36 Weeks, 1 Day

Appointment, Class and Hospital Tour Updates:

I just realized I’ve been lame and haven’t given an update on our last appointments, how the birthing classes are going and how our hospital tour went.

We had an appointment with Kelly Riorden on April 1st at 3:45pm and again on April 22nd at 3:45pm. Both appointments went well and she told us that Maci was head down. I don’t know if anything has changed since then, but I sure hope not. Our next appointment is coming up on May 20th at 11am. After that appointment we start meeting with her once a week so we will be going again on May 26th at 1:30pm. When I go to the appointment on May 26th I’ll be 3 days away from 37 weeks which is considered to be full term.

Our hospital tour was on April 25th from 2-3pm. I was happy to see that Kaiser does many things automatically just the way that I wanted and had planned to write in our birth plan. I’m happy to know that if I don’t get a birth plan written in time, most of my wishes would already be coming true. One of the most important things to me is that they do “kangaroo care” for the first hour, when they have the baby and mom have skin to skin contact and do not start measurements and all that good stuff until that hour is up.

Birthing classes have been interesting. The lady who is instructing the classes is really nice and super easy to talk to. You can ask her anything and she will give you the answer. Although the classes are 2 hours from 6:30-8:30pm and Will and I would much rather just be home at that point, we have really enjoyed them once we have been there. I think the best part of the classes for me is finding out what is normal (which sometimes doesn’t seem normal), what is not, and how to handle different situations. I have also enjoyed learning different positions that help with contractions and how to involve Will. The breathing techniques, although I’m sure are good for some, just freak my breathing out and I just get winded. I will just have to remember to concentrate on breathing slowly and deep breaths and that will have to do. This hee haa stuff doesn’t work for me.

Our last class is tomorrow 5/13 which is also the same day as our baby shower at work, and Amanda’s birthday. Tomorrow is a big day!

34 Weeks!

I can't believe that Maci is 34 weeks! Only 3 weeks until I'm full term and 6 weeks until her due date, June 19th. I've heard over and over that the last trimester feels like it drags on the longest but I haven't felt that to be true yet. It seems like time is flying by and that there's no way that a baby can be ready for life after such a short time. This whole process is amazing and I'm SO happy that I'm experiencing it. Even with all the things that come with pregnancy that aren't the most enjoyable, this is the best experience I've ever had. I think it's so amazing how much I can love someone that I've never met and I know that the feeling I'm having will be even stronger once I meet her. Will tells me all the time that although he is nervous he is so excited and can't wait for her arrival. The other night he was pushing his fingers on my stomach lightly and she was rolling something under his hand. This went on for a few minutes with them going back and forth, it was so cute!


So here's a thrilling update, I have a lot of stretch marks on my sides, legs and under my belly. I'll have to take some candid shots of those as well and post them next time. As Will reminds me often, she is definitely worth every stretch mark.

This is Lauren Jones and I.

Lauren and I have been friends for YEARS, it was so good to see her.

I just wish these pictures would be more attractive, oh well...

The belly button progress haha, keeps sticking out more and more.

Front view



Maci is getting SUPER big!

Here she is with me at the Wooden Chicken. Shhh, they didn't check her ID.

5/4 Evening/Night Shift Baby Shower

On 5/4 the evening/night shift in my department threw us a shower. It was at 8 pm and a few of the day shift people came as well. It was very nice of them to do this for us and they went all out! Thank you so much, we really appreciate all the thought that went into this day for us!


These pictures are in all sorts of crazy order but I'll just explain them anyway.

This is Tammy aka Tam Tam, she works the evening shift.

Bev works the night shift and also helped organize the shower.

Left - Patty, night shift

Right - Anne, works the evening shift and was the main organizer of the shower. She put so much time and effort into this, THANK YOU!

These were the party favors. They each had hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works and 2 chocolates. Anne stamped the chocolate wrappers, the box they were in and the bags.

This was on the door going into the break room where the shower was. We can now put this in our scrap book for Maci.

Both flavored and regular water for beverages.

What an awesome gift! This is a group gift that Maci will surely enjoy...

All the food, yummy!

Going from left to right at the table that is LeeAnn in the red, Ginny, Melody and then Deb on the right in the purple. Melody and Deb both work the day shift.

Party favors, stuff for games and prizes for the winners.

Will is displaying his pregnant belly by the big group gift. = ) Silly daddy!

Part of the decorations were these bottles and the pacifiers that were also given to us.

Very cute...

For some reason I wasn't able to load the picture but that other gift was from Deb and her husband Chuck. It is a book that has all kinds of poems, songs, recipes etc. to use with Maci. We really like it, thank you Deb and Chuck!

You can't see very well but there were bibs on the table that were also used for decoration but also given to us as a gift.

Thank you again for the wonderful baby shower! Will and I both had a great time and enjoyed every minute of it!