Baby Prep: 10 weeks to go!

We have been doing our best to prepare ourselves, our home, and our pets for the arrival of our little man in only a few weeks!!  (10 to be exact- geez that went fast).  I "passed" my glucose tolerance test (i.e. I don't have gestational diabetes!) and got my RhoGam shot last week, so we are over the 2nd trimester hump.  This baby is certainly getting bigger and bigger in there- as you can tell from my supersized belly...I'm up to 39.25 inches around...yes, I said around.

To get mentally prepared for the babe, we started our baby classes!  We have a labor & delivery prep class, and Newborn Care this month.  In March, we have Breastfeeding and CPR classes.  We had our first labor prep class last night and I was fully expecting total awkward-ness and to be uncomfortable...but it turned out pretty fun and a little funny.  Our instructor was really cool and looked, acted, and talked exactly like Jane Lynch (love her), so that it made it enjoyable and pretty hilarious at times.  Plus, there were 13 other couples there which made it much less awkward since there were so many people.  We watched some videos (yikes), ate cookies & juice (yay!) and practiced some breathing and massages (yes, please).  So, all in all it wasn't too bad.  We have two more of the labor classes to go and in the last one we'll be taking a tour of the hospital and maternity ward!

Our house is slowly getting baby-ready.  B and I started putting together the fifty million baby accessories we got for our shower (thank you everyone!)  Well, B is putting them together and I am reading instructions.  Bullet is helping by ripping the cardboard off of everything to get it opened.  We've already assembled the high chair, playpen, and swing.  They are all so cute and not too bad to put together.  We left the high chair and swing up where they'll be in the house (even though we still have 2.5 months to go) so the animals get used to them being there.

Speaking of animals...We have been working with Bullet each day to get him baby ready as best as we can.  As hilarious as it is, I have resorted to treating a stuffed mouse doll like a baby and carrying it around the house and singing to it (if only it cried like a baby).  I put the mouse doll in the high chair and swing and try to do all kinds of annoying things with them (roll them around near his face, push the swing, etc) and as long as Bullet doesn't bite or bark at them (he can sniff) he gets a treat.*  He's been doing really well so far and hasn't been biting or even really touching either of them even when I'm not playing mouse baby practice.  He likes coming into the baby's room then and helping put the mouse baby to sleep- hahhaha.  It is so funny, he sticks his nose through the slats and stares at the mouse baby and then trots out of the room quietly.  I hope he acts just like that when the real baby comes with all his screaming and poop-stinking.

*As much as I would like to take credit for this ingenious technique for preparing the pup for the babe; I borrowed the idea from a therapy dog video I searched on youtube.  This is how they prepare dogs to go into hospitals to work with patients by getting them accustomed to unusual pieces of equipment (i.e. crutches and walkers).