Still Playing Catch Up From My Last Post

This post will be a recap of the birthing class we had today, recent photos & anything I forgot to mention last night since I clearly shouldn't write these close to bed time. Sorry for anything that may not have made sense. I would apologize for any typos as well, but let's be honest-those are going to happened even when I am at my most alert.

This is the latest belly picture-from last week.

 Christmas this year was spent in Delray with my parents and brother. It was super relaxing and a great change of scenery and weather...

 Got to visit with a couple of friends from high school and their families. So good to see Tiina & her husband Dave. And visiting with Connor and his family is always fun and insightful. He and Ryan are such great parents.
We went stroller shopping with mom and dad. Turns out dad spent quite a bit of time researching strollers, and knew way more about them than J & I ever knew possible. Merry Christmas to us & Graycen-the new stroller arrived last week & we can't wait to wheel her around in it. Thanks mom & dad!!

Graycen had quite the Christmas and she is not even here yet!! First, I have to share with you what I think is just the cutest...turns out daddy has discovered what shopping for a little girl is like. Once he started, he couldn't stop...

She is a daddy's girl already...

 Some of the other awesome gifts she got during the holidays: (and this isn't all of them, so please forgive me for not including all of them-everything she has gotten has been AMAZING)

from Auntie Jill

 

 

Graycen's 1st book from the Adams'.

Sweet bloomers & blanket from Aunt Shelly & Uncle Lee.

Swaddlers, burp bibs & sleep sacks from Aunt Melissa.

more goodies from Aunt Melissa

 And one little gift I bought myself. I know I may never pull it out of my hospital bag, but I do love the way the snaps open the chest for immediate skin to skin time. It is a labor and delivery gown. And lets face it-I'm going to need any any "cuteness" help I can get in the moment-because its guaranteed labor is far from cute.

 Speaking of labor- today's birthing class was great. I know some people choose to do it and some don't. With most everything in my life-the more I know, the more prepared I feel so we wanted to do it. Instead of doing the one hour a week for six weeks we did it in one day, six hours. We covered everything from the epidural to c-sections, breathing techniques, breastfeeding, etc. The videos actually weren't as bad as I anticipated. In fact, I have found much worse on youtube-but that is another story for another blogpost.
Anywho, it was just like what we pictured. Blankets and pillows on the floor, J sitting behind me as we practiced breathing and massage techniques. I could not keep a straight face or keep the giggles in. About three months from now I am probably going to wish I had taken that part a little more seriously. The majority of the class was in a lecture room, passing around instruments and taking notes. We both learned and heard some things we hadn't heard before. It also made us excited for where we are delivering. Sounds like a great hospital with all private rooms, some with tubs for your comfort, none of which we may see before hand since the flu has cancelled all maternity ward tours. We are scheduled for one just before our due date if it doesn't get cancelled again, and we make it that far. On that note, I am glad we aren't delivering until later. For those delivering between now and mid-March, they have closed the hospital to all visitors unless they are the immediate grandparents. They said back during H1N1 even grandparents weren't allowed. Yikes!! Here is to hoping that for more reasons than one the flu doesn't continue to get worse and that it goes away quickly. Regardless, we are pretty pumped to deliver at the smaller of the INOVA hospitals, hoping that makes the process easier and more comfortable.

Okay, I have to sign off now. Baby girl is doing jumping jacks and it may be because I am slightly late in eating dinner...Taco Bell would be amazing right now...I wonder if they deliver...
xoxo