36 Weeks!
Well, only about 4 weeks until the due date! We are going to the doctor every week starting this week, and so far the head is down, the doctor can feel it, and Lauren is about 50% effaced. Progress!
We also started the childbirth series at the hospital - finally. Lauren is the first one due in the class, most of the others are due October, November and even December and she has the smallest belly! Aaron finds this worrisome, Lauren figures she is just carrying more in her middle, but all in all the baby is healthy and there is no need to worry, some people just carry the weight differently. The information is a bit overwhelming and scary - um, epidural, thanks! - but they did do a relaxation exercise and gave a cd talking you through it and Aaron really liked that. They gave us a bunch of worksheets with tips, etc. so we will have to read them over and probably pack some in the bag we will take to the hospital.
Other than that, the room is just about ready, and is looking great. We have to wash the blankets and things we know we will be using right away so that is a project for the next week or so and then Lauren will pack her bag so that it is ready to go. At this point, Lauren is still working and hoping to make it a few more weeks though she is ever more uncomfortable. The baby is making good progress growth wise and if you look at the right moment you can see the blob move! Aaron read that the baby will move away from a flashlight or a frozen/cold spoon when put up against the belly so we tried it last night and finally, he got to see the baby completely move positions. It was very exciting, and we may try to do that a bit more often in the next few weeks or try the flashlight.
Oh, and now we are really not 100% decided on names. We are going back and forth from Hayden to Savannah, but there is always the chance we will see something else we like before she debuts.

Lots to catch up on this week. We had a doctor’s appointment this week and all is looking good. The doctor said Peanut is in the correct position (head down) so that is good, and she is growing very well. The next appointment will be in two weeks and then we go to weekly appointments. Heartbeat still sounds strong and everything is going well.
We had our shower this past weekend and it went really well. Thanks again to Pam, Kelly, Kristin and Lauren’s mom for helping to put it all together. We ended up with a pretty big group and though we feel really bad that we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with everyone, we hope everyone enjoyed themselves because we did. We got a lot of great stuff – overnight Peanut’s room transformed into something that looks like a baby’s room. I will post some pics of the shower when we get some. Thanks again everyone who came, we had a great time.
In other news, we have already attended two classes at our hospital: the maternity tour and childcare basics & car seat safety. The tour was really helpful because they showed us the process of where we go when we check in, etc. Reality! The facilities seem nice and we really like that they keep the baby with you basically all the time, except for morning check-ups. Childcare basics taught us how to swaddle which seems like a miracle if its done correctly. The guy in the video just wraps up these screaming infants, picks them up and holds them on their side and instantly they stop crying. Amazing. Hope we can figure that one out! We got a lot out of the car seat safety portion. They were very knowledgeable and will even inspect the car seat once we put it in which we will definitely take advantage of.

You may have noticed we have changed the title of this blog (again). We have come up with another front-runner for our Peanut's name. We are still considering Hayden, and nothing is definite until we actually meet her, but for now we think we like Savannah Hope the best. But, as I have said before, we have 2 more months so we might come up with something we like even better by then. Stay tuned!