Hospice Austin Baby Shower



37 weeks with my cake!



I am 37 weeks today and this baby is considered full-term! It's so hard to believe that she is now good to go, and could come at any time. We are getting ready for her, that's for sure.

Today at work, the social workers had a shower for me. Here are some pictures. As I look at myself this wekk, I think "Wow! I am getting huge!" The baby is putting  on about 1 ounce a day at this point and I am hungry all the time. It was a good day at work and I came home and took a nap. Then Nick and I went out for ice cream after dinner. Tomorrow we are headed to Allen to visit the family and I am excited to see them.

Baby Shower at Hospice Austin

Great group of Social Workers at Hospice Austin

Slow and steady

“Life is always a rich and steady time when you 

are waiting for something to happen or to hatch."

~ E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

Progressing to 36 weeks!

It is a rich and steady time, indeed! As the days and weeks grow nearer to the birth day, we are getting increasingly more excited and the addition of this child to our lives and family is becoming more real. On Monday, we went to Seton Williamson Hospital and toured the maternity unit. The hospital is one of the newer hospitals in the area and the facilities are state-of-the-art. We got to see the labor & delivery room and that made things feel very real! Seeing that bed, and those stirrups....very real! After the birth, they keep the babies in the room with the mothers, with only a few exceptions, like when they take the baby for prints. Otherwise, mom and baby (and dad) are all together for good bonding and feeding time together. Hopefully things will go as planned and I will have a normal birth and will only be at the hospital for a day or two. I saw Dr. Brown on Tuesday and she did my first cervical exam. She said I was 1 cm dilated and I will now come in every week to get checked out from here on out.

This past week, Nick also packed the diaper bag for the hospital. The newborn diapers are just the sweetest, smallest things! He picked out a couple of potential "going home" outfits and I ordered a monogrammed baby cap for her to wear as well. She will be a little sweet bundle as she makes her journey from Round Rock, to her first home in Austin!

We continue to attend our classes. We have had 4 birthing classes and 2 baptism and hypnosis sessions. We are almost done with our training! Nick starts his final internship course at Texas State University on Wednesday and he will have a lot to focus on in the coming months. We are hoping that we find a good balance, and hopefully some external support to help us through the busiest/most demanding times. 

So what's left? We are planning to make on more trip to Allen over Labor Day weekend (the holiday, not MY labor day) and see family and friends. Alex and Chafin will be in town from Las Vegas, and it will be nice because we haven't seen them since Trier's baptism. This weekend I will be preparing my birth plan, and starting to pack my hospital bag. The baby's room is basically set up, with just a few odds 'n ends needed yet. I have another baby shower at work this Friday that my fellow social workers are hosting and I am looking forward to that one last celebration before the baby comes. I am just hoping that I can continue to work up until I deliver. Walking is growing increasingly more difficult, with pressure and pain in my lower-mid back on each step. Standing and walking all around the hospitals is really starting to wear me out! 

29 years and 35 weeks

Happy Birthday to Me!
Posing for a photo contest to win Coconut Water

Today is my 29th birthday and I am 35 weeks pregnant. This will be the last birthday I will celebrate before I am forever known as "Mom" to someone. Today has been a busy day. Nick and I started with our first baptism class this morning at St. Louis Catholic Church. The class will meet each Sunday for 4 weeks.  After class we went to eat breakfast and then ran some errands. What I really wanted for my birthday was a pedicure. My feet have been aching and swollen a lot the last couple weeks. Nick and I both got deluxe pedicures and enjoyed the massage and paraffin wax treatments. It was Nick's first time to have a pedicure. It was a nice treat!

 This weekend we have been busy getting more prepared for the baby's arrival. Nick finished assembling the dresser and last night finished laundering all the baby's clothes. She has a LOT of cute clothes and will be well-dressed in her infancy. We also put the Pack 'n Play together and have continued to buy diapers and wipes with our other purchases when we go to the store. Tomorrow night we will go to Seton Williamson Hospital for our tour of the maternity ward and see where this blessed event will happen. Nick is really excited about that. Oh, and what I am really happy about it my birthday present from Nick. He got me a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. He had the bag filled with wrapped goodies such as wipes, lotions, and other baby accessories to keep us clean and organized. Nick really likes buying things for the baby and I have to keep an eye on him because he can go a little crazy at Buy Buy Baby store.

Tortie on the outside looking in as we prepare baby's room

Assembling Pack n' Play

Nick relaxes at the nail salon

Yaso Visits Austin

On Friday, my friend Yaso flew into town from New York City. I met Yaso back at UT on the first day of classes in 2001. She and I were in the same calculus II class and she helped me get through that treacherous semester of math, which felt like a foreign language to me! Over the years, we have stayed in touch. I visited her in San Francisco in 2005 and she came to our wedding there in 2009. In 2011 we visited in her NY, where she lives and works. She has a very exciting career in the beauty industry and has come a long way since our days at the University. It was great seeing her and hanging out this weekend.

Yaso and Me at the Four Seasons, Austin

We started our day with a breakfast at Kerbey Lane and then went to campus and walked around a bit, but it was too hot to spend much time outside. We ended up at Jim-Jim's for a water ice and then came back to the apartment to spend time in the pool. That night we had dinner on the East side at a Mexican Cantina, Papi Tinos, and finished up at the bars on Rainey Street. On Saturday, Nick joined us and we had brunch at South Congress Cafe, did some shopping, stopped for Macarons at La Patisserie and then another round at Jim-Jim's. More pool time was followed by dinner at House Pizza and drinks at the Four Seasons before we went to watch the bats on Congress Street Bridge. Phew! What a weekend.

Baby Bassett will be in high fashion

Yaso came bearing gifts, too. She is very excited about the baby and loves shopping for baby clothes. She bought the most precious dress from Janie & Jack and the softest blanket I have ever felt from Tourance, a French company. And for me, she came with a wonderful stash of makeup products. What a treat!

Assembly required

Today, Nick and I went and bought a dresser for the baby and have begun to assemble. Over the last two weekends we have been getting more items, such as a pack n' play, rock n' sleeper, diapers and other odd and ends. The baby has a lot of really cute clothes. We are also on the lookout for a rocker/glider, but having a hard time finding one that suits someone tall like me. We have about 5 weeks until the due date and it's coming quick!

Head Down

Today was my 33 week appointment with Dr. Brown. She performed an ultrasound and I was delighted to hear that Baby is already in good position with her head down, ready to be born! Her heart rate is 133 bpm today and things are looking good! In two weeks I will go back and have a pelvic exam to check my cervix and after that I will see the doctor weekly to monitor my blood pressure and urine. So far I have gained 23 pounds and I think that is pretty good.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to meet the pediatrician, Dr. Miller at noon for an hour-long class. I am just checking things off the list now. Last night we bought the stroller frame and an extra car set base for Nick's car. All we really need now is a rocker/glider, dresser and breastfeeding pump. We will also get a crib, but don't plan on having it right away.

The doctor asked me how I was feeling and I told her that I am now starting to feel more aches and pains. She said "it's only going to get worse!" She said that I should do whatever I need to do now because once the baby is here, it will be too difficult to leave the house and that cars are actually the most dangerous threat to babies. After hearing her say this, it made me really glad that we are living in The Domain. I dont think that I will face the risk of isolation like I would have if we were still in Pflugerville. Dr. Brown encouraged daily walks and sunshine. I think the Baby and I will be quite content window shopping and going to the tea shop in her early weeks...and hopefully we will have plenty of visitors to keep us company!

My Wishes for You

I realized that after the shower, everyone left "Wishes for Baby" except me! So here are mine...

I hope you learn at an early age the importance of being able to say "no" (just not to Me!).
I hope you aren't afraid to stand up to the mistreatment of others.
I hope you love the arts, cooking with me, and using your imagination.
I hope you get to see all the places in the world you dream of going.
I hope you laugh all night long with your friends at slumber parties.
I hope you never forget that it's never too late to say "I'm sorry" or "I love you."
I hope you ignore any voice in your head that says "I am not good enough."
I hope you become a kind and generous woman.
I hope you respect time and being punctual & dependable.
I hope you grow up to be comfortable in your own skin.

Love, Mom

Preparing for Birth

This week Nick and I started to formally focus on birth education and preparation. I have been reading a book about Hypnobirthing and watching YouTube videos of hypnobirths and find it to be quite fascinating. Since we had already signed up for childbirthing classes through Seton hospital, I wasn't about to register for a Hypnobirthing series as well. Instead, I found a local therapist who specializes in hypnosis and contacted her about meeting with us for the specific purpose of training for birth using hypnosis as a tool for relaxation and pain relief.

When I first mentioned this idea to Nick about 6 weeks ago, he was supportive of me doing it. I called and talked to the therapist and she asked if I had a birth partner (yes) and if he was supportive (yes). I said that he wasn't really into "this kind of thing" and that I would be coming on my own. She said that it would be best if Nick came with me. I discussed it with him and he was agreeable, but was firm on the fact that I would be the one being hypnotized, and not him.

So we went Monday for our first visit. Like most therapy sessions, the hour flies by. I cant say that I was hypnotized, but the whole process felt like a meditation exercise or a relaxation tool. The therapist guided me through breathing and imagery. She tried to levitate my arm, which was not really working and encouraged me to practice every day. I am supposed to think of "safe place" images over the newt two weeks. Nick's role will be to help guide and coach me and support me with verbal and physical cues. His role in the session was basically an observer. At moments it did feel a little awkward. I would try not to laugh and was thinking about what he must be thinking! We go back in 2 weeks.

Wednesday night our 6-session childbirth classes started at Seton. They are from 7-9 p.m. every week and the first one was pretty basic. There were about 8 couples in the class and three of us all have the same due date, September 21! That was kind of funny. I was getting really tired by the end of it. We watched a 12-min birth video and learned birth lingo and stages of birth. It's hard to believe that we will be putting all of this into practice in just 7 weeks.

Today I am 33 weeks pregnant and I can officially say now that it's August, we are going to have baby NEXT MONTH!!