Work Shower

This past Saturday was our last shower for peanut. My best friends from work, Beth and Alicia, threw it for us and everything turned out so good. Beth has been planning and stressing about this shower for a long time and all her hard work def. paid off. Her house looked amazing, decorations were perfect, food was yummo and baby girl got more cute headbands. My co-workers were so generous and we finished off our cloth diaper registry....so awesome! All my close work friends came to the shower and bought us a lot of practical gifts which we were very thankful for. Many of them brought their kids too which was a lot of fun to see them all be moms. I get so used to seeing them at work that I forget they have this whole other life that seems to go by at lightening speed. I seriously feel like some of these kids grew up way too fast and can't possibly be this old already. There were a lot of cute girls at the party, which of course had me thinking about my little one and wondering what she will look like and what kind of personality she will have. It was just a great afternoon of catching up and enjoying each other's company outside of the hospital. Here are some party pics...

Everyone made guesses to what her birthday would be and how much she would weigh in at.

Beth's version on the headband making craft. She made all the flowers ahead of time so it was easy to just pair with a headband or clippie. I think this worked really well considering lots of people had their kids with them and were a little preoccupied.

The food table, before food was put out. They had an ice cream bar area with all sorts of yummy toppings that I loved. I even got to take home the jar of Carmel which I have been munching on with my apples this week.

Here you can see Alicia's diaper cake on the table. She did such a good job with it and Matt claimed it was his favorite gift. He had never seen one before and was very impressed.

Cute straws and mason jar glasses for pink lemonade

Trying to put together bow and outfit combos after people had finished making theirs.

Susan and Jackson. Around this time last year we threw Susan a shower at my house for her little man. So crazy he is almost a year old now!

Ashley and little Parker is MIA, probably sleeping in his carseat.

Becca at around 30 weeks with her little boy. It has been fun to have someone at work to go through pregnancy with. Her shower is this next weekend and it will be fun to share the celebrating!

Amelia and Mia...who was less than interested in taking pictures with us but looked adorable in her little summer dress.

Stacey

Megan

Cathi and Savannah

Molly and Ellie

My two hostesses! I can't thank you girls enough for all your hard work.

You are the best and I love you!

Overall such a fun day. Beth's big gift to baby was this awesome picture she painted for her room. I took a picture of it but it didn't do it justice so I will have to try again and post it when I do a post about her nursery. The colors matched perfect and it fills some of that dead space on her walls that I have been stressing about. Yay for creative friends!

Birthing Class

Two weekends, 13 hours, all you need to know about giving birth. I think we are as ready as we are going to be for the big event. Sure there is still time for review and to say some extra prayers, but the basics have been covered. We went to a class that was instructed by a nurse/former doula and soon to be midwife. Our friends had gone to the same class and really enjoyed it and our midwife highly recommended her as well. Rachel said she would guess around 90% of her patients who took Melanie's class were successful in giving birth naturally. Pretty stellar stats so we decided to check it out.

Our class was two 6.5 hr sessions in back to back weekends. We had 3 other couples in class with us, one planning a home birth, one birthing at OPR and the other at St. Lukes like us. All of them hired doulas to help with their births and I was nervous about Matt feeling pressured to have extra help like that but he didn't. I think he payed the most attention out of all the husbands in the room and did really well recalling information from week 1 when asked in week 2. I was pretty proud of him. He also made it through all the birth videos without getting uncomfortable or queasy, another high five :)

We started the sessions talking about our reasons for choosing this type of birthing experience and our fears we had surrounding it. We then talked about the pain and ways to cope with it. We practiced different positions to labor in and tools that would help in certain stages of labor. We did an exercise where we squeezed ice cubes for a minute and tried different things to cope with the pain that we felt. Some suggestions she had, I will admit, were pretty cheesy or just not me at all. I am def. more logical than artsy (right vs left brained) so some of the imagery or birth art exercises didn't do much and I felt like my hand was about ready to fall off after the 60 sec "contraction." I found other suggestions that had to do with breathing, counting and rhythms very helpful though to keep focused and work through the pain. Overall that was the point of the exercise, to find what worked for you because everyone responds differently. Massage and pressure points were pretty great too. Matt has always been awesome at giving me back rubs and is a pro and knowing what I like and don't like. Other husbands looked like they had two left hands trying to massage their wives or treated them like they were another guy and about broke their backs in half. I felt sorry for them. I just hope when I am in labor I like being touched and massaged as much as I do now. I have heard for some people, they didn't want to be touched at all during certain parts of labor. Guess we won't know until we get there.

We also talked about breastfeeding, PPD, general newborn info and taking care of yourself postpartum. Some of it, I will admit, I tuned out because I felt like I knew most of what she was saying, but it was good for Matt to hear and I tried to stay present. She also talked some about Dunstan baby language, which I had never heard of before. Basically it is a theory that babies communicated basic needs through their different types of cries. A cry starting with a "n" or "neh" sound means they are hungry where as a cry starting with a "owh" or "o" sound means they are sleepy. You can learn what your baby needs based off her cries and then respond appropriately. It was interesting and I am curious to try it out on some babies at work to see what I think about it.

Overall the classes were great. I learned a lot about the stages of labor and overall changes my body and her body go through to get her out. The biggest thing I took from the class, besides a lot of knowledge, was the idea that we have options in this whole process. I knew this but it was good to have that repeated to me. We can ask for what we need and have support but we can also choose to not have intervention or to decline suggestions from the medical staff. I really trust Rachel and I feel like we won't do anything that will endanger our daughter, even if at times it goes against what the hospital and their staff may think. Like knowing the nurses will want to hook us up to a monitor to check baby's HR  for 20 min every hour and knowing we can say how about for just 10 min or for a couple contractions, or declining vaginal checks if they are wanting to do them too frequently, or refusing IV fluids if I can drink enough on my own to stay hydrated. I know there is a time and place for intervention but I also know God made my body fully equipped to grow and birth this child. I think her labor and birth is a chance for God to reveal his glory and power and I almost welcome the opportunity to take part in it and have my faith grow. Sure I have a lot of doubts and fears, but I am acknowledging them up front and dealing with them. I know he is bigger than any worry of mine and he will watch over us during this time. If it comes to the point where Matt and I feel like intervention is necessary, I feel like I can embrace that because I know we would have tried our best and used all the resources available to us. I think this could a time of bonding for us as a couple too. Trials and pain have always brought us closer. Knowing we are heading into this as a team brings me a lot of comfort and I have faith that he will be a wonderful coach and support through the whole thing.

33 weeks

Here is our pic for the week. We finished up our 2 weekends of birthing class today and I think we are both feeling much more prepared for her arrival now.We also set up our appt. to take a tour of St. Lukes. I had a pre-registration phone interview where they asked me my medical history and all their screening questions. I hung up feeling very blessed that this pregnancy, overall, has been as smooth as its been. They asked about kidney stones, UTIs, heartburn, BP problems and a tirade of other questions. I know friends who have struggled with all of these specific problems and that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to complications or bad side effects of pregnancy. Health has been a huge answered prayer and my interview just reminded me to be thankful for that.

And here is a little preview of a project I have been finishing up in her room. I saw it on pintrest as a way to organize all her clothes in her closet. Since she has so many different sizes, I figured it would be easier for Matt to grab an outfit that fits and my Type A personality loved this look. They were super easy and I thought they turned out pretty cute.

Tomorrow will be my first unofficial Mother's Day...weird. I can be down with Matt being a dad and us having a baby, but me being a "Mom" is still such an odd concept. This is one of those snapshots of your life that you pause and think, wow I am growing up. I can choose to be sad about this or choose to be excited for all the things God has planned for my life as it continues to move on. So I will try to embrace it, title and all. Happy Mother's Day to all my fantastic friends who have bravely stepped into this role already and are making it look good. A big shout out to my mom and Matt's mom too, what great role models I have in my life. Love you both!

32 Weeks and March of Dimes

With all the fun things happening lately I have been getting behind posting our weekly updates. She is looking more rounder if you ask me.

Baby Updates: 

• We have her name list scaled down to a top 6. Big improvements from where we were last time. We have not discussed middle names at all yet so that might be our next tactic to see if we can eliminate anymore. Matthew still thinks it is a possibility we could still have a new one jump out there at us, I think her name is one of these and we will just know eventually. I am sure once we do decide, all the other options will seem weird to call her by but they all seem to be on such a level playing field right now. There are pros and cons to them all and names were taken from both our lists.
• Her dresser in her room is finally done and it looks awesome. My parents bought it for us and fixed it up. They painted each drawer a different color, which sounded like an easy project but actually ended up being the biggest headache of anything we have done in her room so far. I think all of us are glad it is done and looks great.
• I am now not sleeping as well anymore. I knew this time was soon coming and it has arrived. I still am tired and can take great naps but I can no longer go to bed at midnight and sleep until 11 the next morning (minus potty breaks). Now if I get up to potty or reposition myself I am awake for awhile.Or I am just restless at night trying to settle in. When I work night shift, I usually sleep from 8am when I get home to around 3:30 or 4. For the past 2 weeks I have been only able to sleep until 2 or 2:30 (with a potty break thrown in around noon). Overall not terrible but that third night has been a little rough running on less sleep. It is harder to get positioned comfortably and those charlie horses are rampant as ever. I have a lot of friends with terrible reflux though so I know it could be much worse.
• We looked at my work schedule this weekend and insurance options trying to decide what would be best for our family. My three options are to 1. Stay the same, 3 days a week of work, 2. Drop to 0.8 (which is still considered full time for insurance purposes) and work 3 days, 3 days then 2 days, so every third week drop a shift, or 3. Part time 0.6 and work 2 days a week. Insurance is a killer to switch to Matt's plan or to pay for part time rates through my work so that is a bummer. While we don't want this decision to be made only based on our income, we do recognise it is a big factor in it all. I know at some point of motherhood I will scale back to working very infrequently but it is hard to know at what pace to take to get to that point. We have offers from my mom and Leslie to help watch her, which we are so grateful for, so we will have to work with them too in figuring out a plan. Overall I really love my job and want to still be working, I just can't make up my mind how much. Who knows, staying at home with her for 12 weeks this summer may make my decision more clear.
 

This weekend was also the March of Dimes. My work sponsored the walk this year and we raised close to 100 thousand dollars for the cause, yay Children's Mercy! We had a tent set up with different colored beads that walkers could wear to symbolize what they were walking for. Purple beads meant they were walking for a premature baby, blue beads if the baby was born with a birth defect, and silver beads if they had lost a baby.

It unfortunately rained, well down poured, most of the morning. People were all huddled under the P&L covered area. Here we are listening to the opening ceremony speeches and mingling with friends we found. We had made a mad dash to get under the overhang and we already wet at this point. Luckily it was warm that day so we weren't cold. We left after the ceremonies and skipped out on the walk. When we were leaving though, we saw a bunch of silver bead families trucking through the rain, walking in honor of their babies. It broke my heart to see their dedication and what this meant to them. I wish the weather would have cooperated more.

Here are the Copes, hanging out keeping us company under the NICU tent. They are sporting the shirts our hospital bought for the walk. Matt and I just wore the same color scheme and called it good. I wasn't sure if I would fit in one back in Feb or Mar when we ordered them and Matt didn't want a shirt he would never wear again. Lame points for us.

This special lady in the pink hat and Children's Mercy shirt, wheeled by us with her stroller. There were lots of people with their babies and some people even brought their dogs for the good 2 mile walk. This lady however brought her cat....in a stroller....so weird. And it wasn't even a kid stroller converted into a space for her cat, it was a genuine cat stroller. Insert eye roll. Matt wanted to go over and ask about her baby and then act shocked when he saw there was a cat in the stroller. Megan and I wanted to go ask her if it was a premature cat. What cat enjoys riding in a stroller through large crowds of people in the rain? This is my issue with pets, I don't hate all animals...contrary to popular belief, but I do hate when they are treated like humans. This is a prime example. Leave the cat at home and donate the money you spent on that crazy stroller to MOD for a good cause. Sigh....

This last picture is of one of my primaries all grown up. I took care of Iliana when she was a premie in our NICU. Her family and I have stayed in touch and they actually go to our church, which is pretty awesome. We got interviewed to be on the news and people claimed they saw me but I couldn't find the clip anywhere online. She and her sister Noelle, also a NICU grad, looked so cute in their matching outfits. Should have snapped a picture of them both. Seeing kids all grown up like this make my job feel so rewarding.

That's all I got for now, I will post our 33 week picture soon and get all caught up. :)

Pintrest worthy

I don't even know where to start describing the amazing shower my sisters and Gina threw for us this weekend! I knew they had all been scheming and brainstorming fun ideas for awhile now but I never would have imagined it would come together so perfectly. From the beautiful color choices, to the crafty decorations, to the gourmet food, to the headband table, to the generous gifts....this was an epic shower. I was so humbled by the sacrifices of each hostess to give her time, creative talents and love in this way. I felt so loved and special. Thank you Amanda, Shelby, Kristen, Leslie, Emilee and Gina for everything, what a precious memory. 

I did not take my camera out once at the party and just enjoyed myself. So here is a preview of the party courtesy of Gina :)

My beautiful sister setting up her signs. Her graphic designs skills made this such a stylish party.



More of her handiwork

The main table

Leslie made the covered boxes and different yarn balls. Those yarn balls were so freaking cute. I will definitely have to try them out myself for a party I throw in the future. The combination of the tissue pom poms, tulle pom poms, hollow yarn balls and regular yarn balls was awesome. Then you add in all the yummo food. The mini cheesecake delights pictured below were my favorite, no surprise there. There were also fruit pizzas, fancy cupcakes, fruit and dip, hummus and chips, punch and sandwiches. Quite the spread, all delicious. Even the pitcher of water had strawberries floating in it. So fancy. Dork confession - I totally added my own strawberries to my refills of water because I felt so princess-y drinking them. Ha!

The main present opening area

The headband table...set up by Em and Shelb

Shelby had researched how to make bows and flowers online and instructed everyone in the headband making craft. She bought headbands online and a bunch of fabric to choose from. Les and Em picked up some decals and bling for accessories.

I don't have pictures of the finished products, I will have to post those later, but we got some really cute ones!

I took pictures with most of the guests before they left. I was glad I kept the party smaller and included just my closest friends and family. It was so intimate and special that way. Besides, both our families combined makes for a lot of people on it's own. I love having a big family.

My two best friends from high school Katie and Leanne. I love both of these girls and sharing life with them has been such a blessing over the years.

My friend Emily from nursing school. We became fast friends, I believe, because of our shared loved for Christ. We went on a medical missions trip to Honduras a few years ago together and really bonded over the work we did there. Her and her husband are expecting their first son in September and Matt and I are thrilled for them.

My best friend from work, Beth. She has been so encouraging and excited for us this whole pregnancy. Her support when I was sick at work my first trimester and not telling anyone yet was so much appreciated. She has been a big help with a lot of things these past 7 months and I am blessed to have a friend who cares so much about our little peanut and me.

The excited grandma and nana! So thankful to have these mommas steward me in becoming a mom myself. So many good lessons I have learned from them both. Our daughter will be blessed by their presence in her life just as Matthew and I have.

My Chicago family that made the trip down here to celebrate, my mom's mom and her sister Dory. It was so great they took time out of their busy lives to travel all this way. It meant a lot to have them here.

And finally the hostesses! All my seesters and Ginakins

What a wonderful day. Love you all!

Maternity Pictures

My talented friend Gina came to visit about a week ago and took our belly pics. We are so fortunate that my best friend also happens to be an amazing photographer. She successfully runs her own business out of her awesome studio in her backyard, taking all sorts of great pictures for the people of Wichita, KS. I am so impressed with how much she juggles in her life and always makes it work. There is so much that goes into being a photographer that people just don't ever see. Editing all this takes forever so I was so surprised and happy when she told me my pictures were done already. Thanks for staying up late nights for me friend!

We went to the west bottoms in downtown KC and then loose park to take these shots. It is always slightly awkward to pose or do "serious face" when you know the photographer so well. Gina kept it legit and was professional once she got going in her photo mode though. I was so happy we decided to take maternity pictures and that we now have these memories of this time in our life. I love our little growing family :)

She looks so big here!

Putting off the handsome vibe in the background :)

Next to the pink girl tree we found in the park.

Easily my favorite picture. This just captures my husband perfectly. It conveys how sweet he has been this whole pregnancy. I have loved seeing him step into his dad role, talking and singing to her, taking care of me, reading his dad books, and preparing space for her in our house and in his heart. This experiance so far has reminded me how much I love this man and shed light on what an amazing father he will be.

There are so many I like, pairing it down to put these on here does not even capture 1/2 of my favorites! You can look at all of Gina's hard work if you follow this link here.

http://ginadreherphotography.smugmug.com/Bellies/Belly-Rachael/22750490_xhNKnR#!i=1825535250&k=TQztXr9

She also combined shower pictures on this link so you can get a sneak preview of my next post if you so desire. :)

Thank you again Gina! We are so blessed to be your friends!

31 weeks

And here we are at 31 weeks. This was an eventful week for us. Gina came in town Thursday, we took maternity pictures, had lots of family in town, celebrated our big shower on Saturday and had Elizabeth and Tina's birthday celebrations Sunday.

Gina trying to capture a picture of us with the sign in the background.

So excited to share updates and pictures of all the fun we had this past weekend. More posts to come!