Shout out to Jane and Phil

I’m not sure if they’re reading the blog or not, but I wanted to give a big CONGRATULATIONS to Jane and Phil on their engagement!!! I cannot wait to hear all about it when you get home from your trip. It sounds absolutely romantic! When Shaun read his email he called me immediately, full of excitement...at the appropriate hour of 6:15 am.

Happy Mother's Day!

I spent this morning with my mom at the Race for the Cure event and had a blast! Apparently walking 5K is a bit hard on me at 6 months pregnant, though, which freaks me out. Something like that would never have phased me pre-pregnancy. Normally I'm doing the run, not the walk. The realization that my body is not the same set me back mentally a bit but did motivate me to get out more during this pregnancy and to get into a workout schedule post pregnancy asap.

Shaun and Dad worked on the plumbing in the basement today too. Unlike all the other days they spent working down there, today I heard much swearing and yelling coming from the basement. Things did not go very well. The evening ended when the main water line coming in on the city's side of the water meter started leaking and we had to call the city to come turn off our water. In order to fix the leak Shaun had to visit 4 different stores, call 2 different plumbers, and eventually visit a specialty wholesale store located about an hour away to get the right part. It's still not quite fixed yet but it should be soon.

Speaking of Shaun, he completely forgot that today was Mother's Day. I didn't expect a gift or any big deal about it but I was hoping that he'd at least say something sweet to me today. Er, no such luck. :eye roll:

There's popcorn popping in my belly

I swear that is what it feels like right now. She's in there tap dancing or performing flutter kicks. Whatever she's doing, she's keeping me awake!

:-)

Race for the Cure

This Mother's Day I'm participating in the Susan G Komen's Race for the Cure. It's a fundraising event for breast cancer research. If you would like to donate to the cause you can do so here:

http://www.active.com/donate/komentc08/DEineke

Last week of the second tri

Holy moly! I'm getting big! Lol, I'm sure I'm just going to be getting bigger too :-)

Things are starting to get uncomfortable as I grow. I can no longer cross my legs (probably a good thing to avoid varicose veins), tying my boots every morning is starting to get difficult, and I've lost the ability to sleep more than 2 hours at a time. Oh, and I think I used to take for granted the ability to take a full breath of air!

-BUT- I still very much love being pregnant. The little one is very active in there and all day long I feel her twisting and turning and kicking. It brings a smile to my face even when doing the most mundane tasks.

Last night was our first birthing class and overall it was good. It was loooong, but good. Our instructor just went over our fears about birthing and then the mechanics of giving birth. At the end we went over some relaxation techniques. I really wanted to fall asleep while we did them (hey, it was after 9 pm by this time) but I managed to stay awake.

Overall, things are going well at home. The basement project is still moving along. The baby's room is just about done being decorated. I'm officially done with college. Shaun has been around for a good chunk of time and his work doesn't seem to have any out of town training planned between now and when the baby comes. We also couldn't be asking for better weather, finally! Spring is here and not a moment too soon!

Birthing classes start!

I am very excited to finally be starting our birthing class tonight. I have been doing a lot of reading about child birthing since before getting pregnant and decided that hypnobirthing was something I wanted to try. Lucky for us, there is an instructor in the Twin Cities and we will be able to take a class instead of just reading the books.

For those of you who don't know...hypnobirthing is a natural birthing technique involving a form a self hypnosis. It's philosophies stem from the idea that childbirth is a natural, normal process that has been around since the first human and that by overcoming our fears about birthing, we can also overcome a lot of the pain. Well, that's the most basic outline.

Our midwife has only had one patient try hypnobirthing but she says she was impressed by the outcomes. We hope to be her second successful attempt :)

Bad about updating

Guess that's why I haven't kept up a blog before, huh?

Anyways, to the latest developments around here:

1) The nursery is about 95% finished. I'll post pictures as soon as it's done. After a failed first attempt that ended with overly emotional me in tears, we torn everything down and started the project a second time. I must say that the second time around things look much better.

2) School is almost done FOREVER. That's right. My last night of class is in 2 days and my graduation is May 1st. I cannot wait! However, that does mean that by typing this update I am yet again putting off on completing my final project :-)

3) The basement is out of demolition phase and onto rebuilding. Dad and Shaun started putting together the plumbing this weekend (which involved a lot of dust as concrete was being ripped up) and next weekend we'll get the plumbing done and the framing put up. Then the following weekend we will get the electrical put together. It will be so nice to get the house back in order...hopefully before the baby arrives, lol!

4) I almost forgot to add this one...I got hired at Children's Cancer Research Fund to work in their Marketing/Communications department. It's only part time for now but it's better than being without a job this summer. It's all I was really looking for since I know for sure that I want to take some time off after the baby is born. The job sounds like it will be a lot of fun and I'm starting at the end of May!

That's about it for the major updates. For now, I better get back to my homework!