Happy Easter!

We both look fat and happy in these pictures and they aren't too flattering. I'm going to just pretend it was the camera angle. But, we had a good day at church today for Easter. Conner apparently enjoyed the service because towards the end he was squirming around and you could see him moving/ jumping in my belly. Michael got a new Easter suit and I got a new maternity Easter dress so we were rocking it out in our new Easter clothes at church! I had to take a picture to document the occasion. I dont think I have ever seen Michael in a suit other than at our wedding. :)

Well, last Tuesday was our first prenatal class at the hospital. I thought my belly was getting big until I saw some of the other mom's in there about a month ahead of me. Oh no! It's going to get MUCH bigger! Somedays I don't see how it's possible, but it's an amazing miracle what your body will do to accommodate the growing new life inside. Hope he's comfy in there because I'm sure not! At our class we got to tour the hospital's maternity ward. I LOVE the rooms. It's like a hotel! All rooms have a jacuzzi bathtub that you can use while you are in labor or whenever the fancy hits you. All rooms come with a pull out sofa for the dad. They all have hardwood floors and all of the electronic equipment is hidden behind nice hardwood cabinets until they need it, then your room instantly whips into a delivery room. You labor, deliver, and recover all in the same room. You have a menu in a little book and you can call the cafeteria any time and they will bring you or your husband food (except during labor - only ice and popsicles then because you will get sick). It's just like room service - only I'm sure the food probably isn't the same quality. ;) Once the baby is born, everyone has to leave the room for an hour and a half during recovery. So, if you plan on being at the hospital when little Conner makes his debut, I think they might let you see him for a minute, but then plan on either hanging out for awhile or going to get something to eat. Same with a C-section. They wheel the baby down the hall for the family to see for a second, then everybody has to leave while Mom is in the recovery with baby for two hours.

So, things we learned in class this week were hospital policies for visiting family members and such. No one is allowed to stand in the hallways - this is in case there is an emergency. They have a waiting room at the end of the hall that is really nice with a tv and refreshments and stuff. Only two people will be allowed in the room during the delivery - Mom and Michael but anybody can visit while I am laboring, though depending on the medication situation I may not feel like talking to anybody. Visiting hours are 10:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m. If anyone has been sick within the past 14 days with a communicable disease they are not allowed in the Labor and Delivery Unit. Only one person is allowed to stay with me at night. No children under 12 years old are allowed unless they are siblings of the newborn.

Other than that, in class we learned about preadmission to the hospital, signs of preterm labor, when you should go to the hospital, a little bit of anatomy and physiology, and some relaxation techniques. I think next class they will go over pain management techniques and getting an epidural and who knows what else. We will be watching some really scary videos too.

This week was Spring Break. I was off all week and Michael had the last two days off. We spent the whole time working on house projects, except when I was too tired to do anything. I didn't accomplish NEAR as much as I wanted to because I got hit with a sleepy spell and then a migraine yesterday. But, I did manage to help out by putting knock down on the walls in my bathroom and trimming the paint in my bathroom and half of Michaels. I also took it upon myself to rip down all of the baseboard tile in the bathrooms that we plan to replace with real baseboards. We are painting all of the bathrooms and then Michael also refinished our avocado green shower tiles and they are now white. YEAH!! It looks so much better!

We also got some work done in Conner's room! It is officially a baby's room now! (See attached pictures.) It's still a little plain but we have some more finishing touches to add later. You can get the idea though.

Well, today, even though it is Easter, is a work day. We have lots of laundry to do if we are going to have any clothes to wear this week and still lots of cleaning to catch up on. Hope you all had a Hoppy Easter!

Love,

Natalie

Registry

I have created a baby registry online through BabiesRUs and Wal-mart. It was so great! I didn't even have to go into the store! I originally was going to go to Target, but several of my friends told me horrible stories about Target's nasty return policy without a receipt. So, I switched it to Wal-mart. They have the exact same things anyway and there are more Wal-marts than Targets! There were 5 or 6 things that Wal-mart didn't have that I left on the Target registry, just for the heck of it. If all else fails, we can go get 10% off of what's on there later on. I have no idea when we will be having showers (maybe late April or early May?) or who will throw them but I'll be sure to keep you updated when I find anything out.
You can view our registries by going to http://www.toysrus.com/registry/index.jsp and entering in my name or Michael's name and the same at http://www.walmart.com/giftregistry .
More later!
Love,
Nat