Practice makes perfect

It was Kevins idea to go out and buy a baby doll so we could practice putting on our cloth diapers and little onesies. So we got this little baby from the clearance aisle at Wally World. I think he's a little small but he served his purpose. Little rough looking diapersfor the first few attempts but thats why we practiced ;)

One month & counting

Stroller test drive

Getting the bottles ready

Dylan keepin an eye on the carseat installation process

Installed!

Packing the hospital bag...Dylan intently watching

This is it ... exactly one month till our due date, only 12 more days till the first prediction of January 10th. Regardless, it's gettin close to game time. Kevin has had off from work from Christmas eve through the New Year so we made a list of things to get done with his time off. Yesterday was baby day. We sterilized baby bottles, installed the carseat, packed our hospital bag & took the stroller on a test drive. Still a few more things to do and pack but - we made some progress. Dylan never left our side - he definitely recognized something was up...but I think he thought we were packin up to go somewhere - he just wanted to make sure we knew he was ready to go with us wherever it be.

35 weeks!

Babys first Christmas! (kindof) He certainly got enough presents to warrant a 1st Christmas status....high chair, play mat, a few clothes, a book, blanket etc...

I've been feeling alright. Definitely begining to get to the uncomfortable stage. Peeing all the time, very very full after eating, weird pains now and again, extremely hot at night - but other than that I'm doin good ;)

Very strange to think in less than 5 weeks we'll have a baby in our hands.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

Christmas with just the 4 of us. By the looks of it we were all good this past year :)

T minus 38 days!!!!

Doc. says that everything looks about the same as our last ultrasound - except baby Logan is now 5lbs 6oz!!! According to some of your guesses he doesn't have too much more weight to gain before he hatches....ahhhhh.

After hearing the doctors say that baby, if born in New London (Lawerance & Memorial Hospital), might be transferred at birth to Yale if there are uncertainities or anything that their doctors aren't comfortable with- we have decided to forego that stress & just go ahead and deliver at Yale.

Another appointment today but this one is more of a check up of my vitals and the size of my ever growing belly. Probably nothing interesting. HOWEVER some interesting tid-bits of info are....

• I still have an innie - although it is extremely shallow now. Almost a no innie, no outie situation
• I find I put shoes on in the begining of the day and leave them on because it's become that uncomfortable and difficult to get down there to put them on
• Weight gain in this trimester has definitely been the big winner - total weight gain so far: just under 20lbs, 10 of that in the last trimester :o
• Had to watch Dylan get several shots at the vet last week & I CAN'T imagine watching my baby get shots.
• I got up to pee 3 times yesterday night! What the heck!!!!
• Sometimes I wake up in the morning and forget that I'm pregnant
• Just got my new car last night. Better start working on getting the carseat in -heard some of those things are like rocket science to figure out.
• One of Kevin's co-workers said "I hope everything is ok with your son" Kevin said he looked around as if saying ...son, what son - you must have the wrong person. HA! First time someone dropped to S bomb so casually. Welcome to Fatherhood my love :)

34 weeks!

yikes! perhaps I should have gotten a manicure when I got my pedicure this weekend...

Babys first snow! AND despite my nightmares I've made it through the first big snow storm without going into labor :)

I've started buying essentials and putting together a hospital bag. I'm finding it difficult to pack for such a unknown event. humph :/ I've been asking Andrea and refrencing different online lists of "what to bring to the hospital" but I find I'll put something in and take something out - probably doesn't help that we haven't had our tour of the hospital yet so I don't even know what kind of environment we'll be in. Don't think I've even ever been to the post having baby wing of any hospital.

We have another ultrasound at Yale this afternoon and then another regular check up tomorrow. Excited for both :) Stay tuned.

Santa made a special early trip to our house and dropped a couple Little Logan gifts off under the tree...oooooOOOoo

Snowday = Funday

'nuff said.

Logans Room!

Nothing matches & none of the furniture is new but everything goes & everything works :)

Walking in...to the right

Walking in .... to the left

"Moms nook"

Closet

From the back of the room

"Baby's nook"

Only one thing missing.......

Baby Logan! We're ready for you :)

I never tire of taking/looking a pics of Dylan.....


This is the stick/tree Dylan wanted to carry home for the last 2 blocks of our walk today.

Results

Received a call from Yale this morning regarding the Amniocentesis we had done. Everything checked out perfectly normal :) 23 perfectly paired chromosomes totaling 46!

Weekly Wag from D

Lovin having Mom home allllll day long.

New Ride!!!

We bought the neons replacement last night - hoooray!! It's snazzy little 2007 V6 Toyota Camry XLE with less than 10K miles. Leather, a sunroof and power everything! Plenty of room for a car seat and a huge trunk for the stroller and shopping bags ;) Basically it's a complete 180 from the neon. It's not in the driveway just yet - gotta finish up the financing and title switch over...but I don't even care, just knowing that it's mine is enough :)

Family car here I come!!!

**Update on the Neons life: His glory will most likely continue. Kevin is meeting a guy today for the trade off - a decent chunk of change for a not so decent chunk of metal.
Ride on green machine, ride on.

33 weeks!

Baby Logan is definitely getting big and is shifting downward....how do I know this?

1. The pants that I had been able to button and zip even just 2 weeks ago are near impossible to button now.
2. My appetite has increase, meaning baby isn't so high that he's compressing my stomach
3. My peeing activity has increased once again, meaning baby is low enough and big enough to squish my bladder
4. Lastly, because it's about freggin time!! 7 weeks to go :)

My fingers have started to get puffy at night so I've been taking my wedding rings off when I sleep & Kevin seems to think that my body temperature has increased a bit. Instead of him saying that its warm some place I'm the one to mention it. We've barely turned our heat on in our house!

We finished baby Logans room - stay tuned for some pictures :)

The little cottage that could

Doing what we can with what we've been provided in this fully furnished cottage. I think we've done a decent job of making it our home .... for now at least. Here she is in all her glory - well all except Logans room - few more things to do in there :)

From the outside view of the abode & view of the ocean from our driveway

The bathroom - nothing special here....but notice on the shelves in the back the bottom two have teeny tiny wash clothes and a teeny tiny bathtub :)

The living/dining area - before

The living/dining area - now

The kitchen - before.... maybe if there weren't doilies on the windows this wouldn't be my least favorite spot in the house

Kitchen - now

Our room - before

Our room - now

Udderly Fantastic!

Our friend Lyndsay drew my attention to a sale that Udder Covers was having. If you type in the promo code Christmas at check out you get the breastfeeding cover for free ($32 value!!) all you pay for is shipping at $8.95. Pretty fantastic deal if you ask me. Not sure how long the deal is going on so buy one! Even if you don't have kids - one day you might or one day you might be invited to a babyshower....and if all else fails and you feel the need to buy one but don't have anyone to give it too, I'll take another ;)

I bought the one above :)

Thanks Lyndsay!

Predictions

Here are your guesses as to when baby Logan will enter the world and just how big he might be. My personal thanks to those that guessed under 8lbs. Although each guess gets a fair shot at the to be determined prize there are a few that I'm thinking/hoping won't win. If you missed the opportunity to throw your guess this way, the deadline in Christmas eve. You can send your guess as a comment on the blog or send me an email emhawk8@gmail.com. If you've already guessed, theres no changin!!

Quick Snapshot

based on the below predictions baby is most likely going to be

Born on: jan 17th, jan 28th, or feb 2nd

Born in: the PM

Be an average of : 7.3lbs & 19.7inches

Erin (Mommy)

jan 20th 2:03pm

7lbs 9oz, 21inches -- this due date came to me in a dream...thats gotta mean something

Kevin (Daddy)
jan 24th 3:20am
7lbs 8oz, 21inches

Marti (Grandma)
jan 23rd 3:22pm
8lbs 2oz, 21inches -- the time is your birthday, on purpose?

Tom (Grandpa)
jan 13th 11:11am
7lbs 2oz, 21 inches -- That would be easy for you to remember - me, Olivia & Logan all born on the 13th

Jenn Marshall
jan 31st 5:46pm
6lbs 4oz, 20inches

Narce
jan 23rd 10:58pm
6lbs 12oz, 20inches

Trent
jan 28th 2:10pm
7lbs 11oz, 21.5inches

Dan
feb 1st 5:45pm
6lbs 2oz, 22inches

John (Grandpa)
jan 29th 11:30am
7lbs 8oz, 19.5inches

Danny
feb 2nd 3:27pm
8lbs 9oz, 21inches

Stan
feb 6th 4:38am
6lbs 17oz, 19inches

BJ (Uncle B)
jan 22nd 12:32 pm
7lbs 4oz, 18.5inches

Matt
jan 26th 1:13pm
7lbs 5oz

"Woody''
jan 18th 2:15am
8lbs 3oz, 21inches

Jack
feb 4th 7:13pm
8lbs, 20.5inches

Mark
jan 28th 7:30pm
8lbs 6oz, 14inches --14inches, thats a short baby!!

Tim
jan 27th 4:28am
7lbs 4oz, 21inches

Brenda
jan 31st 2:15pm
7lbs 13oz, 21.4inches

Michelle
jan 23rd 7:03pm
8lbs 5oz, 21.4inches

Mare Mare
jan 10th 8:00pm
8lbs 8oz, 21inches -- your anniversary & my favorite number seem to be the pattern here, i like ;)

Grady
jan 17th 3:17am
38lbs 12oz, 78inches -- why Grady, why? Good thing is, I think this is humanly impossible

Ray
jan 25th 9:15pm
8lb 12oz, 22inches

Nicole
feb 3rd 3:22pm
7lbs 18oz, 19inches -- gonna assume this baby is 8lbs 2oz ;)

Arlene
jan 27th 4:25am
7lbs 5oz, 21inches

Nancy
feb 4th 1:04pm
8lbs 4oz, 21inches

Linda
jan 28th 9:54pm
6lbs 2oz, 20.5inches

Susan
feb 5th 9:36am
7lbs 12oz, 21inches

Patti
jan 24th 2:30am
8lbs 3oz, 21inches

Joanne (Grandma Jo)
jan 17th 8:00am
6lbs 3oz, 20inches

Jenny
feb 2nd 2:00am
7lbs 2oz, 19inches

Jen McAllister
feb 2 11:35am
7lbs 2oz, 19.5inches

Ruth (Great Grandma)
jan 18th 6:36am
7lbs 2oz, 18inches -- something about all of these numbers I like...I think you're on to something Grandma

Landy
feb 8th 2:22pm
7lbs 6oz, 21inches -- Landy! Feb 8th...you're the latest guess, I'm hoping you're wrong :)

Fatema
jan 16th 7:30am
7lbs 12oz, 21inches

Erin McGinnis
jan 17th 9:42am
6lbs 9oz, 19inches

Andrea (Aunt Andrea)
jan 12th 12:12pm
6lbs 15oz, 20inches -- good use of your favorite number ;)

Katie
jan 30th 8:13am
7lbs 8oz, 19inches -- official full moon date for January....

Olivia (Cousin Olivia)
feb 6th 12:13am
6lbs 11oz, 18inches

Christina & Mike

jan 28th 3:22pm

7lbs 15oz, 20 inches

Appointment

We went to Yale New Haven Hospital this morning for an ultrasound with their specialist. Baby looks good and is getting BIG :) !!! The ventricles were measuring at just under 17mm which is a larger reading then our last few we had done in England.

We basically needed to start from scratch with these doctors - which is unfortunate cause Kevin & I had found our happy ground but now find all the worries and concerns we once had are resurfacing. blah. I was offered an Amniocentesis again which we declined the first time around because of the small risk of a miscarriage. But now that I'm 32 weeks pregnant the risk of miscarriage is now a small risk for pre-term labor so we went ahead and had the procedure done. The results, which will be back in 2 weeks, will let us know if there is any chromosomal problems.

They want us to transfer the rest of our prenatal care and the birth of our baby to Yale New Haven instead of continuing with our care with our doctors here in New London. Not sure what we're going to do yet.

Appointment in New London tomorrow and another appointment at Yale in 2 weeks.

Ready for baby to be here....

32 weeks!

8 months - holy cow, it's real.

2 weeks ago our pregnancy was still relatively surreal to me. I think the second we walked into our baby shower things hit the road of reality and have been going full speed ahead since. Beginning to set up Logans room, buying essential gear, going to a childbirth class & having doctors actually mention things like ''when you go into labor....''

Bad news is that I think I've hit the pregnancy black hole or maybe I want to curl up in a black hole and surface again only once baby is here. Feeling very not pretty these days :/ Combine that with the wall of emotional madness that I've hit and you've got someone who would be better off inside the house in pjs all day. It's hit or miss the last few days if I'll wake up and feel like crying - for no particular reason. I teared up watching the birthing video in our childbirth class, I cried the other day cause Kevin didn't tell me he was going out to the garage to clean up, I was on the verge of tears this morning cause I don't like the way my week 32 pictures turned out. I'm a mess - lol.

Please give Kevin the strength to endure this roller coaster that I call me for another 7 weeks.

GEAR!

We spent 2.5 hours in Babies R Us today test driving all the gear on our registry .... good thing we did cause we changed up quite a few things. We just wanted to get some essentials (ie: if baby were born tomorrow what would we need) naturally these are the big ticket items: car seat, stroller & pack n play. Thanks to everyone that gave gift cards and snuck coupons into our gifts at the babyshower we didn't pay a dime for the three items and ended up saving almost $100!! I think I strained my upper back playing with all the items in the store today (haha), so I'm sitting with the heating pad watching Kevin assemble everything.

***WARNING***

the below pics are possible enteries to my "Porn for new Moms" book

It's official they say we're prepared to give birth to our baby.....

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

No messin around here. We bought our tree, set it up and decorated within 3 days of moving in...priorities. We have a perfect fireplace for our stockings - just gotta get a teeny, tiney stocking for Logan :)

They say maybe some snow tonight - so the Christmas decor combined with watching Kevin drink the real egg nog should give us a good dose of holiday cheer.

WHEW!

Just posted several enteries to quench your thirsts for the time being. Still have lots left but I'll need something to do tomorrow too :) Annnnd.... we want to finish putting our stamp in our house before we post pictures.

A pic of D, cause I forgot how good looking he was ;)

R.I.P

It's been my first and only car but the green machine has taken his last stroll :/ This '96 Neon with manual everything & no AC will move no more. He was good while he lasted - but is now an official P.O.S

We are a one car family, for now - not gonna lie, I'm pretty freggin excited to slide into something a little newer....maybe even unlock the car doors without a key or roll all the windows down with the touch of a button.