Tuesday, January 19, 2010

This Ugly Yet Beautiful World

Went to "Birthing Class" this weekend. Thank God they didn't show the Miracle of Life video. Once in high school was enough for a lifetime. But they did show a DVD that followed a whole slew of couples on their way in and out of labor. Very interesting. I mean, these ladies were at the house, and the cameras were there with them. Then went to the hospital and it seemed like every one of these ladies had some different situation that played into the storyline (natural birth, needs epidural, need analgesic, needs c-section, etc.) And in the end, they all had the baby on camera. So yes, they're purple. Yes, they're gooey. And yes, I had to cover my face half the time because I was almost crying. Don't ask me why, but I got all choked up. Not because it was disgusting either. Barbara said she was getting choked up too, but I couldn't tell because I was trying to make sure the other men in the room didn't notice me near bawling.

Was a long day, but in the end it was pretty worth it. You can never remember /everything/ you need to remember, but it helps to get a lot of this information repeated over and over in hopes that some of it sinks in.

We also ran into a guy who went to high school with Barbara, so that was cool. We ate lunch with them and it was nice to have someone else to talk to for a bit that day. Not that we don't like each other's company, but we can only go on about how much her back hurts and how little I can do to make it feel better before we both go crazy! :p

So here we are, week 35! Installed the car seat base yesterday. I used the LATCH system, and I feel smart! We've switched cars. I now have the Rav4 and she's got the Alero. Makes for an easier ride when you don't need a booster step to get in an out of the car.

We have cleared a space on the dining room table to "Pack the bags". A week late, but as long as Via plays nice and stays inside mommy we should be fine.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Happy New Year!

So here we are! A new year. New decade. New New New.

And today marks week 33!! Anywhere between 1 and 2 months (hopefully the latter) before little Victoria Hong Kong Fuey's her way out of momma and takes over the world!

Speaking of mom, Barbara is doing about as well as can be expected. She's a little under the weather today, but she is fighting vehemently with lots of vitamin water and nasty tasting (yet power-packed) vitamin pills!

We also got some great exercise in this weekend when we went to Washington D.C. As part of our X-mas present to Greg we went down and spent Friday and Saturday in freezing temps (damn it was cold!!) running around the Smithsonian and other museums. I must say, while the D.C. metro is well put together, every single station looks almost exactly the same. We never came out on the side we thought we would come out on, and I generally picked the wrong side of the platform to stand on (we should have just started going against whatever direction I thought we should go, our success rate would have been higher).

Bea got her workout by having to climb and descend escalators that weren't working. That was fun. Those buggers are steep! And her knee was not happy with the situation, but she plugged on.

All in all, a very fun weekend though. Lots of free museums (rah!) a great hotel at a cheap price (St. Greggory, double rah!), and we even packed a cooler bag the first day and ate lunch at a bus stop before going into the museums, so it was a cheap date! (rah! rah! rah!). I think people were secretly envious that they didn't think of that one.

And so, on to the baby prep! Reading Hypnobirthing in full now (we have two copies so we can read it together), getting the birthing plan together, and making final arrangements for the big day! Can't wait!