We’re Ready for You, Baby Claire!

Well, I think we're finally ready!

Today is our due date. We have been so anxious the last few weeks wondering when we're finally going to meet our little baby. We have been going to the Willamette Valley Midwives for our prenatal appointments; it's been a great experience. There are 5 midwives at the clinic who take turns on rotation at the hospital. So, every appointment, we have tried to meet with a different one so we get to know them all. We have gotten to know all but 1. The midwives will let us go up to 2 weeks past our due date, so any time in the next 2 weeks we could go to the hospital. The wait is excruciating!

But, we have been pretty busy in the mean time:

• February 28th is the day we found out we were pregnant.
• March 5th was our first doctor's appointment. We had an OB/GYN named Mabel Dzata. The office that we were going to were only able to see patients up until the 6 month mark; after that we had to select a new doctor.
• March 21st we told our friends and families about the good news.
• June 9th we found out that we are having a little baby girl.
• July 18th we bought our first 'family car', the Chrysler Pacifica- so we would have a safe car to drive around the baby.
• August 5th we had our 3D ultrasound. These things are incredible, now! It makes it seem so real- almost like an actual picture. These were so amazing.

• August 11th was the first appointment we had with the midwives.
• September 5th we went through and took a tour of the Salem Hospital birthing center. It is very nice, it will be a great place to go; and very close and convenient.
• September 26th we had our first baby shower with Levi's side of the family at Auntie Ileen's house.
• September 27th we had our second baby shower at Lacey Borts' house.
• October 9th-10th we took our birthing and parenting crash course. They taught us about labor, when to go the hospital, how to cope with contractions, to breathe, put on a diaper, etc.
• October 15th was baby shower number 3 at Katie Ruhr's for the ladies from the church.
• October 17th concluded the baby shower tour with number 4 thrown by Jaycine for Elizabeth's family.
• October 26th we took our infant CPR class.

We have such great friends and family. The showers we have had have been so wonderful and so thoughtful, we are so grateful. We have had to buy very little. Our crib we found through a lady Elizabeth works with; her neighbors were trying to sell it for $30 but when we got there they had decided to give it to us for free. There was originally a small problem we were able to fix; it is in great shape. Elizabeth's sister-in-law Jaycine had taken a collection from the family and bought us our beautiful bedding set. We took back the bedding set we had bought, and contributing a few dollars exchanged it for our stroller, car seat, and Pack 'n Play. The changing table we bought we had started to put together and had missing pieces; we took it back and they only had the floor model left. So, they gave us money back and gave us the floor model- great deal since it was already assembled!

We have finally put our finishing touches on the nursery. The walls are pale pink with lavender bedding and decorations. Baby Claire will really like what we've done with the place.

Our plan as of now is to have Elizabeth stay home with the baby. How are we going to afford this? Nobody knows. But; it's really important to us to raise Claire ourselves- so we're going to do our best to make that work. Elizabeth told her work after much anxiety that she wouldn't be returning after the baby was born; so she has been training her replacement for the last few weeks.

We are also lucky that the baby wasn't born today; since Elizabeth's insurance only covers her if she works 1 full day in that month. Both mother and baby are covered under Levi's insurance, but we have been fortunate to have both insurances work together and pay very little out of pocket.

Elizabeth has had a very trouble free pregnancy. She has been having the Braxton Hicks contractions for the last few weeks; but no signs of beginning actual labor. We're keeping our fingers crossed! We have been so lucky.

Future posts won't be this long, promise. But, the first post had to bring everything up to date. Hopefully posts to come soon with newborn pictures and details! ;)