Just Because.

Saturday was my mother's birthday. (She turned 45, I mean 32!) We had both my parents over and my brother for breakfast on Sunday.

The result: Good food, good conversation, and pictures!

24 Weeks Pregnant!

Laurin and Me. (Ignore my puffy rudolph nose, I had really bad allergies that day!) Oh, and ignore the vacuum! :)

Dad and Me.... and Kane aka Fatty.

The totally awesome cake I made for my mom. It's says "45" in candles. NOT bad for my first cake! :)

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Yeah, I know there isn't actually a picture of my mom and me. :( She was the one taking the photos.

I have included one for your convenience!

This was taken back in August.  (My head looks HUGE!)

Birthing Class

Yup, you read it right. Laurin are actually being proactive about this whole labor & delivery thing, as well as parenting!

Who knew?!

We registered for a 10 week course through our hospital: 6 weeks of birthing classes, 2 weeks of baby care and 2 weeks of breastfeeding.

We attended our 2nd birthing class last night. I must admit, it is kinda fun. Unfortunately, like all classes we have to introduce ourselves and get to know each other.. "Hi, my name is Melissa. My favorite color is green." (it's not really green.) I find this annoying and wasteful, but I guess it has some purpose if you even have to do it in birthing class.

Moving on from my petty annoyance, I find the class therapeutic. There is so much information out there and labor and delivery that it can be hard to determine what is useful and what is not. Not only is our instructor female, a midwife and a mom, but she is also pregnant! Talk about knowing what your students are going through!! She is super nice and has a way of explaining things so that you don't feel like you got hung up on the first sentence! (guess that's where the whole midwife and mom thing comes in!)

Last night we got to learn about the signs of labor, when it is real and when it isn't (or at least not real enough to rush to the hospital in the middle of the night in a panic with ugly pajamas on)!!!!!

Biggest lesson: 5-1-1. 5 minutes apart. 1 minute lasting. 1 hour fully timed. Figure that one out! :)


As the course goes on we will learn and watch videos on different kinds of birth from natural to medicated to c-section. I love this about the course! I would like to know what these different kinds of births and what they entail, so that I can feel fully informed about what I am walking into.

However I can tell you right now. I WANT MEDICATION! That whole natural birth thing is for people with a MUCH stronger will than I have! We watched the video for a natural birth last night. It wasn't terrible at all. There is one thing that I will NOT be doing. During pushing I WILL NOT be watching my baby protrude from my nether regions via mirror. The lady in the film did, which for her I'm sure was amazing. For me, I think I may pass out... And because I know that you are super into what I am writing and how I feel about this, I will let you know if I change my mind regarding the mirror.

You're Welcome.

Babies "R" Us = Pain "IN" my Ass

Laurin and I finally tackled that nagging and daunting task of registering for baby stuff. I'm sure for a lot of moms-to-be this is an exciting and fun part of being pregnant. I hated it! It is too much work and there are too many options! Luckily on the large purchases such as the stroller, crib, playpen and car seat we had already made our decisions. It is the SMALL things that piss me off! How many different options do you need for pacifiers or bathtubs? I had the biggest headache (literally) after registering... too many options! How do you really know that you will need all this crap? I even went in armed with a helpful list of things Sophia will need in the first couple months.. Who knew you needed sheets and blankets for your pack n' play??

I am really glad that Laurin was actually present for this process though.. I don't think it ever would have gotten done if he wasn't. I also think that it was a real eye-opener for him as well..

 Laurin: Do we really need a diaper genie or whatever?

Me: Yes we really do need the diaper pail. Unless you plan on carrying every poopy diaper downstairs and into the garage to throw away so it doesn't stink up the house!

Laurin: Nope, that's your job! You get all the poopy diapers!

Do you see what I am dealing with??? Not to mention, he would NOT let go of the scanner! He even freaked out on me when I scanned one thing without him!!! I swear I'm married to a 10 year old! How did I get so lucky??

Because I am into consumerism here is the link for our registry! ;)


So we have decided what we are doing for the nursery. We are going with a Classic Pooh theme. This means, Pooh before he was all Disneyfide.. Laurin actually has some of the original stuffed animals! We have our crib set! All we need to do now is to get the wallpaper border, then I can paint! After that it is buying the crib, getting a small dresser, and putting up shelves and decorations. I know it seems like a lot, but it really isn't. Trust Me. I'm will super stoked when the nursery is all finished!

Deadline: June 5th. Why? That's the date for our baby shower!! YAY!

This is our crib set. Super cute, I know!!!

P.S. This is me at 23 Weeks.

Special Olympics

Stevie got to participate in the Winter Special Olympics this year! He competed in the Bench Press and the Dead Lift. Boy was that a LOONNGG Day! Aside from the hour and forty-five minute drive to Springfield in order to be down there by about 9 am, we had hours of sitting and standing ahead.

You would think that for a long running organization, they would have things a bit better organized. We had no idea when the events were supposed to begin. All we knew was that the awards ceremony was supposed to be around 5pm. So we sat and sat and sat... It was a lot of fun though. Steven got to wear this AWESOME green and black leotard.. trust me, not pretty. You could tell he was having a lot of fun!

In the end, he got 2 participation ribbons and a bronze trophy!! YAY! I look forward to getting to watch him participate in the Special Olympics again.

Stevie in his awesome leotard!

Yay! Ribbons and Medals!

Best brother ever!

One of the few photos you will find of Laurin and me together!

Check out the Special Olympics Website to see how you can help this wonderful organization!
www.soor.org

YEAH, I WENT THERE!

The last two weeks in a nutshell.

I have decided to use blogger.com for 2 reasons. 1. It is free. 2. It isn't ONLY about babies. Don't get me wrong, I am super stoked to be popping out a mini-me, but Sophia will only be oh so mini for a minute! I decided I wanted to someplace where I could share thing other than my child with you. Granted, once Sophia gets here, my life will be all about her. Until then and hopefully not too long after she is born, I will allow others to grace my presence on here! :) So that I don't bore you with one long post, I will bore you with several today. You're very welcome.