Hospital Tour

Mark and I had our hospital tour last Saturday. We're delivering at Menorah which is where I had Nina. Pretty much looked the same to me except that they don't let you stay in the birthing room the entire time anymore. That's what I got to do with Nina. Now they move you a few hours after delivery to a different room. At least they are private rooms. One of the not so good parts of the room is the spare twin pull out for the dad. Looks very uncomfortable (confirmed by Chris Gartelos) to sleep in. Not that Mark would get any sleep anyway since you're either feeding the baby or getting checked out by the nurses at all hours of the night. Still, it's nice to have him there for support.

Thanks to Chris Gartelos for helping Mark with our glider last night. Mark and Chris went on chair errands last night. First they drove out to Grandview to pick up a new leather chair for the Gartelos household and then to UPS place to pick up our glider for the nursery. Very successful chair hauling / moving evening that was celebrated with beers after while I enjoyed my yummy water....

Dr Appt

Quick update from my OB appt today. Dr. says everything looks good. I'm measuring right at 34 cm which is how far along i am so i'm on schedule. Yet because of Nina coming so early, they really want me to take it easy these next couple of weeks. No long trips (so i guess my site visit to Wichita is out for me now on Thurs.), lots of rest and i'm suppose to not wear myself out running errands or doing whatever. Nina went with me today too since there was no school for the holiday and she got to hear the heartbeat which she thought was really cool and a little freaky. Those are her words, not mine.

Nesting

I've finally started that nesting thing everyone talks about when your're pregnant. Spent most of Saturday putting the baby room together, washing the sheets, towels, washcloths, onesies, sleepers and anything else that we've received lately. Also put together the diaper disposal and bouncy seat and bassinet. And much to Mark and Nina's dismay, we made a trip to babies r us for some other essentials in case the baby does come early. Picked up the mattress, changing pad, more diapers, etc... One trip to babies r us with Mark and Nina is all i could handle so i dropped them off at home and went on shopping by myself. Probaby all they could handle of me as well.

We also made a quick stop by our friends John and Jolyn to see their new little girl, Jackie. She is 4 days old now and is just beautiful. Now I'm really excited and anxious for our little one arrive.

Here is a picture of the mural we've had done so far in the nursery. This was done by our friend Mekaela Kramer. Her husband Joe works with Mark. Isn't it fabulous. It matches the decor of the room perfectly and she did this all freehand. Once the crib arrives (scheduled for March 3rd) Mekaela will come back and finish.

Now that it's Sunday, the nesting continues. It's snowing like crazy outside so not much else to do today but keep on cleaning and organizing. Nina is enjoying the day too with her friend Caliegh who spent the night last night. Stay warm everyone!!

To nurse or not to nurse...

I attended a breastfeeding class last night that was so much more informative than i thought it would be. I had nursed with Nina but since she was so early, i never made it to the class that i had signed up for. Thus i pretty much got a crash course in breastfeeding at the hospital shortly after Nina was born. And wow did those nurses leave a lot out. So hopefully this time around will be much easier. The best part was when they listed out the things that dad could do to help mom while she's nursing. :) Lots of good stuff for Mark to learn like giving the baths, diaper changing, burping.... all good reasons for him to get up in the middle of the night with me. ha ha I'm sure he'll enjoy every bit of it too.

Congrats to our friend John and Jolyn Kennedy on the birth of their daughter yesterday, Jacqueline Jo Kennedy.

Happy Valentine's Day to all our friend and family!!

Couples Shower

Another fun and exciting weekend was had as we are quickly approaching the baby's due date. We're under the 7 week mark now. I've figured that if I make it past Feb. 19th then I've made it further than i did with Nina and that's next Tuesday. Crazy!! This past weekend our friends Andy & Susan Hacke and Justin & Kati Bernard hosted a couples shower for us. Everything was just perfect. Great friends, great food and lots of mocking of the blogs. The guys had a very good time making fun of our blogs thru out the evening so thought they would enjoy seeing their pictures posted here as well.

We received lots of great gifts as well. Thanks to Kati and Justin for loaning us the bassinet. Good pictures of the girls as well that i had to post. :)

The only bad part of the weekend was that I caught Mark's cold and was laid up in bed most of Sunday and am home today from work. This cold is really kicking my butt but hope to be better tomorrow. Too much to do yet before the little one come to be sick and in bed.

Nina's Open House

Tonight was open house at Nina's school. Basically, Nina took me on a tour of her school and showed me the many projects they have been working on. This is a picture of Nina at her desk. Mark was at home today sick in bed. He's caught a nasty cold in his chest. Probably from all this crazy weather change we've had. So Nina showed me her latest art work, the computer lab where she went thru one of her math programs. She also showed us the real chick eggs that her class is taking care of. They are set to be hatching right around Easter time. Not sure what happens to the chicks after that....

Cup Stacking Tourney

We all experienced something new tonight. The first annual speed cup stacking tournament. This first ever event drew 65+ grade schoolers from all over the Shawnee Mission district to compete on who can stack cups the quickest. This is a relatively new sporting event that Nina tells me will be on ESPN in no time.

She competed in the "cycle" portion of the competition against kids in her age group of 9-10 yrs. I've never seen youngsters stack cups so quickly. Nina's best time of 22.44 sec won her third place. Mark and I couldn't be prouder. We plan on celebrating with a trip to Sheridians tomorrow night!!

Nina and I also traveled up to Lincoln, NE over the weekend for my sister's baby shower. I decided to get creative for once in my life and made her a diaper cake. It wasn't so hard to do but very tedious to figure out how to put the little side decorations on. For my first time, I didn't think it looked too bad. Monica received lots of very nice gifts and we had a great time at the shower.