It's the final countdown...

...da na na na...da na na na na...Since the blog doesn't have music, I figure'd I'd try to get the Rocky song stuck in your head so you kind of have music while you read... You're welcome!

Well we're definitely down to the final countdown. Our due date is a month away, but we're thinking this baby is going to come early just to mess with us! At my doctor's appointment last week, the midwife said I was 80% effaced, dilated 1 cm, and the baby was at a +1. Since that was my first time being checked out, I was a bit shocked (freaked out might be a better description). Then, to top it all off, I started having contractions quite frequently, to the point that I didn't sleep well Monday or Tuesday night (the lack of sleep was not great for my emotional well-being, and for one of the first times I was a pregnant wreck). Fortunately the contractions were irregular, so it wasn't labor- phew!

Anyway, I guess one good thing about getting so close is that it's motivated us to get ready (comparatively speaking of course). We finally went and bought a carseat to bring the baby home. That was an hour ordeal at Babies'R'Us. First we had to decide whether to get a travel system (carseat and stroller combo) or buy the two separately. We decided to go with the combo, but only after we checked and priced all of the options. Then we had to check out the combos. We chose one cheap, one mid-range, and one expensive, and proceeded to push them around, fold and unfold the strollers, take out and put in the carseat, carry around the carseat, etc. We ended up buying the expensive model because it was so much easier to use (you get what you pay for) and we're definitely happy with our purchase- though it's currently sitting in the box in the garage! The crazy thing is that after all that, the one we bought is the one we registered for and that we've liked from the get-go. I guess we just needed to convince ourselves that it really was worth the price! Aside from buysing a carseat and stroller, we also registered for the diaper service (we're going with cloth diapers and the service takes care of all of the laundering), and started looking into insurance and pediatricians. Now all we need is a place for the baby to sleep and a place to change the baby and we'll be set!

PS- We took maternity photos yesterday, which was a ton of fun and the ones we've seen so far turned out great! Hopefully Mark will post some of them on the blog (the photographer posted them to Facebook and I'm not sure how to get pictures from Facebook to the blog). We went with a "Bellies and Babies" package, so we also get newborn pictures when the baby is born. Although it's a bit expensive, it's something we'll always have and never regret!