30 Weeks: Baby Shower

30 weeks

7 1/2 months preggo

Danica, Linden, Beth

This was a crazy busy week, ending in a great baby shower here in Lawrence!

We spent one evening taking the "How to Take Care of a Newborn" class where we learned how to bathe, swaddle, diaper, soothe a baby.  It was informative, and we actually learned a lot.  We didn't really know how to swaddle well, and the bathing was very interesting, too!  They also showed pictures of what 'normal' looks like for newborns, which is very different from your 1 month old baby to prepare you that your baby might not look exactly like the Gerber baby from its first moment of life.

I spent basically the rest of my free time this week doing written comprehensive exams for my education administration licensure program, writing more 35+ single-spaced pages!  Yuck!!  But I had an end-goal of finishing before family and friends came into visit for a Lawrence baby shower.

On Saturday morning, James and I went and took a tour of the maternity ward at Overland Park Regional Medical Center.  The tour went along at a fast clip, and it definitely is getting more 'real' that we are going to have an actual baby.  We are choosing to deliver in OP rather than Lawrence on the recommendation of my doctor, because OPRMC has a Level III NICU, so just in case something goes awry, the baby is already where it needs to be for any immediate help.

Cara, Kim, Kristin

Sunday afternoon was the baby shower, and it was about the cutest thing ever! 

My dear friends Cara, Kim, and Kristin hosted, and their great taste and eye for detail were evident!  Since the nursery will have a jungle theme, that was also the theme of the shower, and they had set up plush jungle animals and baby books throughout the house.  Kim made some delicious cupcakes surrounded by jungle animals, and the jungle diaper cake was just too adorable!

...There was more great food than just cupcakes!

Then Baby Mildren was definitely showered with lots of cute presents from generous very friends and family!

The girls also had some fun and funny games to play.  

First, we played "Celebrity Jungle," in which guests had to guess who celebrity baby pictures were of.

Next, guests had to match up animals with their animal baby name (who would have known that a baby cockroach is called a nymph?!).

Finally, guests had a list of characteristics, and then columns of "Mommy" and "Daddy" and they had to pick which parent I would most likely say I would want the baby to take after in that area...for example, whose eyes do I hope Baby Mildren takes after?  The categories were wide-ranging from Dance Moves (James, of course!) to Common Sense (me, of course!).  My mom ended up getting the most correct with what I chose.  Then, I had James do the list after the shower, and he actually got the most right!  He knows me pretty well!

I cannot get over what an outstanding shower my friends hosted!  They made it very special.  It was absolutely lovely, and I am so blessed to have such caring friends and family.  Baby Mildren will be lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people.


After the shower, when we came home, James and my dad had assembled the baby crib, so the room is finally starting to look like a nursery!

29 Weeks: Halloween!

This was Halloween week! Other than working lots with two late nights for parent/teacher conferences and working on my comprehensive exams, we squeezed in some fun after all.

 James and I did some pumpkin carving with friends from the Methodist Church, and attended a costume party/30th birthday party for my best friend, Linden.  Sadly, I forgot my camera for the birthday party, so pictures of us in costume will come at a later date. (spoiler alert: James went as a nerd from Revenge of the Nerds and I had an ET alien bursting out of my body :)

Here are some of the pumpkin creations.

Happy Halloween!

 Go Hogs!

 Charlie Brown

Haunted House

28 Weeks: 7 months

Well, at 28 weeks pregnant, I've officially entered the third trimester!  Everything is going very well, and James and I are slowly switching into planning mode for Baby Mildren's arrival.

The future Mildren grandparents came up to visit this weekend, and James' mom brought up some fun Halloween books for the baby, and several other generous baby-related items for us, including the first batch of diapers.  It was a dose of reality to see diapers in our house -- we'll actually be using those soon!

Lynda also brought up an ET doll for Halloween, and showed me how to use her 'snugli' (baby carrier) with ET, which was pretty funny!

Nothing like a little practice dressing and cuddling! ha!

27 weeks: A real pain in the side!

27 weeks

This week didn't start so well.  I spent the weekend immobile from a deep side ache in my right side that just wouldn't go away!  I ended up calling my doctor and going in for a visit on Monday just to make sure these weren't contractions, a kidney/bladder infection, or anything else out of the ordinary.  Luckily the good doctor informed me that this was merely 'round ligament pain,' something that has to do with your belly stretching and growing to accommodate the baby.  The pain was deemed perfectly normal.  Whew!  By Wednesday I was feeling good again.

Baby Mildren is moving around nearly constantly these days, and James and I have been enjoying thinking about who he will look like, and whose personality he will take after.  Let's just hope he doesn't end up with James' sense of direction and my hand-eye coordination, the poor boy would be hopeless! Ha!  In the looks department, we were both very chubby little babies that didn't initially look much like we do today, so that might remain a toss-up for awhile after the delivery.

This weekend we had fun taking our Little Brother and two of his sisters to a pumpkin patch.   We got a taste of parenthood, when on the way home the kids were telling (bad) Lady Gaga jokes.  When James and I tried to make some jokes up, which we thought were pretty funny, the kids thought our jokes were totally lame!  The only thing that made them laugh was listening to James to try to sing the lyrics of a Justin Bieber song.  We got a major kick out of being so out of touch with today's youth!

26 weeks: 6 1/2 Months

At 6 1/2 months pregnant, it's finally starting to sink in that we are going to have a baby!   The countdown is on...less than 100 days and Baby Mildren will arrive!

One of my middle schools hosted an 'all-call' baby shower, because there are 3 first time mothers-to-be, 1 staff member who just had her baby early, and another staff member who recently adopted a baby, so it seems like everyone's family is expanding.  It was great to eat cake and cookies...and be encouraged to eat more and more because I'm eating for two!  (Little did my new staff know that regardless of the pregnancy, I always go back for seconds...and usually thirds if it is something sweet.  :)

James and I took time this weekend to get a baby registry going, and we are going to try something a bit different, and really just ask that people use our amazon.com baby registry (but we also registered at Target after both Grandmothers asked us when we would finally register at a store!).  Hopefully friends and family will be tech-savvy enough to get the hang of it and have fun baby shopping online, too.  In the store, it was pretty overwhelming to go through the registering process when we have NO IDEA what you need, what is useful, what is cost-effective, and what we truly want.  We actually froze up on the first item, and we had to debate the merits of high chair versus booster seat with tray.  Yikes!  Hopefully all child gear decisions won't be so difficult.

  Baby Nolan

This weekend I also had the pleasure of practicing baby pictures with my camera for a my friend Chelsey's six month old boy, and I am so excited to get to play photographer with Baby Mildren in January and beyond!!

25 weeks

This was such a busy week!  It is funny how people's greetings to you change when you're with child...no more "Hey Beth, how goes it?" or "What's up?"  It's always, "How are you feeling?" which is very sweet of people to thoughtfully ask, but my answer is usually "I don't know, I don't have time to feel pregnant!"  Between being up to my eyeballs in evaluations and working on completing my practicum for my administrative license, there isn't much room for putting your feet up and daydreaming...if only!

We did make time in the last week to put together some Ikea furniture for the nursery...now all we need is a crib! ha!

This weekend I took a 24 hour work break to have some fun!  James and I scored free tickets to the KU football game, and friends Brad and Kathy dropped by to hang out, too.

   (Kathy and I happen to be due within a week of each other!)

Maybe as it gets colder, I'll have the luxury of slowing down a bit....I can only hope!