Update

I am happy to report that after 3 days of bedrest followed by partial bedrest, the contractions have stayed away. I went to the doctors' office for a checkup today, and baby Isabel checked out great and so did mom. The doctor feels that Saturday's incident was isolated, and not a sign of anything more serious...just a sign I needed to slow down. To be on the safe side I am still to take it easy. I'll continue to work half days at the office, followed by half days at home to keep my stress & activity levels down. I don't have to remain feet up for 20 hours a day, but at the same time need to keep it low key, and just enjoy relaxing. Which I think I can handle, as I have a feeling relaxing days will not be in my future for the next 18 years or so :).

Our "special" hospital tour

Well, this morning mom-to-be took a little spill on some ice while walking the dogs. As a precaution, the doctor had us come to the hospital to make sure Isabel was doing ok. Turns out, Isabel is great, and remains a healthy and active baby. Mom on the other hand was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart, not a good thing for a mom carrying a 32 week old baby! So I was put on IV fluids and given some high powered drugs to stop the contractions. Thankfully the drugs worked, and the contractions stopped, but I now have a lot more limitations. Turns out, I was starting to have the contractions earlier in the week, but didn't recognize them as such. I'm now on complete bedrest for the next three days, and then will be allowed to try a few partial days of working, provided that the contractions don't come back. Certainly made for an interesting Saturday morning! The hospital staff is great though, and it will be a wonderful place to deliver Isabel, hopefully in 8 weeks or so. Geoffrey is already being the great husband he is, and is doing my normal weekend chores, and has started planning out what he'll be making for dinner the next few days. I am doing a good job of keeping the couch warm, and checking email, reading and watching food network.

Isabel's nursery completion has now been put on hold for a while, and the finishing touches will most likely be done by Geoffrey. If he has time, I'll get him to take a few pictures. :)

Mommy Filled Weekend

On Saturday Megan hosted a lovely baby shower for me and Isabel. The theme was "afternoon tea" and we dined on scones with clotted cream and jam, cucumber sandwiches, teach cookies and caramel apple crumb cake. We played some fun games and Isabel received many fun gifts. The best part though was spending time with such a great group of women. Isabel is very blessed to have so many people ready to welcome her. And she'll certainly need these women, since she is currently lacking in the Aunt department.

The beautiful display of food and tea.
I got to get some good baby practice in with Megan's 6 month old son, Nathan. He's such a good baby and I hope that Isabel was taking good notes.

Of course everyone who attend the shower was special to me (and Isabel) but I'll mention 2 of them. Here I am talking to Kathy Evans who has known me since the day I was born and threw a baby shower for me and mom, before I was born.

Katie even flew in from Atlanta for the shower!

We played three games at the shower, and the most fun was the "guess the baby item game." First I had to be blindfolded and guess about 15 common baby items (diaper pins, baby food, baby spoons etc). Since Geoffrey happened to be home, we all decided it would be fun to have him give it a go. Although he didn't get a perfect score like mommy, he did a great job hamming it up. It also showed me that I should probably start some basic baby lessons, as he had never heard of "butt creme."

Group shot

Sunday was followed up by more mommy fun, when I hosted my pregnant moms' group. There are 11 of us in the group and we all have due dates within a month of one another. We get together to eat, socialize and talk about all the fun changes going on with our bodies that most of our non-pregnant friends and spouses probably get sick of hearing about. Yesterday's meetup also doubled as a breastfeeding class. Here's the group (minus 3 gals) with our dolls, who helped up practice the various nursing holds.

What a fun weekend! It is still hard to believe that Isabel should be arriving in about 2 months. We can't wait to meet her. The nursery is just about done (will post pictures when it is complete), but it isn't too much of a worry since she'll be sleeping in our room for the first couple of months. We still need to install the car seat bases and have them inspected, and I need to pack my hospital bag. We'll be starting our child birth classes in the next few weeks and be meeting with our doula (if you aren't sure what a doula is, try google :) ). I'm really looking forward to the child birth classes and am glad that Geoffrey is being so supportive with everything.

First Flight

On December 15th, Geoffrey achieved his dream of becoming a private pilot. Due to weather and some airplane issues, we weren't able to go flying until today. We had a great time and after I got over the initial shock of

a) how old the airplane was (close to 30 years old) and
b) how small the interior was (TINY!) and

c) my major fear of flying in a small aircraft (which I'd been scared about for at least 2 years)

...I was really able to enjoy our time. We cruised out to Brunswick Maryland, then to Charlestown WV and back home. Here are some shots of what I hope is the first of many more airplane trips.

Here was our ride...a Cessna 172P. As I mentioned earlier, I was really shocked (and a little freaked out) by how old it looked. But Geoffrey assured me that it was just paint, and reminded me that the planes are routinely inspected. Plus, its one of the cheapest airplanes to rent and I'm all for that.

After receiving a pretty extensive pre-flight safety briefing on how to work the seatbelt (its a 2-parter), the window and most importantly the door (incase I had to open it prior to an emergency landing), we were off. We headed down the runway and were in the air in no time and taking in some lovely views of Loudon County and the Potomac.
The trusty pilot.
And his co-pilot. (well not really, but I did a good job of keeping him company and being quiet when someone was talking on the radio)
After leaving Loudon County we flew over the town of Brunswick in Maryland, where Megan, Sam & the boys live. Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of their house...next time.

Some of the controls.
The yoke in the co-pilots seat. I didn't touch it the whole time and had no desire to. Maybe next time I'll get up the nerve to take the controls.
We then flew out to Charlestown, WV, home of the "famous" races and slots. It was then time to turn around and head back to Leesburg, Airport. On the way in Geoffrey was excited to hear that a Piaggio would be landing shortly after us. Here's the Piaggio, which is a much fancier airplane than the one Geoffrey and I traveled on. Its a 5 million dollar aircraft and if anyone is interested, is available for private charter :)... The family that was traveling on this plane even brought along their 2 dogs...so I of course had to snap a picture. Sorry pugs, I don't think we'll be traveling like this anytime soon.