Another Crazy Busy Weekend

Wow. What a weekend. I feel like we ran absolutely non-stop the whole time; probably because we did. Friday night we went to Babies R Us to pick up some of the things we wanted to purchase from our registry. There were a couple of items they didn’t have in the store (has anyone else had trouble finding a Moby or Aden and Anais muslin swaddler wraps? I did locate them after all, but was surprised at how difficult they were to find) so we decided to keep trying different places. After a quick trip into Motherhood (what a waste of time…) we went to the Ephrata Wal Mart, then we cruised through Downtown Lancaster to find BellaBoo had already closed for the night. So I decided to head out to Burlington for a look. I ended up purchasing an inexpensive reversible sling carrier at Burlington that seems pretty versatile. It’s so hard to spend money on these things now, having no idea how Kayla is going to like to be carried, but this one can be used to sling carry an infant in the front, or to hip/back carry a larger baby or toddler in the future. After we got home, tested out the high chair and did a load of baby laundry, I was exhausted.

Saturday morning brought much more of the same. We got up and had breakfast at Starbuck’s, then did some more shopping to kill time before we had to be at Women and Babies for our class. We finally stopped into two little shops here in Lititz; I am probably going to go back to Spoiled Silly and look around some more soon. Then we went to Barnes and Nobel where we bought some of the classic stories to read to Kayla, plus a set of learning books for infants called the Begin Smart series. After that we drove back into Lancaster to check out BellaBoo. What a cool store. I finally found my Moby and muslin swaddlers here, but ended up not purchasing either one. Go figure. I do anticipate going back for the swaddlers after all since amazingly enough, I can’t seem to find a better price online.

After grabbing a bite for lunch, we got to Women and Babies for day one of birthing class. That was eye-opening. Although a lot of the information given to us wasn’t totally new to me (I am a researcher by nature) there were some things that surprised me. All of a sudden I find myself wondering about some of the points in my birth philosophy that I was pretty certain about before, especially in regards to pain management and pain relief. It seems I have more than I thought to think about in the next few weeks. We also signed up to take part in a Penn State led study on new moms and their babies. I’ll have to speak with someone over the phone prior to delivery, about a month after delivery, and then every 6 months until Kayla is 3 years old. Seems simple enough, and we get a gift card for every phone interview we complete.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat; we met Shaun’s mom at Babies R Us before lunch; she purchased our pack and play for us (THANK YOU!!) and thankfully it worked out that we could all go together so Shaun was there to do the heavy lifting. After lunch and a Home Depot stop, it was time for day two of class. Thankfully this one wasn’t quite as intense, although I did find myself getting a little bit anxious during discussions of c-sections and episiotomies. The tour of labor and delivery was very cool; I have visited friends who’ve had babies there, but that was my first glimpse of an actual delivery room.
I know I have no way of knowing what actually lays ahead of me in all of this, but I’m hopeful that it’s going to be manageable.

Following all of that excitement, it was nice to lay around a bit last night. It’s incredible now to sit or lay on the couch and watch the little waves of movement go across my belly. I am sometimes able to identify a knee here or a foot there, but I’m still never really sure. She moves tons though, which is awesome. I absolutely adore it, even when I get a foot in the ribs or a seemingly never ending case of the hiccups. It’s always reassuring to feel something, just so I know she’s OK.

So here we are now with less than 8 weeks remaining until my due date. It literally seems like yesterday that we were at my confirmation appointment and there were still 8 months to go, yet so much has changed since then. Wow. As terrified as I am at moments, I am still so ready for her to be here and to hold her for the first time. I just hope she can feel how much her mommy already loves her.

32W 2D