Getting Closer!

I am not actually 38 weeks until tomorrow, but seriously, who's counting that closely? :)

This was a pretty good week!  Michael and I went to Costco one afternoon to stock up on some stuff and made it out in a record 30 minutes!  We divided and conquered.  For those of you who've ever been to the Costco in Yangjae, Seoul, you know what a feat that is.  It is the most busy, crowded, and most profitable Costco in the world (from what we've been told).  It's insane sometimes just to get into the parking structure.  So anyway, we got a ton of cereal, juice, nuts, laundry detergent, and other things to last us a while.

Wednesday we had a doctor's appt and our doula Lisa met us there this time.  The non-stress test went fine,  I am having irregular uterine contractions (Braxton-Hicks)--though they certainly seem to be pretty regular!  The baby's movement is good, and as Dr. Park says, "this will guarantee your baby's health for one week." haha kind of a weird statement.  We go back again on Tuesday this week and will have another one, and then I am guessing we'll go back for another a week later, etc.  Everything else was looking good.  I took a personal day off of work on Thursday to run some errands in Seoul to pick up stuff to wear in the birthing center, some nursing tank tops, etc. for after the baby is born and my co-worker Natalie, whose baby girl was born 3 weeks ago in a homebirth, decided to join me and she drove her nice SUV.  We actually first went to a meetup of nearly and new moms at a coffee shop that is organized by the company my doula runs, Birthing in Korea (BIK).  It was nice because I got to meet some other ladies and saw the two from our hypnobirthing class and their little babies that were both born in January!  So precious, and good to know that things went well for them--they both delivered at Mediflower, the birthing center we are going to.

Speaking of BIK, if you haven't checked out their website, you need to.  You might notice that I have a couple of short appearances in the video on the main page! :) http://birthinginkorea.com/

And in other news, we had maternity photos taken today!  It was kind of odd for us because we really haven't had any professional photos taken of us since our engagement and wedding photos almost 7 yrs ago!  We met up with the photographer, Heather, in Bundang this afternoon and spent a couple of hours walking around and taking photos.  It was slightly cold but nice nonetheless and we had a really good time with her--she's extremely easy to talk to and she made us feel very comfortable.  She knew a lot of areas with good architecture to have in the background, so we walked around to several places and took lots of photos!  Here is a link to her blog with some of the photos that she edited quickly this evening and has already posted!  We'll hopefully get to see the rest in the next couple of weeks.  We are thinking of also having her come over after little Raindrop is born to take some newborn photos for us as well.


http://heathermeinen.com/raindropmaternity/

And here are two photos just to give a sneak-peek of the sneak-peek! :)

This week at work should be pretty busy for me.  My substitute for my maternity leave is supposed to be starting on Monday so I will be training him and showing him as much as I can to prepare him to take over for me soon.  I've got to get my huge book order done soon so that can be processed in time to make it to the shipping container in May.  I've also got a session to lead at a teachers' conference on Friday, and hopefully that will go smoothly!  Then on Saturday Michael's got a middle school athletics tournament to go to.  Hoping to get everything done before the little babe decides to join us on the outside!

Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to become parents soon!  We are trusting in God for a safe, smooth, and gentle birth.  Getting excited as each day brings us a little bit closer. :)