Basic Baby care and a slight change in plans

Class last night was quite good (as we have come to expect from this instructor). When we arrived, Jeff joked that we were taking this class for him, not for me. Although that was much of why we took the class, I learned a lot of information and got some "hands on" experience with certain things. We were walked through swaddling (something new for me), umbilical stump care, circumcision care, diapering with both cloth and disposable diapers, a variety of options for baby wipes, sponge baths, regular baths and dressing the baby. Apparently the next class, Preparing to be a Parent is much more vital and has lots of important information in it.

One of the topics discussed was diapering and cloth diapers. Susan (the instructor) went over some of the things she would be concerned about with washing your own cloth diapers, including a build up of bacteria in a dry pail. Although I have been able to find nothing to support this, it did get Jeff and I talking again about whether a diaper service is more feasible than washing our own diapers. I came home and began rereading everything I could find about washing cloth diapers and noticed one thing I had somewhat overlooked. Most sites suggest at least a double rinse and a presoak. Seeing as we do not have our own washer and there is no control allowing for either of these things in our apartment laundry room, we have decided that using a diaper service is our best option. In addition to the lack of our own washer, if my Fibromyalgia comes back, having less laundry to haul back and forth from the laundry room is definitely a good option.

So, I have gone through our gift lists and updated them, removing several items we won't need (cloth diapers, large wet bags), leaving ones we will (small wet bags, diaper covers) and adding information about giving a gift certificate for the diaper service we will be using.

32 week doctors visit

Quick and easy visit today. Unfortunately, I had missed the call from the office letting me know that the doctor was in surgery. I got to the office and was given the choice of coming back in about and hour or having a nurse do the check-up. Seeing as the visits have been quite short lately and all the doctor would do is measure the belly and listen to the baby's heart, I chose to see the nurse. While there I had the opportunity to ask the nurses for referrals to pediatricians. There are 3 that Dr. Kizner seems to like and one he prefers to deal with. I will be contacting them to determine who we will use for Roo's pediatrician. I also was able to discuss with them about some of their experiences and what they have heard about how Dr. Kizner actually is in the delivery room. It was nice to hear their viewpoints and have my basic feelings validated that in fact he will support the mother's choice as long as there is no danger to mom or baby.

After the visit I headed over to Babies'R'Us to buy a baby shower gift for a friend. I had planned on making a themed basket from the registry items (I had looked online at what hadn't been purchased yet.) I got to the store and printed out the registry and every thing that I went to get was out of one major piece to complete the basket. Bath, diapering, breastfeeding, etc. After close to 2 hours and sitting in the rocker that I like to relax a bit before trying again (I got to the check out and found the item I was buying had been returned and not in good shape) I finally found a couple of things that met my spending goal and headed home.

Now I am tired but making some dinner. Until next time.

Issues with MyGiftList.com

So, several times when I have tried to access this site I have been unable to. Also, I realize people may want to go shopping with a list at an actual store instead of online. I am registered at BabiesRUs (not all items on this registry have been transferred to Mygiftlist.com)

I have also set up a spreadsheet viewable through google.com Anyone may view it at this address:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p9cFprTAkwdOepBhgokkfcQ&hl=en

It's been a long time

Life has been quite busy as of late. In fact, I should be working on cleaning right now instead of writing, but, oh well. Tomorrow is our next OB appt. Not really looking forward to the glucose test.

Roo is doing quite well. Kicks are growing stronger with growth. One of the favored places seems to be right up under my right lung.

Since my last post, I have finished working (where I got our first baby gift), gotten a new outfit done for Jeff in the SCA, gone to MN for Thanksgiving and KWAR (fencing conference), and come home. Tomorrow Jeff's folks get into town for a nice weekend visit.

It feels a bit odd to know I won't be heading back to work. Having been gone to MN just after I finished has really made it feel like I'm just on an extended vacation. Visiting home was great. Thanksgiving with the family was nice. I got to see 4 friends from high school. Mom kept me quite busy as we went baby shopping nearly every day, mostly just to look. We spent 2+ hours registering at Babies'R'Us. My mom kept calling me granola and telling me I am not allowed to be too militant about my ideas. She sent us home with a good amount of stuff without going completely overboard.

KWAR was a ton of fun. It was great to see bunches of friends, new and old and Jeff had a wonderful time teaching and fencing. Amazingly I was still able to fit into all my garb (late 15th Century Italian dresses are great). By the end of the weekend I was more than ready to get home.

It's nice to be home, but reality has set in just how much is still left to do before this little one is here. I have gotten most of the items registered for at Babies'R'Us also transfered to MyGiftList.com along with some other items. (see the links at the side). I have also opened a registry at Amazon.com which has mostly similar items and some additional books we would like.

So, now I should go and work on getting things clean and put away from the trip and ready for Jeff's folks to be here. I'll update sometime after the OB appointment to report how things are going from that end (possibly not until Tues).