My Colorado Shower

This is way overdue, but I wanted to share about the wonderful shower I has here in Colorado.  It was at our new house, which made it even better!  I loved having everyone come over and get to see our new house!  I was overwhelmed with how amazing and wonderful all of our friends and family are!  I felt very blessed!  If you were able to make it, thank you so much for being part of the day!  I'm working on those thank you notes!!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

Katie, Jen, Me, and Laura 

My in-laws and I

Me and my amazing mom!

My lovely friends and I with our moms!

My giant belly, don't I look thrilled to take this picture!

Opening the wonderful gifts!

The Ice Test and the Epidural Video

Last night was week 2 of our childbirth class.  It was all about pain management.  We did stations to practice different positions and techniques that help with pain management.  I was feeling pretty good about the whole idea of natural childbirth.  The teacher showed us this poster of the stages of labor.  How it starts out with contractions that are 30-45 seconds long with a 5-20 minute break in between.  Then it progresses to contractions that are a minute long with five minutes in between.  Then the last stage they are a minute to a minute and a half long with a minute to a minute and half break in between.  I was thinking that I could do that.  There would be a lot of breaks in between the pain.

Then we did this ice exercise.  We had to hold ice in both hands for a minute.  After a few seconds, I was already ready to give up.  It was horrible.  Then, we had to do it again with deep breathing.  It still hurt.  You wouldn't think holding ice would be that bad, but it is.  I can only imagine labor will be much worse than holding ice.

The last part of the night, we watch a video on epidurals.  Which was also slightly scary.  The way they are put in freaked me out!  When I try to weigh the pros and cons, it seems that there are more cons.  It does take away the pain and let you rest, relax, and sleep if you want to.  But, it can cause spinal headaches or backaches.  You can't get out of bed.  You have to have a catheter.  It doesn't always work perfectly- you could end up with a spot that you still feel pain.  And what worries me the most is that it can cause a decrease in some babies sucking reflex for about 2 hours.  From what we've learned, babies are awake for about an hour, so that means they may not nurse right away.

At this point, I think I've decided to play everything by ear.  I'm going to try and go without pain meds or at least as long as I can without.  Granted, I've never given birth before and really have no idea what I'll want to do in the moment.

Oklahoma Fun!

Over the July 4th weekend I was able to go to Oklahoma.  The last time I will travel before I have this kid! It was an amazing time!  My Aunt Cindy and her family was there from Florida too.  It was the first time since my wedding that the whole family had been together!

I couldn't believe how big Audrey, Alyssa, and Isabel had gotten!

While I was there I got to have a baby shower!  It was at one of my favorite places to eat in Oklahoma-Hideaway!!

My Aunt Rhonda and the girls made cupcakes!

I was so excited that so many of my a dee pi girls got to come!  Even though we graduated awhile ago, we still had to take some cheesy sorority pics!

Opening presents was lots of fun.  I had amazing little helpers.  It almost got out of hand, but we made it through!  I felt so blessed to have so many people come help me celebrate!

My parents and I

Two pregnant bellies!

My mom, my aunts, and I

Me and my very talented present helpers!

Christa and I

The next day, we has a surprise birthday party for my Grandma's 75th birthday.  It was a lot of fun and there were tons of people at the party!

I think we really surprised her!

Grandma with all the grandkids

The last thing I have to say about my Oklahoma adventure is that is was really hot.  And I mean hot!  Being pregnant didn't help much with the heat.  I stayed inside or in the pool most of the time I was there!

Isabel and I in the pool!

The Dreaded D-Word

Over the past couple weeks or so, I have started looking into day care centers.  This has been the thing I have dreaded the most about having a baby-besides giving birth.  I can't stand the thought of putting our tiny baby in a center for 8 or 9 hours everyday with someone we basically don't know.  But the reality is, we have to pay for a house and all our other bills, so I have to go back to work.  I get to take 12 weeks off, so she will be a little bigger by the time this all starts.

We are trying to find a place that is close to our house so that Jessyel can drop her off in the morning since he starts work later than me and I can pick her up since I get done earlier in the afternoon.  I feel this is slightly limiting our options, but we have found a couple that we could live with.

The first two, I went to by myself.  I cried on the way there and on the way home from both places.  In between the two visits, I had to pick out paint colors for the nursery which almost resulted in a total breakdown inside Babies R Us.  But I made it through.

It's very easy to know where we don't want her to go.  The hard part is picking a place that we like and feel comfortable with but at the same time doesn't cost a fortune.  One place I went to was very nice, however the monthly cost is almost as much as our mortgage.

I guess at this point, we sort of have one picked out.  We just have to bite the bullet and chose one.  I already dread the day when this actually has to start.