Week 29_Please Keep Hands and Legs Inside the Ride

This week, Teresa and I toured Atlanta's monument to fertility Northside Hospital, also known as the "Baby Factory". This hospital churns out kids like cars rolling off an asembly line. They have the whole process down to a science. Pregnant mom goes in one door with frantic father and out the other door comes un-pregnant mom with kid and frantic father trying to figure out how to put the car seat in for the first time.

Since we don't want to throw off their whole system, we were encouraged to take one of the 8 daily tours of the Baby Factory to find out how the whole process works. The tour begins with.......parking. Yes, they start by telling you where frantic father parks the car on the big day. Right by the front door with flashers on to drop off mom. This doesn't seem that important to many, but to me it could be marriage saving. I am an absolutely horrible parker. To cap it off, the one thing in the world Teresa has the least patience for is bad parking. Lets just say it has been a source of friction in the past. So, I studied every detail of the parking situation, took photos and measurements and paced off the distance to the door. I HAVE to get this right the first time. One wheel up on the curb or having to circle the parking lot twice would get the whole labor thing off to a bad start.

So on to the Labor and Delivery Room (or LDR). Let me tell you, these rooms are bigger than my first apartment and come complete with flat screen TV, full bath, and a bench-like bed for me (which I am told I will use at my own risk during delivery). The LDR rooms look like upscale hotel rooms with ornate wood furniture and soothing pastel colors. I could kinda get used to this. True to the factory's reputation, they don't have just a few of these rooms, but 40 segregated into 5 "pods".

Finally, on to "Family Care". This is where you go after delivery to spend the first couple days with the newborn. First up? A photo op with the roaming family photographer. The rooms in Family Care aren't nearly as nice. Why? Well their job is over, they just want you out now. Just like McDonalds furniture is intentionally uncomfortable to get you to eat and run, the Family Care rooms have just a little touch of "just let us know if you need help getting your things out to the car".

All in all, quite a top notch operation. Oh, don't want to forget. Teresa had her first Braxton-Hicks contractions this weekend. Basically false contractions intended to get her some practice before the real thing. Of course, she had no clue what was going on because somebody didn't pay attention in Baby Birthing Class (nor had she apparently ever seen an episode of ER). Thankfully, I paid attention and told her what was going on. She is now a real pro at the contraction thing after going through two rounds over the weekend. She is doing great and continues to amaze me at how well she is handling this.

And for the curious, yes we have officially picked out the kid's name and no we aren't telling you!

Week 28_I'd like to spend the rest of my pregnancy on vacation, please!

Just a quick update and photos from our Babymoon:

Spencer and I are having so much fun on our vacation. It has been very relaxing and although I still feel sick some days, at least I don't have to look alert and deal with clients and coworkers. Now when I feel sick, I can just go to bed or lay down and elevate my feet. It is such a nicer way to spend your pregnancy and makes me want to ask my OB for bed rest!


28 weeks and 1 day pregnant...83 days to go!

This is a picture of my wonderful husband relaxing on vacation...completely covered from the sun under an umbrella on the beach, but stocked with his beer and blackberry. Isn't he adorable? Oh I love him so much!

Week 28_Our baby has a new pair a shoes!

Okay, so this is going to be a completely superficial post. Forgive me, but I'm still excited about buying teeny-tiny baby clothes.

So this week Spencer, Sally, Sam, Baby Shell, and I are vacationing in St.Simon's Island. Well, my mother-in-law pointed out that there is a Bailey Boys outlet here so of course, Spencer begged me to go...or maybe it was the other way around. Regardless, we ended up there bright and early yesteday (while celebrating Spencer's 35th birthday) and had sooo much fun!

How can you not LOOVE the smoocked sailboats!


And this cute bubble outfit with a tugboat on it?

And the family has to like the John Deer bubble!!

And this is the peacoat and hat that Spencer picked out for next winter. It's navy blue and will keep Baby Shell warm for a long time!

And finally, I know that Baby Shell will want to be just like his Daddy and wear flip flops all summer so we picked up these fish flip flops for him. Not sure how much walking he'll be doing next summer, but they were on sale so how could I say no?

Also, below are two pictures of Spencer and I at Fort Frederica. Of course we are dorky enough to make sure we find a historic site on vacation to visit. It was so fun, but so hot!!

Spencer next to a cannon looking handsome in his madras shorts.

Me on the marsh edge looking sweaty and large!

Week 27_Are you there kid?

So this week has been very hectic which explains why we are so late on the blogging. Work has been killing both Spencer and myself as we prepare to go on our Babymoon....which starts tomorrow! Hooray! St. Simon's Island here we come!

This week's update though is that we had a tiny scare with Baby Shell. On Wednesday I started to get very nauseous again and was having trouble keeping food in my stomach. I hadn't felt this bad in awhile. Then on Thursday the nausea continued and I realized that it had been about 2 days since I felt Baby Shell kick. I wasn't sleeping because I was feeling so ill so I went home early from work on Thursday and spoke with our doctor. Turns out that Baby Shell had rotated with his head at the top of my uterus and his feet towards my back. His head was pushing hard against my uterus and pushing against my stomach...which pushed against any food in there. Her solution was to drink a sugary, caffeinated beverage (which was music to my ears) in order to turn him around! It's been so long since I've had a real Coke! Well, before I could drink my Coke, my darling husband came home and began speaking to my tummy. Our son now knows his voice so as Spencer talked to him he began to rotate towards his voice and began kicking again. It was was amazing to see him kick through my tummy for the first time in a few days! At this point I assumed he had completely rotated back forward and I was fine again, but since my doctor had approved that sugary, caffeinated Coke I was certainly still going to take advantage of it! And turns out, I still love Coke. Since the baby is still growing, I am having to get used to feeling a bit nauseous again. Oh well, I guess he's worth it!

Tonight we celebrated Spencer's 35th birthday and his last birthday before he becomes a daddy. He got a video camera to take videos of Baby Shell (and probably lots of random things as he learns to use it) and he got a TV to put in the nursery (so that he will be more likely to get up in the middle of the night to help out!). He's gotten presents last week from me, this afternoon from my parents, tonight from his family, and will get more on Monday (his actual birthday) from me and another one next weekend from my parents again! What a spoiled, but very loved guy! I don't care how old he gets, Spencer loooves opening wrapped presents! It's very cute to watch. I just hope he doesn't get too used to this; Baby Shell is going to take over soon!

Hopefully our next posts will include more pictures of the amazing nursery and Baby Shell's first trip to St. Simon's (well, kinda). Maybe I'll even ask Spencer to write it so that it will be more entertaining and less informative. Oh I can't wait to hear what our son thinks of this blog when he's old enough to read it!