Baby Guesses...

• Martha Balluff says: Boy September 17th
• Anne Emerson says: Girl September 13th
• Katy Fererro says: Boy September 14th
• Kathy Balluff says: Girl September 10th
• Jo Chappell says: Boy September 18th
• Lloyd Chappell says: Girl September 15th
• Holly Chappell says: Girl September 22nd
• Laura Balluff says: Boy September 21st
• Bruno says: Boy September 16th
• Kelly Crist says: Boy September 18th
• Joe Crist says: Boy September 23rd
• J.P. Crist says: Girl September 10th
• Marlene O'Reilly says: Boy September 20th
• Terry O'Reilly says: Boy October 1st
• Rob Saunders says: Boy September 25th

Keep your guesses coming!!

36 Weeks - Let's Start a Poll

Sean's sister, Kelly, gave him this framed picture of Sean when he was little. So we found a picture of me and framed it the same and hung them in the baby's room. It looks pretty cute. Can you believe Sean had such blonde hair?

I'm taking Katy's advice and starting a baby poll since we're now within a month of Baby O'Reilly's due date. If you're interested, email me your guess about the baby's birthday and gender and I'll update the poll when I get your guesses. The first guess submitted was Katy's: she says we'll have a boy and he'll be born on September 14th (a day before our 1 year anniversary!!).

Our weekend was pretty low key - we finished our childbirth class yesterday and we were both really happy with it. The next time we go to the hospital now will be for the real thing! I made a CD of calming music to bring to the hospital (we'll see if I want to listen to it, I may just want it quiet) and I also got my bag pretty much packed with stuff for me and clothes for the baby to wear home... I'm really getting so excited!! Sean worked hard in the basement as usual this weekend while I rested in the house. We cleaned the house from top to bottom on Thursday and miraculously it is still clean. We'll see if we can keep it that way! Our adventure today was that we joined the new Costco that just opened near our house - pretty exciting stuff.

Let me know your baby predictions... I'm not sure what the prize will be. Sean says the winner can babysit for us one night (a prize for the winner or for us?).

35 1/2 weeks!

We're getting closer to meeting Baby O'Reilly! I haven't had a ton of news in the past couple weeks, I've been a pretty bad blogger. I started back to work and now I just come home and crash on the couch, I'm so exhausted at the end of the day. Here's a picture of me and the baby:

And here's a picture of me, the baby, and poor baby Leo soaking in all the one-on-one time he can get before the baby gets here.
Sean and I are very interested to see how he handles the changes. We had our midwife appointment this morning - everything continues to look good for both of us. We learned that through the practice, we can use one of their doulas for no cost so I think Sean and I are both happy about that. I did want one but they cost quite a bit of money if you pay out of pocket so this is perfect! She'll be with us during the labor and delivery to "help dad to help mom better." Our childbirth classes are nice, but it will be great to have someone in the room with us to remind us of different positions for labor, to help keep us calm, to be support for both of us. Now it's weekly appointments from here on out - I'll blog again soon!

33 Week Update

Hi everyone...
I don't really have a good picture for this week, but I thought I'd give a quick update for those who are interested. I had a midwife's appointment this morning and everything is looking "perfect." The heartbeat is strong, I'm having good practice contractions, and the baby is measuring right on schedule. The coolest part of the appointment was when the midwife was feeling where the baby was and she showed me how to feel the head. I could touch the baby's head on both sides like I was massaging it's temples (or poking it's eyes). It was very cool!

We started our childbirth class on Saturday. It was actually pretty nice, Sean had to give me lots of mini-massages, so I can't complain about that. At one point, we all had to draw a picture of what a contraction feels like. My drawing was a bunch of lightning bolts but Sean's was a poor lady getting run over by a train. It was pretty hilarious!

Not a lot more to report this week. I'm headed back to work tomorrow, which isn't so bad since I'm starting to get pretty bored at home by myself all the time. That's it for today!