Bonding with our baby

The last couple weeks of this pregnancy have actually been kind of fun. I've grown a ton, or I guess I should say the baby has grown a ton. I can feel every single movement, and am starting to really distinguish sleeping movements from awake. When she's sleeping she isn't very active but I still get random nudges or kicks, and when she's awake she is moving all over and the best thing about it is being able to feel the position she is sitting in. Recently she was doing lots of moving and rolled over and I could feel two teeny tiny knees jabbing me right about in the middle of my abdomen. I reached down and poked where I was feeling the nudging and could feel a little hard spot that moved when getting poked. It was the coolest thing I have ever felt. She kept rolling back over and I would rub her knee and make her wiggle.  It was like a tickle game we were playing. Since then I've also been able to play the same game with her feet poking me by my ribs.  It's really the most bonded I've felt to her so far and made me really excited for her to get here to tickle and play with.
Last night Chad was getting a kick out of how hard  she was kicking and elbowing me. It seems like he never gets to actually feel her, I think because she is calmed by rubbing my belly. She'll be moving around a bunch and then as soon as Chad or I rub or touch the area she's moving in, she settles right down. But last night Chad kept his hand there for a while after she had calmed down and then she started back up. She was kicking hard enough to make me uncomfortable and Chad just kind of giggled the whole time. It was so much fun.
We also started our Childbirth classes last week. Being a small town they only offer one type, Lamaze, but it seems like they will be covering a lot more than just the Lamaze method. I guess you could call me an information junky cause I read every book, article, and website on pregnancy and childbirth that I can but I was excited about these classes for Chad to come with me and hear about all the stuff that I have been reading about because I will need all the help from him that I can get once we get into labor and I can't remember half of what I've read. Plus there is always something else to learn from each source of information and the teacher said several things that I hadn't heard yet that I found really interesting.
In other news, my dad came up for an extended weekend last week, which was great. I can tell how excited he is to be a grandpa. One of the things we were able to do was go to a bookstore and start a library of children's books for Kiley. I got alot of good book advice from him, the book guru. Having worked around books for the majority of his life, being an avid reader and writer, and having done a TON of reading to two children of his own he pointed out a lot of stuff to look for in books where I would have been totally clueless and just picked out books based on what age it says it is for on the cover.
This coming week we have another Dr. appointment, and will top off the week by celebrating our 1 year anniversary. Hard to believe a year has gone by so fast, and just how much can change in a year.  They say the first year of marriage is the hardest, well I guess we will see about that, but if this is the worst we have to go through I think we will do just fine in the years to come.

28 Weeks