Time to Get Serious... There's a baby coming!

We're at T-minus 12 weeks, give or take, and are sort of kind of starting to seriously think about getting started on the nursery. We did buy a crib mattress a week or two ago, and I ordered the crib today (in white, if you're curious). It should be here in 6-10 weeks. So... I guess that's progress! There's no actual "room" to put these items in, however, and that is the daunting project that faces us. Well, not so much US, more like ME. The future nursery is filled (to the ceiling, it seems) with boxes of my stuff that needed to move out of the way to make room for Todd. I determined that this room would be tackled after the Christmas stuff was put away... and, shockingly, there are still Christmas decorations adorning our home. (What's that? You're not shocked? Rude. Justified, of course, but still rude.) So, I suppose step 1 is to get Christmas put away... and I'd better get moving, since my belly isn't getting any smaller and April isn't getting any farther away.

Going to Class

It has been a mostly uneventful pregnancy so far (hooray!)... and now it really feels like we're heading into the "home stretch." April 16 has felt so far away, and now it seems so close!

I've read all the pregnancy books I care to read (and more), several books on caring for newborns, and have finally decided that the time has come for seeking out a parenting book or two... which, as it turns out, is much more difficult for me than finding the other types of books. With pregnancy and newborn care, I have a pretty firm idea about what will fit my style and can easily discard books that don't seem like a good fit (I know that I want a natural birth, I know that I want to breastfeed & use cloth diapers, and in general I want to keep things as simple and "natural" and inexpensive as possible).

With parenting books, it's not so easy. What is my parenting philosophy? I don't really know. What about Todd's parenting philosophy? Hard to say. What are the big issues that could easily let me know that a book is wrong for us? I don't really know. I don't want to read a book that will put a bunch of ideas in my head that are contrary to "my style," or will steer me down a path of weirdness... but how will I know those books when I see them? I DON'T KNOW!! It's overwhelming. So for now I shall procrastinate... (SOP for indecisive Karisa!) there are plenty of things to keep us busy, anyhow.

Speaking of keeping busy, our childbirth classes start tonight. One of the many pregnancy-related books I read early on was Husband-Coached Childbirth, and I was not too far into the book before I realized that THIS is the birth experience I am hoping for... so I read the book cover to cover, Todd is currently reading the book, and we will be taking 8 weeks of classes on The Bradley Method of natural childbirth. I'm pretty excited to get started. :) I don't think "excited" would describe Todd's thoughts, but I'm glad that he (without any begging from me) agreed to go. I kind of took that for granted at first, but after a great deal of internet research on natural childbirth I was surprised to see how many women had husbands who refused to go to a class or read a book. I already knew Todd was awesome, but this is certainly further evidence of his awesomeness!

10 Weeks

There really is a baby in there! And its heart is beating! And it has arms and legs and a head! Yay! Go, baby, go!

Baby wants...

We went to the Oregon State Fair a couple of weeks ago with Brad and Ann. Of course, while we were there, baby wanted... funnel cake!




As you can see, baby gets what baby wants :)

So far Karisa hasn't been too sick, mostly a general icky feeling. Certainly not as bad as many of the stories we have heard. Hopefully this is as bad as it will get.

Knocked Up

Well, we have not been very good little bloggers. Our poor little blog has been completely neglected, because, well, we've been busy. Doing stuff. Like riding motorcycles (Todd). And gardening (Karisa). And sometimes we do stuff together, too... like cooking dinner.

In a completely unrelated story, we'd like to share with the world our very happy news... there's a baby on the way! The stork should be dropping by mid-April sometime to pay us a visit and bring us a bundle of joy.


So, maybe we'll post some updates along the way, or maybe our next post will be a picture of Baby Macy. You never can tell with the slackers who write this blog.

Wedding Photos

It took a while (what do you expect from a couple of procrastinators?), but we finally posted our wedding pictures for all to see. :)
Yay!

www.flickr.com/photos/toddpluskarisa/collections

The Honeymoon

What's the one question everyone ask when you're getting married? Of course it's, "Where are you going on your honeymoon?"

Karisa alluded to our plans in the post she made after we watched Titanic. I've always thought it would be fun to go on a cruise, so what better time than now? It seems most cruises (at least the ones I looked at) depart on a Saturday. Since we're getting married on a Saturday, we would have a week between the wedding and the cruise. What to do during that week? Go back to work? No way!

While there are cruises that leave from New York or Miami, we didn't want to deal with flying. I picked a cruise originating in Los Angeles, so we can take the train down. What magical place, that Karisa loves, happens to be located in L.A.? If you said Disneyland, get yourself a cookie!

The train ride is about 30 hours, so we got a Superliner Roomette. It's the only way to go if you're on the train overnight. We spend three days in Disneyland, and then a week-long cruise to the Mexican Riviera with stops in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán, and Puerto Vallarta before returning to L.A. After spending another night in the City of Angels, we board the train and head for home.