38 Weeks!

Only two weeks to go...or a month. Either way, I think I'm pretty ready for Spike to be born. The nursery is all set up (see previous post), our bags are packed for the hospital, the car seat is installed in my car. I'm working 3 more shifts next week and then I'm DONE with work (woohoo!). Rob and I decided to spend our (possibly) last Saturday as DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) sleeping in, making waffles, and playing Scrabble. I must be almost done being pregnant because the pregnancy-mush-brain is fading. I beat Rob even though I couldn't use the Q. He claims he "let me win" because he could have gone out a hand earlier but didn't, something about practicing for playing games with kids...well, that was a poor decision because I DOMINATED! Here is a picture to prove it!

Installing the curtains

I DOMINATED!!

38 Weeks!

From the bleachers:

And now, the SUTSF:

And that's the view from the bleachers for now...

36 Weeks!

This week is very significant because it means we can officially have our baby at Mercy Hospital. If you deliver before 36 weeks, you can't go to Mercy because they don't have the facilities for high risk babies. In celebration, Rob made brownies and decorated them to say 36-Mercy or Bust!

36 Weeks

Mercy or Bust!

My co-workers also threw me a surprise baby shower today at work! I had no idea it was coming but it was tons of fun and saved me from my boring lunch of plain tomato soup.

Sherrie, Angela, myself, Mikki, and Rachel

A few of the express care staff

We've almost finished the nursery. I'll post pictures once I get these curtains sewn and hung. I'm fighting with my sewing machine right now, so it might be a while.

We had an appointment yesterday and everything looks great. I've gained exactly 30lbs, am measuring right at 36 weeks, Spike's heart sounds good-130bpm, and I'm GBS negative! Now we just wait for the contractions to start....

35 Weeks!

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been working almost every weekend and the time I do have off has been spent getting everything ready for Spike's arrival. I had my first baby shower a few weekends ago and came home with more baby stuff than I knew existed. Then I was invited to join the "Banana Box Exchange" created by a few friends of mine who have way to many baby/kids clothes. Once the child outgrows his/her clothes, they are added to the exchange and sorted in boxes by gender and age. Then whenever anyone needs clothes for their kids, they just take the corresponding box! I think there are currently some 40 boxes. That's a lot of clothes. Needless to say, I have enough 0-3 month onesies and sleepers to not do laundry until Spike outgrows them! Here are a few pictures from the shower:

Sharon, myself, and Priscilla all wore the same color shirt!

Crazy baby relay race

I had to chug 2oz of chocolate milk from a bottle...harder than you think.

I've also been reading up on childbirth. I read a great 1970s natural childbirth book that I found for free at school last year. I've also been plowing through Ina Mae's Guide to Childbirth, parts of The Birth Partner (that Rob is reading), and all the booklets that we get from classes. I feel like nothing can truly prepare me but it doesn't hurt to try! I've also been reading other baby books like Baby Bargains that tells you the best deals and best brands for all the crazy stuff you "need" for baby. Good thing I seem to have an abundance of time at work to read.

We've attended a number of classes lately: an all day Saturday Birth Journey class, a Breastfeeding class, our pre-natal group, and Rob went to Daddy Boot Camp (which I'll let him tell you about). Good thing all these classes are free. Most have been helpful and at least reinforce what I've read and learned in nursing school.

We ALSO had our first professional photo shoot a few weekends ago (no wonder I feel like I've been super busy). Cathy Davis is a freelance photographer who lives in Falmouth (www.cathyclicks.com) and she met us at the beach to document some of Spike's in-utero life. She was absolutely wonderful to work with and we got some great shots. For those of you who haven't seen them, they will be at this website until October 20: http://www.cathyclicks.com/slideshow/#/page/2ae9/ Let me know if you want one, we will be ordering them soon!

This weekend we are heading to good old Westborough for another shower (thanks to Steph) and to spend some time with Meg and Dave Rezac (who are also expecting!). I can't wait to see all the hometown friends and show off Spike-although s/he currently just looks like an overstuffed abdomen. Speaking of abdomens, here are the two latest belly shots at 33 and 35 weeks (we missed 34). Getting bigger!

33 Weeks

35 weeks!

32 weeks...and counting

Only 8 weeks to go (plus or minus a few). Spike's room is coming together (I'll post pictures once it's finished), the leaves are starting to fall outside, our coffee table is cluttered with required baby reading, and our crazy active child is itching to make his/her appearance! Here's the latest in pictures from the Reed archives:

32 weeks...growing strong!

coffee table books

still running

Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. I made two different soups yesterday (black bean and sausage/lentil) to freeze for post-baby quick meals. What a good housewife...

Diaper Duty Part I

As many of you know, we are going to use cloth diapers to collect Spike's lower end excretions. I can see your eyes rolling now and hear your thoughts about how we are never going to last. Well, for all of you old-timers who used cloth (or had no choice), things are very different these days. Take a few minutes to peruse www.kellyscloset.com to see how many options are out there!

Over the past 7 months, we (read: I) have done many many hours of research on several different sites, read hundreds of reviews, talked to many of my cloth-diaper-mom friends, and used different cloth diaper systems while babysitting. After all of this study, we decided on Pocket Diapers. These diapers have a colorful waterproof "PUL" layer on the outside and fleece on the inside forming a pocket in between. The pocket is stuffed with a removable super-absorbent insert which pulls the moisture away from the baby's bottom, through the fleece, and in theory leaves the baby dry and comfy. They fasten in the front with velcro or snaps, very much like disposable Huggies or Pampers. When changing the baby, the insert is removed and the diaper and insert are tossed in the diaper pail to be washed. Here are a few pictures of what I am talking about. We are using two main kinds of pocket diapers: Fuzzi Bunz and BumGenius! The major difference between the two is that Fuzzi Bunz use snaps and BumGenius! use velcro.

Fuzzi Bunz BumGenius!

Now, as you can see, these diapers are quite big for a newborn. However, they are both OneSize diapers meaning they adjust to fit all size babies from newborn to potty training. Here are the same diapers sized for an infant. The elastic in the legs and waist of the FuzziBunz shortens with button holes and the front of the BumGenius! snaps up to make a smaller diaper.

Fuzzi Bunz Infant Size BumGenius! Infant Size

Then both diapers are stuffed with an appropriate size insert (small in this case) and the diaper is ready to be used!

If one is washing their own diapers, they must have a limited supply (unlike disposables). However, TOO limited a supply means laundry every day, which we all know is not going to happen in this household. So I have compromised with what is probably way too many diapers, but we shall see. I have 20 One Size BumGenius!, 5 One Size Happy Heinys, 5 One Size Fuzzi Bunz, 9 size small Fuzzi Bunz (should fit Spike better as an infant), and one size medium BumGenius! (it was free).

Here's the works!

More to come! Part II: Washing

30 weeks

I can't believe I'm 30 weeks already. Spike had a little dance party to celebrate (all night) and I have been more exhausted than ever. The unbelievable heat and humidity might have something to do with that as well. It's been in the 90s all week, I'm actually glad I had to spend the day at work yesterday, at least it was air conditioned! Here's my 30 week pic, Spike is 3lbs and 17 inches this week...S/he's still got a lot of growing to do, not sure where all that extra baby is going to fit!

We also put together our crib this weekend, I think Rob is going to post about that so I'll just show you the final picture:

On Sunday afternoon we went to an outdoor pool and play party with many of the families from church. Jumping in the pool felt so good on a hot day. We also played Tug-of-War (highly recommended for preggos) and multiple other outdoor "events" in the Missiolympics. Spike didn't exactly pull his/her weight in Tug-of-War and so my team was out in the first round. That's me in the front of the right side. Head down and power through. Notice the superior technique on the left (winning) side.

Here's me rocking my 2-piece and carrying 2 babies! The little one is our friend's 4-month old, Zoey.