Gracie's first trip

I got a call to head down for a day trip to Houston on Monday and Diana and Gracie tagged along. This was the first trip we had ever taken with Gracie and wanted to test out how she would do in the car before our longer drive to Midland for Thanksgiving.

She did fantastic. Most of the ride was spent sleeping and we were able to finally experience how much longer a car ride is with a child. We stopped for dinner for both us and Grace which added about 30 minutes to our ride. Then we decided to stop at Buc-Ees for some beef jerky and shopping and we stopped at a Babies-R-Us to cash in a coupon while in The Woodlands. All the while she kept quiet and asleep and when we finally arrived at the hotel it had taken us about 6 hours.

I had somehow forgotten to pack diapers when we were throwing everything into our bag so overnight we just had to hope she wouldn't run through the 3 that we had left. We ran in the morning to get more and Diana spent the day with her friend Anna and her two girls, while I went into the corporate offices. After dinner with one of our surrogate moms(Jessica's mom, Kim) we headed home on Tuesday.

Grace, Lexa, and Ellie

The drive back was just as uneventful and we made better time. Now we are just trying to catch up on sleep and prepare for Sunday's drive to Midland.

Trinity

An update on...well, everything

We are down to about 6 weeks left until we find out whether Peanut is a boy or a girl. Life has been pretty hectic in getting ready to have a baby, and I know we are just in the prelude to the craziness that is coming soon. We went to our final class on Wednesday to learn about being parents and it was a pretty big waste of time.

Outside of learning about cord care in the first few weeks, we were taught swaddling and diaper changing, both of which we already knew. I think we were more prepared than other parents in the class though so that shows we are ready.

We have picked a pediatrician, who is slightly hot for a woman in her late 30's/early 40's, so I won't mind taking the baby to the doctor.

We now have the rest of Diana's doctors visits scheduled and begin the weekly visits very soon.

Once we get through this final baby shower on Saturday, we will be able to go look at the registries and make sure we have everything we "need" for the birth day. I am going to guess that means a shopping trip is in my future. Yippeee!!!

Diana is measuring right in line with her weekly progression so hopefully we will soon find out what to expect in regard to baby size. The doc said around 36 weeks so we shall see.

We have yet to install the car seat or pack the hospital bag so as of yet we aren't completely ready but we are getting there.

Who knew babies were this much trouble?

Trinity

Registering

How is it that a pregnant woman cannot seem to stay awake past 10 but the second she finds out you are willing to go register for the baby she suddenly has stamina to walk around stores for over 4 hours with a scanner? I am actually asking this question because I don't understand it.

Friday night, Diana and I were sitting around and decided with all this time to kill and her being out of town most of the month it seemed like the perfect time to fit in registering. Note to any expectant fathers: Don't wear flip flops to this event. I say event because as you sit down at Babies R Us and get registered and they hand over that little gun you think, "Man, I love guns. I can't wait to make this baby *beep*." you do not understand what you are getting yourself into. Little did you know that would be the last happy moment you have for the day.

We started this process at 4:30 pm and at 6 we had made it halfway through the store. I was exhausted, my feet hurt, and I was cranky. No, I wasn't the one who was pregnant. Apparently pregnancy is really bad except for when you register for a boppy or a set of sage and mocha sheets. I love my baby but couldn't we just put it in a laundry basket with some blankets?

We left Babies R Us at 7:00 pm and you know what Diana said? "Let's go to Target!". WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!??!? Was she crazy? What else could we possibly need that they didn't have at BRU? Then she said a word that instantly made me agree. Well, two words actually. The first was "Toys". The second was "Food". I made an agreement to go to Target if we could eat first.

Target was relatively painless and only lasted about an hour. It had a few things BRU didn't offer in store so I can't say it was a waste of time but my flip flops now look like two sheets of paper with foot holds stuck to them because I walked so much. The Target gun was cooler too.

Your father to be,

Trinity