Check and check...

Daycare option number one: Toured and approved!

Today I stopped into the daycare at Gethsemane Lutheran Children's Ministry, where one of my administrators takes her daughter. I was very comfortable with the facilities and liked the teacher-to-student ration (2:8 or 10). I especially liked that when we walked in, both teachers were holding babies and sitting on the floor with the other (awake) babies around them. It's also about five minutes from school. It is $25 to get on the waitlist, and they have openings in August, so I am relieved to have one good option.

We also had childbirth class #2 this evening. It focused on relaxation techniques and drug-free pain coping techniques, which I really appreciated. Next week we learn about medical pain intervention.

This week is a big one--Robin is getting the second unit ready for an open house on Saturday, and amidst the stress of prepping my kids for TAKS (the big state accountability test) in two weeks as well as TELPAS rating (a very time-consuming responsibility that pops up every year at the very worst time), my classroom will be opened to participants in the NABE (National Association of Bilingual Education) Conference that is being held in Austin on Thursday. While I was originally told that this observation would be during a very reliable class and 10 minutes long--a breeze--it has now been switched to my worst behaved class and will be 25 minutes long. (This may not seem like a lot, but when there are 5-10 strangers sitting and watching you and your already volatile students, 25 minutes has the potential to be an eternity. I think I am going to bribe the kiddies with cupcakes.) All of this paired with my growing desire to just stay at home and get ready for the baby is not putting me in a very good mood. On the upside, the people I work with are throwing me a baby shower on Friday, so that should be a fun end to the week!

Sunday Projects

Robin and I have had a very relaxing Sunday morning! We made breakfast and enjoyed it on the lawn while watching runners in the Austin Marathon go by. We were able to catch a glimpse of and cheer on our friend Aaron, the one and only person we know that was running the marathon and were particularly impressed that at mile 20 (where our house is on the route), he was still able to shout out "Nice house!" Here's hoping to a great marathon for Aaron!

 Weekend projects include:

--Finishing the railings in the house.

--Getting car seat assembled and bases installed. (see note below)

--Getting bottles organized and ready to be washed and sterilized a little closer to Baby G.'s arrival. 

--Mounting the "L"s in the nursery. 

--Trim and other paint touch-ups.

--Unpacking and organizing our clothes. We have a lot of them!

We are also eager to have people over for dinner for the first time in the new house! Friends Brian and Elizabeth (who are expecting a baby boy in April) will be joining us tonight! 

On the car seats:

The statistics on the percentage of car seats that are improperly installed are terrifying! Thanks to Jessica and Aaron, mom and dad to Aidan, we found Safe Riders, a project of the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Department of Transportation. Safe Riders does "Child Seat Check-ups" free of charge, where they inspect the installation of your car seat to insure it is correct!

Officially on the Home Stretch!

We are now four weeks out from our due date! We had our 36 wk. appointment today and learned that Baby G. is still quite large. Our ultrasound weighed her in at 7 lbs. 3 ozs., putting her at an estimated 9 lbs. and some at 40 weeks. Her abdomen is particularly large, meaning our baby has a pot belly. Our OB told us that because Baby G. is so big, she would love for her to come a week or so early, so we are beginning our "get the baby here" tactics a week from today, and I have decided I am going to will her out on March 5th or 6th. If I successfully do this, I will be amazed.

On a more superficial note, my feet are disgusting. At the end of each work day they are so swollen that if I press on them with my finger, the indent stays. (This is called "dimpling," according to my college roommate Elise, who is also a nurse.)

Finally, we thought Stanley was over his nursery issues, but as I type, he is upstairs barking in the nursery. Crazy dog!

Baby Makes Four

As most of you know, Stanley Shih-tzu has been our surrogate child for the past two years. Generally he is pretty good with kids, but I am starting to get concerned about his transition to the new addition. Since we have gotten the nursery into somewhat of an order, he has "left his mark" in the room twice, and when he is in the nursery with us, he barks and scratches at the crib and bassinette. We have now tried carrying Stanley around the nursery and explaining everything to him per my mom's suggestion, and when he continued barking at the crib and bassinette, we finally decided to just put him in them. He sniffed around, and it has seemed to help. Any other suggestions?

Baby Classes and Blood Pressure

We had our first birthing class this evening with Shelley Scotka at Any Baby Can. We took one class at Seton Hospital, but our doula recommended the one with Shelley. It meets four Mondays for 3 hrs. each. After the first class, I am really glad we are taking the series! Shelley is much more thorough, and puts a much heavier emphasis on relaxation and other natural methods of coping with labor. The class is mostly grant-funded, so it only costs $10 per mom and birthing partner, which also means members of our group range from married, middle-aged couples to teen moms attending with their own mothers as their birthing partner. The first class was very cool, and I am looking forward to the next one.

On a health note, we had a little blip last week that I am now confident was just a blip. After a couple days of very swollen feet that weren't going down at night, I called the doctor's office. At their request, I had the nurse at school check my blood pressure to look for signs of preeclampsia. The nurse checked my blood pressure and it was 140/82--very, very high for me. After calling the doctor's office back, they asked that I come in to get checked. In the office, my blood pressure was high, but not quite that high. When talking with the physician's assistant, I started doing some real thinking about what might make my body freak out: a move, exhaustion, crazy stress at school, not getting enough water, and so on. The p.a. sent me back to work with strict orders to check my blood pressure every day, relax, and take care of myself.

Now, the reason I am sharing this: after following her orders, my blood pressure has been back in the 100s-110s over 70s for the past three days, a true testament to the effect that stress and simple things like sleep and drinking water have on our health! Crazy!

Moved in and getting settled!

With the indispensable help of Robin's dad, Dale, we moved into our new house on Monday! We have been slowly but surely getting unpacked and settled. It feels wonderful to be back in our old neighborhood in Central Austin! We are so much happier here and have confirmed our suspicions that we are not cut out for the 'burbs.

Robin is working very hard on finishing touches of the house--the second bathroom upstairs, a tile backsplash and hoodfan in the kitchen, medicine cabinets, paint touch-up, and caulk in the master bath, as well as lining up people to come and work on the back porches and the floors in the second unit.

This weekend, we spent a lot of time setting up the nursery, washing clothes, bedding, etc., and trying to get everything organized. We still have a lot to do, but the room is finally taking shape.

More on the baby front, we have our 36-week doctor's appointment on Tuesday. This will include a final ultrasound to check Baby G.'s growth. At our 32-week check, she was measuring as quite a biggie, so our OB wanted to monitor her weight gain. We also met with Kristen, our doula, today to discuss more specifically what to do when I go into labor, and tomorrow we begin birthing classes with Shelly Scotka at Any Baby Can.

Finally, this morning Andrea Turner came over and took some maternity photographs. This is something I've wanted to do since before I was pregnant, and after looking at a few of the shots from this morning on her camera, I am VERY excited to see the rest!

And now, a sneak peak of the new digs...

Getting close!

Tomorrow we move into our new house. Robin's dad, Dale, has been here since Thursday helping us get everything done that we possibly can before we move in. They have been working very hard and tomorrow will find us in an (almost) finished new home. Meanwhile, I have been trying as hard as I can to get our apartment packed. Yesterday, I also assembled our crib and the shelving for the nursery, as well as our crib mobile. Being over 34 weeks pregnant, I am definitely tiring a lot faster and can't get as much done as I would like, but today has been productive.

Pictures of the new house soon to follow!