Now where were we??

Whew! It's been a busy month! Over Labor Day weekend, Mike and I decided to take an impromptu trip to the Lake of the Ozarks for a little R & R. We stayed at the Lodge of Four Seasons (where we got married) and enjoyed some swimming, shopping, and general relaxation. We were ecstatic when we stopped by The Sugar Loft and the nice lady who made our wedding cake offered to make us up some cupcakes that were tiny replicas of our wedding cake. YUM! We literally made ourselves sick on wedding cupcakes!

Monday evenings this month have been dedicated to childbirth classes, which we both have found VERY helpful. So far, we've learned about pregnancy discomforts, labor and delivery, relaxation exercises, and breathing techniques. I think Mike was pretty shocked at the labor and delivery part and the amount of work that will be required from him to be a good labor coach. I have no doubt that he'll be AWESOME.

I am now going for my OB visits every two weeks. I've generally been feeling pretty good aside from the typical fatigue and swollen feet and ankles, so the visits are quick. Next week I'll have another ultrasound for growth and at 31 weeks, I'm expecting the baby to be close to 4 pounds now.

Mike's work had their annual company picnic at the KC Zoo a couple of weekends ago. It was a super fun day, but unfortunately it was a little hot and my feet and legs were ginormously swollen which made walking around a little unpleasant. We had lunch and took the train around to see what animals we could see and called it a day. My favorite part was watching the sea lions...my least favorite part was my belly not being able to fit into the train car! Ugh!

On 9/19/09, our very good friends Chris and Val had their little baby boy, Cael. Both mom and baby are happy and healthy. Mike and I got to hold little Cael before he was 24 hours old, which was good practice for when our little one arrives. We still have to work on the diaper changing training, though. Cael and our baby will be about 2 months apart in age and will be great buddies!

The following Sunday, Mike and I hosted a Chiefs vs. Raiders party at our house. It was our first time entertaining in the new house and we had over 20 guests. It was a LOT of fun to get everybody together in one place. The kids had a great time testing out the swingset in back, but poor Minnie and Sweet Pea were traumatized for about 3 days from all of the commotion!
Last week, we visited our baby's pediatrican's office for a tour and a general run-down on how the practice works. We both got a really good vibe from the office and luckily, it's really close by. We also found a super cozy rocker/recliner for the baby's room. I think I'm going to have to booby-trap it so that Mike doesn't take it over! Two more things checked off of the pre-baby to-do list!

We ATTEMPTED to have a 3-D ultrasound, but our baby was not in a great position for scanning so we hardly got any recognizable images. We were able to see that the baby has HAIR! Below is the best face shot that we got.