27w + 2d

Friday 9/5 I think I felt Ava have the hicups for the first time! I'm sure she's had them before, but this is the first time I've consciously noticed them. I was at work just sitting at my desk at the computer and felt this little pulsating feeling in my lower left part of my abdomen. It was pretty rhythmic, it felt like a pulse every 3 seconds or so, taking longer sometimes than others. It was really cool.

Sam & I had our labor and delivery class today at St. Lukes! It was sort of long, we opted for the all day class rather than the 6 or 8 week classes. There were 7 other couples with us. One couple had twin girls on the way...we're just thankful for the one girl we have coming :) The nurse talked about the hospital, about laboring at home and when you need to come to the hospital with this handy trick to remember: 5-1-1. 5 minutes apart - 1 minute long - 1 hour stright of contractions. and then always the general rule of thumb that if my water breaks to go in then no matter what. I do feel more prepared and more confident about several things...I just hope now I can remember them for 3 more months!! {that's what Sam is for though...he's my "coach"}
we practiced 3 different breathing techniques-calming, rythmic, and pattern {my favorite is just the long, slow, steady calming breathing - reminds me of yoga, which always seems peaceful}. They had the coaches participate in the breathing too, so they get used to what they're supposed to remind us to be doing once the big day gets here! Sam did very well and I am very confident we'll make a great team!

St Lukes participates in a program called BABY FIRST. this is where once the baby is delivered, they give mom, dad & baby 1 solid hour together without any visitors (assuming everything goes well with mom & baby and no medical intervention is needed right away). This gives them both a chance to bond with their new baby, a time for breast-feeding, and just in general a time for both parents to spend together with their new kiddo. They say the studies they've done with this show a lot of pro's for both the parents bonding as well as the baby's development, how quickly they latch on, how quickly they are able to stabilize their own body temperature, etc. So I'm really looking forward to that as well.