Home away from Home

A few weeks ago Diana and I went and toured 3 day cares in hopes of finding a home for Peanut when Diana has to go back to work in March. I don't know where I got the idea but it has always been ingrained in me that you always do this early because all the best schools fill up and you are left with second rate places to put your child.

We live within 2 miles of three day cares and one is within walking distance from our new house. The great thing about this is I can literally go pick up the little nut by walking to the place to get him or her, and that means Diana's work schedule won't be as much of an issue.

As I said, we toured 3 places and they were accidentally toured in order from best to worst. The first, and the one both closest to the house and the one we are going with, was clearly the front runner. The staff seems pretty solid and trained well. The layout of the facility is logical and setup to help promote learning and personal space, and the building was clean and welcoming.

Place 2 would have been the choice had place 1 not been in existence. It was a high B+/A- in that it offered almost everything that our first choice did but was smaller and a bit more sparse in regard to the work stations. They also didn't present themselves as well as Place 1. It was kind of like if you were interviewing candidates for a job and they both had great resumes but one showed up in a suit and the other in a polo.

Place 3 was a solid C. It didn't appear that the staff was very engaged with the newborns and the headmaster of the school was very bland and it came off as uninterested. I don't know if it was her personality, but it was not energetic at all. Even with the savings of $80 a week we were certain that we wouldn't be using them.

So, we are now locked in with our deposit and will begin tackling the paperwork to send our unborn child to the Children's Courtyard near our house. This all seems to be happening quickly but we are 10 weeks away from the arrival of our baby.

Trinity

Dear Peanut

Dear Peanut,

Is it bothering you that I am shining a flashlight onto your mom's belly? You seem to want to kick or hit the light so I can't tell if it is because you want it to go away or you are just curious. I want to make sure your vision was working in there so I guess it is.

I must say you are kind of driving your mother crazy with all the wiggling you are doing in there. I jumped the last time you kicked my hand when I was pressing on your mother's belly. Having someone kicking you from the inside isn't the most pleasant thing in the world so try to keep the force down on those.

Your room has started to come together nicely. We are going to start decorating it this weekend so it will be all pretty for you. We are getting ready for you to be here. It is amazing to consider that it is only a couple of months away from your birthday. Funny how on your birthday we get the present.

Love,

Dad

Work in Process

The nursery is finally coming together! Two weekends ago Uncle Steven and Aunt Megan helped us pick-up the nursery furniture! They were such a huge help, and Megan and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Steven and Trinity struggle to get the large boxes of furniture up our narrow stairway.

They helped us get all the furniture out of the boxes, and then Trinity set-up the dresser and hutch and crib the next afternoon. Unfortunately, the holes that were pre-drilled to attach the hutch to the dresser were not in the right place, so Trinity had to drill new holes. Thankfully he is very handy with his drill, and it didn't take any time at all to remedy.

Once the furniture was unwrapped and in it's place, Trinity and I just couldn't let it sit there. So...we bought the baby bedding! It was on 20% off online plus free shipping, so we had it delivered to the house. It arrived while I was at Clearwater Beach on vacation, so Trinity washed everything and set it up to surprise me when I got home. So sweet! Too bad it was VERY wrinkled! I still appreciate the gesture though!!!

This evening I ironed everything: bedspread, bedskirt, diaperholder, and two valences. The only think I refused to even try were the bumpers. I think I have now ironed more for the baby's room than I hav ironed for Trinity and myself our whole marriage! I'm definitely not very good at it, but everything looks so much better now that it's almost wrinkle-free.

Our next step is to hang the valences, which Trinity plans to do later this week, and pick out some wall decorations. We have some ideas floating around, but it's a matter of finding exactly what we're looking for. And of course I have several showers coming up, so I'm sure we'll be receiving more of the items we registered for in the next month. I'll definitely post more pictures once the nursery is complete!

Uno, Dos, Tres

Well, we've made it to the third and final trimester! How time flies when you're having fun. We have been so very blessed with a smooth, easy pregnancy. I honestly cannot believe how much I've enjoyed being pregnant...crazy, I know.

Peanut is definitely a very active baby. I often get very distracted with his/her movements. And my stomach is often twitching and shaking as Peanut does somersaults and stretches! I shouldn't be that surprised though...if this baby is anything like the parents, Peanut will not be able to sit still for one second!

Here is the most recent photo of me and Peanut. I was terrible at taking belly pictures for the last few months. I hope I don't regret the lack of growing belly pics, but I just didn't think about taking them during the second trimester. And boy have I grown since April! Thankfully it's all been to the belly! My weight gain is right where it should be at about 1 pound per week in the second trimester. It is really hard to imagine what it will feel like with an addition 12 weeks of growth, but I'm up for the challenge!

We have quite a busy schedule for the next month. We're touring three local daycares on July 13th. I'm a little anxious about doing this, and I'm not sure why. Then our next doctor's appointment is July 20th, at which time we start going every two weeks as opposed to every month. In August it's time for baby showers in Dallas and Midland (thank you to my wonderful friends who are planning them)! The weekend of the Midland shower is the last weekend I'm allowed to travel, so the rest of August and September will be spent impatiently awaiting Peanut's arrival.

Strolly Moly!

This evening Trinity and I made our second major baby purchase: the stroller! Babies R Us was having a 20% off all travel systems sale for the 4th of July, so we bought it off our registry.

I really love the patern of the system we bought. There were only so many gender-neutral options, and this sytem got great reviews online. Plus, it seemed to be one of the easier strollers to navigate through the store.

When we brought the box in the house and started unpacking the pieces, Duncan immediately ran upstairs to hide. He's such a wuss when it comes to big boxes. Hazel, however, was very interested in what we were bringing home and sniffed everything! As I took this picture, Trinity caught my eye and said, "Don't." Somehow he knew I was considering picking her up and putting her in the carseat! :) I just thought it would make for a cute picture. Oh well.

The stroller didn't take too much effort to build...just attach the wheels and you're ready to go! We spent some time to practice folding of the stoller, taking the car seat out of the base, and attaching and unattaching the car seat inside the stroller. Once we get closer to October 3rd, we'll strap the base in the car and wait for Peanut's arrival!

Dear Peanut

Dear Peanut,

I had a dream that you were two days old and you could talk. Your grandmother didn't believe me when I first told her. You said something really simple but for a 2 day old it was very intelligent. I looked at her and said, "The baby can talk", and she said, "That's impossible."

Then you had this look on your face that told me you had gone to the bathroom so when your grandmother was back in the room I looked at you and said, "Did you poop just now?"

You replied with "Yeah, I was bored", and it floored your grandmother. I think it means you will be very smart and very sarcastic. I am glad you will be taking after me.

Love,

Dad

Can you really ever be "Prepared"?

Trinity and I signed up for the Prepared Childbirth class at Baylor Grapevine, where we will deliver, and our first class was this past Sunday. Being the overachievers that we are, we were the first couple to arrive (approximately 25 minutes early). Trinity was hopeful for front row seats, until we arrived at the conference room to see that we sit in a circle.

Before class began we were given a plethora of brochures on all kinds of things...cord blood banking, breastfeeding, the importance of folic acid, healthy eating, etc. You get the point. We also received a quite extensive prepared childbirth informational book and class outline. I was excited to see that we would get to see the "stages of labor" video at our first class.

Class began once all 10 couples arrived in their seats, and we went around the room introducing ourselves and giving a little info, including:
-our due date
-if we were having a boy or girl
-if we had a name picked out
-our favorite thing about pregnancy
-one thing we could live without during pregnancy
Not surprisingly, the room was overwhelmed by expecting girls (I think it there were at least 6 couples), and we were the only couple who had chosen not to find out the sex of our baby. We were also the couple with the latest due date. Some couples are due as early as July. Our doctor had recommended that we sign up between 20-25 weeks, so I assumed that is what most people did, but apparenlty not!

I won't bore you with all the information that was given to us in the 3.5 hour class, but I do feel like we've already learned a lot! One of the most interesting topics to me was the discussion of the different hormones that take part in labor and how each one has its own special job to help me get through the experience.

It was also interesting to watch the "stages of labor" video; although, one of the mothers in the video had a quite atrocious haircut that made me giggle, followed by more giggles due to Trinity's exclamations under his breath in several parts. I swear we must be the most immature parents-to-be in the class. I honestly thought the video would make me nervous about labor, but it actually did just the opposite. I know it's going to be painful and a long process, but after watching it I thought, "I can do this!"

The last 30 minutes of the class was dedicated to breathing and relaxation techniques. I thought this would be a silly section with lots of puffing and counting, but it really was a very relaxing half hour. Our instructor dimmed the lights, put on soft music, and had all of us mothers-to-be lie on our blankets and pillows. We then tried to consciously relax all our muscles in preparation for our "contractions." Our instructor had us each clench one fist but keep the rest of our body relaxed and take deep breaths in and out while she counted out 60 seconds. This exercise is supposed to help us focus on relaxing our body while our stomach contracts during real labor. Once we'd done that, she had us all relax our fist and try to visually imagine our baby inside our womb. It probably sounds really strange and silly, but somehow it made me really relaxed! So relaxed that Trinity thought I'd fallen asleep!

I really like our instructor, and she has not at all tried to persuade anyone of her personal views. Although it was clear that she thought labor without pain medication was best, she never said or implied that we shouldn't get one if that's what we want. Call me crazy, but I have not made up my mind on whether or not I want one. Thankfully I have some time to consider the decision!