Hello again!
As of now I am 37 weeks, 3 days, I will be 38 weeks on Wednesday. The OB appointment went well this week, no effacing or dilating. I have been having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions (false labor), but nothing painful or real!
J and I went to childbirth class on Friday and Saturday, I pretty much had already read everything (big shocker!), but it was nice to get to talk to one of the nursery nurses and the hospital procedures and such. J learned some new things and we got to practice labor positions and support and I got a massage :D. Good news- until this past week, the hospital had only been allowing one person to even be on the maternity floor with the mother due to H1N1 and flu season. But as of this past week, two people are allowed in the delivery room and immediate family can wait in the waiting room down the hall! J and I were thrilled about that, because as wonderful as I am sure he will be, I think it will be really nice to have my mom in there too! Plus any family in town won't have to wait until we are discharged to meet the baby! They can come to the room and nursery right after birth!
As far as Christmas plans go, J and I have very few because we don't know if we with be with or without a baby! Some family will be in town for Christmas, and others are coming afterwards. However we do know that we will be sticking around Minot for the holiday season! J hopes to get his ground training and qualifying flights done in the next two weeks and will be working/flying through the holidays! The squad here is very small and work quite a bit, so it's a win/lose situation to have him flying again! It means longer work days, but also means more flight hours, which he wants!
If you've been watching the weather at all, you know that the two of us Texans are freezing our tushies off up here! Literally! It hasn't been above 15 degrees for a good week, and not above 30 degrees for two weeks! We nightly (and sometimes daily) drop down into the negatives, and frequently have a 10 to 20 degree wind chill. In fact tonight we are under a severe weather warning because we will have temperatures around -25 and with wind chill it will be -45!! It's absolutely amazing how cold that is. Your breath gets taken away the second you open the door. Mailboxes, doors, and windows freeze shut. Snow stays very dry and blows in the wind all the time because it never gets near melting (the upside is very little ice!). The dog comes in from 10 minutes of going to the bathroom and has ice crystals on his whiskers. However, we've adapted remarkably well already! I opened the door yesterday morning to let the dog out, and thought- wow, it's really warm outside- then stood outside without a jacket for a minute or two. I came back in and checked the temperature- it was a whopping 13 degrees- VERY WARM! Really we are dealing with it very well. There's just this whole other list of things you have to think of in a cold climate, but we are learning! J has even ridden his bicycle to work the past couple of days. Since we only have one car- this allows me to have the car to go into town, and since he works a mere 10 minute bike ride down the road- he doesn't seem to mind! He does bundle up really well though and we bought some (very expensive) snow tires for his bike. Everyone at the squad thought he was crazy!
We are at the point that we are pretty much ready for this baby to come at any moment, which it could! We hung pictures and my amazing hubby has been ticking things off his to do list since he came home, he really is rather handy!
We are working on setting dates for our big Texas trip, but it will most likely be in the month March. We will email everyone with that information once we finalize the dates, and we will let you know what city we will be in when and such. We know all of our grandparents and siblings and cousins are anxious to meet the baby, and we are sorry it won't be sooner, but J is saving up his leave so we can spend plenty of time down there! We are choosing to drive so we can stay longer for cheaper, so coming down in January or February is not the best time weather wise! Plus traveling with a one-month old doesn't sound like fun- 3 months is much better!
Here's the 37 weeks picture:
We love you all very much! I will try to stay on top of updating more often here towards the end, and we will be sure to post when the baby comes! We will try to call as many people as possible, but tell extended family to check here for updates and pictures! I will have internet in the hospital and plan on using it! :D
J
