Erin Akin Carroll

One year ago this week, I was doing all of the same things I’m doing this week except instead of preparing for a baby I was preparing for our wedding.

Totally unrelated, please look at the adorable stationery that arrived today from Ashley Brooke Designs! After the baby comes, I’ll debut the version with his name on it! I’m so excited about it. I can’t wait to start writing baby shower thank you notes on these! (Isn’t Fiona just the cutest thing?)

My major event for the year is next Thursday and Friday and I have two minor events on Monday and Tuesday. It will be a pretty hectic week, so I’m really looking forward to this weekend and getting a chance to do whatever I want and relax.

Todd and I are going to see State of Play tonight. I love Rachel McAdams and I’ve never gotten over my ninth grade crush on Ben Affleck. I’m sure we’ll eat dinner at some cheesy chain restaurant near the movie theater.

We’re having dinner tomorrow night with a couple of friends from Sunday school at Mr. Friendly’s, my favorite restaurant. I’ll probably spend some of the day tomorrow at work either grading papers or working on event day timelines to give to everyone out at the golf course. I only have to work on the weekend about three times a year and I always dread it. I know I’ll feel much better on Monday if I just get it over with this weekend, though.

I had a beautiful lunch shower at the Motor Supply Company today and we had so much fun! I gave the hostesses gift certificates for massages and I’m hopeful they’ll invite me to join them– and I’ll cash in on my prenatal massages! Baby Boy Carroll got some great gifts today! I love it when people give us their favorite baby gift or favorite baby book. Then there are those gifts that we need like the Diaper Champ and the Mobile Activity Mat. We’re getting really close to being all set and ready for a baby!

Have a great weekend, friends!

This post is intended to be an update on how our childbirth classes went, but I have a feeling it’s going to turn into a little more than that.

Todd and I arrived at our all day Saturday childbirth class at the hospital with two pillow and a blanket in tow (for the dreaded lamaze/breathing portion). There were three other young couples in the room and one of the other couples also got the memo about the pillows and blanket. The lovely, sarcastic, and perfectly perfect nurse told us that she doesn’t believe much in that so we should just take the pillows and blanket back to the car. Score! The day started off perfect!

So that’s my lamaze experience. Nothing. No breathing. No “hoo hoo heeeeee”. Nada. Her response was, “that’s why there’s the epidural. If you really want the lamaze I can put you in touch with someone who teaches those, but it’s not me.” I loved her.

The class was very much like any other classroom experience. Lots of Power Point, lots of questions, and a few much too informative videos. I’ve watched “A Baby Story” on TLC a couple of times, but things are often blurry. Nothing was blurred out in this video. And nothing was pretty. These women were completely exposed from head to toe.

Now, I like clothes. I even like hospital gowns if it means that a doctor, an anesthesiologist, two nurses, a scrub tech, and my husband aren’t going to be staring at every inch of me for God knows how long while I scream and sweat and push a baby out. Why weren’t these women wearing their robes?! Do they think it’s organic and natural for a woman to be totally nude?

Seriously, the first question asked after the video by one of the husbands was, “Where are the hospital gowns?!” The second question was, “How can I sign up for a c-section?”

That leads me to my next point. Baby Boy Carroll is still breech and I pray every night that God will let him stay in that position. Please don’t flip, Baby Boy! Keep your c-section criticism to yourself. I want one! The little incision is tiny and no one would ever see it. It’s scheduled. I’m an event planner for crying out loud. I need schedule.

Here’s my rationalization (I’m a pretty irrational person, by the way): I’m going to have some significant recovery either way I go. I’ve heard horror stories about the natural delivery (even with epidural) aftermath. I think no one ever wants to share those stories because they’re afraid that they’ll seem like childbirth wasn’t beautiful.

Here’s the thing…. a baby is beautiful. Why does childbirth have to be beautiful?

We also toured the hospital after all the videos were over. It was a very informative day. Possibly the funniest part of the day was when the nurse showed us the labor and delivery room and told us that some moms want to see the baby coming out. (WHY?!) She told us that one option was to request “a meerow.” (A mirror) Then she kept saying it. “A lot of couples like this big standing meerow because the mom can see everything while she’s pushing.” Todd and I don’t have a lot of tolerance for bad grammar or mispronounced words, so we just cringed every time she said it.

Good news: I have a baby shower/luncheon tomorrow with some of my coworkers at one of my favorite Columbia restaurants. It’ll be nice to get out of the office and get away from golf tournament and party planning for a couple of hours to watch some of my favorite people drink yummy lunch cocktails!

This year, on American Idol they’ve introduced a fourth judge. And I happen to love her. Kara DioGuardi brings a lot to the judge’s table with her real knowledge of music, star quality, and her ability to recognize a talented person when she sees him or her. She’s also gorgeous (and she reminds me of one of our favorite bloggers, Nina).