Life and baby prep and guesses on due date

On the subject of life, Mark and I got up just after 7 this morning, threw some clothes on, grabbed some food and headed out to get in line for swine flu shots. Since our baby isn't here yet, Mark wasn't allowed to get one (they were doing priority people only) and I managed to score the last shot the people giving them had. Relieved to have that done although the baby may not come before it actually starts working in my system so going to ask the Dr how this will all work. The pic below is Mark and I in line.

Regarding baby prep, my mom has been here for a few days and has helped me make AMAZING progress on getting the final details in place and all our wonderfully pink gifts put away. Although we had the furniture in place, we still had to figure out where all the little things were going to go and mom has been great! She's good at organizing and just sort of took over. Especially after yesterday's shopping trip when I was too tired to do anything other than sit on the couch. As we were out yesterday from around 10 until nearly 4, Mom and Barb kept laughing at me as I said things like, "my back hurts and I don't know why." Because apparently the reason "why" was very obvious to them.

We still have a few small things left to do, but for the most part we're ready!! At least as ready as you can be to completely change your life from what you've known for the past 2 years. It's exciting and scary!!

I want to find out what people are guessing for when the baby will come. We're due on the 21st (3 weeks from today) and the Doc says he's estimating she'll probably be early and not late. So far mom is guessing the 18th. No one else has made a guess yet. Anyone else want to weigh in??

I'm HUGE!!

Okay, this is a TERRIBLE picture of me, but as a profile shot... I can't believe how HUGE I am!!! The baby is all in front. Currently she likes to push out a lot, I keep trying to tell her that won't give her any more room, but she doesn't see to be figuring that out. And she pushes a leg (assuming it's a leg) out on my right side all the time. We sometimes like to pick on her and push back until she moves a little ;) I'm also enjoying her periodic hiccups. She just recently started to get them and frequently gets them a little while after I eat lunch or dinner.

Baby shower

Yesterday Barb and Sharon Mulder threw me a baby shower for my Sunset family. I work there, do ministry there, and have been attending for almost 7 years so it was quite the crowd! My friends are very generous and other than having to take a ton of pee breaks and getting sleepy, it was a wonderful afternoon!!

Me and Rose. She is the wife of a guy I work with and I got to know her at Gift last week. She's awesome and is learning maternity massage... I'm taking advantage on Thursday ;)

Me (36 weeks) and Barb. Thanks for the beautiful location, yummy food, and wonderful party!!

Jilly Gosset, know her from my job as admin. She's an awesome woman!

Little Nike's from my friend Jenna who I've been hanging out with since she was a Junior in HS. She's now graduated from college and is a career woman.

Rose picked out an outfit that was the hit of the party. SUPER cute!!

From L to R, Janet, Julie, Bethany and Rose. Janet is my boss and gotten to be a good friend. Julie start off as Barb's friend and is now mine as well, she's also offered her arms to hold the baby as needed. Bethany is the wife of another guy I work with and a good friend. And Rose, again ;)

These are just a few of the 20-25 people who were able to come. Barb's place was quite crowded. It was fun to see friends from so many different circles, our realtor, friends of Barb's, former co-workers, current co-workers, friends from student ministry, and all some how associated with Sunset. My mom was even able to come!! She's in town for a work thing and managed to get away for a few hours to join the party.

This was our second/last shower. So now I'll be spending the weekend with my mom trying to finalize the last few purchases and then plan to organize all our wonderful new clothes and accessories in the nursery so we're all ready to go!

At our appointment last Wednesday the Dr said he thinks the baby should be more early than late, which is exciting! So I'm hoping all these early plans will be necessary ;)

Jared's visit

Last Friday (the week before last), Jared flew through Portland for a short 12 hour layover on his way to Denver with our uncle Jerry for the marathon. We had dinner at Barb's, watched a little ol' skool Tremors and then back to our place to bed and up early to meet up with Jerry on the way to the airport. It was a fun quick stop!

Mark's 31st birthday

Last Friday (10/9) my super wonderful husband celebrated his 31st birthday. Well, he worked that day, but we celebrated a little in the morning and evening.

Here is Mark enjoying his birthday breakfast. I made it nearly the way he wanted. But he was gracious about my minor mistake and we had a fun slow morning anyway.

We spent our evening in the usual way, dinner and a little tv. I made a special dinner that we ate at the table instead of in front of the tv (we realize this habit will change soon). Here he is opening up his card and gifts. It was a modest year in the gift department.

On Saturday we had a yummy breakfast at Elmer's and then headed to the beach to use up a free hotel night we won from a friend. Thanks again Sara! Our hotel was at Lincoln City and we got there in time to wander around town a bit before we checked in. We first killed time at the Outlet malls, but didn't hardly buy anything. And then grabbed food at a little hut and took in a bit of the kite festival. This is me, 34 weeks. I bought this non-maternity white fleece at Old Navy not long ago. It's currently my only coat that fits!

Mark's coat was one of his birthday presents. He really liked it, which I was thrilled about!

We opted for a fish dinner since we were at the beach and ended up at a pretty cool place.

All in all, it was a really fun weekend! We didn't do too much but enjoyed our last little solo get away for a while. Will be fun see how we celebrate Mark's birthday next year. Life will sure be different!!

Advice and Random thoughts/feelings

First, I have to say THANK YOU to everyone who offered great preparation advice for our coming baby birth!! I plan to consult back to the notes in a few weeks when I'm putting all the final touches and pieces into place.

So far (although I know that posting this is just asking for feedback, but please be gentle) my biggest concerns are breastfeeding. We do plan to breastfeed our child but have heard stories of easy to nearly impossible and everything in between, I just have no idea what to expect or think of this element of parenting. But I guess there isn't much I can do except see how our little one does.

I'm excited to be uncomfortable enough that I'm wanting our kid out (no matter what that means) instead of in for too much longer. Up until a couple weeks ago labor/delivery freaked me out so badly that I figured she'd be okay staying in place for as long as possible. However, now that I can't sleep for very long between waking and peeing, can't sit in my desk chair comfortably, sit anywhere else comfortably for that matter, walk without getting winded, have more than an hour between itchy sessions (I was unofficially diagnosed with PUPPPs), or fit into more than a half dozen clothes in my closet, I'm ready to get this birthing show on the road! However, I have one question... did any of you "practice" breathing or other birthing techniques before the arrival of your little ones? Our birthing class made that suggestion and I have yet to do it. Although I wouldn't approach a marathon without training so I can see how it might be beneficial, I just keep forgetting!

I've started working through one of the books suggested to me (although to keep from any hard feelings or further suggestions, I'll refrain from mentioning which book that is) but so far I've really appreciated the content of the first 2 chapters! And since you aren't sure if it's your book or not, THANK YOU for the suggestion!!

I'm SUPER excited that my mom is coming out next week for my last baby shower!! She has work stuff for a couple days and then I'm dragging her along to help me do any final shopping and setting up of the nursery so that when the baby arrives, everything will be ready. It's been a bummer to live at a distance from your mom during this stage of life, but we're working things out and I'm excited she'll be here to help with the final touches, since she's been-there-done-that and I obviously haven't. She'll be out one more time before the baby comes so we're praying for an early arrival so she can justify staying instead of going home after her last work trip. It would only be one week away from our due date so seems possible ;) And we found out that mom has to make another trip out for work in December so she'll get more face time with the baby.

I'll try and post more pictures soon. But you aren't missing much. I feel huge. Sometimes I pass a mirror and while approaching it, think I'm looking pretty good today and then my huge belly enters the shot and I'm nearly overwhelmed with how huge I am!! Although it's partly perception. I'm sure I'm not as big as some women are at this stage, but I feel huge! And feelings frequently trump reality.

Last little update, I've started attending MOMs group at church. It meets every other Thursday morning. So far I've gone to 2 meetings and will miss tomorrow's but am really enjoying it!! I feel like it's a great way to re-center on God, which I appreciate. This is another discussion for another day but I feel like I was so close to God when single and miss that desperate longing that I just don't have (as much of) with a happy marriage and anticipation of a baby on the way. But I kind of enjoy the challenge of learning where God is in my new phase of life and what that looks like for our relationship. Life is just so different from that singleness I knew so well.

The Tension

It seems that every stage of life has a bit of tension. When I was single there was the constant tension of "when will it happen?" Of wanting to learn to be content in the moment while being open to the future. After Mark and I started dating there was a tension about whether or not we'd get married. Then the tension of what would married life be like. Next was the tension about when do we have kids. Then, when will we actually get pregnant. And now, the tension of living in the soon-but-not-yet world. It definitely reminds me of being engaged and wondering how I'd feel on our wedding day and how our first few days, weeks, months and years of being married would be like. Easy? Hard?

I'm not sure if other people feel the tension so much. I always struggle with wanting to move on to the next thing. I know it's going to happen, so lets just get there and get it started! Of course, life generally doesn't function on my ideal (a bit too fast) time frame.

In some ways, the tension is always the same and is always present. It's not between me and other people. It's between 'now' and 'tomorrow'. My desire to move on to 'tomorrow' when I need to learn the be content and enjoy 'now'. How long did I desire to be in this stage and tension of life when we weren't getting pregnant all those months? Now I'm here and nearly wishing it all away. Even in the early stages of pregnancy when I wanted so badly to be showing and for the world to be able to tell we're expecting a little bundle of joy and now it's obvious and I'm wishing it to be gone as soon as is safely possible.

So right now we're (mostly me) in the middle of the tension between enjoying the way things have been for the past 2 years, but excited for what the next phase of our life with a baby will hold. When will she come? How will I feel on that day? What will the first few days, weeks, months, and years be like? Will it be easy or hard?

Baby preparations - advice!

I'm trying not to feel guilty about the fact that my blog/life revolves around baby related things these days. It's just where my life is at and I'm not sure why I think you might anticipate reading something else.

We are 33.5 weeks into the 40 of our pregnancy and as a planner, I'm starting to think through the final preparations I need to be making. Our last birthing class is this week and my last baby shower is in 2.5 weeks and I'd like to be making my final purchases pretty quickly after that time.

With that in mind, can all you experienced mothers (or those who have been close to an experienced mother) share the top 5 baby and mommy things I should have on-hand for the first few weeks/months? You can only anticipate so much when you've never done this before.

You can either include your responses as a comment or email me markcarrie.peeples at gmail.com. Please don't be shy or try and make it short. The MORE THE BETTER! And feel free to pass this on to friends who might have some good suggestions.

Thanks!!