One month to go!!

The days are quickly dwindling til Austyn's due date. I'm now 35 weeks along and feeling the changes everyday. The smallest portion of my body has morphed into the largest part of my body in eight months and supporting the difference is taking a toll on my lower back. But thank goodness I have my chiropractor around to help out the aches in between! (enough complaining for now) :)

I realize as it is getting closer to time of delivery how appreciative I am of Ben. These last few weeks of us having alone time is becoming more special and I get very emotional these days at the thought of us becoming parents very soon! I tell him frequently that I can't wait til the day he comes home from work and I hear Austyn screaming "DADDY'S HOME!!!" It makes me giggle with excitement!

We start our prenatal classes this evening. I'll be receiving a 36 week checkup at the doctor next Tuesday to have some standard tests ran. One of which is strep B which I was told we can opt out of if we like. Upon doing research I'll probably decline the test. After the appointment, Maria will be coming to our home for her first visit and to begin our weekly prenatal appoints with her! From that point on she'll be on call to service us as we need. Oh, I also attended a Leleche League meeting a couple of weeks ago. I received lots of good information on breastfeeding. I'm not sure why but I think I may have more anxieties about breast feeding than I actually do with the delivery. This natural feeding process is very important for us to carry out. Breastfeeding has many added benefits and I will most likely continue attending these classes for the support and education.

We now have our birthing pool in the home, ordering our birthing kit this week, and heading to Little Rock for a very special baby shower thrown by my good friends Emily Choate and Lauren Jarratt. Mom and Ducky will be flying in for it and I'm delighted I'll get to be seeing them soon along with all the other important mamas in my life! Ben has a chiropractic council conference he'll be attending all weekend. So he'll miss out on all the shower fun ;) but we're looking forward to getting out of town one last time before baby day!

One last thing: we traveled to Atoka, Tn last weekend to visit Ben's mom's (Mimi's) sisters. She has 5 other sisters total and they all made it in with their children. I've never had a family reunion before so this was a bit overwhelming for me, but we had a great time visiting! The pictures of Ben and I here were taken on Aunt Susan's porch.

All else is well. It's Tuesday, the windows are open and birds are chirping. Ben is off today and steadily still snoozing away in bed. We've got some yard work to do and then heading off to Downtown Bentonville to ride bikes in the gorgeously landscaped Compton Gardens. Going to be a great day and looking forward to beginning classes tonight! More to come (very soon)

KELLY