Week 29

Official Announcement of Baby Girl’s Name!

Drum roll please…we have officially decided to name our baby girl: 

Lilly Rae 

Darren and I have been calling her Lilly for a while now and I smile every time I hear it.  Plus, there was a clear sign on Wednesday.  I had my students in our school’s media center and Darren happened to come in.  We started talking and he pointed to one of my students and pointed out how adorable she is.  I started laughing and asked Darren to guess what her name is, and he immediately guessed Lilly…and he was right (except she spells is Lilli).  I think that was a sign from the Universe that Lilly is the right name for our little girl, so I have stopped letting myself be scared to make the commitment and decided to just trust my gut.  Lilly Rae, we can’t wait to meet you!

How I am feeling  

I am still feeling great!  I was really busy this week with work, events after school and rehearsal, but I was pleasantly surprised how much energy I still had.  It helped that I LOVE everything I am doing right now (i.e. directing “You Can’t Take It With You”, helping organize a “Hunger Games” movie release party, having kids work on book commercials in class…etc).  My teammate said something nice to me the other day.  She said that I haven’t complained at all as a first time mom and I haven’t been dramatic about anything, when in her experience, many first time moms are.  I would surely be dramatic and complaining too if I was having a tough pregnancy, but luckily that is not the case.   

I certainly can’t complain over the next three weeks because we just tracked out, which means I have three weeks off from work.  The crazy part is that once I go back to work, Lilly should be here in 6 weeks!  It’s incredible how fast time flies!

I am also extremely excited for our upcoming baby shower, hosted by our amazing friends Michelle, Chad, Carissa and Jared S.  I am just ecstatic that my mom, sister, niece and amazing friend Jess L. are going to be making the trip here to spend this time with us!  We really have such amazing people in our lives J  The invitations that Carissa created came in the other day and I got a little teary-eyed looking at them.  Darren was even able to add his own cartoon to the back, which makes the invitations that much more special:

I have decided that I am tired of just posting pictures of me in the same exact outfit every week.  I wear the exact same outfit so I can really see the change in my belly, but I really like some of the adorable maternity outfits I have as well, so I want to show them off J  Here is what I look like at 29 weeks:

Baby movement

Lilly is obviously growing and stretching out in my belly!  Her movements have been different lately.  I used to just feel little kicks and jabs, but now it’s as if she is sliding along my belly or putting her foot or hand on my belly and waving back and forth.  Sometimes I just feel a wave of movement and I get a huge grin on my face.  She is also becoming more active in general.  I feel like every 2 or 3 hours she goes on a kicking spree.  A sign of things to come perhaps? 

Funny story: today we went to see the Hunger Games movie.  If you have seen the movie or read the books (definitely read the books if you just saw the movie because the books are AMAZING…anyway) you know that there are several sad parts.  I know this sounds crazy, but the two or three times during the movie when I started to cry, that was the time that she started moving around and kicking!  It was as if she could sense my emotion and was reacting in her own way as well.  I know, it was probably a coincidence, but I like to think that we are just that in tune to each other.

Shout Outs

-HUGE shout out to Donna B. who gave us a car load of stuff!!!!  I will post some pictures this time and save a few for next time as well.  Some of things she gave us include: a stroller, a jumperoo, a diaper genie II, and several boxes of toys, teethers, shoes and socks.  We are SO thankful for all of this:

-Shout out to Melanie H. for giving Lilly a bunch of Baby Einstein DVDs!  I know Lilly will love them, and mommy will love them too ;o)

-Shout out to Amber C., Abi S., and Kelly D. for loaning/giving me some maternity clothes!  Now that my belly is growing, it’s awesome to have a lot of options of what to wear.

-Long overdue shout out to Darren’s mom, Barb, for sending us adorable teddy bears and books for Lilly

Nursery

We bought a tree decal today!  We ended up finding one at Babies R Us and we decided to get it since we had a coupon and a gift card.  This is what it looks like in general, but this is not our wall, just a picture from Amazon:

We are going to get some of the prints that I posted last week as well and put those up around the room.  I really didn’t want a particular theme in the room anyway, so having a mix of different things is ok with me. 

Right now we are also on the lookout for a second pack-n-play that we can leave at our daycare provider’s house.  If anyone has one they want to sell, or sees one that’s a great deal, let us know J

I am really looking forward to getting the nursery ready this track out.  Hopefully in the next three weeks I will have a lot of new pictures to post as we work on it! 

Labor and Birth

 We had our second and final birthing class at the Birthing Well in Raleigh, and it was excellent.  The instructor may have been drinking decaf yesterday because she seemed a lot more pulled together and organized, which works better for me.  She gave us a lot of incredible information about the different interventions that are available and what the risks and benefits are to all of them.  I appreciated the information because even though our goal is to not have any medication or medical interventions, we are also realistic to the fact that things do not always go according to plan and it’s important that we are informed about all of the options so we can make an informed decision should the situation arise (though I really really hope it doesn’t). 

There was one part of our class that, I have to admit, scared me a little.  We did a “mock” c-section where she had a dummy on a table and then assigned some of us to be doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists…etc in the operating room and stand around the “mom”.  Then she talked us through what happens, including showing us the many layers that the surgeon must get through in order to get to baby, and then she had myself and another mom-to-be (we were the OB 1 and 2 in this exercise) pull a baby doll through a slit in the mom’s hospital gown.  Not an easy task!  The “incision” was small and the baby needed to be twisted and turned, and yes, I know it was a doll, but it kind of freaked me out.  Then I was upset to learn that mom can’t even hold the baby because her arms are splayed out and often strapped down.  I really want to hold Lilly as soon as she is delivered and have skin to skin contact with her to start the bonding process and encourage breast feeding, so the possibility of not getting to do this really upset me.  I was also getting a little queasy thinking about a surgery. 

It was really nice being surrounded by other moms and dads to be who were also hoping to have a natural childbirth.  Sometimes people make me feel a little nuts for making this choice, so the support was great.  It was also nice to hear the instructor reinforce that I am making a great choice, but also respecting the process as an individual experience that needs to suit the individual needs of each couple.  I just felt really good after the class and I am so glad we did it.