March!!

I am so happy to finally be able to say that I am due at the end of THIS month!! Seemed like it would take forever, but this month has actually arrived rather quickly. We've been busy tying up loose ends, in anticipation of an arrival anytime now (let's hope anyway!).

On Friday, my co-workers threw me a baby shower, and got us a baby swing, gift certificates to Baby Gap or Old Navy, and a baby gym. Yes, baby things are definitely starting to take over our house. So, we spent Friday night putting the baby's newest toys together (so much for going out anymore on Friday nights!). Actually, I can't take too much credit for putting the toys together. JJ and Mr. Duck were Jason's trusted assistants throughout the assemblies.

My co-worker Janet, who organized my shower, had us play a game where each of us had to wear a pacifier necklace. If you caught someone saying "baby", you could take their pacifier. The person at the end with the most pacifiers wins. Needless to say, the guys were pretty quick to say baby just to get rid of the necklace. I don't think we ever really declared a winner, but I did get to keep all of the pacifiers. So, what to do with new pacifiers? Another co-worker of mine (and recent first-time mom) said to boil them for 5 minutes prior to the first use. So, I'm guessing this is something that only first-time moms do (I hear that by baby #3+, you barely wipe them off on your pants!). However, making sure not to poison my baby, I (actually Jason) dutifully boiled all of the pacifiers for 5 minutes today. Now I'm sure that JackHannah will be kept safe from all unthinkable diseases caused by dirty pacifiers :-)

As I approach the last stretch, I'm continuing to feel more and more pregnant (how is that possible??). My feet haven't been this swollen since I sprained my ankles playing basketball. Thank goodness for slip-on shoes! JackHannah is developing right on track. This morning, he/she must have been very moved by the congregational prayer in church b/c my stomach was moving all over the place. This seems to happen a lot during church. Maybe we'll have a little preacher :-) So, hopefully only a few more weeks left, and we'll finally know if we'll be buying pink or blue.

36 weeks

5 weeks and counting..

I am definitely happy to be in the last stretch - 35 weeks this week. It seems like my belly has gotten huge overnight. I realized this morning that I can no longer see my feet looking straight down. They're just gone. Needless to say, slip on shoes have become my lifeline. Although, since it's been an incredibly snowy winter, I am still wearing my old WMU boots back and forth to work. Yes, Jaime, I still have them! Looking back, I have had them now for 10 years! They've done me well, but I one of these days I may just have to break down and buy a new pair. Maybe next year...

It was so nice to see the sun this weekend. One of my favorite spots in our house is the floor in front of our sliding glass door. When the sun shines, it warms that spot right up, so I decided to take advantage of it and take a nap there this afternoon. This just so happens to be the dog's favorite place to take a nap, too, so we compromised and napped together. I've been on Jason to get him a pillow, but he thinks he doesn't need one. Well, JJ apparently thinks otherwise. Since I was in his territory (the floor), he decided it was only fair that I share my pillow with him. So, yes, we napped together on the floor, sharing the same small pillow. It was lovely.

Jason's parents came out for a short time this weekend, too (Friday night and Saturday). The nice weather made it so much better for running around town. Mary and I got dropped off to shop at a couple of stores in town, and then we did some shopping at Babies 'R Us for Jason's cousin, who is expecting a little boy a couple weeks after us. That place certainly can be overwhelming! We also checked out a new place to eat downtown - Hop Cat. They specialize in all kinds of specialty draft beers, both from around the state and the world. It was great! No, of course I didn't sample any drafts, but just the atmosphere was very impressive. Kind of a pub style but best of all - non-smoking on the main floor! We all really enjoyed it.

Nothing too eventful with my pregnancy. I didn't feel very well last week, but I think it was just a mild bug of some sort. I'm feeling much better now, except for the discomfort that comes along with the last few weeks. The baby is right up to my ribs now, so it's a bit more difficult to take deep breaths. As I was on the praise team this morning at church, this made it a bit of a challenge to sing. Overall, though, I really can't complain. It won't be long now and we'll be into March. Hopefully we'll be having a new March birthday and not an April fools!

35 weeks

We have a nursery!

This weekend, my parents came over with their van, which served as a dual delivery service. They brought our cradle with them from Frankenmuth. They also brought my grandma's rocking chair, which my grandma so graciously let us borrow. This is the same rocking chair that she used to rock my mom in as a baby, so it's very special to be using it to rock our baby.

Jason and my dad also picked up our our crib and dresser/changing table for the nursery. My dad was such a big help! He made 2 trips to the furniture store for us b/c both pieces of furniture would not fit into the van at the same time. We really appreciated all of their help. We absolutely love the furniture, except that there's a defect with the front side of the crib, so it's going to be replaced next week. I think with the furniture in place, we pretty much have all of the big things taken care of for the baby's arrival. Now, all we need is a baby, which will be here before we know it!

My parents ended up leaving on Saturday afternoon due to the weather forecast. It was a good thing they did. The weather was absolutely terrible on Sunday - very windy, lake effect snow, zero visibility, and -25 degree wind chills. Jason and I braved it out to our church's early service, but they ended up cancelling Sunday school and 2nd service, along with nearly every other church in the area. Needless to say, we stayed in the rest of the day. We are definitely ready for spring!



Putting together the nursery (mostly Jason)


The nearly finished nursery - just waiting for baby
to add boy or girl finishing touches


The crib (Yes, next to the piano. Can't start them
too young :-)


33 weeks - 7 more to go!

Davis baby shower

Being the guest of honor at my baby showers, I didn't have time to take any pictures. Thankfully, family and friends have been kind enough to take pics and send them to me to add to my baby book. Although these are a little late, I thought I'd share some pics I just received from the baby shower that Jason's family threw for me.

Jason's mom and me with Jason's baby tree


Jason's Grandma Ocedek, Mom, and me


My mom and me


The whole gang

We had good intentions of picking up our baby furniture this weekend, but thankfully Jason called the furniture store to get the dimensions first. We discovered that due to the sloping window in the back of the Aztek, we wouldn't be able to fit it in. So, the furniture pickup has been put on hold until my parents come to visit with their van in the next few weeks.

One of the things I wanted to do was to make better use of the closet, so rather than pick up our furniture as planned, we picked up a storage cube with some drawers. Jason had some "help" assembling it this afternoon. As always, JJ had to be in the middle of the action.

Closet before

Closet after

I feel so much better having someplace to start putting things away. Little by little, I'm feeling more prepared to bring this baby home.

The auto show (small scale version of the Detroit show) was in town this weekend, so we decided that since our weekends of being 2 are numbered, we'd go out and make it a date. We're really going to try to make it a priority to have a semi-regular date night after the baby comes, maybe not at first, but eventually. Although we are obviously totally excited about JackHannah, it's wonderful just to reconnect in non-baby areas of our lives as well.

The pregnancy is still going really well, although experiencing some of the typical 3rd trimester discomforts (achy back, tired, etc.). I really have been blessed with a great pregnancy experience and a wonderful husband who takes such great care of me. He's going to be an amazing dad!

Baby class

Jason and I attended Holland Hospital's baby class last Saturday. It was an all-day event - 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Although I've been reading a lot, I still learned quite a bit. The birthing rooms (just one room for labor, delivery, and recovery!) are very nice. They were recently remodeled and feel as homey as a hospital room can. Even Jason was enlightened by the class. He was very surprised to learn how a c-section is actually done. I guess I just assumed he knew the procedure, but he was quite shocked to learn that they actually cut through the lower abdomen area to get to the baby. We're just hoping that we won't get first-hand experience with it!

Baby is definitely getting stronger. Sometimes I think we have a wild child, judging by the amount of movement I feel. I must admit, though, that I love feeling those kicks. It's reassuring to know that our baby is growing and moving. One of my favorite hobbies now is to lay on the couch and watch my stomach move (way better than watching tv these days!). On the surface, Jason seems to think I'm crazy, but I know that he's getting into it, too. He's even started talking to the baby from time to time.

My belly is growing, too. It's seems like just within the last couple of weeks people are really starting to ask when I'm due. The guys at work are now comparing my belly to theirs, telling me that I'm almost ready to compete! It does get a little uncomfortable at times. I certainly cannot eat as much in one sitting as I used to. I get that uncomfortably full feeling, only it takes much longer to go away. So, I'm eating smaller meals, but snack more frequently.

Thankfully, though, I really haven't experienced too many other negative pregnancy effects. I can't believe that I'm due in only 9 weeks! Yikes.



31 weeks

Starting to get ready...

This past weekend, I attended my second baby shower, given by Jason's aunts Carolyn, Agnes, and Lillian. Of course, Jason's mom lent her decorating hand as well. Everything was so cute! Jason's mom even decorated a little tree with all kinds of Jason's baby keepsakes (pacifier, comb, shoes, baby blanket, etc.), which she passed them onto me. What a thoughtful gift!

Everybody was very generous, and we ended up with so many nice gifts! They took up the entire back end of my car! We've now got most things unpacked and put away as much as possible, without having our baby furniture. We picked up our travel system and crib mattress last night. This is becoming so real!

We got quite a snowstorm last night, which dumped about 6" of fresh snow in the West Michigan area. Since Jason gets so many personal days, he decided to use one today. Unfortunately, I had a couple of commitments at work, so that wasn't an option for me. He used his snowday to the fullest. He had the travel system completely assembled by the time he called me at 8:00! Throughout the course of the day, he finished either setting up or putting away the majority of thte remaining baby items. I think he's really getting excited for this little one's arrival, too!

Just some of the baby presents we received between our 2 showers

Jason's favorite present

30 weeks