Milestones and More

Me and Joe

This week marks our 28th week and we've had a couple big milestones over the last few weeks. 


One, Joe turned 26! Yes, I know the blog is typically all baby news but he was pretty proud to reach this milestone and still be alive, so I figured it was blog worthy! 


We had a great time celebrating his birth, with a wonderful dinner at PF Chang's plus a number of desserts, including an ice cream cake with a robot design (the folks at DQ thought I was getting a cake for a 5 year old) and some home made root beer float cupcakes, compliments of Sara! 

Some of the party guests are sporting their orange mustaches!

Joe's robot cake

Second big milestone includes more nursery progress. We got our furniture in from Babies R Us and we're working to prepare for our baby girl in May. With that addition to the room, we're almost set on the furniture and are just getting our decorations and bedding put together now. O yea, and we need an area rug - if anyone knows of a good place to get rugs, I feel like I've looked everywhere.

Joe's practicing reading to our baby - hoping he always looks that happy when reading! 

We got one of those fancy lifetime cribs so our little one will be able to grow with the bed!

Third and maybe the biggest milestone for this month was our first childbirth class! Our full classes begin this Thursday, but we just couldn't wait so we kicked the education off with a workshop on natural child birth. Specifically, we learned a lot about pain management using natural techniques as opposed to an epidural.


We were a little unsure of what to expect, and it turned out we were in for a full 3 hours of torture, with educational purposes of course - so that we could turn around and learn to deal with the pain that will be replicated during childbirth. Now, I'll tell you the same thing our teacher told us - they used the only option that the hospital wouldn't get sued for...ice. Basically, our tolerance of ice and more so our ability to ignore the pain the ice inflicted was the exercise we repeated over and over again. I unfortunately don't have a good tolerance for cold things, but it turned out the pain coping techniques did work. The main idea was to focus in on your other senses - including sight, sound, touch. My favorite was the sound because we got some dancing in the mix!


And that wraps it up! For at least a week - like I said we have our whole series of classes starting this Thursday, so we'll see what that has in store. Don't worry, I won't share too many details about the videos they make us watch.


Love,
Corby & Joe

Week 25 and Kickin' It

This week marks our 25th week in the pregnancy! It is going by really quickly, which makes me freak out every once and awhile but at the same time, we've been enjoying the small things and relishing in the downtime that the winter schedule seems to have offered after the holidays.

I'm feeling pretty good overall - I've still got a good deal of energy and can still keep up with Joe! Our little girl loves to roll around and kick, so that keeps me entertained to say the least - I'm hoping the amount of fluttering around isn't directly related to me feeding her sugar through my ice cream and candy diet (offset by vegis and protein ofcourse). That said, I am starting to slow down my pace a bit - no longer able to speed walk in Target, unfortunately can't squeeze through small spaces any more and the 4 flights of stairs in my office are proving to be a bigger challenge now that I've packed on a few. 


Here's a top-line update on all things baby in our lives right now:

• Doctors: We had another doctor appointment last week and are happy to report that everything is going according to plan - all measurements are up to snuff and I am happily weighing in at the increases that are desired (13 lbs as of last week!). Thankfully we have no complications at this point, but I was reminded last week that not all have it that lucky and we are extremely blessed to have a pregnancy that is going smoothly and is only causing the minor 'stretching' aches and pains. Definitely a blessing from above that we pray continues! 
• Childbirth Classes: After Joe and I settled on a delivery destination of MoBap, we were excited to get going on the childbirth classes so that someone might be able to give us a little bit of insight into what is to come. We signed up for a 4 week class plus a 1 day focus on natural childbirth. Now, before everyone calls me crazy for even considering natural childbirth, please Google the epidural details! It is frightening and definitely more than just a small shot to numb the pain; overall, we're planning to play it by ear but to be prepared for both routes. Our first class is next Saturday!!
• Registry: Thanks to some early planners who are generous enough to be throwing us a baby shower, we were faced with the monumental task of starting the baby registry last week. I tried to do some research before hand, but no matter what, going into the baby super store that is Babies R Us would be no small endeavor. When Joe's mom, Mic, and I walked in at 5:15, we never expected we would be pushing it on the time that they closed the store, but it ended up that we were in fact the last ones leaving the store at 9:30. Although it was a long process, my mom, Mic and I had a good time panning the aisles, going from the registry checklist to the Baby Bargains book that I've been leaning on for product reviews and recommendations, back to the product description and then scanning. We're not done yet, but it was a great foundation and some good bonding time with the Moms! 
• Nursery: I've been thinking a lot about how our nursery would come together and we've made a few strides but it definitely is a process! Given the shear amount of options that are out there on baby websites as well as the competitive nature that is set forth by the millions of boards on Pinterest, its left me a little stifled but still excited to piece together our little girl's room. We're taking the baby step approach, so for now, I'm happy to report that we've gotten our main furniture pieces - a crib, dresser/changing table and bookshelf - that are awesome! Check out our book shelf just put together by the handy man Joe - its a pretty standard cubey book shelf - but I'm super excited to put books, toys and more on it! 

That's it for now! I'm hoping my next post isn't so far away, so maybe I can spare my readers from the novel that I have seem to have written :)

Love, Corby & Joe

All things Baby, welcome to the sea of information

We're entering our 24th week and are diving into all things baby, or trying to at least.

First of all,  you'll notice there's been a little update to the design on our site - although I love the color blue, I figured we should support our little girl with a little bit of pink; but don't be confused she won't be constantly covered in pink :)


We made our first trip to Babies R Us last week and man was that overwhelming; thankfully they offer some free tutorials that helped soften the blow a bit.  After the marketing ploy was over (because it was sponsored by a brand), it was very helpful because they took us through the sea of car seats, bouncers, swings, highchairs and strollers siting the pros and cons of each. It was a good start atleast! We limited our purchases to the bare minimum - a baby book (that is adorable) and some stretch mark cream - sweeeet. 



After seeing all the options at Babies R Us, we've been educating ourselves on what else is out there with the help of the handy dandy book - Baby Bargains - supported by Oprah. After the authors spent the first two pages tallying up how much our little bundle of joy would cost in the first year, thankfully they went into how we can find bargains on all the must haves! 

Top five highlights from our educations so far:
- Car seats expire - We haven't figured how or why yet
- Amazon.com offers the same products and brands but at a 30% discount, with delivery!
- Baby furniture = quite expensive
- Changing pad = not so expensive
- No matter what, all clothes in small, miniature sizes are adorable!


Another big milestone we experienced this past week was deciding on a hospital where our little girl would be born. Our options were narrowed down by the hospitals our doctor will deliver at - thankfully both great options - St. Johns or Missouri Baptist in St. Louis.


Both hospitals offered extensive tours of their childbirth centers, and they were very helpful with all questions while offering additional information too. Of course, the tours also left us with a number of questions to put on our 'Remember to Learn' list, but overall it was a great experience. Although both were great, we're excited to be delivering our baby girl at Mo Bap in May!

Other than that, we've finally cleared out the baby's room of those pesky boxes and have started to put together a plan for decorations and furniture. Erin and I found a great toy chest with a couple of matching baskets at Home Goods that we're planning to be our 'pattern' - pink, green and white paisley :) 

Think Pink!

You wouldn't be able to tell from the design of the website, but turns out using all the blue proved an effective method for getting the exact opposite - a little girl!!! 

We had our first ultrasound on Wednesday, and chose to find out the baby's sex by ourselves, away from the hustle and bustle of the doctor's office. Turned out that Joe's guess was spot on - he later regretted not making an actual bet with me. Although we were ecstatic, we decided to keep it a secret for just a couple of days - and man was that difficult...not to mention the heat we received from our families! 

That said, they found out soon enough. Over the weekend, we invited everyone over to check out the new house and offered some delicious dessert (if I do say so myself) post dinner. To their surprise the proof was in the pudding (or cupcakes) - with one bite from my mom it was announced - Girl!... and then the mass texting begun!

We couldn't be happier and are so excited to start planning for our nugget! Now comes all the pink stuff :) And the joy of decorating our room, still filled with boxes (a little less this week).

Stay tuned for more! 

Love, 

Corby & Joe

Cheers to the Week of Firsts!

This week marks the firsts of many! 

For starters, its the beginning of our Young Family blog - now I will tell you this comes after many comments of peer pressure from friends and family and also after I realized that we should be documenting all of the fun things that are happening in our new life, not only with our nugget but also with the house and much more! That said, we hope you enjoy reading the updates and ask that you not be too harsh when criticizing the writing or content :) Also, as a forewarning, I feel the need to use an exclamation point at the end of pretty much every sentence.

In addition to the blog beginning, this week has been full of other new experiences that I'd probably count a little more exciting... 

1. First baby bump picture - This may be coming a little late in the game since most pregnant women have a track since 6 weeks but hey, we've been a little busy :) This picture was taken in our baby's new room, amidst the boxes that are still present from moving. 

21 weeks!

2. First pair of maternity jeans - It was a little overwhelming being in a maternity store for the first time, but after trying on those jeans with no waist band, I must admit, I might not go back to regular jeans. Coming from a person who has never found jean shopping easy, this was surprisingly pleasant and I came out of it with a pair of jeans that still look pretty hip in my opinion! 

We're excited to be parents!

3. First baby kick - It may have been the awesome taco soup that we cooked or our baby was just ready to say hello; Tuesday, 1/10 marked the first movement from our nugget! It was definitely surprising and felt a little like a heart beat in my stomach - I can't imagine how people can focus with a little one kicking around in there all the time; we're looking forward to more! 

4. First sonogram - Now this was an experience! I was a little startled when we didn't walk into one of the regular doctor/patient rooms, but instead it looked like we stepped into a computer lab. Dark and chilly, we were able to see our baby for the first time! It was amazing to actually see our child rolling around and with all of the makings of a person - 5 fingers on each hand, two kidneys, a long spine, and the list goes on. Thankfully, as the nurse checked off each box that she is required to look for we were given the verdict that our baby is perfectly healthy! The sex was confirmed (as much as they can confirm) but will not be disclosed in this post - you'll have to check back later ;)   

Our little nugget

Hand on the forehead - classic pose :) 

That's it for this week, but check back on Sunday for the big revealing! 

Love, 

Corby & Joe