Happy Birthday Greg

Today is a very special day (even though he refuses to acknowledge it) - Greg's Birthday.

Happy birthday to you, sweetie. I know that I could never come up with the right words to express how important and special you are to me. I love you more than anything and treasure each day that we have together. I look forward to our bond becoming even stronger (if that is possible) as we expand our family.

(Isn't he a good looking man!)

Surprise!

The wonderful people that we work with arranged for us to have a surprise baby shower last Thursday (August 20). Greg was actually in on it, so it was only a surprise for me. He was just being dramatic for the camera (such a ham!). One of the engineers in our office, Laure, hosted the shower at her house. The turn-out was fantastic!

As you can see, we had alot of yummy food. Since Greg loves coconut, but I am not a fan, we had both coconut and chocolate-cream cheese cupcakes.

Although we did not play any shower games (which I am perfectly fine with), everyone got to guess the date of arrival for our little one. The dates ranged from September 15 (Greg's guess) to October 14. I am hoping for somewhere in the middle. Greg just does not want the delivery to coincide with the UF-Tenn game or anything fantasy football related. He would prefer a Wednesday delivery - ha! I will see what I can do. The guys from the FFB league all guessed their date based on when they are matched up against Greg.

People from the office went in together to buy us the William Sonoma Beaba Babycook, which is a steamer, blender, warmer, and defroster for preparing baby food. This will come in very handy for us in the future. A few people got us something extra - we received two swaddling blankets, a ring toy, and a teddy bear. We are lucky to work with such a great bunch of people!

I will post 34 week belly picture and pictures from the Columbia shower (August 22) in a separate post. I still need to download them from my camera!

Update

This is just a quick post to share pictures of some adorable outfits my mom purchased for Ms. Siena when she visited Gainesville several weeks ago. The pink outfit on the left is what we are planning to have her wear when she comes home from the hospital - it will be football season, after all!

I also wanted to post a picture of the chair that I picked up at TJ Maxx last weekend. It was too adorable to pass up. Mable is in the picture for scale. It even rocks back and forth.

We finished our childbirth classes this weekend. Our instructor was a midwife whom I expected be named something like Moonbeam. Her name was actually Abigail, but I am pretty sure that she was part of a commune at some point in time. She gave the class a slant towards natural childbirth - shocker, right? - which I actually enjoyed. Greg and I are planning to go the all-natu-rall route for as much of the labor as I can (hopefully all of it). We realize that every delivery is different and that things may happen out of our control, so we are prepared with alot of knowledge. We are just HOPING to avoid using any drug intervention. I also look at it this way - she is fairly small so far, I have wide birthing-style hips, I am fairly athletic, and I have an awesome birth partner (Greg) - these things are working in my favor towards a natural childbirth. I guess we will find out how it turns out in several weeks.

32 Weeks Plus Some

Here is the photo that was taken last Thursday at the 32 week mark. I am definitely getting rounder and more uncomfortable. Due to my increased weight, I am making more pronounced foot impressions in my flip flops. This makes them somewhat uncomfortable. But if this is all I am complaining about, I am doing pretty darn good.

Below are some pictures from my mom, Mimi, and Katie's visit a couple weeks ago. The first shows some of the goodies that my mom and Mimi purchased for Miss. Siena. She is going to be a well-dressed little girl! I will post a picture later of the ADDITIONAL clothes that my mom got for her. The second picture is of Operation Wash, Sort, and Put Away for our collection of little girl clothes. It took four loads of laundry and hours of folding and sorting. I was thankful for the help.

We had our Newborn Care class last night. I think that we were both surprised that we actually learned quite a few things and were glad that we took it. Greg is now a champ at swaddling. The diaper changing may take some more practice. I actually heard him today giving advice to a co-worker (who has 2 kids) on how to soothe a crying baby. That gave me quite the chuckle! We have tonight off and then we go to the Breastfeeding class on Wednesday. Greg thinks that he will be less involved in this class and has questioned his need to go. I told him that he could skip it if he wanted to, but I did not mean it.

32 Weeks

I will have to add my 32 weeks picture later. It is still on my camera, which is in the car. What can I say - I am too lazy to go outside right now and get it.

I did want to post some pictures from our ultrasound today:

The first two pictures are of the face and head. The last picture is of her little foot. It blows my mind how big she has gotten in the 12 weeks since the last time we went for an ultrasound. She weighs 4 lb 5 oz now and measures exactly in the 50th percentile in every category. Exactly perfect. Her head is already down and the placenta is not blocking her exit. The nurse said that she even has hair! She was very active during the ultrasound - moving all over the place.

Greg has already given her (my belly) lecture about braces because he spotted her sucking her thumb briefly. There was even a bribe involved - something about a longer chain attached to the radiator.

Greg also insisted that the nurse check once more to make sure that she is indeed a she. She is.

I will sleep much better tonight knowing that the baby is growing perfectly and snug inside of me.

Beach Trip

We returned on Monday from a trip to Surfside Beach, SC. My grandmother, Mimi, has had a beach house there since I was about 6 years old. We were there with Mimi, my mom, Katie, and David. The trip was filled with bike rides, sunbathing on the beach, bowling, put put, and alot of good food. I think the highlight of our vacation was taking Katie to the pier for some fishing. There was a group of crusty old fisherman with an 11-year-old Katie mixed in. She hung in there with them, though, and managed to catch a whiting (the first video) right away. She was then determined to catch a shark. After 2 hours of patiently waiting, she was able to reel in her shark (the second video). Congratulations Katie!

A recent conversation

Greg: Jerry said that he might be able to get us tickets to the Tennessee game.

Me: Ok, when is the game?

Greg: Near the end of September. (It is Sept. 19)

Me: Do you honestly think that I am going to go to a football game at almost 10 months pregnant - in FLORIDA!

Greg: Maybe just I will go to the game.

Me: Maybe.