Very Clean

I'm not sure exactly what happens during a baby shower. Men are not invited to join in the festivities. But they are expected to show up at the end and eat the leftovers, help clean up and carry gifts to the car.

And take some pictures...

Seriously, though, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our family and friends. We really appreciate everyone's help, support and good wishes as we get ready for our new addition.

Thank you!

Lamaze II

Aren't you supposed to feel more prepared after your last lamaze class? We don't.

It's nothing personal. The instructor taught us everything that she was supposed to. We watched all of the necessary videos. We even practiced the techniques. But we came out of the four classes with more questions than answers.

1. Why haven't they made a birthing video since the 1970's?
2. In these videos, why are all of the women naked? Were hospital gowns yet to be invented at the time of filming?
3. Is a baby doll getting stuck in a plastic skeletal pelvis really the best way to show us what is about to happen?

Some of the problem may have been our lack of focus. We started to giggle every time we were supposed to do breathing techniques. All I could think of was the stand-up routine about natural childbirth. It's OK, though. All of this may not matter, as we know that the kid will come out regardless of how much lamaze information we have retained.

We still have to pack the bag for the hospital. And Steph needs to pick a "focal point" to concentrate on during labor. She is wondering how long we can keep an Eat'n Park Cookie Fudge Fantasy from melting. I'm wondering if she will be able to chase me down the hall while I eat it.

1 Month To Go!

Well, we got the sweater on one more time. Steph isn't sure it's ever going to come off.

Super Bowl MVP

The Steelers won the Super Bowl! It seems appropriate to revisit the baby's ultrasound photo to celebrate the moment.

In addition to the Terrible Towel waving, there was a lot of other baby movement during the game. It seemed like the kid could sense the excitement of the impending victory. Maybe the baby could tell that Steph was wearing a vintage Steelers jersey. Or that she had just eaten some taco dip.

We had discussed the possibility of naming the baby after the Super Bowl MVP if the Steelers won. They did.

How do you feel about Hines? Or Ward? Nevermind...

The Tour

We had our hospital tour today. They have a player piano in the lobby. Pretty cool.

They have medical stuff there, too. We walked around to all of the important labor and delivery areas and our tour guide explained the purpose of each room. We now feel pretty comfortable about where we will need to go.

It's what's going to happen while we're there that's the scary part.

The hospital was decorated in black and gold since the Steelers play in Super Bowl tomorrow. And every employee was dressed in Steelers apparel. Hines Ward was taking care of newborns and Jerome Bettis was making rounds. You would think they might have other commitments the day before the big game, but apparently it really is all about the kids.

So there you have it. Player piano. Medical stuff. Steelers players. It's no wonder they have delivered over 500,000 babies.

Lamaze I

We had our first Lamaze class tonight. It was very interesting to say the least.

It kind of felt like we were back in school. The class was made up of some jocks, some nerds, a few cool kids, a couple straight out of the 1970's, and a teacher's pet. But our classmates weren't the only things that were just like junior high. We also passed visual aids around the room. And when the teacher asked a question, no one said a word. We even dimmed the lights at one point to watch a few videos.

At least this time through they had the courtesy to let us bring some pillows.

What amazed me is that there was only one break during the two hour long class. You would think that having eight pregnant ladies stuck in the same place might warrant a few more opportunities to use the rest room, but they all did OK.

Near the end we broke out the blue gymnastics mats and tried some relaxation techniques. I'll share.

First, tense up your forehead and then release that pressure. Do the same with your neck. Then your shoulders. Just breathe deeply and let all of that tension flow out through your toes. Now, try to remain relaxed as 2 janitors yell at each other while having a squeaky-wheeled mop bucket race in the adjoining lobby.

Kind of calms your whole self down, doesn't it?

2 Months To Go

We only have 2 months left!



As you can tell, the green argyle sweater is getting pretty tight. It's a good thing we only have a couple more sets of these pictures left to take.

The Name Game

When you are expecting a baby, everyone wants to know two things.

1. Is it a boy or girl?

2. What names are you thinking about?

As you may already know (and much to the dismay of others), we chose not to find out the gender of the baby. I will tell you that we have it narrowed down to two possibilities.

Baby names, however, are a bit different. There are a few more to pick from.

We have talked about unique names, popular names and family names. We have heard thousands of ideas from friends and family, and looked at tens of thousands of names in various books. Here are the finalists for each gender that we have whittled down from so many options:

Boy:

Girl:

As you can see, we still have some work to do. We really have no front runners. We actually don't have any lagging behinders either.

Since we are having trouble coming up with any names that we like, last night we asked the baby to kick (in morse code, of course) the name that he or she would like to have.

The baby responded with "jtkzq."

We don't really like that either.

3 Months To Go

Here are the pictures of Steph with only 3 months to go.



We can't wait to see everyone in person over the holidays!

Still Kicking

Steph had another doctor's appointment today. At every visit they check the heartbeat of the baby, and this time it was 155 bpm. Some people say that they can tell the gender of the baby just from this number. These people have a 50% chance of being right.

What we really learned from this appointment is that our child is no longer interested in the routine heartbeat check. During the process, the baby tried to kick the fetal doppler monitor off of Steph's belly. Take that, measurement device.