From Business Plans to Birth Plans

Today I am sitting here and writing a birth plan. It is amazing how God has transformed my life in the last year. 9 months or so ago I was writing business plans and today I am writing a birth plan!

I had never heard of a birth plan before we got pregnant but I have become an expert--- by expert I mean I used a template on the internet--- :)

Since I am using a midwife at a birth center, instead of a hospital, I need to have a well laid out plan IF I need to transfer to the hospital. The plan allows me to have a piece of paper I can hand to the doctors and nurses at the hospital to bring them up to speed on our care so Dylan or my mom or the midwives can focus on me!

I can't believe I will be "considered" full-term in 5 weeks and my due date is in 8. I have some work to do until then.

You can expect more posts starting next week because my dear sweet sister Rachel and my Ethan (she would say he is hers but I think of my nephew as MINE) will be returning home next week. Rachel's husband is a Captain in the Army and is serving for 12 MONTHS in Afghanistan! Please pray for them!! They are doing great but they could use all the prayer they can get in this season.

Here is a preview of what I will (hopefully) post about:
- The Bump updates ( my how my bump has become more of a mass or "small watermelon" as Rachel would call it soon-to-be seeded (and not so small)!
- My AMAZING Baby Shower - What a blessing our friends and family are--thank you!!!
- Girls' Night---or the YaYa Sisterhood as Dylan calls it (My sisters)
- The little Miss and her name
- Little Miss' baby bedding: AKA Sewing Adventures
- Her little Nursery---but it is not all put together so this might take me a while!

The Baby Bump at Week 28:



It is weird that I am now 31 weeks and that looks small....I need to take a picture ASAP!

What I call Marrying Well!

I have to brag on my wonderful husband for one post!

The other week Dylan and I tried to come up with new ways to organize our life so that when the baby comes we are ready! We like to be spontaneous and aren't always "into" planning but our new life as parents will probably not allow us to be spontaneous like we are used to :) So we have started meal planning!

Dylan thought it would be helpful to me if he took over one night a week of cooking, so thus the Wednesday Night tradition has begun! Let me just tell you I was expecting hamburgers every other week with maybe pasta and sauce or sandwiches on the off weeks. To my surprise Dylan comes home this evening after 1.5 hours in the grocery store (mind you I went to do a big grocery trip yesterday!) at about 8 PM and does this.....
















I hope you notice the LONG recipe and all the ingredients strewn about the kitchen! Dylan would not let me do ANYTHING and didn't appreciate any "tips" I offered--oops I need to learn patience and tact! I definitely want to encourage any Dylan cooking adventures because as I learned in Spain from his Goat Cheese Chicken Creation (a good post all in itself) he is quite the natural chef and makes delicious dishes even if they sound/look REALLY weird.

Perhaps my favorite part of the evening is seeing Dylan cut open the plastic wrap on the chicken with my Wusthof Santoku knife and "stirring" the enchilada ingredients with metal tongs!

If any of you girls reading this are not in a relationship I highly recommend finding a guy who is willing and interested in trying new things. It makes for an AWESOME husband. Not only does he try cooking new things but he is always appreciative of my cooking efforts.

I can't wait to taste his first Wednesday Night Creation!

Bon Appetite!

Week 27: The Baby Bump

Pregnancy Highlights for the Week:

How Far Along: 27 Weeks

Fruit/Veggie: Like a head of Cauliflower

Size: Approximately 14 1/2inches long and about 2 pounds


Baby changes:She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

Best Moment this week: The day my niece, Lisa's youngest, asked me how I knew when I was going to have the baby (as in go into labor)....she asked "Does an alarm go off?"! What a clever little girl :)

Movement: She is still kicking and moving like crazy. She likes to hangout diagonally and kick me on my upper right side. I just hope she gets into a good position when it gets closer to D-Day. Luckily my birth instructor told me about http://www.spinningbabies.com just in case Baby Girl decides to be stubborn and stay in a bad position!

Food Craving: I don't have any major cravings still. I actually feel a little more in control of my hunger/eating. It is so nice to be able to eat more like my pre-pregnancy days, which means a lot more peanut butter in my life!

What I miss: I don't really miss anything. I am just thankful for a healthy pregnancy and hope I can feel this content for the next 12 weeks!

Sleep: I seem to be sleeping a little better this week,although I would not say I slept poorly last week! I am just not waking up multiple times in the night!

What I am looking forward to: Holding my baby girl and playing dress-up with her! I was not one to quickly give up playing dress-up and dolls. In fact my best friend growing up and her sisters had the coolest set-up for their dolls/barbies. They would spend all Saturday creating real-looking food with clay and paint, which only encouraged me to play with barbies and dolls for a long time, and then they would create this make-believe world in their closets. Somehow every storyline always followed the plot lines of Days of Our Lives, Marlena with amnesia etc etc!

Symptoms: I have had a major case of pregnancy brain this week. It is so bizarre! I told Dylan I played the memory game and my 10 year old niece beat me to which he replies, " You let her beat you though..." I wish that were true :)

Baby Bump Week 27:
I really need to take pictures at the beginning of the day instead of the end. I look tired and I had sweated (is that a word?) off all my makeup!