Class, Carseats & Ice Cream

Busy day today!  It started out with an early class at the hospital - "Newborn Care".  The class was geared towards teaching us about what babies look and act like when they're first born.

The instructor showed us how to swaddle, bottle feed, change diapers and give Sea Monkey a bath.  Most of it was pretty much common sense and seemed pretty intuitive,  but it was still good to have someone show us the right ways to do things.  Each couple got a doll to practice with.  Mike practiced changing the diaper and I practiced swaddling.  I think we did pretty well considering we were working with a plastic doll that had legs and arms that didn't move.

The instructor also told us about what happens right after Sea Monkey is born - They will make sure they get a good cry from him first, then they will place him on a blanket on my chest.  They wipe him down a little, put on an ID band and then place him on mom's chest.  They like you to do this for the first hour - they call it the "Golden Hour" - where Mom, Dad and Sea Monkey have time to bond.  I'm all for this - at least this was our plan from the beginning.  That the first hour would just be the three of us.  However, my plan from the beginning was that I didn't want Sea Monkey thrown on me until they wiped all the gunk off him.  In fact, I gave Mike 2 jobs during delivery:  #1 Don't watch  and #2 Make sure they clean all the junk off Sea Monkey before they put him on me.  I've come to realize I'm being slightly ridiculous about both of those things.  I think I'm just going to let it all happen - and try to enjoy it all.  If Mike wants to watch, go ahead.  Personally I wouldn't want to watch, but if he does, who am I to tell him he can't watch his son being born?  Anyway, I digress.....   

When we got home, we decided it was a good time to install the car seats.  Even though we have just about 7 weeks until Sea Monkey's expected arrival date, better to be early than late right?  I searched and searched for the instruction manual but couldn't find it.  So I went online and printed a copy.  Mike was very good and read the manual so he knew how to do the install.  The kind of car seat we got has a base and a removable carrier.  It looks like this:

See how it says "# 1 Rated Easiest Car Seat to Install"?   They really mean it.  I'm serious!   I had heard horror stories from people telling me how hard it was to install the car seat.  So I figured it was going to be really complicated and take half the afternoon.  We had both cars done in about 10 minutes total.  We lucked out because both my car and Mike's truck have these metal hooks on the seats, so we were able to install the car seat using the "latch system".  Literally the only thing you do is pull two clips down (one on each side), snap it onto the metal hook on the seat in the car, and pull a string so it's tight.  The base has a level on it, so as long as the bubble is between the lines, you're good to go.  I plan on going to the local police department to have it inspected just in case, but it was so easy to install!  One more thing checked off the "to do" list .....


We spent the afternoon relaxing a bit.  Mike took a nap with the dogs, and I watched stupid Lifetime Movie Network movies and ate kettle corn popcorn.  Leftovers for dinner (Mike was mad I ate all the mac & cheese), and then .... we went for ice cream!!!

I've been having a craving for soft serve ice cream in a cone.  It's slightly annoying because it's so much easier to buy a container of ice cream at the grocery store to have on hand to eat whenever I want, but no, I had to have soft serve.  That requires going somewhere.  Even though I've been craving it for a few weeks, I haven't craved it enough to actually go out and get one.  (No, Mike never offered to go get one for me and bring it home).  Well tonight, I asked Mike if he would come with me to get ice cream.  Figuring that he hates dessert and most sweets, I thought I'd get a big, fat "no".  He surprised me and said yes!  Off to Dairy Queen we went!  I got my soft serve vanilla ice cream in a waffle cone.  It was delicious.  And I only dripped twice - once on my huge belly and once on my leg.

Overall, a good day.  

I'm getting more and more uncomfortable (and impatient) with each passing day.  Sea Monkey must be getting fairly big because when he moves now, it hurts.  It's no longer cute to see my belly popping up and down with each kick.  Instead, the kicks and rolls are accompanied with groans from me because it's getting uncomfortable.  My belly is so big now it's becoming nearly impossible to bend over.  Socks are a nightmare.  I even struggled to lean forward tonight to pull toilet paper off the roll.  The next 7 weeks better go by quickly!  

This week we have another busy week - Childbirth Education class on Monday, Breast feeding class on Wednesday, and our last ultrasound on Thursday!  We get to see Sea Monkey one more time before he's born.  Hopefully they can give me a "guesstimate" on how big they think he might be.  

That's all I've got for now.  If anything fun or exciting happens at Monday night's Childbirth Ed. class I'll be sure to write about it ....