2 updates- Good dog and Day care

We have 2 exciting updates from last week: First, we had a dog trainer come to the house to give us tips on acclamating Kona to the baby. Second, we checked out an in-home day care.

Kona learns new tricks

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at a red light behind an SUV with an advertisment painted on the back window for a company called "Pawsitive Results". I've never acted on a vehicle advertisment before, but this proved to be very helpful! Craig and I had been talking about how we were going to make the transition from baby-free to baby-focused around Kona. I decided to call the company advertised on the SUV and made an appointment for the trainer to come to the house and help us learn how to make this transition as easy as possible for our "first baby".

Terry, the trainer, came to the house on Thursday night and taught us some really great tips/tricks. The biggest tip she gave us is NOT to give the most attention to Kona while Ethan is sleeping. This was my biggest misconception. You'd think this would be a good idea, but Terry made a valid point- we want Kona to associate the baby with a positive result, not negative. So, when Kona is around the baby, we are going to give her a Kong with a treat in it so she starts to recognize the baby as a positive. She gets something good (treat, food, attention) when Ethan's around.

We're also training her to sit and wait at the door to the nursery when we walk in with the baby. This way, if we won't trip over her, she won't try to lick the baby to death, jump up on the bed when Ethan's on there being changed or something, etc. So, we're training her to sit and wait and rewarding her with treats that we're keeping in his room. She's doing really well so far. We have a lot more work to do with her before Ethan arrives though.

We want to train her not to put her paw on you/us/Ethan when she wants your attention. It's super cute, but not if she does it to the baby. So, we have to stop allowing her to do it to us. We also want her to "ask permission" to get on the couch. Meaning, we don't mind if she's on the couch with us, but we want her to sit in front of us when she wants to get up on the couch. In order to do this, we have to put items on the couch that prevent her from jumping up on her own. This way, when she wants up, she'll puppy churp to get up and we'll move it to allow her. This is going to be harder on Craig and I than on her because it takes a lot of work to train ourselves to block the couch off each time we're on it. But, the end result will be worth it so Kona doesn't get all excited and hyper and jump all over the place.

Terry also gave us a list of great dog toys that use a lot of mental stimulation that will wear her out during the day and be really healthy for her. She also recommended discountinuing her food bowl and strickly putting her day's supply of food in these toys (which is what they're meant for) and make her play to get the kibble out. These toys are so cool, one is a cube that you put a cups worth of kibble in and as she plays with it, it will drop out some food when it's turned at a certain angle. It's good for their mental health as well as making her eat slower too.

In-Home Day Care

We got a great recommendation from our friend Erica Fox for an in-home daycare in Oviedo, FL. She came highly recommended so Craig and I went to check out on Friday. Her name is Sheila and she watches 6 kids (all under 2 years old) in her home. She has 3 spots opening up in June which is right around the time we'll start to need her. Her home was very clean and we both felt really comfortable with her too. All of the kids huddled around her the whole time we were there so she either had candy in her pockets or they all really like her :)

Her weekly charge is really reasonable and includes food once the child is past the milk stage. She keeps a notebook for each child throughout the day logging when they ate, what they ate, how long they slept, etc. She has a crib in each room of the house so that the kids don't bother each other. She uses the family room as the main play area which is really nice and open. The kids dance, play games, watch movies, etc all day. She keeps infants in the room attached and in view if they're in the swing or sleeping. She's located in Oviedo which is kind-of on Craig's way to work, but not directly. She's about 20 minutes from our house and about 15 minutes from Craig's work. We feel really good about her though so if she's the person we go with, the drive will be worth it. We have a few more places to interview, but so far we're feeling pretty good about our options. We'll keep you posted.

New Nursery Pictures

Thanks to Ikea (and Craig's amazing skills at putting together Ikea furniture and shelves!), we've done some more work to the nursery. Check out a couple pictures. We'll post more when we get the crib bedding delivered and wall decals up. Enjoy!

Bump shot January 21st (31 weeks)

31 weeks pregnant (61-ish days to go!!!)

Adorable pacifier we found at Babies R Us...Craig would only let me buy one :(

Baby Shower

What a wonderful weekend we're having! Craig's Mom and Stepdad came in town on Friday morning and we've been having a great time with them. Then, yesterday, Linda and Randy (two family friends) threw me a baby shower in Tampa. We drove over and I spent the day there laughing and oh-ah-ing  :) It was the best baby shower I could have hoped for. We had about 15 family and friends that were able to make it- from Wisconsin, Orlando, Tampa, Palm Harbor, Tallahassee, Gainesville, New Port Richey all over! I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family. We played games like word scramble, word search and my favorite...guess how much ribbon it will take to wrap around my waist! That was hilarious. Turns out, I'm smaller than I look  :) We had a great time. Here are some pictures from the party...

Erica, me, Kim, Stephanie

 Kim, Courtney, me, Stephanie, Julie

 Welcome Ethan cake

 Bibs that Randy and Linda made to spell Ethan

 Presents!

 Adorable diaper cake Stephanie made

 Already practicing hands-free tasks- I'm a goof ball, roll with it  :)

 Ethan's Mom, Grandma and Great Grandma

 Kim and Me

 Ethan's Grandma, Mom, Great Grandma and Grandma

 Let them (more like me) eat cake! P.S. this is also the bump shot of the week- 30 weeks

 This was the 4th picture they took and I'm like, "Enough pictures, I want to eat cake!"  :)

 Craig and I before presents

 Courtney at 20 weeks and me at 30 weeks

 Keepsake for Ethan's room- it's the ultrasound pic indicating he's a boy signed by everyone at the shower

So awesome!

 Craig putting together the toy box from Aunt Poppy and Uncle Don

 High chair from Grandma Kris and Grandpa Kit

 Toy Box complete

 

Mommy's Sippy Cup sent by Brandon and Jenn- So excited to be able to "sip" again in a few months



Baby Bump 29 weeks

29 weeks down...11 more to go!

Great news! I called for the results of my gestational diabetes test and it came back normal. Yeah! Bring on the milkshakes!!!

Sugar

Well, I completed the gestational diabeties test on Monday mornning. It's wasn't nearly as bad as people described to me. I actually liked the sugary drink you have to take before you can get your blood drawn an hour later. (Jenn B., you were right! Can I have seconds???) They nurse said they'd call me ONLY if it came back positive for diabeties. So, if I'm positive I should hear by today or tomorrow. Cross your fingers! On Friday, if I haven't heard anything, they said I could call to confirm the negative results. I'll keep you posted.

That same day, Craig and I went to meet our first pediatrician, Dr. Richard Rodriguez in Maitland, FL. We got the recommendation from a friend of Craig's at work and we thought he was great. He definitely had the personality you'd hope for in a children's doctor. He was a little crazy and hyper, but I can see Ethan eating it up. We also like the way the practice is run. He said he taked his time seeing each patient and doesn't rush through explainations of what's going on. Which I definitely appreciate considering I can barely keep up with MY doctors let alone our baby's doctor. Sometime I feel like I need a medical dictionary when I go in. Dr. Rich doesn't seem like the type I'm used to. Thank goodness! He's also very accessible after hours too. We're going to check out a few more doctors to make sure we're "hiring" the right man (or woman). We'll keep you updated.

Nursery in the making

Happy New Year from Craig and Erin!!!!

(before I get "hate" comments, I'm drinking non-alcoholic champagne)  :)

Well, we sure have been busy this weekend! We finally got started on the nursery and are having a lot of fun with it. On Friday we picked out a crib and Craig set it up the next day. In order to set up the crib a lot of rearranging had to be done to the "guest" room. We pushed the queen bed up against the wall, removed a dresser (new location: hallway of living room as a buffet type thing), cleaned out the closet (80% of closet was full of purses), put OTHER dresser in closet, and removed all the "crap" that was in there. So, now our LIVING room looks like a tornado hit it, my car is full of donations for the Salvation Army and we filled up 2 trash bags full of stuff. And, we're not even done!

After Craig set up the crib, he installed the baby monitor cam above it to the left so we have a full view of Ethan.We also bought black out curtains because the sun can be pretty intense through the blinds in the late afternoon. There's not much room in the new nursery, but we're making it work. I think we'll appreciate the bed still being in there, in the end, because we can use it to change the baby, sleep, fold clothes, etc. For now on the other hand, it feels constrictive. Another couple years and hopefully we'll be able to upgrade to a larger house. Till then, it will do. Craig was also sweet enough to organize all the baby clothes we have, so far, into the closet dresser by age and type of item. I know this is the most organized Ethan's clothes will ever be so we'll relish in it while we can.

We also added a bunch of stuff to our registries on Target.com and Amazon.com. I received a list of suggested items and realized I'd forgotten some main things we might need. In addition to "shopping" today, I also found a breast pump on CraigsList.com that was only used once and it's the Medela "Advanced" Breast Pump (yes, my plan is to overachieve in this area too...LOL). It was worth about $400 (crazy!!!) but I bought it once-used for $110. I even played with it...Kona's scared to death of it, I might be a little too :) We'll get used to it though. I'm sure when I look back on all of these "new mom" things, in 10 years, I'll think "wow, I used to think most of this stuff was crazy...breast pumping, swaddling, etc" all these new terms I'm learning about!

Here are some pictures of the guest room conversion into a combo nursery room...

Kona hanging out wondering what's going on

Blackout curtains (dark brown)

Closet with dresser and finally some room to work with

Crib that Craig built (drawer on the bottom of it)

Crib with Baby Monitor Camera hooked up

Far corner of room, not much space to work with