Newborn Care Class

Tonight hubby and I attended the newborn care class that our delivering hospital offers. We signed up for it back in October and at the time it seemed so far away... and then here it was! Talk about time flying!

It was a bit of a fun class and they moved us to the room across the hall from where the previous classes we took were, which was nice as the chairs in there were a million times comfier!

They gave us a packet of info to go over like they did in the other classes and we watched some fun videos about things to know when it comes to your newborn in the first month - how to clean em, things to keep any eye out for, etc.

They gave us fake baby dolls too to practice diapering, swaddling, bathing and dressing - she had enough extras to give a doll to each of the daddy's too so they got to participate as well.

Hubby and I both got the minority dolls - mine was Asian while hubby's was black - the dads seemed to have a bit too much fun with the beanies, styling them all funny!

Some of it was kinda no-brainer stuff, while other stuff was good to know, as I guess some things have changed recently (they no longer recommend using baby powder, you no longer need to wait til the cord stump falls off to bathe baby nor do you need to clean the cord stump with alcohol). They also gave us info about their free car seat checks which they offer once a month, as well as things you get at the hospital like free diapers, cleaning care products, and all that stuff - pretty much you can take anything under your baby's bassinet that isn't the linens. They also do footprints on anything you'd like and there's a photographer that'll take your baby's first photo too if you want.

That reminds me - I need to get started on putting together a baby scrapbook for Jay. I have my follow-up doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so I'm thinking I'll try the other Target afterwards to see about a nursing bra and then stop over at Hobby Lobby or Michaels or even Walmart to check out their scrapbooking stuff!

I also started working on some Mario Bros paintings for our apartment here since we most likely won't be in a house until at least March or April. Since we're having the Pack n Play in our bedroom, I'm doing a painting of the start screen from the original Super Mario Bros to put above that, and then where the changing table/dresser is going in our walk-in closet I'm doing 4 panels each with a classic Mario item - the red magic mushroom, the star, the fire power flower, and the 1-up green mushroom - to hang above there.

When I was at the doctor on Monday they went ahead and scheduled my appointments for next week - next Thursday is the 20th of January... exactly 1 month out from Jay's  due date! That realization kinda scared me! I look forward to meeting him in the flesh but at the same time... it just seems all too soon, like it was just summer/fall! Oh well, can't stop time!

C-sections are scary!

So we had our last Childbirthing class last night.

Last night was slightly boring for me, as I had gotten bored earlier this week and read through the book and other materials they gave us during the first class, so it was basically just a review and going over what I had read recently.

We talked about birthing plans, C-sections, epidurals and other medication and postpartum stuff.

I have to say, reading the materials and then class last night... C-sections seem so scary!!! Hubby reminded me that they give you an epidural and other anesthetics so you don't feel it, but still... you're awake while they cut you open! And then you can't see your baby right away either as you have to go through recovery and yeah... doesn't sound fun! I hope I don't have to have one!

Epidurals don't sound fun either - I'm thinking of opting for some of the lesser pain medication they can give you. I would rather not be drugged out the whole time and risk having Jay be all drugged out too and too sleepy to try breastfeeding as they say it's important to get your baby to do that right away if you're planning on breastfeeding.

Loans, jobs, cars, and labor

It's been a busy last couple of days!

Wednesday hubby and I went back to the bank to see where we were at with our credit and getting pre-approved for a home loan.

Well, we're close - VERY close.

If it weren't for stupid Chase we would have gotten it and been signing paperwork for a home-loan on Wednesday ><

We figured out that the problem was that on my credit report, Chase was correctly reporting the balance each month, but on hubby's they hadn't reported it since January so it still showed him with a balance of like $1300 which is NOT what the balance is. So basically, Chase shows up for him, but isn't correctly giving him credit like it is for me, which makes all the difference in the world as with the correct balance on it, hubby's score is just over the 620 that we need it to be to get the loan.

Here's what happened:
I opened the card about a year ago when I started Mary Kay to purchase my inventory and hubby and I had discussed putting him on the card as well so he would have some revolving credit as the bank lady had suggested we do for hubby as he had no revolving credit. Well, we went back to the bank 3-4 months later and met with a guy that time as we couldn't remember the lady's name and couldn't find her card (I found it after the fact) and he said that because the card was so new, it was hurting hubby's credit a lot and that it would be best to take him off that. So I called Chase and requested he be removed. Then we went in this past September and met with the original lady again and it showed that hubby was still on the Chase card, but since it had been almost year, the balance was a lot lower and counts as revolving credit it was actually helping his score - we figured the girl I talked to at Chase was just an airhead and didn't actually take him off when I requested it, but we decided it's working in our favor now so whatever.

So they took his name off the Chase card but reported the $1300 balance that was on it last January when they took him off to the credit bureau and haven't reported any activity in his name since!

Our bank lady said that since it's already under his credit, adding him back on won't hurt his score at this point as all it will do will report him monthly along with me with the updated balance and will help his score.

So I called Chase as soon as I got home and explained it them - they confirmed hubby is not on the card/account and said we could dispute it to get it completely off his credit, but instead I told them just to add him back onto it and they did. They said "big" changes to the account like that would report quarterly, which won't be til January, however it is possible it'll start reporting for him on this cycle.

Regardless, we're just going to wait to go back in in January - hubby's swamped with work in December so we wouldn't even have time to house hunt together.

Hopefully the next time we go in, all will be good and we'll be signing paperwork!

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In other news, The Children's Place called me back on Wednesday - I start Saturday morning, just to go in and do paperwork and that sort of stuff you do on your first day. I'm pretty excited though as I'm looking forward to having something to do and somewhere to be!

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Also, Progressive called us on Wednesday morning to inform us that our car was ready to be picked up and that the rental needed to be returned by 6pm Thursday otherwise we'd have to pay $30 for each additional day.

A little annoyed, as it was a bit last minute and nearly a week earlier than expected, but we were able to figure something out and I drove the 300miles down to St. Louis yesterday with my mom to keep me awake and help with driving on the way back (it's a 4-5hr drive one day, which is A LOT of driving for a preggo lady to do in one day!). I needed to be back in town just after 6pm too as hubby and I had our childbirthing class at 630pm too so we had to leave by 8am to allow enough time. We did it though and the car looks pretty good!

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And as mentioned, we had our 2nd childbirthing class last night.

This portion of the class consisted mainly of going over the different stages of labor. We got to watch several birthing videos - hubby admitted, that's something he probably could have done without ever seeing, as he's not planning on standing near that end of me when Jay pops out, lol...

I don't want to say I'm scared, but ouch! That's going to hurt - I'm not really looking forward to that part!

It was pretty informative though as they explained some more about contractions and that until they're a minute long, 3-5 minutes apart and last like that for at least an hour then we don't really need to rush to the hospital yet and can work on distracting ourselves at home... unless of course my water breaks, then they want us to come in right away.

I'm still not sure about having an epidural vs. natural - I guess I'm leaning more towards natural, although it might hurt more, but yeah... still not decided which is okay as I should have a good 2-3 months still til it's time. We're going to be talking/learning more about epidurals and all that stuff next week.

First Childbirthing Class

Thursday night hubby and I attended our first childbirthing class at the hospital.

There's 2 other sets of people in our class - another married couple, expecting twins in December, who looked to be about the same age as hubby and I and then there was a slightly younger looking girl, expecting a boy in January, who was there with her mom.

It was interesting and not quite what I was expecting, based off what you see in movies!

The RN that taught this session went through a Powerpoint with us and gave us a bag of goodies (which I have yet to go through as hubby keeps leaving it in the car) as well as a pretty informative book/guide that the hospital put out. We went over a few relaxation and early-labor breathing exercises. We also saw pictures of the Labor and Delivery ward upstairs, explaining how the whole process goes and she showed us some of the devices and such that they use to monitor stuff such as that funky contraction monitor belt I mentioned they had me wear when we were there last week getting checked out after the accident.

We got done a bit early but I felt it was informative - I learned some stuff I didn't know and WOW! She passed around a palette that had circles that showed the different sizes your cervix gets as it dilated - 10cm (which is when they say you can start pushing baby out) is HUGE! I can't even fathom that stretching out that big! Almost kind of scary (and painful) to think about!

They also made hubby and the other soon-to-be daddy try on the pregnant suit and waddle around it for a minute! Hubby claimed it "wasn't that bad" as he's used to lifting and carrying packages at UPS - whatever, having the extra weight on you is only part of it, try dealing with all the hormones and the soreness, etc on a daily basis! lol...

We have 2 more of these childbirthing classes which are this Thursday and the next so we'll be done by Thanksgiving, and then I have a breastfeeding class I'm taking on Monday the 15th, which is also the same day as our next doctor's appointment. We have a newborn care class we're taking also, but that's not until January.

We're going to try and breastfeed if we can and pump a little bit as well. Looking over the price of formula - it's expensive! So we figure if we can do it, it'll save us a bit in the long run and I'd like to pump some as well as I'm not a fan of breastfeeding in public not to mention it'd be nice for hubby to be able to feed Jay at times and then if he's with grandma well, I can send a bottle or 2 of the pumped stuff when she's babysitting so he doesn't have to go hungry. I'm thinking we'll probably breastfeed til about 6 months or so, as that sounds like a good age to wean them off, especially since they can start eating the baby food by then.

I have nothing against those that choose not to - to be honest, I was originally thinking of just doing formula until I realized how expensive that can be. I was formula fed, as was my sister and my cousin that lives near us and while "they" claim it's better to breastfeed than formula feed, we all turned out pretty fine.