Bags are packed, Philip Comes to Visit, and Maternity Photos

We are officially 3 weeks away from the due date of Baby D. That means in 21 days, we could be meeting our daughter—unless she decides to arrive early! Jason has been on my case the past few days to get my bags packed, so last night I packed my bag to take to the hospital! I am all set with socks and slippers, PJs, and some personal hygiene essentials—the rest will get packed once I go into labor. It just reinforces how little time we have left before she arrives.
The house is slowly progressing. A week ago I was less than thrilled with the progress; because there is nothing more frustrating than driving by your house on a beautiful sunny day and no one is there working. I understand that is it hard to get work done in bad weather, but on days when it is in the upper 60’s without a cloud in the sky. This week the construction team has managed to redeemed themselves—the brick masons worked on Thanksgiving morning (their choice, not mine so I took them a homemade pecan pie), the electrician and plumber worked on Friday (I’m sure just to avoid having to go shopping with wives, girlfriends, and/or significant others) and they even showed back up on Saturday and Sunday! I just wish the rest of the subs would follow in their footsteps! I’ve come to live with the fact that we will not be bringing Baby D home to a newly remodeled home, that she too will be living out of suit cases at her grandparent’s home for the first few weeks of her new life. I think that the grandparents to be are actually really looking forward to having the baby at their house. I know they will secretly miss us when we’re gone!
Philip came home over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was great to visit with him. At first he didn’t know what to think about me being pregnant, but towards the end of the visit he was ready for me to have the baby just so he could be apart of the action. He was able to feel her move on a couple of occasions. He’ll be back once she is born. Pearl, is suffering from Post-Phil Depression. If he gives the baby as much attention as he gave Pearl, this child will be totally over stimulated. We foresee a lot of time spent in time out for both Uncle Phil and Baby D when he comes to visit once she is a toddler.
Jason and I weren’t sure about having maternity photos taken, but finally decided that this is a time where we can get away with being cheesy so we hired a local photographer, Jillian Easley to do them for us. She will also take the newborn photos. She was a lot of fun to work with and know she’ll do a great job of photographing Baby D! Feel free to check out our proofs online by going to Jillian’s website Jilly Kay Photography and going to the "client" tab. On that page it will ask for your Username and Password.
Username: Dilocker
Password: trucker babe (be sure to include the space)
*Case sensitive.
The password is a result of a conversation held during the photo shoot—don’t ask.

The Nursery

While I feel blessed with the opportunity and means to improve our late1940s home, dealing with the contractors/labors, the dust and debris, communication issues and how things do not operate on my time frame makes me feel a little overwhelmed since I have no place to nest and get ready for Baby D’s arrival. Thank goodness mom and dad are being so gracious and putting up with the two of us, our dogs, and all our stuff. We’ve managed to take over a bedroom, the dining room, part of Philip’s room, and their attic. Everything else is in the garage at what’s left of our house and in the POD (which is in our front yard—classy I know!)

I have managed to pick out nursery fabric; I’m just not sure when the nursery will actually be ready! Here's looking into the room that will become the nursery:



We are not going with a theme, it just isn’t our style. My mom is going to make the bumper pad, crib skirt, and curtains and we have a wonderful family friend that is going to make baby quilt. The fabric is called Ginger Blossom by Sandi Henderson.

Papa Smurf and a very Pregnant Smurfette

Here are some photos of Jason, Papa Smurf, and me, Pregnant Smurfette, in our award winning Halloween Costumes! Our dear friend April Hill celebrated her 30th Birthday with a Spook-tacular Halloween Inspired Birthday Party.



Here we have Elvis (David Cox), Priscilla Presley (April Hill, Birthday Girl), Kid Rock (Michael Helms), Kat Von D (Angie Helms), Smurfette (Amy) and Papa Smurf (Jason).

Newest member of the Dilocker Family

Congratulations to Jason’s cousin, Daniel, his wife Jessie and big sister Emma on the arrival of Benjamin Gregory Dilocker! Benjamin was born on Monday, October 20, 2008 at 9:35 am. He was 20 inches long and 7 pounds 3 ounces. Now the pressure is off us to carry on the Dilocker name! We are so excited for them and can’t wait to meet Benjamin (and see the rest of the family.)

Childbirth Class

So Jason and I survived childbirth class. The first class, was all about natural childbirth and showed plenty of videos of women crazy enough to give natural childbirth. After just one video I was convinced that I did’t want to be pregnant any longer and I there would be no way that I would be able to to give birth to Baby D! Jason said the noises that the women made not only scared grown men, but animals! I don’t know who was more afraid, me or him. Jason thinks all teenage boys should have to watch the videos we did and that would keep them from ever wanting to have sex! I told the guy at the hair salon about it and he thinks we would have an increase in the number of gay men as a result. The videos didn’t faze the guy in the class that already has two kids with other women. He was also the only one managed to eat during the videos.
So part of natural childbirth it to learn various coping strategies/stress relieving techniques. A few of them require that you lay down on the floor. I'm thinking, this is going to be interesting watching 10 huge pregnant women get down onto the floor and then back up once we are done. New Age music is playing softly in the back ground, you and your “partner” are spooning each other with your eyes closed while the childbirth educator is asking you to visualize that you are laying a field with the warm sun beaming down on you, your uterus is contracting while your cervix is getting thinner--I'm sure this is just what every guy in the room wants to be visualizing. While she continues to read, Jason whispers to me, “Is that your feet that I’m rubbing?” I respond, “Uh, No” as I start to bite my lip because I know I’m about to lose control and bust out laughing since its not my feet that he’s been playing footsie with. I can hear the panic in Jason’s voice as he tells me, “Oh my God, I was rubbing that guy’s head with my feet!” My entire body starts convulsing, tears streaming out of the corners of my eyes as I try to contain my laughter and not interrupt the class while they are trying to visualize their uterus contracting out of fear that we will be kicked out of childbirth class. Obviously we weren’t the only ones not being very good students, because someone started snoring half way through the exercise. You’ve never seen a pregnant woman hop up off the floor so fast to b-line for a bathroom!
The second class was much better--it showed women giving birth that were smart enough to use drugs! My mind is made up--give me the epidural!

4D Ultrasound

Here are some of the better photos that were taken at our 4D Ultrasound this morning. Baby D wasn’t interested in having her photo taken--majority of the time she kept her hands and feet up near her face. We were happy with the few shots we were able to get of her chubby cheeks. Only 12 weeks to go before we get to see her in person!

Major Life Events

It is a fact that certain life events can result in increased stress, can severely impact your health and overall happiness. I’m sure that some psychologist would love to ask us what in the world are you two thinking—having a baby, changing jobs, and remodeling a house all at once! How much more stress could one couple possibly take on? Our philosophy--why not do as much as you can at once, so you can get it over with! We are handling all this change surprisingly well. I'm sure this would push a Type A personality over the edge!

Baby
Had a follow up ultrasound on Friday, 19 Sept 08 to verify that Baby D is a girl since she wasn’t very cooperative the first time. We were able to see what we needed, so now I don’t need to worry about returning any of the pink stuff that I’ve already purchased! I’m scheduled for a 4D on Thursday morning. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some good pictures to share!

Changing Jobs
Jason started his new job today working on a research team for the new Hudson-Alpha Institute here in Huntsville. The building alone is impressive, not to mention the work that goes on inside it. He’ll be working on a research team that is headed up by Rick Myers, PhD, who came to Huntsville from Stanford to work on human genetics and genomics. According to Jason, he is "the man" when it comes to genomics and the human genome project. He is looking forward to this new and exciting opportunity. Its way too scientific for me, I’m just happy that he’ll be doing something that he loves and will be a great benefit to society.

Remodeling a House
We’ve been talking about remodeling our house ever since we moved in back in 2005. We absolutely love our neighborhood and can’t imagine moving anywhere else in town. We started working with an architect months ago on the plans and we finally have the final drawings! There has been lots of drama--architect dislocating a finger on his drawing hand, builders not returning phone calls when getting quotes, builders going on vacation, and getting a variance from the City’s Planning and Zoning Board—but we are one step closer to getting started.
Two Saturdays ago, we became the eye sore of the neighborhood by putting a POD in our yard. Jason assisted by our dear friend Tim and his teenage son, Corey, spent a Sunday afternoon loading it with some of our belongings so we can get ready for the construction crew to get started. Lucky for us, our neighbors are all wonderful and we can leave the POD in the yard until we move back into the house in December.
We have temporarily moved in with my parents who live 3.7 miles away. The builder told us if we could move out, he would be able to get the work done quicker since he wouldn’t have to work around us and have the remodel complete by the time Baby D arrives. Keep your fingers crossed! I'll post before and after photos once construction is complete.