simplicitea

6/24/13

Preparing for the baby

I've slowly started to get ready for the baby. I bought a few things on Craigslist and my goal is to keep things to a minimum. My cousin in LA has been giving me some tips, and I'm pretty impressed with how simple they have kept things. He lives in a small 2 bedroom in downtown LA and so space is limited.

In terms of diapering, ideally I'd like to do a combo of going diaper free and cloth diapers. But I feel pretty overwhelmed about it. I read Diaper Free Baby last year and it changed my paradigm about diapers. I really like the idea of it, but it seems like a lot of work. Does anyone have experience with this?

Another book I read last year that shaped my view of parenting is Bringing Up Bebe. It's an American journalist's thoughts about parenting in America as compared to France. It's very interesting and paradigm-shifting. I've been thinking a lot about how parenting has developed in the U.S., especially in our generation, compared with prior generations and other countries as I think about how I want to parent.

In terms of the birth plan...I'm going to a midwife practice at a hospital. I'd like to go natural, but I'm not opposed to getting an epidural if I can't bear the pain. But since that's the plan we'll need to take a class and also think about getting a doula to help me manage the pain.

I've been getting lots of questions about whether I will work. As a new grad, it will be nearly impossible for me to find a part-time job, so I will have to work full time. Also, nursing is such a hands-on profession and it takes about a year of full-time work to become proficient at your job. The nice thing is that it will be shift work so I'll work 3x/week. I may work nights and weekends too, so that helps as well. The job market for nurses is pretty tight in Denver, but I feel less stressed about it now that the baby is coming. If it takes me longer to find a job, that will give me more time at home with the baby.

I'm doing my senior practicum rotations at Childrens Hospital in the emergency department, so I think I'll get lots of preparation for the baby there. 7 weeks of school left. I'm ecstatic.

6/7/13

20 weeks

I guess it's time to break the news on the blog: I'm pregnant! I'm currently 20 weeks pregnant, and my belly is really starting to show:

20 weeks

I finally broke down and got maternity clothes this week. I'd looked around at Gap, Target, Old Navy and Pea in a Pod but maternity clothes are expensive. For the last few weeks I trolled Craigslist and most people were selling L and XL. This week someone was getting rid of XS, so I jumped on it. Luckily, her style was similar to mine so I got 15 pieces of maternity clothes for a great deal - mostly shirts, a few pants and dresses as well. I must say maternity clothes are much more comfortable!

I had started another blog for the baby so I could have a place to jot down thoughts, but now that I'm public with it I'm debating whether to keep it going or just update here. At any rate, there are a few posts up there if you'd like to take a look:

www.team-oh.blogspot.com

I'm grateful for the timing as I'll be just done with school when the baby comes.

4/19/13

Cousins came

My cousins came to visit at the end of January. It was fun to see them, show them Denver and go skiing together. We usually do a cousins trip every December, but with lots of babies in the family 2012 was the first year we didn't do one. So this was kind of a mini cousins trip.

Hiking at Chautauqua

Skiing at Copper Mountain

I'm so grateful to have people in my life who've known me my entire life. They've seen me through all seasons of life.

4/17/13

Janice got married!

W's sister Janice got married in February! She asked me to be the day-of coordinator so I nervously said yes. My cousin Tim came to back me up since he had experience coordinating and I had none. Everything went well and I really enjoyed coordinating.

At the salon: getting ready

With the beautiful bride

At the reception

4/15/13

Anniversary, V-day & B-day

Three separate events, but as you can see I'm catching up on a backlog of blog posts!

Our anniversary is late December, so it's always tough to celebrate then. We're usually in LA visiting family. This year we celebrated with a quiet dinner at home made by W. He made paella and it was really good.

4 year anniversary dinner

For v-day, per our tradition, W cooked dinner.

V-day dinner by W

My birthday is in March. I wanted to just do a nice dinner, but W got together a group of friends from our small group at the last minute and we went out to our favorite Thai restaurant, and then came to our place for games and cake.

W wanted to make my cake. We attempted a Korean style light fluffy cake...

W making my cake

I decorated it

It didn't come out quite as planned, but I still enjoyed it. Had a great time with friends - am grateful for the community God has provided for me here.

4/13/13

Skiing

I learned how to ski this year! Last year, I just tagged along with Will and went shopping and hung out at coffee shops while he snowboarded. Denver has such an outdoors culture, and a big part of that is skiing in the winter. I figured I should give it a try. I was really nervous about how I'd do because I always struggled with snowboarding. But I ended up really enjoying it!

My first day of skiing: Ski Cooper with my friend Grace. We took lessons together while the others hit the slopes.

One of the biggest barriers I felt with skiing/boarding was how expensive it is. It turns out that skiing can be pretty affordable for locals. We got a 5 pack for $130. Will switched to skiing this year too. We had a great time skiing with friends and out of town guests. It's a fun bonding activity, and something to look forward to in the winter, especially for someone like me who isn't so fond of winter.

4/11/13

Family visit

My mom's annual spring break was a few weeks ago, so she and my brother came out to visit. It was my brother's first time visiting us since we moved out here. It's been nice to have the house to be able to host out of town guests.