Chris's closet just got a whole lot cuter

This week Grandma Colchin sent a huge box packed with baby clothes! Em opened the box at work to the oooohs and ahhhhs of all of her co-workers. Some of the highlights include a UT track suit (age 6 mo, for game days of course), the matching set below with it's matching puppy toy, and a little onesie with a guitar on it that says "rock." We don't have anywhere to store his clothes yet so for the time being they're hung up in Chris's closet. It's pretty cute seeing them in there all the time.

The socks are so tiny that they fit into the palm of Chris's hand. It's hard to believe he's going to be that tiny!

Not much else in the way of an update. The baby is kicking all the time and his kicks are stronger every day. Em's belly is getting a lot bigger. We took these pics before leaving for our morning walk (ignore the sleepy face):

We found the perfect doula

We get a lot of questions about what a doula is or why we’d hire one.  This is from the Doula of North America website: The word "doula" comes from the ancient Greek meaning "a woman who serves" and is now used to refer to a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; or who provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period. Studies have shown that when doulas attend birth, labors are shorter with fewer complications, babies are healthier and they breastfeeding more easily.

We'll meet with our doula, Amy, 2 times before the birth for 2 hour sessions. We are actually taking a pregnancy class at Natural Resources too and she is the instructor, so we’ll have even more face to face time with her. She’ll know both of us well so that she can help Em in labor and help Chris help Em too. She’ll know a lot about our birth plan and give us practical advice to stick by that. At the hospital the midwifes and doctors are stretched thin helping out all of the laboring women. Amy, however, will be in our room with us the whole time.

She's been a doula at over 100 births, so it's a huge relief to know that Amy will there with us. 

Halloween

Em was Juno for Halloween. Not many people can say that they've been working on their costume for 5 months!