February Updates

Tuesday, February 2nd

Today I sold my bed set off Craigslist! We had a really nice young couple who just bought a house come to look at it. Luckily it was a quick sale and they were happy with the purchase and didn't dicker with the price. Hopefully I'll sell the rest of the items soon...

Today was also a milestone for Mike and the baby. Mike's been trying for weeks to feel the baby like I do but the little guy just hasn't been big enough to feel on the outside. Well today Mike decided to try to listen to Baby Dozeman's heartbeat instead of trying to feel for him and while he was trying to listen for the heartbeat, Baby Dozeman gave him a big punch in the face! Not exactly how we expected he would feel the movement but at least he felt something =)

Wednesday, February 3rd

Today was the first of two classes for Basic Prenatal classes. So far it's just the basics of natural birth and what happens to the mom and baby during the process. It's a bit intimidating but it's too late to turn back now! We went over some basic breathing and coping with contraction techniques but Mike and I think we want to Lamaze or something in addition to this class.

Saturday, February 6th

We had to get up pretty early to go to yet another baby class but this time it was called Baby Basics. We learned how to bathe the baby, safety tips for cribs, car seats, etc, basic baby CPR and a number of other things. It was a very long day of learning but were glad we went to experience it.

After the class we finally registered at Babies R Us for the shower. It was an exhausting and overwhelming experience. There is so much they say you need for a baby but we're not really sure what we need so it's hard to know what's option and what's necessary. We did our best but I think there are some things we need to add later and maybe some things we'll need to take off.

Wednesday, February 10th

In the second and final round of Baby Pre-Natal we learned about C-Sections and other medical interventions in labor like inducing, etc. It was very educational but also made us hope for a normal, healthy delivery. We did get a tour of the birthing center at Bronson which was very nice. We saw were we would deliver the baby and the rooms we would go to afterwards. We really like Bronson and feel they will take very good care of me and the baby someday.

Saturday, February 13th

Today was a crazy day. Mike and I started off by getting a last minute massage because I got a coupon in an email. It was a very nice, relaxing experience but I think my masseuse was nervous about putting too much pressure on me because of the baby so I didn't feel the deep muscle relaxation I usually do after a massage. Anyways, it was nice and it was a treat to me and Mike for Valentine's Day.

After the massage we went back home to relax a bit and get ready for a busy evening. First we had Max's baptism in Albion. I can hardly believe how big Max is getting! It was a nice service, the shortest Catholic service Mike and I had ever been to, and the baptism turned out well. We had to leave before the celebration dinner because we were going to Mike's coworkers very belated Christmas party.

The Christmas party was fun with lots of food and friends. Everyone is excited for us and the baby. We didn't last as long as we have in previous years just because I can't stay up past 11 on a boring day and we had a busy day today =) Mike and I had to make our excuses and leave with the rest of the parents with babysitters at home at the early hour of 11 p.m.

Sunday, February 14th

We've officially crossed over to the dark side of boring couples. We didn't do a thing today for Valentine's Day.

Monday, February 15th

For some reason Stryker closed for President's Day. We don't close for 3 feet of snow but we have a random holiday in February. We didn't complain too much though. We decided to go paint shopping and get a few things done around the house with our extra time. We did pick out a color for the baby room and got the primer on the wall. We have to put probably two coats of paint on the walls so it's going to be a long week.

Tuesday, February 16th

Today we put the first coat of paint on the walls for the baby room. So far it looks 100x better than it did before! We can't wait to see the final results.

Wednesday, February 17th

We had to take a break from painting today to go to church for Ash Wednesday. I can't believe it's the Easter season already and Lent has begun. I will take it though because it means this horribly long winter is almost over and spring will be here soon!

Thursday, February 18th

Today we started attending a "Lenten Series" at our church. It's every Thursday during lent and it discusses topics pertaining to the Lenten season. Our priest is new to our church and super ambitious so we anticipate there will be more series like this for us to attend.

Saturday, February 20th

Today we spent most of the day painting. Unfortunately it's not that exciting so there isn't much to say about it. I must say it's getting harder to paint as my belly continues to expand =)

After we were done painting for the day we had dinner at Mom and Dad Smolsky's house. Camla came to town so we were able to make it a double whammy and see my sister and my parents in one trip. It was a lot of fun, especially after a boring day of painting.

Sunday, February 21st

Today we put another coat of paint in the baby room and had our bi-monthly bowling league. I'm still doing the same at bowling but Mike is doing really well. He plays on two leagues now - the one we are on together and another league that meets every Friday night. He's very into bowling right now. I'm on the countdown to where I won't be able to play anymore. I can throw the ball okay but I waddle a bit and it's not improving my game any!

Tuesday, February 22nd

Today we attended a "Car Seat Demo" at the local Babies R Us store. We were the only couple who actually showed up for the demo but it worked out well because we were able to get our questions answered on a personal level. We looked around at the different brands and Mike asked more questions than me but in the end we decided on the Chicco (sp?) brand. Mike spent a great deal of time putting the demo seat in his mustang trying to make sure we could safely put a car seat in his car. It was a tight fit and as long as no other passengers travel with Mike and he doesn't need a large diaper bag, a car seat will fit in the backseat of his car. Sigh. I guess we will have yet another year with his mustang =) I'm still not a fan of his car...

Wednesday, February 23rd

Today we had dinner at our friends Jessica & Adam's house. They just recently bought a new home and were getting settled when we came to visit. We had a great time and they have a lovely new home. Mike and I were a little overwhelmed by their kids (2.5 & 1 years old) running around just being kids. Adam and Jessica aren't even phased by the energy but Mike and I were nervous. This scenario will be very familiar before we know it!

Thursday, February 24th

Today I had my regular check up for the doctor. I'm 27 weeks and things are going well. The appointments are pretty routine now. I go in, get weighed, they check a number of things and ask the same questions, the doctor comes in for about 5 minutes to go over the information the nurse collected and then we're sent home. We did go for our glucose test today. It's a routine test they do when you're between 26 & 30 weeks to check for pregnancy diabetes. I've heard of so many women failing the 1 hour test I was really nervous I would be one of them! If you fail the 1 hour test you have to come back for a 3 hour test and I hear it's boring and awful. Let's hope I pass the test...

We had yet another dinner out but this time to celebrate my friend Melissa's birthday. We didn't get to talk to my friend due to the size of the group but we sat next to another couple who were expecting so we were able to talk about babies and other fun pregnancy stuff. They were super nice so we had a good time. It has just been an exhausting week of events!

Saturday, February 27th

Today we went to a local pizza fest supporting a sports group at our local middle school. Basically 8 different pizza places come to this middle school gym and they offer different kinds of pizza. You pay a set fee to get in and you get a voting card to vote on your favorite pizza. I couldn't eat that much pizza but I know Mike had at least 3 plates =)

After pizza fest we went to our friends Melanie & Bruco's house to celebrate Bruco's birthday. It was a pretty low-key party and that worked out great for me. We stayed for quite some time at their place before we had to leave for the night.

Sunday, February 28th

Today Mike and I went to church at our church in the morning and then we started a class at a different church for a parenting class. It's a series at our friend's Adam & Jessica's church that go over a bunch of different things parents go through with kids. We're a little premature for the group but overall we really enjoyed it. The couples are younger and so nice we felt very welcome.

After the group meeting we went to a Family & Children Expo at the Radisson. It's basically a bunch of different businesses in town that get together so parents can see what they offer. We were interested in the mommy/child groups, diaper services, and pediatrician offices. We didn't stay long but we did get some helpful information.

Once we got back to the house it wasn't long before our friend Phil came to help us pick up our new crib and dresser set for the baby. I can't remember which day we looked at the sets but we did make a decision and bought the set. It wasn't until after we bought it that we realized we had no way to get the set home. Our car isn't large enough and we didn't know anyone at the moment who could come help us pick it up. We had to leave the set we bought at the store and call around for someone to help us pick it up. Thankfully Phil has a big truck and he was willing to help =) I got some great photos of the boys trying to get the stuff up the stairs. Who knew baby furniture would be so heavy!

Baby Update

Baby Dozeman is doing very well. I feel like I get bigger and bigger every day but overall I'm having a very easy pregnancy. I don't get up during the night and I never have a problem sleeping. Sometimes I wake up if I accidentally lay on my stomach but that's about it. I finally got a belly shot on 2/28. I know it's late but hey, at least I got something =)

D.C. Bound

Tuesday, January 19th

Today Mike and I traveled to Battle Creek to pick up the curtains and pillows mom and Aunt Betty worked really hard on for our new living room. We were really excited to see the final product. Mom worried the pillows were good enough but honestly, they're 100x better than the pillow cases that came with the pillows! Overall we were really happy with the results of the curtains and pillows and couldn't wait to see how they looked when we got home.

Thursday, January 21st

Today I called in sick. I've had nothing but colds since winter started and I'm really, really tired of them. I'm glad I took today off though because we're leaving for D.C. in a few days and I really needed the rest and the time to get caught up on laundry before our trip.

On another note, you may have noticed my french club notes went out the door months ago. This is mainly because I stopped going. The Towards Fluency class was a little over my head for my current memory of french. I did just fine understanding everyone but communicating was very difficult for me. I felt out of place and therefore stalled around and didn't go for a long time. Finally a coworker of mine mentioned an interest in going so I felt it might be the boost I needed to start going again. My coworker, Katharina, is German and speaks french better than I speak English but she's a good sport and joined the lower level "Intermediate" level french class with me. She says it's challenging since it's learning french in English which is like her third language.

Anyways, Thursday was our first meeting together and I really liked it. Much more to my level of french right now. I struggle with the teacher though because he's from Senegal and I'm used to the Parisian accent. It's VERY different and hard to understand at first. I'm not quite sure he's prouncing things correct for me to learn if I want to travel to France but at least I'll be understood =)

Friday, January 20th -

Today I tagged along with Mike to see him play in his other bowling league. He joined another bowling league because he liked going so much and I refused to go more than just twice a month (when we have our own league to go to). So he's playing two leagues at once. Anyways, this day he was playing a group from my finance department who happened to sign up for the same league.

The boys were creamed by my finance girl friends! It was quite sad but overall we had a good time. In case you're wondering - I stuck by my husband and the losing team =P Although I did visit the winning team often since they were my coworkers.

We didn't stay too long after the league because we needed to get home and finish packing for our trip to Washington D.C.

Saturday - January 23rd

After an early morning and several hours in the airport and on flights, we arrived in Washington D.C. I am following Mike on one of his business trips because I have vacation to kill and I haven't been to the capital since high school. The weather wasn't very warm but it was MUCH warmer than Michigan so our first day here we were able to travel a bit without our coats.

We didn't get in until pretty late so we checked into the hotel and hopped a ride to the metro station to take the subway into D.C. We learned very quickly that D.C. shuts down at about 5 and we were there about 6:30. There wasn't much to do at all and it was getting dark. In the end we decided to find a restaurant, which was also harder than expected, to eat and think about what we wanted to try next.

After while we found a nice restaurant and had a fabulous dinner. Afterwards we were so tired for traveling and with a full stomach we decided to go back to the hotel and call it a night. I think we were in bed by 10.

Sunday, January 24th

Today we got up early enough to catch the metro once again to D.C. to check out some Smithsonian museums. There isn't much open on Sunday's in D.C. either so we were limited to just the museums. We ended up checking out the American History Museum and the Museum of Natural History. Both were very cool museums with lots of different exhibits and things to see and do. We paid an outrageous fee for lunch ($8 for just my ham sandwich) but we figured since the admission to all Smithsonian's are free we paid for lunch AND an entrance fee.

I discovered quickly, or maybe I should say my body reminded me, that I am pregnant and full of water. After a few hours on the marble floors and walking around non-stop I began to balloon up. My shoes got tight and my ring finger swelled up around my wedding rings. I had to sit down several times to get through the day. There was one point where I felt greatly embarrassed (I'm not showing enough yet for people to know right away I'm pregnant) when I was taking up a bench and a bunch of older people squeezed on my bench to rest and I didn't get up right away to give them my seat. I wanted to explain but they looked like spry old people and didn't say anything when I didn't move immediately.

After a long day in the museums, we took off for dinner in Chinatown. I'd never been to Chinatown but at night, I can kind of see why people think it's scary. It's like another country in a small area! Great food though... After dinner we headed back to our hotel.

At this point I feel I need to comment on our hotel. We are Sheraton Hotel fans but this hotel was seriously the worst we've ever been to. The hotel staff barely spoke English and were very difficult to communicate with. We struggled with instructions for being picked up from the hotel and driven to the metro station (it's about 5 miles away from the hotel) and a laundry list of other offenses which just really turned us off from the whole place. If the service wasn't bad enough, the hotel wasn't the cleanest and the rooms literally had paper thin walls.

Let me tell you how thin these walls are... I hear our neighbor in the hotel talking on the phone to a friend about this 37 year old hot guy she met at the bar. She didn't know much about him except that he was from Maryland. "A-huh, A-huh, Yeah, I know, A-huh, A-huh. Heh, heh! Heh, heh! Don't go there girl, it ain't like that." Think it's bad enough I can hear the conversation from our room? Oh no, it gets better when she invites this hot guy over to her hotel room and they get to know each other better at 11:15 p.m., 12:35 p.m. and 6:45 a.m.

Monday, January 25th -

Today I began my hunt for a mall in the D.C. area. After ballooning up at the Smithsonian I decided I better forgo the walking tours I could go on around D.C. when I knew I would be on my own. Mike had his conference from 8-5:30. I braved the front desk to arrange a shuttle to the metro station and I managed to navigate with very few mistakes to my destinations. I traveled to Crystal City first which was an hour metro ride only to be very disappointed when I found the mall there. It was a very touristy place with D.C. stuff souvenir stuff everywhere. It was also near a base somewhere so there were normal stores like grocery, eye glasses places, doctors offices, etc. I stayed maybe a half hour and then I turned back to go to downtown D.C.

On my own I walked around the Washington Mall and some more of the Smithsonian museums. It was a gorgeous 50 degrees out and I was able to walk around without a coat. It was heavenly after such a cold winter this year. It wasn't long before I had to go through. It takes a long time to travel on the metro.

Once I was back at the hotel I waited a little bit for Mike to get back and then we took off to meet my old friend Kate in Bethesda. It was yet another long metro ride but we eventually made it there in one piece - just an hour late! Luckily Kate and her husband Bill are understanding people and weren't too upset by it. Anyways, we had a very nice dinner with them and it was great to catch up with Kate and see how she's doing. I could tell Mike really wanted to talk shop with her because she's an Electrical Engineer too but she does something different with her degree that involves some mathematical thing that Mike recognized and was interested in. Unfortunately for them, Bill and I are not engineers so I made sure we talked about more interesting things like pets, family, and future Spodfests! =)

Tuesday, January 26th -

Today I continued my search for the perfect mall. This time I had the advice of Kate who lives in the area to try this place in Virginia. I managed to find it off the metro and it was perfect for my needs. It was a smaller mall but it had four floors. It was like narrow and tall instead of spread out.

I wandered around for awhile window shopping and eventually saw the movie "Young Victoria" which is only a limited release right now. I enjoyed the movie although I think the BBC version of "Albert and Victoria" did a better job of telling their story.

After the movie I had to head back to the hotel to meet up with Mike for dinner. Before we knew it the evening was over and we were heading to bed.

Wednesday, January 27th -

Today was a very uneventful day of traveling. After packing up the hotel and having a brief breakfast, we were on our way to the airport. Finally at 12 a.m., we arrived home.

Thursdays, January 28th

Today I slept in and did some laundry while poor Mike had to go to work. In the afternoon we had our 23 week appointment at the doctors. Everything is going really well. The baby moves a lot more now and I'm up to the point where I have to have some kind of glucose test done to check my sugar levels. Overall it was a pretty uneventful trip. My belly measured 24 cm which they say is normal despite the fact I should measure 23mm since I'm only 23 weeks along. Maybe the baby is growing faster than expected? Or maybe it was that extra candy bar I had...

Friday, January 29th

Today Melanie helped me get some stuff up on Craigslist. I was really apprehensive about this because you never know who is on Craigslist and honestly, who would want my junk? I was only too surprised to see a lot of people want my junk! I'm emailing all the time now trying to arrange for people to come see what I'm selling. Overall I'm getting rid of three fish tanks, a computer desk, head board/foot board, and a flower girl dress. I'm not sure I could do this all the time but it's certainly an effective way to get rid of stuff when you can't have a garage sale. Pretty soon that spare room will be cleaned out and we can start painting the future baby room!

Speaking of baby room, we did pick a theme for our baby room. We haven't registered yet but this is the set we picked from CoCaLo called Peek A Boo Friends:

After my endeavors with Craigslist I had dinner plans with Norm and Mary. They had a very nice meal planned and I had a great time filling them in on the baby and our trip to D.C. They were the first to buy us a gift for the new baby. They bought a very cute onesie set. The onesie was such a hit with Mike that when we were out looking at cribs on Sunday he bought a robot onesie just because he thought it was cool.

Saturday, January 30th

Today we watched "Legion" with Mom and Dad in Battle Creek and had a nice dinner afterwards at their house. The movie was good but it wasn't something I would rush out to see again or recommend someone see at the theaters. Dinner was great but we had to leave early to get home so someone from Craigslist could pick up the computer desk we were getting rid of. We rushed home for nothing though because the guy didn't come until almost an hour later!

Sunday, January 31st

We didn't do a whole lot today just because we had a busy weekend. Mike had to work some of the day but not too long. We had dinner plans with some friends for around 5. We made it to the restaurant and had a great time with our friends. One friend brought her new boyfriend so we were able to meet him. He was very nice and I think fit in well, even though we didn't give him much of a chance to talk. Apparently we haven't talked in awhile because we had a lot to say in a short amount of time!

Monday, February 1st

I can't believe it's February already. Today I spent most of my day catching up from being gone a week. It's amazing how much things pile up when you're gone! Thankfully my team is great about helping out but there is still always something left for me =)

We start baby classes this week so that should be interesting. I think I have to sign up for a Lamaze class soon too. I hear those are good to go to.

Tomorrow I have more Craigslist people coming to look at stuff. It won't be much longer before my junk will be gone forever!