A Sunny Saturday Shower with Dear Friends - What a Treat!

A huge thanks to Sylvia, Maria and Nancy for organizing a wonderful welcome for Baby L!  Not only did they think of every detail, they even went and brought the party to us!  (The sun room has never looked more festive!)  Maria shared her fine china and linens, Sylvia hand-selected special teas and Nancy arranged a delectable array of gourmet snacks for us to enjoy.  (Confession: Baby L made me enjoy 2nds on just about everything!) 

Thanks also to the amazing ladies who shared their Saturday afternoons together with us – Kate, Debbie, Christina, Norlie, Marisol, Meg and Joanne.  Baby L will look so cute in the little onesies, booties and beanies.  Not to mention all the great swaddlers, “baby spa” items and wipes warmer.  What a treat!  We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends.  Hugs to all!

Love,

A Very Appreciative

Gina and Baby L            

So, you are probably wondering what this picture has to do with our family, much less our expected bundle of joy (No family tree jokes either!  >:-/  ) .....

We were putting the finishing touches on our nursery's brand new paint job just the other day.  In addition to that, we installed a fancy ceiling fan with an integrated light.  The coolest thing about it is the after-market remote wall switch.  O.K., so Dad will get the biggest kick out of that little feature.

So, what does this have to do with a tree again??

While I (Dad) was demonstrating the fancy new ceiling fan to (Mom) Gina, I learned a little more about electrical work and that we have a 3-Way switch in that room after all.  How did we learn this??  Well... the light didn't exactly work after all of the wiring was complete.  Even worse than that, the light no longer worked in the guest room next door.  Right at the moment we made that gem of a discovery, we heard SNAP, CRACKLE, POP, POP, POP, and the lights went out in the rest of the rooms!!

I scratched my head and thought to myself .....  just how badly did I wire up this fan in our evolving nursery??  Ironically, the tree in this picture came crashing down at the very moment we turned on the new fan.  If you look at the top left corner of the picture, you can see the power line that was formerly attached to our house.

Thanks to some candles, we were able to survive the rest of the evening.  Thanks to the two guys from Dominion Virginia Power, our lights back on just in time for bed.

Talk about a bunch of windbags!

We attended our first childbirth class at the hospital this past Wednesday and have another 5 to look forward to over the same number of weeks.  The "syllabus" (yes, that's really what they called it) had us covering "anatomy of labor" and "breathing techniques".

Although a tad embarrassing to admit, I learned more about my "plumbing" and the whole L&D process during those 2 hours than I ever remember learning in science class!  Dilation, effacement, progression, staging ... oh my!  My favorite class visual so far has to be the random food comparisons representing the different centimeters of dilation.  Unfortunately, I'll never think of a bagel quite the same again. (10 centimeters or "complete" dilation)  Yowzer!

At one point during the class, the instructor asked for a show of hands - who was planning on having an unmedicated birth?  Interestingly, out of the entire class (there must have been about 8 or 10 couples), only 2 of us raised our hands.  Do they all know something I don't?? (lol)  I hope and pray that Baby L cooperates when it's time to come out ... not only because it's something I am committing us to do but also because the only thing we've learned so far for pain management is how to breathe.  No, I'm not joking.  Breathing.  That's it.  I was hoping for some super high-tech prenatal hypnosis or yoga-like handstanding or something at least a little more ...  I don't know ... silver-bullet-sounding?  *sigh*  As of Wednesday night, however, our arsenal contains a mere 3 different types of breathing: cleansing breaths, deep chest breathing and shallow chest breathing.  Guess we'd better get practicing!

One general observation:  I noticed a fair bit of waddling and foot swelling among my classmates.  Thank you Baby L for taking it easy on mom's hands and feet so far!

1 more week until our DC shower and really looking forward to it.  Thanks, Syl! :-)

Did You Say Flying Colors??

Here is an update on Baby L's room. You remember the one that used to be for distinguished visitors to Casa Lanzetti?

This update also serves as bragging rights for Dad beating his painting deadline. You're probably wondering what deadline when the baby is not due until November 3rd..... Well, this deadline was based on a time sensitivity condition that is 3 generations strong on Baby L's Mom's side. (Sorry Grandma Sandy and Great Grandma Betty) ;-p )

Actually, before Dad pats himself on the back too hard.... he still has to install the ceiling fan and crown molding. This just seemed like a good point to show you the color swatches on the floor (from 8/24/09 Post) actually led to paint on the walls and ceiling!