new pics....

as requested....

32 weeks, 6 days

little roo playing cards. :)

and as of next week when i start every project that's been banging around in my head for the last couple months, there'll be lots more pictures...

"we are family" :)

so. a few more updates :)

we're not sure why we're destined to find "twins" of the animals we already have, but when we stumbled upon this free kitten--who looks REMARKABLY like cleo did when she was a little one--we fell to mush. are we crazy to bring a cat baby into this farm-house zoo just 8 weeks before our human baby makes its appearance?? probably. but will we give her up? no way. and even if we wanted to, the dogs and cleo are smitten as well and it just wouldn't be fair to them :)so. meet "the little one" or "littles" as we've been calling her.

yesterday, we had an 8 hour condensed childbirth class. i wasn't excited to go, but knew it was the responsible/smart thing to do, and it turns out i reall enjoyed it and feel much more prepared (if there is such a thing) and excited about the day we head to the hospital. we were hoping to make some friends too through our class, but....no dice. it seems pregnant women (at least the ones that were there) aren't so friendly or willing to socialize. ah well...we've got a newborn care class coming up in october, maybe more luck then. :)

but...perhaps we should also be looking into some other classes for the other 'babies'. we came home from our long saturday out, and among some other things, zane picked this up off the floor...

(the dvd reads: training your adopted dog). now. pan out....

somehow the door to the laundry room was not blocked by the chair that is usually there and the dogs showed us their disappointment in how the weekend was going for them by pulling out bags of trash and spreading it around. needless to say, they are going to be extremely pleased when i'm home more (though it won't be as quiet as they are used to!) as of next monday, i won't be working anymore. i need to give my body a little bit of rest and healing before the real work starts :)

i think that's it for now. no more baby purchases recently, though i've suddenly become obsessed with the fact that we don't have socks for the baby and this house is going to be so cold. i know pig'll most likely be swaddled or dressed in footed things for a while, but until i buy a few socks, i won't feel as ready. is this nesting? or just insanity? (and if you have any suggestions for socks that won't fall off immediately, please let me know!)

happy sunday!

week re-cap

well well. it's been a long day of work, car repair, a dr's appt, a tour of the maternity ward and finally dinner. it's just about 9pm and we're finally getting home and settling down--the dogs, not so much :)

some highlights in the past week:

*we got our changing table up and running! got a pad and cover and set up the baskets and started going through the small things we've accumulated in the past few months :) still needs work and organizing, but it's started...

*ally's parents got us our stroller! we put it together (well, zane snapped the wheels onto the bottom) and tried it out through the house (which sent the dogs scattering)...we thought we'd be nice and not throw the cat it in, but lo and behold, she found it herself and made a cozy little spot for herself in the seat...we tried taking a picture but the camera battery was dead...

*zane got one of his weekend classes out of the way (only 4 or 5 more to go?? :(), but at least its a start. it looks like he may have his diploma in may!! yay :)

*our appt tonight went really well. we had a midwife again as the dr on-call was doing a c-section at the hospital. she checked the position of the baby--head down, facing to the left (my right), which explains the kicks i've been getting in the sides and the lumps at my belly button :) since piggy was positioned so well, we could hear the heartbeat louder and clearer than ever! it was lower this time, in the 140's :) weight gain so far--25 lbs. it couldn't possibly be because of the disgusting amounts of cookie dough we've (when i say we, i mean zane and i--the pig is innocent in this!) been eating :)

*we got the cutest fleece one piece outfit today from my friend bridget at work! it's green with a little bear face on the bottom and bears on the feet. we can't wait to put the pig in it to come home from the hospital! AND a book on making baby food! thank you bridget!!!! when the camera charges, i'll take pictures :)

*our tour of the hospital tonight was wonderful! the rooms are enormous (each one with a bathroom with a jetted tub), no real nursery (just one for babies with extra special concerns) so the baby can be with you the whole time (this may or may not be a good thing i guess! :)), they dont routinely insert iv's, but do encourage mom to eat a little something if that's what her body tells her to do :) all in all, a very laid back, comfortable and comforting atmosphere and i feel a lot better after having gone and seeing what it's all about. oh, and zane wins dad-to-be of the year, for asking multiple questions on the tour and having one of them be "an excellent" question. :)

*we got a bunch of our burp cloths from ally's mom, who has been working on sewing in patterned cloth to the cloth diapers we bought. we LOVE how they're turning out...and very much appreciate her hard work and determination (apparently, stretchy fabric can be a pain to sew to the cloth...) THANK YOU! :)

that's all i can think of right now...too tired and need to go to sleep. i'll be back on when i can think of more to say :)

love, us

piggy's new chair!

so we got a VERY generous gift today from the mom of the little boy i work with!! she'll be getting a HUGE thank you when i see her tomorrow! :) it even has toys to hang on the bar--a cow, a sheep and a PIG! what a perfect gift, we can't wait until the pig's here to enjoy it!

of course, we had to make sure it worked correctly and the only thing small enough to test it out was mish (our cat, aka "cleo")...
since we tortured her a bit, we set her free to eat as much cat grass as she wanted! zane planted this a few weeks ago and it's just taken off :) over the summer i'd take her out whenever i took the dogs out back in the fenced in area, and let her roam around in a smaller "pen" area. she loved eating the grass (most times, a bit too much as she frequently threw up whatever she pigged out on...) so we figured with the colder weather and more indoor days, she could at least have a fake version of her comfort food :)

that's all from here. enjoying the cooler fall weather and the fact that the rain let up enough to allow zane to grill some steak tips for us tonight outside :) yum.

ally and zane :)

baby days...

its been a while! here we are at 3o weeks...10 more to go. a week or two less would be fine by me :) i see this picture and i dont know how i'm going to get bigger--but i'm sure i will. piggy weighs in at around 3 lbs and for the next 7 weeks s/he will gain about 1/2 lb a week! movements are starting to get crazy strong, and i'm sure piglet's starting to run out of room in there...

today, zane and i did a bit of shopping for little baby things. a few onesies (pictured below--i *heart* mommy and i *heart* daddy--can you tell zane's excited?!) , a bunch of bathtime goodies, some diapers, and a fitted crib sheet. we're getting ready slowly but surely :)

tonight we made our first batch of homemade wipes! i found a recipe online that uses paper towels, baby oil and baby wash with water, all put into a plastic container and left to soak. who knows how well they work, but they smell wonderful!

tomorrow we have plans to lay around and watch the chiefs play the texans, (hopefully with the windows open and cooler air blowing in (it was 92 degress in concord today at 2pm!)), eat some high iron-content food (according to the dr, my iron levels are low), put ice/heat on my back (which has been helping the shooting pains down my backside...sciatica anyone?! :( ), and enjoy our day off before a full week of work. hope everyone's weekend is restful and enjoyable...

til next time...ally and zane