Baby Overdrive

Its baby week at our house.
which I should probably view as a preview of things to come --like every week will be baby week.
But up to this point, we haven't had this much baby-ness in a given 5 day span.
Sunday - baby shower.
Monday - nursery furniture arrives
Tuesday - start birthing classes/put together the crib -- the dresser was already assembled.
Wednesday - interview doula
Thursday - hire doula

Whew. Its enough to wear you out. At least wear me out, but I get worn out a lot easier these days.
I will have to get a picture of the nursery furniture. Of course, there is no mattress, bedding, rugs or anything on the wall -- but its a start from an empty room with a box or two and some gift bags.

Birthing classes. Maybe not going to be as bad as I thought. Although we did get some quality mocking of the other couples in class in. And discovered (confirmed really) that neither Joe or I enjoy strawberry/pineapple hand lotion. Long story. Think hand massage and you are on track.
I did have an epiphany. Among the many visual aids that our instructor provided us, one was a tray that had a series of circles on in -- 10 to be exact. Representing the progression of cervical dilation. One ring for each step.
Now, I know most of you -- up until Tuesday night, myself included -- that think 10 cm isn't that big. I would have agreed with you.
Until I saw that last circle.
When its your INSIDES that have to get that wide and still probably won't be quite big enough for a babys head you sorta go -- WTF? OMG? and JEEBUS all at once.
It was an eye opening experience, lets just leave it at that.

As for the Doula. We liked her. She is about our age, has had two kids in the last two years and was pretty candid with us about what to expect at different stages. Asked a lot of questions and laid out a bunch of options that frankly, we didn't know were ours to make. Both Joe and I felt that having someone at our side that is there for us, understands what we want and is going to work really hard to make sure we get it, is a win for us.
I think it will be a good fit. So Thursday, we hired her. Now starts the fun stuff -- working on a birth plan. Which is a lot of details that you would never think to jot down on paper. I shall spare you many of them but we are feeling much better about this whole thing.
And no, this doesn't make me a earth-hippie mom or anything like that. We will be at the hospital, and open to all the possibilities that could face us -- but we are trying to work with her to outline what we would LIKE to have happen and how to react in the event that those things don't happen.
If you are asking yourself, Meghan what in the hell is a doula anyway? Go HERE to get the scoop.

So that is about it. I am getting bigger by the second, or so it seems. Little Leprechaun is all over the place, pretty much all of the time if I am just sitting down and well, not sure that will stop for a bit.
This will be a nice change of pace weekend, with nothing planned but Thank You notes from the shower and hanging out at home. Looking forward to that in a big way.

I do have one bitch today that really gets me.
So in case you didn't know, the Presidential election is next week. You didn't know that? Wow. Hope that you have been on an extended trip to Mars or something -- that would be the only reason for NOT knowing this.
So - Barack Obama has decided to do a final rally in DSM today. This morning specifically. Open to the public. I really wanted to go. I have seen him speak a few times through the campaign cycle. But I couldn't go -- I had to conduct an interview here at work. So I begrudgingly come to work rather than get my politicking' on. And then the guy we were scheduled to interview canceled at the last minute.
GGGRRRRRR.
Dammit man. I have a social responsibility here and you just messed with my Chi or something.
Ok - back to the grind.

Now Listening: Living in Clip by Ani DiFranco