze class. He just doesn't seem to comprehend what the instructor is saying. He's not afraid to ask questions, and I give him credit for that...but...some of his questions are...well...quite hilarious.

I had another doctor's appointment today. Our baby boy's heart beat is strong, and the doctor seemed to think that he was in the head down position already...hopefully, he stays there.

I've been having bouts of heartburn lately, although not at night anymore. My doctor recommended Mylanta...so I have to go get some of that.

My stomach is no longer a symmetrical lump; sometimes it is assymetrical and it looks like there's a baby folded in half in there. I am curious to meet the little guy.

Mommy gets a monster but Daddy gets a helper

What a wonderful Baby Shower I received this weekend!

Thanks to my Friend James who organized from a afar, and thanks to my mom and my sister-in-law who took care of everything at the house.

There was plenty of food, fun games to play, and we were even graced with the presence of beautiful twin 5 1/2 month old babies. Personally, I don't think a baby shower is complete without a baby present.

I think everyone enjoyed the shower, and I know that I had a blast! We ended up with plenty of left over food. There are just too many little smokies for Josh and I to eat, so, if you are in the neighborhood, stop in for some treats!

From Josh's parents, among the many presents they gave us, we received a set of bibs. One of the bibs said "Mommy's little monster" and another bib said "Daddy's little helper." Why does Mommy get a monster and Daddy get a helper?

Here are some pics from the shower.

Lamaze Class...It's not just breathing

Josh and I attended our very first lamaze class. We have three more to attend, and they are only 4 hours long each!

It actually wasn't as bad as I had imagined it to be, and Josh agrees. We learned a lot about the stages of labor, and about when to go to the hospital and when to stick it out at home.

At the very end of the class, the Lamaze instructor taught the men a simple series of massages that can help to reduce stress in the mother, and boy did it feel good! I was so completely relaxed after that until we stepped outside into the freezing cold rain - that pretty much woke me up.

I'm getting excited and a bit nervous about the birthing process. I'm obviously concerned about the pain...I'm not planning on having any pain meds...And I'm also really concerned about the lack of control I might have with decisions that will need to be made in the hospital.

For example:

I don't want an episiotomy. Nor, do I want the birth rushed. I also want my baby right away, I don't want them to take him to clean him up and I definitely don't want them to give him a pacifier. I want to be able to breast feed right away. And most of all, I don't want to be in the hospital more than I absolutely need to be. Hospitals are for sick people, and I'm having a baby, I'm not sick.

Humans should be egg hatchers

This morning at about 4:30 am, when I woke up from a combination of having to go potty and having heartburn, I thought to myself "Boy it would be nice to have just laid an egg by now and be done with it?"

I think I even said that out loud, hoping to get a reaction from Josh...But he kept sleeping.

A colleague of mine recently sent an interesting article about childbirth that I found very informative.

Here is the link...But be forewarned, it is a long article:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061009fa_fact

I look 40 and pregnant!

So today, I went on a studio crawl (where you visit various local artist's studios)with my friend Chelsea, and one of the artists (he was probably in is late 60's or early 70's) thought that I was Chelsea's mother!

I'm blaming it on a few factors:

1. Chelsea looks like she's still 18, she's cute and petite and dresses trendy.
2. The man was ancient, and I believe that the older you get, the harder it is to figure out how old younger people are. For example, I think that most college freshmen look like they are freshmen in high school.
3. I wasn't dressed cute, and I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant.
   

Here's me at 32 weeks. Notice that my clothes seem to be "comfy" clothes.

Blue

Isn't it weird to see the word "Blue" in the color green? This reminds me of the "brain testing" that I had to go through my freshman year of hockey. The personal trainers made each freshman go through a series of cognitive tests just so they could document the results. And then if you happened to get a head injury later on, they'd give you the same series of tests and compare the results to see how bad the damage was.

Luckily, I only had to take that test once. But I remember that one of the tests consisted of me having to read a very long paragraph that contained only the words "Blue","Red",and "Green". The words were randomized and each word was printed in a random color. So sometimes the word "Blue" would be in red ink, and other times it would be in blue or green ink.

For the second pass, I had to look at the words and not read the words but state the colors of the ink that the word was printed in.

Ah...those were the days.

Baby Update: I had a doctor's appointment today, and the registration lady said that my doctor was "detained" and asked if I'd rather wait until he was back or if I'd see the nurse practitioner. I understood "detained" to be that he was with another patient who was in labor, but Josh asked me "What does she mean by detained?"

After he asked, I realized how funny it sounds to just say that someone is detained. They could be in jail, they could be in a traffic jam, they could be a lot of things. It makes me wonder if the registration ladies all use that phrase, and if so, why? It seems much easier to say one of his patients is in labor and he's not here right now.

Well, anyway, our baby boy is fine...his heart rate was at 155 beats/min. They weighed me again, and I've gained 5 lbs since my last visit. I'm still in the healthy range of weight gain, so I'm happy about that. I get to go in for office visits every two weeks now, so that means that I'm getting close to the end. YAY!

I'll try to remember to post a new picture of my belly tonight when I get home from work.

A bad orange can ruin your day

Josh and I were talking about our favorite fruits today and this is what I said to Josh.

"This year, plums are my favorite...and probably oranges. Yah, I really like oranges...but only the good ones, because a bad orange can ruin your day."

Josh laughed at this, and I said, "No really, you take all that time and effort to peel the orange and your hands get all orangy and icky and then it turns out to be bad orange. So you have icky hands and you've wasted your time for an orange that is either icky tasting or the texture is wrong."

Here are my favorite pics from the weekend:

Mom and Winnie and I were watching Dad and Josh cut down a small group of trees in our back yard. Copper was out and about on her leash watching too.

After a hard day's play, both Copper and Winnie were all tuckered out.

My new template

I used a template designed by www.zootdesigns.com, and then I modified the pictures and the colors.

I'm just kind of getting the hang of this, and I'm not too happy with this design. But I'm learning as I go.

I'll post another belly pic soon!