Sunday, April 22

Shower Preparations, Nervousness & Excitement

As we are getting closer to the arrival of baby Cloud-Gibb, I am overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of love and support we have received from our family and friends.  I keep telling Joe that I wish we could give back something to everyone that has been a part of this experience with us.  I am overwhelmed because I feel that there is no way that we could ever repay everyone for their kindness and generosity.  If you are reading this, I am talking about you.  I feel unbelievably humbled by the positive energy and support you all have given us.  There is no way that I could ever express to the full extent just how genuinely appreciative we are.  

To be completely candid, in the first weeks after finding out the news I was terrified.  I was paralyzed with trepidation and anxiety.  You think so many things: Am I capable?  Am I strong enough? Am I ready? Can I make someone else my priority?  Have I done everything I wanted to do before kids?... all of the things that you think about when you consider having children.  

Nowadays, I feel more capable each week that goes by. Each week I feel better supported.  Stronger.  More confident in both my intuition and my life experience; in using what I've learned over the course of my life to be a better person and parent to the Little Guy.  Now instead of thinking about all of the stuff I haven't done yet, I am thinking of all of the stuff I cant WAIT to do with him.  We have had many adventures.  But we will have sooooo many more with him and starting a life together.  In many ways, this is the funnest, most amazing adventure we will ever take together!

Having expressed how I have been feeling lately (and thank you for listening), I'd like to now share about the weekend we've just had.  My sister came up this weekend to talk, do, plan all things shower-related.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, adding to a weekend that was filled with an infectious positive energy.  It really was a wonderful weekend with family and friends!  

We went over to Georgina and Duncan's house where the shower will be and did some planning with Auntie G, my sis, Llynds & Jenni.  We spent the afternoon list-making, giggling at Jenni, and getting excited about plans for the shower.  Immediately following the shower planning we rewarded ourselves with an outdoor fro-yo break.  Then headed to the park for some belly-pictures at the behest of people around us!  Here are the pictures of the party planning committee, sister time and belly pictures:

Party Planning Committee. An array of expressions happening here.
Requisite laughing picture.


Seriously fun.

Pretending to be pensive and thoughtful.
All smiles.  What a team! What. a. team.
Before decorations.
Trying to upstage me.

Goobers.
Building a human in there.

Little Man!






32 weeks.

Auntie B.


best sister in the world.

Sunday, April 15

Childbirth Classes


This weekend we took two 6-hour installments of a childbirthing class at the hospital where we will deliver.  (And this was the abbreviated version!)  The classes were ultra-informative and we both left feeling very glad that we'd taken them.

Joe kept me laughing to whole time (as usual).  From nipple quips to funny, idiosyncratic breathing 'techniques'  - never a dull moment with this guy!

Here are some mini stories accompanied with pictures (sorry for the quality!):

Believe it or not, Joe was the king of swaddling!  He  was excellent at wrapping the fake baby into a perfect burrito   As seen above, he is practicing Kangaroo care and bouncing with the fake baby.

Baby looked drugged!  So...I have to admit, I was definitely not as good at swaddling than Joe.  However, I had down the burping actions.  Fascinating, I know.


View from the room we were in!  Found myself distracted by the view but noticed that Joe was enthralled by the content of the course!  He ate up all the advice during the class.  With the exception of the birthing video.... I thought he was going to puke!

During an exercise, they had us draw the scene of baby's birth.  This is Joe and I's collaborative drawing.  Things I want to point out that Joe included: himself standing by the bed holding ice chips and honey sticks.  He put a dialogue bubble with him blabbing.  Then he drew his (VERY SMALL) man chair that converts into a bed.  The flat screen tv (very important).  The other thing he put in there was a feeding tube into my mouth. HAHAHA.  I had to explain to him that a.) I can't eat during labor and b.) I will not lose the use of my stomach during labor.
I wish I had a picture of Joe's actual face.  However, while performing the above positions with our partners, Joe had to perform pressure points on my hands for a pain relief exercise.  The result was him making me laugh SO HARD at the faces he was making and the ridiculous 'hoo hoo heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' breathing noises he was making.  I couldn't take the exercises seriously because I had the world's goofiest birthing partner :)

In all - the classes were a great success.  I'm still terrified but there is something empowering about knowing all of the options/scenarios and being educated on them.  I can't really imagine if Joe wouldn't have taken this class.  He said after watching the birthing video 'well...... I'm going to toughen up FAST'.  True.  So. True!

Joe's New J-O-B

With the news of baby's upcoming arrival, we decided that it was time for Joe to get out of his former job.  Extensive travel for weeks at a time leaving Ellie and I alone = no good for Little Man.

So after months of searching, Joe landed a position with TicketsWest as a Project Manager.  So far, its been pretty darn good.  He likes his co workers. He likes that it keeps him home.  They treat him with respect.  Not to mention, there are perks....

Namely that he gets tickets to events: Rockies, Buffs games, concerts, festivals, Avs games, etc!  He also got his own parking spot and his own office!  I told him to be proud of these accomplishments.  It'll be something to brag about to his son when he comes.  When he first got in his office he said 'what am I going to put in there to make it more my own?'   We both got excited about the idea that soon we will be able to put up pictures of our SON in his office :)

Anyway, here are some pictures of Joe in his office and of us taking advantage of the 'perks':

Rockies' Home Opener!

Its a celebration!

Wednesday Night game.  AWESOME seats!

quality time with Ryan

Sisters!

under the umbrella at the Rockies game during a downpour.

Joe's office!

Doesn't he look official?


Lunch breaks on 16th Street together.