The Latest

Hi Friends,
I didnt realize the blog hasnt been updated in nearly a month until it was subtly brought to my attention by my wife and a few faithful readers! Very sorry about that! As you can imagine life has been kinda crazy in these last months getting ready for the baby. Jackie was in two weddings in June, and we also put a fence in our back yard over the last couple of weeks. We also attended our birthing class, and had a baby shower as well. So yeah, June was a busy month!

The fence was a real challenge to put in. If you ever do one, I highly recommend getting a person involved that has already done work like that before. But not me, I am not for hire! It took us two weeks, putting it up in one to two hour time frames nearly every day, but we got it! Here is a picture of the finished product.

This can legitimately be shared on the baby blog because the baby was really half of the reason we decided to do this (the other half being our dogs). We thought it would be nice to have a backyard where he can run around and we dont have to worry about him falling off of the humongous hill next to the house, or go running after a little creature into the woods!  The posts still need evened off, but it serves its function of containing what's inside, and that works for us!

Birthing Class

We decided because of my schedule to do our birthing class in one eight hour sitting on a Saturday. By the sentence alone it sounds pretty grueling, but actually we both really enjoyed it. I dont think Jackie made too many friends by telling that she experienced zero sickness and zero problems with her pregnancy thus far (!). A lot of women in there seemed to have a lot of problems, which was a bit of an eye opener for us, since Jackie has been blessed with almost no problems whatsoever during the pregnancy. Some of the things you heard were kind of crazy, but also made us very thankful that we have been so fortunate through this time.

We both learned a lot in the class, and Im glad we went. They talked a lot about what to look for during the pregnancy that could be problematic, how to prepare to go to the hospital, what to expect when you come home, these kinds of things. We also spent a period of time talking about things that babies commonly get during the first few months of life, as well as how to prepare for labor, how to get through labor, all the things that go with going through labor! It really was very helpful and informative. We even got to practice giving a baby (doll) a bath, and swaddling it. A skill I clearly had yet to acquire! We also got to tour a birthing suite at the hospital and even see a baby that was born that morning. All very exciting things! A lot of people told us it would be a long day and we would dread it, but overall I think we both took a lot away from it and are glad we went.

Shower

Our shower in Mount Vernon was last month as well. Jackie had three co-workers that really are the sweetest ladies you could meet that offered to throw us this shower. We were so thankful for their generosity of doing this. It was a very fun time! Lots of fun sweets to eat, and we were literally showered with many amazing gifts from all of our friends. There was plenty of Indians gear, a Diaper Cake (non-edible version), and a hand painted picture just to name a few of the unique gifts. We really were thankful to all who came, especially the folks who came from out of town (Allie/Doug and Dustin/Emily in particular!). Here are a few pictures from the day 

The Diaper Cake

The Cake you could actually eat!

Cutting the cake

It's a tough life being a Cleveland fan!

Some very cool block from Doug & Allie that you use the age progression photos.

At this point Jackie is doing well. She is consistently measuring three weeks ahead of schedule which means we may not have to wait until July 31st to meet this guy. The doctor has told us that if she doesnt start labor on her own by 7/31, he will induce her. He said he would like her to go full term if the baby will wait that long. But honestly, I think he is running out of room in there! Its funny because with all the medical technologies in the world and how advanced our society is, this whole event is still in the hands of a human who hasnt breathed a breath of of air on his own yet! So we wait, with great anticipation, until he arrives. I think Jackie looks FANTASTIC by the way! Its so funny because if you were walking behind her, you couldnt tell she is pregnant, she looks that good! She is literally all belly. Her weight gain has been right within the range of a normal pregnancy, so there isnt anything odd about that, but I just am so impressed with her figure every day. I could talk on and on about it, and how beautiful she is pregnant, but I wont bore you :)

Thanks for being faithful to our site during the pregnancy, we will try and make the updates more frequent in the last weeks here. I will leave you with a picture that confirms how fantastic she looks. Enjoy!

34 Weeks.