Showered

Admittedly, I've been pretty bad at updating this lately.  So sorry, but hopefully this post will make up for it. There's quite a few pictures to share, and a few exciting things to tell.

Since I haven't posted one for almost a month, here are the most recent belly bump shots.

This is what I see every time I look down.  No feet and a growing belly bump. I know it's not the typical profile shot, but I thought at least one from a different perspective would be fun. This was at 34 weeks and 3 days.

Here is your profile shot at 35 weeks.  Mooner is getting bigger and bigger all the time. Just so you know, that belly of mine is 11 squares of toilet paper all the way around. (I know because of one of the shower games, to be discussed later)

On to the nursery! It's a work in progress, but I do have pictures of our crib and changing table at least.  As we get sheets and things put on, I will post more pictures of what the room as a whole looks like, but for now you can admire the furniture. :)

Fortunately, our birth coach noticed that the mattress we borrowed was not quite big enough for the crib. Honestly, I hadn't taken too much time to look at it closely, so I'm glad she did. We now have a new mattress (with the correct measurements) on the way. We do have sheets to put on the mattress to, but we figured we should wait for the mattress to put them on.  Anyway, more nursery stuff will be coming soon, as Mooner is only 5 weeks away from arriving!  

Ryan and I have been doing birthing classes for a couple weeks now. We have a great lady from our church helping us out. It's nice that it's a more personalized experience and we can move at our own pace since we're not in one of the hospital classes.  

Anyway, I've now got some breathing techniques down (well, I'm practicing anyway) and some other coping mechanisms. It's helped take a little of the edge off as far as me being nervous about this whole labor thing goes.  

On a different note, here is the latest update from our midwife. *Fresh off the press, I just got back from the appointment about 20 minutes ago*

Baby is healthy. He is currently in the head down position which is a good thing. We got a really strong heart beat at about 141 beats per minute.  I'm measuring well, at 36 cm. I also asked her about a weight estimate, and she is guessing that right now he's just under 5 pounds.  He'll probably gain 2 to 2.5 pounds over the next month, so it sounds like he'll be a pretty average size baby (at least from all I've heard).

I had my first baby shower this past Saturday. Although the turnout was somewhat small, we really had a blast.  Kelley throws a great shower. Here are a few pictures and tales from that day.

Minus Conee's daughter, Ashlee, here are the people who were in attendance. Kelley (the hostess) is on the far left. I'm the one with the big belly and the "Mom to Be" pin. Beside me are Conee and Kathy.

First game - Memorize the 20 baby items in the tray. Write down as many as you can after looking at them for 1 minute.  I did pretty good with 16. Kathy took the prize though, remembering 17. It's harder than it sounds people. 

Next was "Baby Ailment Pictionary." Fun game, and also helped create a handy resource book of sorts for my future use. Isn't that clever? (P.S. - I won this game.)  

Guess my belly size. (Ok, I already told you above)  I came in at 11 t.p. squares around. Not too bad. Especially since I sometimes feel more like double that. 

Guess What Baby Ate Game.  6 diapers - 6 different candy bars melted into the diapers. Whoever guesses the most right wins. I may or may not have tasted one of the chocolates in this game trying to get a firm conclusion. However, Ashlee didn't even want to look at the diapers. Between me and her, I'm pretty sure we were all crying from laughing so hard.

End with a bottle chugging contest. 4 ounces through what I'm pretty sure is the smallest nipple in existence. Conee won this one, but I was a close second. However, my lips felt indented by the bottle for the rest of the day. Very weird.

It was a good time though. Probably one of the most fun baby showers I've ever been to. So kudos to Kelley for being awesome and helping us all have a really fun time.

Sorry they're sideways. I couldn't get them to rotate. However, these were the super cute cookies Kelley had made for the shower.  Little baby hands and feet. Loved em. And they were really delicious too. So if you want to know where to get good cookies in Albuquerque, go to the ABC Cake Shop. 

I think that's it as far as this post goes. I hope the length of it made up for the long time in between posts.  

Overall, I'm feeling good. Just a little more uncomfortable than usual, but it's only for a few more weeks. I can't believe how close we are.  Unbelievable.  

Stay tuned. May is sure to be a whirlwind month, and hopefully we'll still have plenty to post before Mooner arrives.