Showers, Cribs, Classes and Babies!

Last Saturday I had my very first baby shower in Sioux Falls, South Dakota hosted by my wonderful mother-in-law. It was fantastic... and I wish I had pictures, but I will have to get them from my mother-in-law as I completely forgot to bring my camera. (This is becoming a recurring theme for me!). The shower went great and our little man received many wonderful presents. Of all of the gifts, I do have 3 favorites. 1. A blue and green handmade afghan by our little man's great grandmother, Dorothy Olson. 2. The glider that my mom and Da-Da got us. 3. A double picture frame with one blank side and the other a picture of Mitch in a Winnie-the-Pooh outfit... along with the outfit that Mitch wore 27 years ago.

Truly, truly blessed.

The only difficult part of the shower was the drive home. I was quite uncomfortable on the ride back and was having some cramping and tightening of the belly that I can only assume are those pesky Braxton Hicks contractions. There was no pattern to them, but they sure made for a long trip back home. Note to self? Don't go on long distance car trips in late pregnancy!

In other news, my good friend Michelle is not going to be able to make it to my local baby shower on September 18th. So, we met up on Monday to go get our dessert at Broadway Pizza (they make the BEST deep dish chocolate chip cookie sundae) and afterwards went back to my place as she had gifts for our little man. She was way too generous and got him way too many things... and we couldn't love the gifts any less. My favorite by far is the handmade quilt that Michelle made. Now that is something that he (and his parents) will cherish forever.

The shower definitely helped move the nursery along. One of the gifts from Mitch's parents was the crib bedding set... and of course that meant that we needed to go out and get the crib! So on Sunday we went to go get the crib, crib mattress, and changing table... and of course they only had the changing table in stock. We are still waiting for the crib and crib mattress to arrive at the store so we can go pick them up. Once we get the crib set up in the nursery we will be able to figure out how we want to arrange the furniture and then begin decorating the walls. It's really starting to come together!

Wednesday was our very first childbirth class and it went very well. It was very basic, but we had anticipated the first class being that way so it wasn't much of a shock to us. There was still some useful information and I'm glad we are doing this. We have 4 more classes to go (and I'm excited that the next one involves massage!). Mitch stands by the fact that these classes are an elaborate ploy to just get free massages from husbands. I'm pleading the fifth.

Well, you know how I have been pregnant with 2 of my friends Ashley and Becky? That is no longer the case as Ashley gave birth to her baby girl (name unknown as of right now) last Saturday and Becky is going to be induced sometime today. So in just a day or so, I will be flying solo in pregnancy. It was so much fun to see and hold Ashley's little girl and I can only imagine how much fun it will be to do the same with Becky's little boy. It definitely made me anxious to be holding our little man, but trust me... I can still wait. Yes, I do feel like I have been pregnant forever and yes, I am tired of the aches and pains and all of those pesky negative aspects of pregnancy. However, I know that he isn't ready for the outside world yet... and I think I still need some time to just enjoy spending time with my husband. I really don't want to rush through things just to rush through them. I'm currently enjoying getting his nursery put together with Mitch (okay, so watching Mitch put the nursery together as I sit in the glider drinking my sweet tea.... same thing right?). I'll have to put pictures up here of those events also... I'll try to do that with a new belly picture (as it is that time again).

Countdown: 8 weeks, 6 days (or 62 days total) until our due date!