34 Weeks - Start the Countdown

34 weeks, 1 day more belly pics

The countdown is on... only 6 more weeks *hopefully*, although apparently the average for a first child is to be 8 days late (if there is no induction involved). I picked up a few "essentials" the other day like wipes, baby powder, newborn diapers, etc. The diapers say that they are good for up to 10 lbs. I figure that if my kid doesn't fit into those then I'll have other things to worry about than a diaper that doesn't fit. I should probably pick up a few of the next size up just in case, since they will get used eventually. I also washed all the baby's clothes, sheets and blankets that I have so far, so those are ready to be used. Aaron and I are down to 1 last prenatal class (this tuesday) and then we are done! They haven't been incredibly useful, only because I am a research-aholic and have already read about 3 books on pregnancy, 4 books on birth, a book on breastfeeding and 2 books on how to care for a newborn (I know, ridiculous, it's a sickness really...).

34 weeks, 1 day more belly pics

We also went on our hospital tour at Surrey Memorial. It's nice to know what door to go in and where to go before hand. The new maternity ward is pretty nice. All the rooms are private and are decorated to be fairly "homey". You don't really see much medical equipment until you start opening cabinets. Aaron's favourite part is that the laughing gas is just there to be used "unsupervised". I'm thinking he's gonna have a good time. There is also a shared kitchen that you can use to store your food, keep your popsicles frozen, heat up some soup, or whatever. They actually let you eat during labour now - screw the damn ice chips. Although they do warn you to eat things that you won't mind revisiting later on, since you will probably throw it up if you don't pick really mild things (like a banana, yogurt, popsicles, soup etc). For a normal delivery, you are usually discharged within 24 hours of birth, give or take a few hours (they aren't going to make you go home in the middle of the night) - a far cry from the 3-4 days that they used to make you stay. One lady on our tour was like "if we are tired, can we send the baby to the nursery?". The tour guide was like "no... unless the baby is sick, it rooms in with you at all times". Then the lady said "oh, cause we are just trying to choose a hospital, and the other hospital will let you send the baby to the nursery". Everyone was looking at her like "Good god, who is this woman trying to pawn her baby off on other people already???" hahaha, some people... Then there was this other guy who asked if the hospital was set up with wireless internet so he could send out a birth announcement from his laptop from the hospital. The tour guide didn't know, so then this other guy piped in and said "ya, and there is no starbucks nearby either, so you won't be able to get any from there (meaning steal starbucks' wireless internet signal since they all have it and you can sometimes steal it if you are close enough). Aaron didn't get it and thought that the guy was just being an ass telling the other guy that he wouldn't be able to get his gourmet coffee while his wife was in labour. He was ready to gang up with the other guy and mouth the guy off until I explained to him what the guy was trying to say. Now THAT would have been funny...