Need Some Advice

Okay, here's the deal: Off and on since we've been expecting little M the dogs have been relieving themselves the house. We aren't sure if it is one or both dogs, but we are getting rather annoyed by the repeat occurrences. D has threatened to get rid of the guilty culprit, but I am rather hesitant. Other than the messing, we have great dogs that we both love very much.

I did a little research to see if the accidents were related to pregnancy. What I discovered was not too surprising to me. Dogs have a very acute sense of smell and can smell the different hormones that a pregnant woman produces. It is not unusual for dogs (and other pets) to behave differently when a family is expecting. The behavior may vary from remoteness, overprotectiveness, behavioral changes (such as accidents), etc.

Do dogs (and other pets) sometimes see a pregnant woman and/or the unborn child as a threat or do they simply sense change and feel the need to react? Regardless, does anyone have any practical advice for us on how to stop this unacceptable behavior? I desperately want to introduce our new baby into our home with acceptance from all our pets.

Expectant Mother's Hospital Checklist

Only 12 weeks remaining until little M is scheduled to arrive! In addition to the at-home preparations, I have prepared a hospital checklist. Being resourceful, I used on-line resources, such as:

Beginner Baby
MS Template

These are not the do-all, end-all checklists, but they will get me started.

I found another useful checklist from Pampers. Now all I need to do is pack the bag! (Comment added on Saturday, 9/20/08)

Question for the moms out there: What did you find useful to pack for the hospital and/or what do you wish you'd had with you during labor and delivery?

Your input is most helpful!

Happy Saturday to all.

Updates

Not many comments have been posted on the blog, so I figured not many people were reading it. After speaking with friends and family, it was apparent that people were reading the baby blog and were disappointed that there weren't more posts. Being the perfectionist that I am (I am my mother's daughter) and after taking advantage of UK Human Resources Training & Development courses, I have updated the blog with a few new posts. I also used my new HTML training skills to reformat old posts to be more aesthetically pleasing. Thanks to everyone for your patience with the blog. Please DO leave comments, for I enjoy the input and feedback.

If you prefer not to leave a comment on the blog here, please

e-mail me: here

A special congratulations to Dr. MB who defended her doctoral defense yesterday. She did such a great job (I was fortunate enough to sit in on the defense)! D & I were unable to make it to M's late night celebration--yes, I fell asleep on the couch before 9 pm! [My early slumber is no surprise to close friends, as many have experienced it at least once (or twice). I swear I am not narcoleptic; I just don't do late nights well any more! :-( ]

We hope everyone has a great weekend! D is golfing this morning and I plan to clean the house and work on my capstone.

For those of you who have no clue what I am referring to, I have been slowly, but surely working on the Master's level capstone (a condensed version of a thesis) to complete the Master's in Public Health (MPH) since before finishing MPH courses last spring. Being the excuse person that I am, I have let moving twice in less than six months, job hunting, working full time, building a house with D, and getting pregnant get in the way of finishing my capstone (AKA crapstone) in time!?! The capstone is almost finished, thanks so constant reminders from my committee chair Dr. C. (a true Godsend), my boss Dr. K. and Dr. S. in addition to encouraging friends. The end is in sight as I finish statistical analysis on the results section and complete the discussion and conclusions. Woo hoo, fingers crossed that I stay on track and defend the capstone before little M arrives!!!

Here's an idea of what little M looks like now (at 27 weeks):

27 Weeks Pregnant

Only 88 days until our due date!

The Baby Belly

Several of you have asked to see photos of me as I've grown throughout the pregnancy. I finally convinced D to take some photos and I have FINALLY uploaded the photos.

Here I am at 14 weeks:

I started showing a lot after 20 weeks. Here are two 24 week photos:




Here are two 25 week photos:


Some of the critters wanted to be in the photos!
Can't wait to see the reactions after little M arrives...

First Baby Shower (D's Family & Friends)

Over the extended weekend, I flew to NJ to see the in-laws. Dino's cousin-in-law 'Mrs. J' and my mother-in-law 'Mom-Mom' organized a baby shower for us. It was phenomenal! Not only did I get to meet some family and friends of my hubby, but was also showered with numerous great gifts for little M!

Baby showers in NJ are a little different from Southern baby showers (from my experiences, anyway). The baby was held at a restaurant instead of a house (no preference, just a different setting and tone). The food was all prepared by the restaurant and was more formal--good food by the way, yummy Italian!

There was a diaper cake and diaper favors on the table--so cute--and I can use the diapers later!

Thanks so much, Mrs. J!

Auntie J was conscious of my latex allergy and ordered Mylar balloons. The kids enjoyed these so much that they all took home a set...in addition to Cocie (she's a kid at heart)!


Auntie J & Mom-Mom thought of everything. There was even an activity table for the kids. The girls were very busy and so good during the shower! They really seemed to enjoy themselves!



They even made goodies for little M!

There were two cakes (the hostesses had individual favorites so they incorporated both of their tastes). A cake from Sweet Eats Bakey was my cake of choice; it was filled with caramel creme and covered with white chocolate shavings--yummy!




If the girls weren't cute enough, they even offered to be helpers with the gifts!
Too Cute!

The favors for guests were beautiful and very thoughtful. Auntie N knows how much I love coffee, so she placed a biscotti and a single serving of coffee in a glass coffee mug!
Caption: A Baby is Brewing!
K's Baby Shower
July 5, 2008
...Thanks so much, Auntie N & Uncle N!

All of the guests shared advice for the expectant mother (much needed, I might add). Thanks for all of the advice; it'll come in handy when little M arrives!

Here is a photo of Mom-Mom with all of her daughter-in-laws:
Mom-Mom with all her Grand-Baby Mamas

Another shower tradition is the bow hat. Regardless of my reluctance, I had to put on the bow hat:

There were others who seemed to enjoy the bow hat a bit more than me. There was even one who made her own bow hat...
What cute little cheesers they were; very much enjoying the hat!

On top of a great shower, I was surprised with my Mom in attendance. She and her hubby chose to drive to NJ and then vacation for the next few weeks on the East Coast. They love lighthouses, wine, and seafood--so they are all set. They are also getting in to cycling and have rented bike to ride while on vacay.

Mom-Mom (D's Mom), Me, & Oma (My Mom)

Since I flew, I was only able to return home with baby clothes and stuffed animals (all the light stuff). When I returned home, I showed D all the cutie outfits and shared with him who it was from. I don't think he was as excited as me...silly guys. ;-D Mom-Mom is shipping some of the big stuff to us. My Mom took some of the stuff with her...unfortunately, daddy D won't get to see it for a few weeks.

Thanks Auntie J for letting me crash at your house. In addition to co-hostessing a shower, she helped decorate a float for the Cub Scouts (which won first place), and looked after her two kids, three pups, and hubby. She is amazing! She even showed me how to swaddle by demonstrating with her puppy, Sammie!
Sammie was a good sport

Thanks Mom-Mom for toting me around NJ and PA and for spoiling your unborn grandson SO MUCH; you'll have to stop before you go bankrupt!

Thanks again to all of our NJ family and friends for baby M's great gifts!

Weird Dreams and Acid Reflux

Well it's the middle of week 23 and I have been experiencing acid reflux for over a week now. I cannot really complain since I didn't experience morning sickness, but it is burdensome. Others have (unheededly) suggested ways to to prevent reflux, but it hasn't really worked. I experience acid reflux from drinking water!

Weird dreams have plagued me since the beginning of M's conception. Bizarre dreams are nothing new to me. I should journal about my dreams and sell the ideas to Hollywood for horror films. I had not been surprised by these dreams in the past because I have been watching horror and thriller movies since age seven (shh, don't tell the 'rents). Since the dreams now occur more recently, they tend to stand out more. In addition to freaky, scary dreams, I have had a few pregnancy-related dreams. Nothing really out of the ordinary I suppose for pregnant women, but not right in terms of our stage and the actual status of pregnancy.

Has any one of my fellow preggers experienced either of these occurrences during pregnancy? I would love to hear about your experiences, as there is power in numbers!

The newest development around the house includes washing all of M's new clothes from newborn to six months that Mom-Mom J gave us. Thanks Mom-Mom--baby M will be a well dressed baby.

She is so generous! Gotta love that baby detergent smell! I then proceeded to hang all of the clean clothes in M's closet and categorize by size, of course...shocker.

Next came washing all of the stuffed animals I had collected over the years. Not really sure why I had purchased the critters at the time, but it now makes sense as I plan to accent M's room with animals.

This is daddy D's idea of prepping the nursery

and the rest of the house. One can never be too safe, I suppose!

Can't wait to get the current spare bedroom furniture moved downstairs and start decorating the nursery! Alas, the excitement must ensue until we actually have things to put in the nursery.
  ;-)

Registries Complete...

D and I underwent the excitement of the baby registry while in NJ a few weeks ago. All of the research I did was helpful--excluding the nursery bedding. Thanks everyone for providing your input with the bedding, although we chose to go another direction. D must have felt a little left out with the pregnancy, so he got a little power hungry with the registry. Frustrations aside, we decided on bedding at Babies R Us:

Of course, this was not on the list of bedding I had previously selected, but it is something we both agreed on for M's room.

The nursery furniture was another ordeal. The crib we had originally chosen had been discontinued due to product recall--yikes! We were stuck choosing new furniture in the store. It was a challenge for us to find something that we both liked. We ended up agreeing on some Mahogany pieces. Ask Mom-Mom J for more details; she helped us with the registry and got a kick out of D's reaction to the entire event.

If you'd like to view some of our picks for the baby, go here for Babies R Us or Target. We hope all is well with everyone!