First Week Off, and a Baby Shower

I didn't do much during my first week off of work, which was sort of nice. I did do a quick arts & craft project for the nursery - a mirror to hang on the wall over the changing station.

I also spent some time washing clothes and blankets for the baby and organizing them by size. Of course, after the baby shower on Saturday, I had lots more adorable outfits for Baby Fraser! I also got these adorable handmade baby blankets (the darker pink one on the upper-right was made by my Mom and the quilted one below it was made by my neighbor and shower host, Lorie Jo).Yesterday, I bought the lamp in the background because Lawrence didn't like the light that previous torchiere lamp made in the room. This new one is a bit too short, in my opinion, but it will probably make a nice reading lamp for us.

The baby shower was a blast. It was great to see some folks from work that I haven't seen in several months (from my last job), and some people knew each other from long ago and were able to catch up with each other after years of not seeing one another. Of course it was also great seeing my friends again even though we just saw most of them at our pool party last weekend. Baby Fraser and I got lots of really useful and fun stuff, including parenting advice. And we played a game that consisted of looking at baby pics of Lawrence and I and trying to guess how old we were in each picture. I did a horrible job of guessing, even for my own pictures! It was fun, though (thanks to our Moms for sending the pics to Lorie Jo!).

Other than filling my time last week making the mirror and doing some laundry, I took a few short walks and shopped on the internet (a lot). I think after the shower gifts and all the things I bought last week get here, I'll be pretty much done with baby shopping for awhile! I did a bunch of research on diapers and wipes and signed up for Amazon's Subscribe and Save service. Lorie Jo made a beautiful diaper cake for the shower that will provide some newborn diapers (and I bought a few packs at CVS as well). Then we'll be using Seventh Generation from Amazon for awhile (assuming they work well). For wipes, I went the cheap route - Pampers Baby Fresh Wipes. I know that's not very earth-friendly, but it's better than what our Kaiser Newborn Care instructor said to use - wipes are not recommended due to the chemical additives, and they recommend using cotton balls and pads! That sounded way too messy for me, and I would have ended up using handfuls of them at each changing. I do plan to try it and see, but I'm being realistic.

Other purchases include a baby monitor with day & night video, a tower fan for the baby's room (we learned in our Newborn Care class that SIDS cases go down by 72% when a fan is in use!), and most of the remaining "necessary" items from my registry. The nursery bedding should finally arrive this week, as well (likely on Friday). It will be a busy week at our UPS Store mailbox! I also went shopping yesterday to buy a few things for the hospital bag, like popsicles, a handheld fan, nursing pads and lanolin (which I need for after the hospital as well), slippers, and a few other odds and ends. Today I'm going to pack the hospital bag. Lawrence still hasn't installed the car seat, though! I can tell the baby isn't that close, though, because last night she continually kicked me in the ribs when I laid on my right side - she must still be too high up there! I'll find out for sure at the 38 week doctor's visit tomorrow.