Let the Countdown Begin...

Officially 1 month to go before the big day. At least the due date that is. If we're lucky, our little bundle of joy will be here sooner!! At my 35-week check up, the baby had grown quite a bit. At my 33-week check up I was measuring 31 and now I'm measuring 36! That's a lot of growth in two weeks :)

Some other news, I'm 1 centimeter dilated and 50% effaced. AND, the head is down, so we are on a roll. Hopefully things keep progressing normally and we'll have a healthy, happy baby soon!!

The majority still think it's a girl, however, I've been getting more people telling me that they think it's a boy. I personally still don't have any guess. Chris is hoping for a boy. Whenever he talks to or about the baby he always refers to it as a boy:)

The nursery is about 50% done right now. I had big visions of crown molding and wainscoting, so it has taken a little longer than expected to get it all done. It's really turning out nice though. I can't wait to post up pictures so you all can see it!!

Anyhoo, stay tuned for the next update. And Happy 2010 everyone!!

Photo Session

Last weekend I got some professional maternity photos done by my friend Sarah and I am so pleased with the way they turned out. They are beautiful. Thanks, Sarah!!

After the photo session, I surprised Chris with a trip to Portland for our anniversary. Since this was our LAST anniversary without kids, I thought we should do something special. So we went to the Embassy Suites downtown and out to The Melting Pot for dinner. After dinner we stopped by Kell's for a beer... well, Chris had a beer, I had an iced tea:) and then went to a place I've been DYING to go to for years! Voodoo Donuts! We waited about 20 minutes outside this little hole-in-the-wall (literally) donut shop in below freezing temperatures to get these donuts and it was SOOOO worth the wait. Chris had a Captain My Captain donut (glazed donut topped with Captain Crunch cereal) and I got a little greedy and had an Orangotang (glazed donut topped with Tang), a Dirt (topped with crushed oreo cookies) and a bacon maple bar. They were UNBELIEVABLE! Sorry I don't have any pictures of Portland, but enjoy the maternity photos:)

My Baby Shower

A couple of weeks ago my mom and mother-in-law threw me the most wonderful baby shower. The games were fun, the food was delicious and the decor was divine. I didn't expect any less from those wonderful women. And, not to mention, glowing Grandmas-to-be. All my closest friends and family were there to share the special day with me. They came from all corners of the Northwest. Seattle, Portland, Medford, the Oregon Coast and Spokane! All to share in the excitement of our little bun in the oven:) And I have to say, I made out pretty well. If I had the baby right now, I think I'd be pretty set. Enjoy the pictures!

The Meltdown

I've told this story to a few people, but thought it was so funny that I had to post it. About two weeks ago, when my "nesting" officially started to kick in, I was so pumped to start cleaning the house to prepare for the baby. And when I say clean, I mean deep clean. Literally scrubbing ever inch of my house floor to ceiling, vaccuming, shampooing, sanitizing, etc... You get the picture. So, on this particular Sunday, I was planning on busting out our carpet shampooer that I admittedly haven't even looked about in probably a year, and going to town on the bedrooms. I did one cycle and then had to reload the hot water. If you don't know, when you're shampooing carpets, the hotter the water is, the better. So this time I decided to heat the water in the tea kettle to ensure the water was as hot as possible. So I heated it till it was nearly boiling, started to pour into that rubber bladder thing, and as soon as I started pouring, the rubber started melting and fusing together! It was destroyed, along with my big plans for the day. I was DEVASTATED! I completely broke down and started crying like I had just found out a loved one died. SOBBING. Poor Chris had no idea what to do. He attempted to comfort me and every time he tried to tell me everything was alright I'd get pissed and start yelling that everything was NOT alright. He had no idea how to handle this. I don't think he's ever seen me like this, especially over something seemed so petty. It might have seemed petty to him, but to me, this totally ruined my plans for the day. So, after about 10 minutes of him trying his best to comfort me, I stared to calm down. Chris called the rental place in town and got me a commercial grade carpet cleaner that I used instead, which in retrospect, was probably what I should have done in the first place. It works so much better than the one I have. So, long story short, I eventually got to shampoo my carpets. I just can't believe how strong hormones actually are!

6 Months Down, 3 To Go

I'm officially in my third trimester! My how time flies. It really seems like it was just the other day that we found out we were expecting. As I've said, this pregnancy so far has been a breeze. Although, I have to say, I'm starting to feel the added stress and, dare I say, weight!?!? It's a little harder to get out of bed in the morning or just off the couch for that matter. But, I'm still wearing my heals:) I have bets going with people at work on how long I can wear them. I say until the day I give birth! At least that's my goal.

Chris and I started going to prenatal classes. Last week was all about breastfeeding! It also happened to be the same night as the first game of the World Series and Chris was such a trooper and gave up watching the game to come to class with me. I'm married to the most wonderful man. The fact that he would give up watching this huge game between his two FAVORITE teams to listen to a woman talk about lactation and engorgement meant the world to me. Don't be fooled though. He had his MLB app on his iPhone tuned into the game the entire class to keep up on the score.

The next three weeks will be childbirth classes where we'll learn about labor, delivery, epidurals, breathing techniques, etc... And then we'll take a newborn childcare class, which we all know we need since we don't know what the hell we're doing!! :)

Here are some belly bump pictures at 6 months. Enjoy!!

Jessica's Baby Shower

For those of you who don't know, one of my best friends, Jessica, is also pregnant! She's about 8 weeks ahead of me and is expecting a little boy:) Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending her baby shower. We live two hours apart, and the fact that we don't get to really experience being pregnant together is a bummer, so this trip was nice to catch up. We made sure to get together the night before the shower to get some one-on-one time.

For the shower, I made a diaper cake. I've been wanting to make one for the longest time! For those of you who don't know, a diaper cake is NOT a diaper shaped cake, but rather a tiered cake made of diapers. Just thought I'd clear that up since I had to explain it to Chris:)

It's funny to see how differently Jessica and I are carrying our babies. She is carrying him low, and I'm really high. This lead to the unanimous conclusion among the women at the shower that I am having a girl?? I certainly don't believe in all those old wives tales, but my mom said that my sister and I we both really high and my brother was practically between her legs. So, we'll just have to see:)

4-D Video Footage

Here is some 4-D video footage of our baby. It's so sweet! It looks like they're going to be a thumbsucker. Not a great thing in my opinion, but my mom insists that it's a sign that the baby will be a good nurser:) Chris and I both have an inkling that it's a boy, but about half the people who see it think it's a girl. And don't try to figure it out either. Both our mothers are nurses and experienced at looking at ultrasounds and neither of them could see what it is, so DON'T EVEN TRY IT!!

5 Months and Counting...

I'm officially 5 months pregnant!! Yay, only 4 more to go. If we want to get technical, I'm actually 22 weeks, and into my 23rd week... if that makes any sense. Our baby has surpassed the 1 lb mark and I'm really starting to feel it. I also read that this week marks the beginning of some serious weight gain. Great! Well, I've actually been very fortunate so far. I've made it my entire pregnancy without gaining a single pound. In fact, I lost about 8 pounds in my first trimester and then gained that back, so I'm right where I was before I was pregnant. Which is just fine with me. I officially can't fit into any of my pre-pregnancy clothes, especially pants. I can still get away with some shirts, but not for long.

The can feel the baby moving around more and more everyday. Now Chris and feel too! Finally we're able to share that together. For such a long time it's just been me who could experience this amazing feeling and Chris would just have to hear me oooh and aaah so it's very cool that he can get in on it now. Here are some pictures of me at 5 months:) Enjoy!!

Registering for Baby Morin

This Saturday happened to be a day that Chris and I both had off work, a rarity in our life, so we decided to head out and register for baby stuff!! It was a home game for the Ducks, so Eugene was basically a ghost town, so it was perfect. We also decided that it would be fun to try to make it the entire day in Eugene without hearing who won the game or even hear the score because we wanted to watch the game later at home. Incredibly, we didn't hear anything. Ducks beat Cal 3-42!! Go Ducks!!:)

Anyway, first we headed to Target, then Babies 'R' Us and finally Fletcher's for Chrildren. I was curious to see how Chris would handle the registering process. I figured he'd be bored and impatient, but he got into it! Especially when it came time to register for the baby monitor. Of course, it's the electronics that get him going:) It was a great day preparing for baby Morin and spending quality time together. Here are some pics of the fun!!

20 Week Update

Here are some pictures from our 20 week ultrasound and some baby bump shots. This ultrasound was so cool. Normally this is when we would find out if we were having a boy of a girl but we made sure to look the ultrasound tech in the eye and put the fear of God into her if she slipped and told us!! She did great though. She claimed that she didn't even know. I'm not sure if I buy that though. Oh well, we don't and that's all that matters. The 3-D pics are amazing. We had a video made of the ultrasound too. Hopefully I'll be able to add some of those clips soon.

Needless to say, this was an amazing, emotional experience for us. It has brought us so much closer to our baby. We both have a feeling that it's a boy, but the consensus from family and friends is pretty much 50/50. Only 4 more months to go till we find out!!

8 Week Ultrasound

Here are some pictures of our first ultrasound. This is when we found out how far along we were. At that time, it was 8 1/2 weeks and our little jellybean wasn't more than an inch long. These are pretty cute. You can already see the shape of the baby. It's little hands and feet are SO CUTE!!

Greetings and Salutations:)

Welcome to our blog! We're so happy that you want to keep up with what is happening in our lives. It certainly is a very exciting time for us because, as you probably know by now, we are expecting our first child!! That's right. Baby Morin is due January 31st, 2010 and we could not be more happy, nervous, excited and clueless all at the same time.

This is a disclaimer by the way: Although this blog is about the entire Morin family, it will be a cold day in hell when Chris actually posts something. So don't be surprised if I refer to "I" a lot. Just know that it's me (Lindsay) posting and not Chris. He gets no credit for this:)

Anyhoo, let's get down to business, shall we? We found out we were pregnant on Thursday, May 28th, at approximately 8pm. I had gotten home from the gym and went to get pizza for dinner. Yes, I did consume all the calories that I'd just burned off. I'd already taken two pregnancy tests up to this point, not because I had any signs of pregnancy, more just because I wanted to say I'd done it:) But this night Chris suggested that I pick some up. I was reluctant because I KNEW I wasn't pregnant and I didn't want to spend $15 just to be disappointed. But, to appease him, I bought some while I waited for the pizza to get done. I went by Safeway, $22 for 3 tests. Eff that noise. I'll try Walgreen's. $11 for two. That's more like it. Made my purchase and headed to pick up what I was really excited about. Pizza.

When I get home I hardly have time to sit down with my slice of pepperoni and pineapple before Chris asks if I'm going to take the test. Dammit! I was hoping he'd forgotten. So, I think to myself, "Well, we ARE going to Eagle Crest this weekend with his family, and wine is ALWAYS a major component when that happens, so I better find out because I don't want to drink if I'm knocked up". Literally, that was my logic when I finally decided just to take the damn test. Messed up, I know... God I miss alcohol. But I digress.

So I head to the bathroom to do the deed. Here we go. I made sure to buy the digital tests this time too. The kind that say "pregnant" or "not pregnant", just so there wouldn't be any confusion. I had to make it as clear as possible. I pee on the stick and then wait. I leave the bathroom once and return shortly after. The test is still thinking... Ok, I'll go give my husband a kiss really quick. Go back, and sure as shit, there it is. PREGNANT!! No way. I mean I KNEW I wasn't pregnant. How could I be so wrong about my own body. I have to tell you though. I've never been so happy to be wrong in my life. I walk out of the bathroom to Chris trying to keep a straight face but I couldn't help at the last second bursting out into a smile with a hideous sounding laugh/cry sound. When Chris saw it, he immediately pulled me tighter to him than I'd ever felt and he began balling. I'm talking ugly cry here. Now Chris is not a sappy guy, and I've NEVER seen him cry like this.

We stood there hugging for a good two minutes before Cider, our Basset Hound, began barking at us because she was pissed that she wasn't in on this embrace. Still stunned we tried to go about our evening as we normally would.

That weekend we got to tell Chris' parents and sister the good news. We had to afterall because once they saw that I wasn't drinking, they would know something was up. Actually, practically the first thing Joy (Chris' mom) did when we got there was pour me a glass of wine. So, I pretended to sip it until we could tell them, which turned out to not be that long because Chris was a nervous wreck and wasn't fooling anyone. His heart was pounding out of his chest and he kept running into things and knocking things over. His mom called him and freak and told him to take a pill:)

We told them the same way as his parents told his grandparents. We had a onsie made that says "I Love Grandma & Grandpa" and told them by surprising them with that. Very sweet. They, of course, were extatic and very surprised too! All the while I had to lie to my mom over the phone that weekend and tell her that I wasn't pregnant because there was no way I was going to tell her over the phone. So yes, I told my mother a bold-faced lie, but I knew she would understand.

A week later I was in Medford visiting my parents. Chris couldn't come because he was in Seattle that weekend but the plan was for him to bring the laptop and I'd borrow my brother's and we would get over the web cam to tell them. But, surprise, surprise, Chris forgot the laptop, so there goes that bright idea. Onto plan B. Get Chris on speaker phone. Lame! But, it was still very special. My parents were blown away and didn't even see it coming. Especially my mom since I so adamantly promised her that I wasn't pregnant. After she hugged and kissed me she proceded to call me a "little bitch" and said she couldn't believe I lied to her. For those who don't know my mom and my relationship, that is very us. The name "bitch" is a term of endearment to us:) Love you momma!!

So, everyone is elated and my has the time flown by. I can't believe that I'm already 22 weeks along. More than half way there!! I'll fill you in on a few things that have progressed and some fun facts:

• There is only ONE baby
• We are NOT finding out the sex; yes, we are crazy and I don't want to hear another word about it! This is our baby and why should anyone care so much if we're finding out the sex or not? Can you tell this is a touchy subject for us:)
  
• It is a very active baby. I've felt movement since about weak 14 or 15. Now I can actually see the movement. Very cool.
• It's a thumb sucker! I'll post some ultrasound pics for you to see.
• This is the first grandchild on both sides as well as the first niece or nephew on either side too. Needless to say, it's going to be one spoiled kid!!

So, I think that's it for now. Check back for more posts and pictures so you can keep up with this incredible journey with us. Thanks again for visiting our blog!!

Cheers,
~Lindsay, Chris & Baby Morin