Home Care vrs. Daycare?

Dustin and I have been struggling with the decision to enroll the baby into a daycare center when I go back to work, or to trust her care to a woman doing childcare in her home. Luckily, I plan to take the full 12 weeks of maternity leave.

Daycare Center
Pluses:
+Government mandated and restricted
+1 mile away from house
+Online streaming of infant room that we could log onto and watch at any time
Minus':
-$150 a week
-have to pay every week including summers and holidays even when the baby isn't there
-not happy with medication mandates
-all types of extra fee's here and there
-4 infants to 1 adult (8 babies in the room)

Homecare
Pluses:
+This woman was a parapro at Dustin's school
+1 mile away from Dustin's school
+3 babies to 1 adult
+$125 a week
+do not have to pay for holidays or summer break
+will follow our schedule for the baby
Minus':
-will transport all the kids to a preschool to drop off a 3 year old in her care 2/3 a week
-will need to buy another car seat for this
-she doesn't have all the equipment she needs yet
-will keep 3 babies, a 3 year old, and a 4 year old
-her children are in high school, so she needs to read up on all the new safety procedures, etc.

I know that whatever decision we make, I will probably be completely stressed out about it. It's going to be hard to leave her anywhere :(

Another update- Baby girl is still measuring a bit small. The doctors want to continue to monitor her progress to make sure she continues to grow at a normal rate and that her growth doesn't slow down at all. Other than that one concern, she is a very healthy little baby girl. I think she's just going to be a little peanut :) We will continue to monitor her progress and try not to worry. She isn't even here yet, and she is already stressing me and Dustin out. I guess she is just trying to prepare us for parenthood :) She is already such a special little girl!

12 Weeks to Go!

End of my 27th week. In LBI.

My painting for our Baby Girls bedroom.

Ultrasound #3- This is a profile of her face. We didn't really get good pics this time.

Ahhh! I cannot believe we are only 12 weeks away from meeting our little girl. I am officially 28 weeks pregnant today, which also puts me in the third and final trimester of my pregnancy. I'm still feeling pretty good. Some sciatica and pain in my hands after waking up every now and then. I've got a few updates:

We just came back from a trip to PA for a wedding and then a vacation to LBI with Dustin's family. We had a great time. I danced during the entire wedding and had a blast. I think everyone was amazed at my stamina at this point in my pregnancy. The beach was also wonderful. We had great weather and loved spending quality time with the future grandparents, Aunt Nicole, and Uncle Scott!

So, you know the painting I was going to work on for the babies room. Well, it's done. I can't decide if I am happy with it or not. I'm not super artsy, but I do think I did a pretty nice job. Dustin thinks it's awesome. I thought a lot about what I was going to paint because I wanted it to be something special. I decided that since the babies bedding has some butterflies on it, I would do something with butterflies. Then, I decided that I would paint 3 butterflies, a daddy butterfly, a mommy butterfly, and a baby butterfly. The daddy would be big, blue, and green. The mommy would be big, pink, and purple. The baby would be smaller than the other two and have a mix of the colors from the mommy and daddy. She would be flying the highest showing all of her potential and her mommy and daddy would be encouraging her. Check out my painting and let me know what you think.

Lastly, we went back to the doctor today for our third ultrasound. Baby girl was overall measuring at 27.2 weeks, which puts her 5 days behind. We found out that the one specific area is pulling her average down a bit is the measurement of her abdomen. It is only measuring about 26 weeks. The ultrasound tech said that this is pretty common. I will be looking forward to hearing from the nurse tomorrow and talking to the doctor at next weeks monthly check-up. I am trying not to worry about it, but what mommy doesn't worry?

Rib Cook-Off and a Surprise Baby Shower

Dustin and I planned a BBQ Rib Cook-Off for the fourth of July. I was getting very frustrated with Dustin during the planning process because I was being left out. He just kept telling me that him and his friends had everything under control. Even with those promises, I may have had a couple mental breakdowns in the days leading up to the party ;) During the party, Tessa asked me to drive her to her house (she had a few drinks in her) to get a few things and check on her dog. While we were gone, everyone set up a table outside with balloons, gifts, a cake, and an "advice for the new parents" area. When we got back to the house and I walked out back, everyone yelled surprise. I was completely taken aback because I never expected that our Rib Cook-off would turn into a baby shower. It was a great surprise! This was a great way for all of Dustin's friends to shower our baby girl. She got lots of great goodies, like a safety gate for the steps, tummy time mat, Little Eistein DVD's, bottle basket, teethers, rattles, a hooded towel and matching bath robe, and a Babies R Us gift card. We are very thankful for our great friends :)

Slowly but Surely...

Each day (or week) we are doing just a little bit to make our baby girls room beautiful. Today, we added curtains and a rug. I also started working on a painting for the wall. We'll see how that turns out ;). The room is so sweet that I find myself just "hanging out" in there.

Love,

Erin

Bedding Fit for a Princess!

We went to Babies R Us today and got a crib mattress and the crib bedding set we liked. Thanks to the generosity of our friends and family, we were able to use gift cards (and coupons) to buy both things :) The bedding set also came with a diaper stacker and valance which is not up yet. The bumpers won't stay on for too long, but they are cute regardless. We'll keep them on until the baby can move or roll on there own, then we'll switch them to "Breathable Bumpers" which are supposed to be a lot safer. The colors look great with the pink paint in the room. I just love how it looks!

New project? Dustin and I are thinking of each painting a picture for the babies room. Neither of us have much painting talent, but we have an easle, canvas', and paints, so we thought it might be a nice addition to the room and a nice gift for our baby girl. What do you think?

We also went to the doctor for our monthly check-up yesterday. The doctor gave me a prescription for my terrible acid reflux...thank goodness. She also gave me some suggestions for the sciatica pain and randomly numb limbs. My iron was a little low, so they want me to start taking iron supplements. The doctor asked what size Dustin and I were at birth and was suprised how large we both were. She still wants to do another ultrasound to check on baby girls growth. I was a little upset by this (but would never turn down a chance to see my angel again) because it was completely unexpected. I thought that after the last ultrasound, the doctor was happy with her growth. She assured me over and over that we have nothing to worry about...but future mommy's can't help but worry :( I also had my blood drawn for a glucose tolerance test. I won't get those results until Friday night. Cross your fingers for me.

Almost in the 3rd trimester and getting fatter by the day.

Love,

Erin

Nursery

The furniture is in place. Now, off to Babies R Us to buy a crib mattress and bedding with all of our gift cards :) I'm hoping Dustin will paint the changing table for me so it doesn't stick out so bad. The table in the corner with the lamp will have a tv/dvd player on it (lamps gone).

Ouch!

So far, I have been super lucky and have had a pretty easy pregnancy. I'm not quite sure what has happened over the past week, but I am beginning to have some uncomfortable issues. First, on Tuesday I started having these shooting pains coming from my right bottom cheek that would go down my leg. I have these pains off and on when I put pressure on my foot to step. The big problem is that when I get one of these pains, my leg gives out and I have to try and catch myself. I've been moving pretty slow because I am so scared I am going to fall, especially going down the steps or carrying breakable things. I've looked up some information about this and apparently it's pretty common in pregnancy. If I am correct, it is something called Sciatica. It happens because either the baby or your uterus is pushing on your sciatica nerve. There didn't seem to be much I could do about it. The many websites had a few suggestions, like putting your feet up (like that one!), swimming, taking a luke warm bath, and massage (like that one too!).

Then, Tuesday night into Wednesday morning posed a new problem. I woke up many times through the night and my wrists, hands, and lower arms were achy and asleep. This made it very difficult to go back to sleep each time. In the morning, the asleep feeling slowly went away, but the dull ache continued. Last night I didn't have any problems with them falling asleep, but they are still very achy. I tried to look up some info on this one too. The only thing I found that could be a possibility is the beginnings of pregnancy carpal tunnel. I REALLY hope this is not the case!

I go for my monthly check-up on Monday 7/6. I will surely talk with the doctor about all of these new developments. I still have 14 weeks to go....so please pray that I continue to have a healthy happy pregnancy.

Love,
Mommy-to-be Erin