Woohoo! Tomorrow is the beginning of week 10!
Dominic and I have decided to move forward with Andaluz Waterbirth Center. He is coordinating with then to finalize our payment plan and then we’ll be able to schedule our first official appointment. I can hardly wait! When we went in for our meet and greet in mid-February the midwife tried to hear the heartbeat with a tummy Doppler thing but it was too early. I should have just told her no when she offered, but I was too excited at the potential of hearing it. Now I’m super anxious to reach this milestone. We’ve decided to make the official announcement about our little surprise once we actually hear the heartbeat. So, moms it is only a matter of time :) You can start praying that Dominic hears back from Andaluz ASAP and that a Friday, March 12th appointment is available. Then you can share all of the good news at work on Friday and at church on Sunday. Thank you so much for your patience during these first few weeks.
This weekend we had our first official “Baby Budget Meeting”. I am sure this will be the first of many knowing how meticulous my finance-minded husband is :) He is doing a great job making sure things are organized and money is set aside for all that is to come. We are going to a huge sale on April 30th at the Portland Expo Center to begin the baby item search … It is called Just Between Friends Sale. It seems to be a huge, baby only, garage sale. We’ll see if it is exciting as it seems to be. Between now and then I am doing lots of research on nursery furniture, baby backpacks, strollers, etc. to determine what things we want to go hunting for. We’re also on the look out for a camera upgrade. What do you all have? Dominic wants something that has video capabilities and I want something user-friendly. I think we are in the $700(ish) investment range … crossing our fingers for a Costco special.
That is where the sage advice comes from … I’m giving a big shout-out to M’Lissa for all of her expert advice over the last few weeks. I have learned tons and tons about strollers, carseats, and mommyhood. I’m telling you … she should write a book!!! She did so much research before Bishop arrived! Who would have thought that real tires were an essential on your stroller and the carseats that advertise “growing with your child” don’t actually fit that well after the first year.
So, upon M’Lissa’s advice we’ll be going stroller test driving very soon at a store in NW Portland called Little Urbanites. From perusing their website it seems they have alot of the strollers and accessories worth checking out. Dominic wants to make it know that he will be coming along, but his child will not be known as a “little urbanite”. He feels it is very important that we all know this child will be a “little suburbanite” hailing from Vancouver. Sweet in that kind of annoying way … I know :) I’m ok with his suburbia plan as long as I get the stroller I want :) Once we narrow down our top strollers I’ll start the bargain shopping!!! I’m hoping between the JBF Sale in April, eBay, Craigslist, and the DuPont Sale in July we’ll be able to snag a high-end stroller at a crazy good price. Of course, Dominic will be there to inspect and make sure it is still in new/safe quality so no one needs to worry.
M’Lissa also recommended a great book called Baby Bargains. I reserved a copy at the library and will be picking it up tonight so I’m looking forward to learning from it as well. I’ll be honest, all of the “your body is changing” and “labor pains” sections of my other books are getting quite overwhelming … hence the dramatic switch to baby items.
Last, but not least … I’ve been feeling pretty good this week. Still tired, but I have the whole nausea/eating schedule down. As long as I keep nibbling the nausea stays at bay. I’m very happy to have found something that works and hope it keeps working!
Name Game
We have been exploring the Italian genre for boy names and so far the favorite is Rocco. I also like Adrian. It’s kind of hard with a last name like Bossio to stay away from the rhyming … so keep yours ears peeled for good ideas and let us know!
Girl-wise we really like the name Elsa. When I was a nanny back in college I spent my days with a little girl named Amelia. Amelia and I participated in a weekly toddler story time at the library and at story time was a little girl named Elsa. Elsa was freakishly adorable. She was chubby and always wore striped or polka-dotted tights and dresses. That is what I think of when I think of Elsa. Dominic thinks of Elsa Bonitez (the supermodel). So, we’ll see how far this name gets :)