Fuzzibunz

Last week I order some cloth diapers because I found them on sale at a certain website. Robb and I are attempting to be a cloth diapering household. We thought this could in the long run save us money but also be good for the environment and the whole not being wasteful thing. I just read in an article this weekend that you can expect to use 7000 diapers over the course of your childs diapering life. That's a lot of diapers!

A big plus is the early learning center we are planning on using really promotes cloth diapering. I was surprised by that. The director is a big cloth diaper fan and encourages other parents to try it. I was sure any day care we used would demand disposable diapers. So I feel this day care was meant for us.

Anyway.....the 9 diapers I ordered came in yesterday. I am very excited about them. They seem great and soft. I'm hoping they work out as wonderfully as I am imagining. I brought a few to work to show my co-workers and all of them were surprised by how nice they are.

Now I only got 9 diapers. I will probably need 18 - 24. This adventure is getting exciting!

Breastfeeding class

Yesterday afternoon I attended a breastfeeding class at my midwifes office. I feel the class was geared more towards women that aren't sure if they are going to breastfeed however it did have some interesting information for me. I feel like I already knew about all the benefits of breastfeeding and how to hold the baby while trying to feed. The parts that I found informative was the information on the storage of breast milk once pumped. Once I come back to work in June I am planning on pumping so that our child can still get the great nutrition of breast milk. They also handed out a list of places in the Lynchburg area that rent breast pumps. I am looking at purchasing a Medela breast pump but they are rather expensive and once you use it you cannot return it. So I have been advised to rent for a bit to make sure that pumping will work for us and then make the investment into a pump of our own. This class really got me thinking about breastfeeding and having this baby here.

Baby shower 1 photos

and the fun begins!

Today at work I had my first baby shower! The ladies surprised me with a baby shower luncheon! It was a lovely occasion. We got many wonderful baby things. I'm still drinking the delicious punch. It was so much fun opening presents and seeing what people think we need. And realize what we need that I didn't think of. Now it really feels like we are in the home stretch. I am overjoyed and can't stop smiling! Thank you office friends!

I will post pictures soon!

32 weeks!

We are less than two months and doing quite well at 32 weeks! Baby Shipp should be about 4lbs. and growing! All this growing is adding weight so the baby will fill out and look normal when it is born the end of March.

Today Robb and I worked on the nursery. I've almost got the closet cleaned out. I'm thinking we should get some kind of organizer or multiple rack to go in there. Right now it is rather a large empty space. However it will be so cute to see little clothes hanging in there soon! We also started a little musical decorating. I found a wall decal that is perfect for our musically themed nursery. It was fun for Robb and I to put it up. The room is slowly starting to look like the place that our child will live and grow. My Aunt Beverly has also done a nice job of finding musically themed items for our nursery. I can't wait to see the curtains and crib bedding my mom has been working on.


No midwife appointment this week but we will be seeing her again on Feb. 1st.

the 2 month countdown

Yesterday I saw my midwife again. I seem to be going to the clinic much more often now. This week I did get to see Erin my midwife. It was nice talking with her again. It confirmed how much I do like her and hope she will be on call when the baby is born.

Things are going well. 32cm uterus, good blood pressure, only gained 2lbs from the last visit. The baby's head is down so that makes me happy. Erin did say that I had protein in my urine which isn't a big problem but she wanted to send it off for culture just in case. The protein was only a trace amount and since I didn't have high blood pressure it wasn't a cause for alarm but just to be safe.

I get to go back in 2 weeks and meet Tammy the 4th midwife. Once Robb and I meet Tammy we will have met them all so there won't be any surprises with the midwives at the birth.

To switch gears a little, Appomattox made the national news. We had a man hunt going on for a suspect that killed 8 people. The scene of the crime was only a few miles from my house. Luckily I heard this morning on NPR they caught the suspect. Appomattox was described as a small country town about 100 miles southwest of Richmond.

So we are all good: Robb, baby and me. I really have been having the urge to clean the house. I just want things to be ready. So I think I can finally get Robb into gear to help with all of these projects!

Prenatal Massage

For Christmas, Robb bought me 4 30 minute prenatal massages. Yesterday was my first massage. Let me just say it was great! I've had massage before and those were wonderful but this seemed extra nice. Having someone massage my whole body for 30 minutes was wonderful! I had this wonderful experience at Its a Matter of Touch Wholistic Bodywork. I have another appointment in 2 weeks! So for the next month or so I will be relaxing and enjoying this wonderful pregnancy while being massaged!

Thanks dear!

31 weeks after a big weekend!

Sorry its been a week since a post. We are at 31 weeks and the counter says 62 days. Crazy!!!!!

So let's update you on what has been happening this weekend. Robb and I have had a long weekend celebrating the Lee/Jackson and Martin Luther King holidays. Friday on Lee/Jackson day we toured the daycare facility that we are planning on using for the baby. The Grace Hill Early Learning Center is located at the end of our road which makes it very convenient. We met the director and she showed us around the facility. We spent quite a bit of time in the infant room talking and seeing how things run. The infant and infant 2 rooms each hold 8 children. We also looked at the 2 and 2+ room which can each hold 10 children. The place looks very nice and everyone was extremely nice to us. A big plus is that they are willing to use our cloth diapers. I was thinking any daycare that we used was going to demand disposable diapers but the director of the learning center is a big proponent of cloth diapering and is trying to encourage people to do it. So that was a nice surprise! The one down side to this place we only have a guaranteed spot the middle of August. However, with our summer plans and other things we will be needing daycare starting July 12th. The director said they may be able to work us in that early but she will have to see. All in all it was a good tour!

Friday night we attended the first part of our Preparing for Childbirth Lamaze class. The class was taught by the wife of the pastor from the Lynchburg CoB and was at the Virginia Baptist Hospital where we will be having the baby. Our class was very large but still had good participation. The first night was really just an overview of what happens to a woman's body as she is preparing to give birth. We returned on Saturday for a full day of practice and more info. We learned 3 breathing techniques that are to help with contractions. The main thing we worked on was focusing and getting through contractions and working as a team. Before the lunch break the whole class pretended to be in labor having contractions every 3 minutes. Robb and I tried many different positions to make the contractions and labor easier. He is a great coach and I know that we will be a great team during the actual labor. The after lunch info was about drugs, epidurals, and c-sections. It was amazing to hear all the questions about epidurals. It seemed like the majority of the class was only there to find out about when they could get an epidural, what it would feel like, and what other interventions would happen to them once they got it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the interest in epidurals, Peggy did say that about 60% women get them now a days. The Shipps are not planning on an epidural or pain meds of any kind. We are going at this all natural. Here's hoping everything works out well!

So back to 31 weeks! The baby should be 3 1/2lbs and heading into a growth spurt. It only has 9 more weeks to gain at least 4 pounds. I think back to the beginning of this adventure way back in the summer. At 9 weeks none of you even knew about this baby. This little miracle was still Robb and I's little secret. Oh how the time has gone. I am becoming more comfortable with my large body. For the last few weeks I had been having pains sitting and sleeping and getting around. Now I think I am doing better. However if baby Shipp get much bigger I'm sure my body will be back to the pains.

Robb and I are so excited to meet this little baby!

30 weeks

Well here we are at 30 weeks! Baby Shipp just keeps growing and growing. Yesterday Robb and I went to the movies. During the movie the baby started moving a lot so I reached over and placed Robb's hand on the top of my belly and the baby was kicking a lot. Robb finally really felt the baby move. It was great! After church today we had lunch at Olive Garden and as we were waiting a man stood up and offered me his seat. Robb says I should be using my pregnancy to get more things like that. It makes me feel awkward. oh well....can't hide this belly.

This week we will be attending our weekend childbirth prep class. We go Friday evening and all day Saturday. It should be interesting. Hopefully after this class I will feel more comfortable with the hospital. We will see how Robb does as well as my partner.

This one is short so enjoy the new picture of me and the crib!

This is going to be a person

Back in the early fall I got a CD in the mail from Amy. Amy is great with the mixed CD! It really is her calling and most of my musical collection is CD's that Amy has made for me. Not only does she make the CD she writes a little list of the songs and why she picked each song. So back to the CD I got in the fall. This CD is called "You're Having a Baby! Mix". I listened to it once or twice in the fall and thought it was a lovely mix but the song didn't jump out to me as the best mix that Amy had made. (I have a whole scrapbook that has CD's with it they are probably some of the best she has ever done) For some reason today as I was working I needed some music and decided to give this mix a go again. Most of the songs just have the word baby in them and while they can make you think about an actual baby you think more of a love interest being called baby. However there are a few that are actually about babies or having children. And those seem to be the songs that were getting to me today.

I should start at the beginning of the day. This morning I was in my co-worker Kelly's room learning how to do a new test. The baby was moving quite a bit and pushing really hard on the top of my tummy. Kelly asked if she could feel. This is a shy baby so once Kelly put her hand on my stomach the baby stopped moving but Kelly said something like "Isn't it amazing that there is a person incubating in there?" I didn't think a lot about it at the time but as I was listening to all this baby music this afternoon I started thinking more and more about that. This isn't just a baby it is a person that will soon grow into their own individual that I am going to love but possibly be frustrated with or angry at but hopefully very proud of.

So the two main songs that were stirring this deep thought process were "Capri" by Colbie Caillat and "The One Who Knows" by Dar Williams. And while I was deep in thought about becoming a parent the CD moved on and so did Amy's choices. Before I knew it this song came on and broke my deep thoughts and just made me laugh!

Appointment

We had another appointment yesterday. It went well. I passed my glucose tolerance test so YAY! My uterus is measuring 30cm which is in line with the length of our pregnancy (usually your uterus measures in inches the amount of weeks you are pregnant but the midwife says +/- a centimeter is ok). The baby's heartbeat was in the 140 range which is again good. The only down side to the appointment was I was told I need to increase my iron intake through my diet. Earlier in my pregnancy my iron level was a 13.1 which is good. 2 weeks ago when they took more blood my iron was down to 10.9. The midwife said that anything below 10 they would put me on iron supplements. She also said that iron supplements don't always work well with the body causing some intestinal problems and what not. So last night for dinner Robb and I have steak, asparagus and red potatoes. It was his attempt to help with my dietary iron intake.

We also asked about preterm labor and anything that we should be doing at this point in time in the pregnancy. The midwife said at this point in time in the pregnancy we should be enjoying our time together and life without a baby. So maybe this weekend we will go to the movies!

29 weeks

Yikes! Did I just type 29 weeks? I haven't regularly started counting down the days but I keep the count in mind.

Robb and I worked out our crib drama and now have our beautiful crib together. The nursery is shaping up nicely. I haven't cleaned out the closet so that is the next step. We already have a nice collection of baby things that are piling up in our guest bedroom. I think I need to get some storage containers to help organize all the clothing we will be getting. This baby isn't going to need 12month clothes right when it is born. Right?

For me, I still feel very happy and healthy. I have noticed a few more aches and pains than I had back in the fall. When I sleep my hips start to hurt. I've started laying with the heating pad and that seems to make them feel better. Also I can't lounge like I use to. I either need to sit up straight or lay down. Slouching is not a option. Other than sore hips and the lack of slouching baby Shipp and I have been doing rather well.

We are now headed into the 2 weeks prenatal appointments. This means that Robb and I will be seeing our midwife's office quite a bit from now until March. Our next appointment is tomorrow. Hopefully we will start going over what we need to do to prepare for the birth. Exciting!