Baby Organization

Babies involve a lot of stuff, which means your house becomes a mess. So what to do? Buy a billion bins at Target!

Now most of these tubs are actually for my husband. After having a baby for 2 days, he came down the stairs with his hair all disheveled saying, "I can't find a single thing in the baby's room!" Then the next day, he tried to put clean clothes away, and they were just all over the place :). So I used my teacher labeling machine to label lots of tubs. Since then, I haven't heard him complain about not being able to find things, and everything has ended up in the right drawers. Yay!

A planter to help contain all of the stuffed animals!

A cute tub to store diapers, antibacterial hand  stuff,  thermometer, diaper rash cream

A tub to store all swaddles because my husband can't ever locate these things

A tub to contain the billions of socks

The changing table/dresser

Everything we use at night

My husband doesn't ever know what is in each drawer :).

A tub for the boob juice

Christmas Baby! (Part 2)

Later on the 27th (the day we came home), my parents visited us for a little while that night. My neck was really bothering me; it seriously felt like whiplash from a car accident or something. It just hurt so bad to keep my head upright. So we exchanged Christmas gifts while I laid down on the couch and opened all of my gifts sideways. I was really starting to question whether or not I did have side effects from the botched epidural #1.

Peter and I decided that we would take "shifts" to get some sleep on the first night home, but I felt so weak that I stayed on the first floor with the baby. My neck was killing me, I had a small headache starting, I was exhausted, my boobs were soooo sore, and I remember thinking that this was the worst night of my life :(. It had nothing to do with the baby, but taking care of a baby on top of all of that made me feel extra terrible. How do you take care of a baby when you are barely taking care of yourself?

I know this sounds weird, but my neck hurt so bad that I really don't remember a lot of the Christmas gifts that I got. I even tried to take a shower on the morning of the 28th, but I felt so dizzy during the shower that I had to sit down while showering. I was so nervous that I would fall over, and I had to call Peter into the bathroom to make sure I could get out of the shower without falling over. Worst shower of my life. When I walked into the bedroom, I actually fell face first onto the bed because everything started to turn white, and I got really tired and scared that I would faint.

We decided to call my mom and dad that night to babysit, so Peter and I could go to the ER. It just got to the point where I felt useless. Peter had been taking care of Emma all day, and I just laid on the couch in pain. I know this sounds dumb, but I really hate overreacting to things, and I hate when people are overly dramatic about things. I didn't want to admit that this was a reaction to the epidural. I just figured, "Hey, it's childbirth. Everyone says it sucks. This must be normal," but it was so hard to see other friends of mine who have just given birth making posts on Facebook about how they are taking the baby on a walk, going to visit people, etc. I felt like if they could do it, I could to. I know, I know. I am stupid.

So we went to the ER around 7pm, and when we walked in, there were no seats open, and the place was PACKED. Everyone had the flu.

Peter checked me in, and they said it would be a while. I stood in the ER waiting area for about 20 minutes and cried in pain because my neck hurt so much to stand upright. The nurses and patients were looking at me like I was crazy. Finally, a nurse said I could lay down in the car, and Peter could call me when it was my turn to be seen. So I went to the car and slept in the front reclined seat for four hours. Yes, 4 HOURS. :(

Wet Tap (spinal fluid leak)

Finally Peter called my phone, and I went back inside. They took me to a room where I could lay on a bed. The doctor came in and said it definitely was from the "wet tap" epidural #1. Then she told me that the anesthesiologist wasn't available to the ER at night, so I could either:

1. Stay overnight at the hospital. They would give me a caffeine drip and Motrin until 11am when he might be able to fit me in.
2. Come back to the ER tomorrow at 8am, sign in again, and wait to be seen. 

For someone in excruciating pain, both of these are terrible options.

While I laid in the room crying, Peter and I talked about option #1. Who would want to come back to the ER and wait again for 4 hours? I hurt so much that I honestly didn't even care if I couldn't see the baby for a day. 

Then all of a sudden, this wonderful man in green can into the room and introduced himself. One of the ER nurses saw me and knew what the problem was, so she ran upstairs and told the one anesthesiologist who was working that I was in pain. He said he wasn't busy and thought that the hospital's policy on not working in the ER was stupid. He told me that his wife had a wet tap epidural and he knew how badly she hurt, so he couldn't let me lay there in pain for a day while he was upstairs doing nothing. Apparently the procedure to fix the problem only takes 5 minutes, and he was ready to go. He didn't even care that my boobs were leaking all over the place. Oh, child birth. Yay.

Now I don't say this kind of thing ever, but this man was honestly an angel in disguise. I cried from being so happy that he was there to help me feel better. He was so reassuring and told me that he would have to give me another epidural to fix the pain (yep, epidural #3). He wanted to perform a blood patch, which is when they give you an epidural and inject your blood into your spinal cavity to patch up the previous hole that is leaking.

Getting an epidural is a scary thing. I was terrified because only 1% of people have complications with epidurals. What if I was going to be in the 1% again? He performed the procedure in the 5 minutes as promised and talked me through it to calm my nerves. He kept saying, "I am doing this...and it is textbook perfect so far! Ok, now I did this, and I did it perfectly again!" It was really helpful that he was talking me through it because it really did calm my nerves. 

I had to lie on the bed for 30 minutes after the procedure to allow a blood clot to form in the hole. After the half-hour, he slowly sat me up, and for the first time in 4 days, I was able to sit up without feeling like I was hit by a train. Peter had switched places with my mom at this time, so she was waiting with me in the ER room now. When I sat up, it was immediate relief. I think I thanked the doctor 50 times and told my mom that he really was an angel. 

I had to take it easy for the next 24 hours to make sure that the blood clot stayed in place, but the difference was night and day. I was able to sit up and hold the baby, feed her, stand up, take a shower, stand up, etc. 

Even with all of the epidural stuff, I would get another epidural in a heartbeat for the next baby we have. It helped so much during labor, and I am still an epidural advocate! 

Thank you to my mom, dad, husband, and the wonderful doctor who helped me that night!

Christmas Baby! (Part 1)

Since I had reached my due date and nothing was going on, we decided to make as many plans as we wanted for the Christmas Holiday. We went to my company party on the 22nd, cleaned the house for guests on the 23rd and 24th, went to a Christmas Eve dinner, attended Christmas Eve mass, and (baked and) bought lots of food for Christmas Day when both of our families were supposed to come over.

So when I woke up at 12:30 am on Christmas Day with cramps that seemed to come and go, I thought, "Oh, no...."  The cramps were like period cramps, but this was the first time that they had a start and stop to them. I tried to go back to bed, since the cramping was minimal at that point, but then I kept waking up every 20 minutes or so. Finally at 2:30, I decided to wake Peter up and said, "How would you like to stay awake with me for a while?"

He knew what that meant and downloaded an app on his tablet to time the contractions. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed a tiny bit of blood, and I just started laughing. I knew my Christmas plans were out the window now!

The app was actually pretty neat because it alerted you when to call the hospital based on the duration and frequency of the contractions. Things were about 4-5 minutes apart, but I felt like I could talk through them for the most part. The hospital said to come on in and get checked out anyway. By this time, it was 4:30 when we arrived at the ER. I noticed that the pain of the contractions had definitely increased to the point where I did NOT want to talk anymore.

They wheeled me into a room where they put monitors on my belly and started monitoring the baby's heartbeat and the frequency of my contractions. I was 2cm dilated when we came in, and they wanted to watch things for the next 2 hours. The plan changed when a nurse came in and said that the baby's heartbeat was responding to my contractions, so they were keeping me at the hospital.

They gave me some Cervadil, and from there things progressed rather quickly (or at least it felt quick) with dilation. Once I was 7cm, they moved me to a Labor & Delivery room, which was like a fancy penthouse room. My water broke while I was laying there on the bed, but it wasn't like a crazy explosion or anything.

Finally the doctor came in and told me that she wanted to make my contractions more regular, since they weren't consistently spaced. She said they were going to put me on a tiny bit of Pitocin, so I said, "Then let's get that epidural BEFORE these contractions get worse!" It seriously felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach with a sword at this point.

The anesthesiologist came in, and I was terrified. Like absolutely terrified to the point where I was shaking. Poor Peter...he was such a trooper. He tried so hard to calm me down, but I was almost crying from being afraid of the epidural. The doctor numbed my back, which was the worst part of the epidural, and I jumped a little when I felt it. When the doctor actually put the epidural needle in, we heard, "Oh, no...I just nicked your spine. Yea...you're probably going to hurt tomorrow." I could tell that he felt really bad about it, but I don't blame him. He then had to give me another epidural in another spot, and that one took effect in about 5 minutes. It was wooooonderful, and I couldn't feel the contractions anymore! The one thing I did notice about the epidural was that I had the shakes after I got it. I don't know if it was my nerves or if it was an effect of the epidural, but I felt like I had nervous shakes.

The doctor came in a little while later, and I was 9cm. She said I should start pushing when I "felt the urge." I had no idea what that meant, but I understood soon enough. The pushing wasn't horrible...not until a head came out. Holy bajeez. No epidural can stop you from feeling THAT. My throat was soooo dry from all of the deep breathing. The nurses kept promising me that they would get me whatever I wanted as soon as she was born. All I could think about was a nice big Diet Coke -- cold and bubbly! So at 4:06 pm on Christmas Day, Emma Rose was born!

She cried a little for about 30 seconds, and then they whisked her off to the corner of the room to clean her off and weigh her. Peter got to hold her first, since I got to hold her for 9 months. I think he was hooked :). I remember looking at her thinking, "Who does she look like? I want a Coke now." And at this point, I really didn't care that it was Christmas Day anymore. The hard work was basically over!

The nurses took her back to the corner for a while, so the doctor could give me a few stitches. Yes. Va-jay-jay stitches. I don't care what they say; the sewing might have been worse than the childbirth. I was slightly terrified, so I sang songs while I held Peter's hand tightly, "When will it stop? I don't like this. This is horrible. I want to be dooooone! I thought the pain was ooooover." Those were the lyrics to my song.

Soon after, my parents came into the room, and Peter finally announced the baby's name. We had been keeping her name a secret until birth because we wanted a little surprise factor. I think everyone was so excited about Emma's birth that they didn't have many opinions on her name...but we are big fans :). Peter's mom and Jim also came in shortly after, and they were just as excited about baby Emma. Emma's first gifts were a teddy bear from Grandmom & Grandpop C. and an owl from Grandmom and Grandpop McC.

  

After that, I remember the nurses taking the baby up to the nursery to clean her off more, and a nurse helped me pee for the first time. Talk about an experience. I have never had to use so much equipment to help me pee before. Two weeks later, things are finally starting to get less complicated in the bathroom department.

After a pee, they wheeled me up into the Mother Baby floor, and lots of family greeted Peter and me there. I honestly don't really remember much of the conversations that we had or what people gave us. I was dead tired at this point. I do remember being happy that my brother and his wife were able to be there, since they were flying out of the country on Dec. 26 to go on their honeymoon in Jamaica.

 

The next few days in the hospital were extremely tiring...mostly because the nurses, doctors, consultants, etc. kept coming into the room every 20 minutes, so we never got any sleep. I started to get a headache/neck ache which I definitely thought was a result of lack of sleep and labor pushing (--you tense up every muscle in your body, so I expected that was why my neck hurt). I had never birthed a child before, so I didn't think anything of it when I felt like I had been hit by a train.

On Thursday, Dec. 27., we were scheduled to go home. Before we left, an anesthesiologist came in to check on me and see how I was doing. He started to give me funny looks when I told him that I had a strange neck pain when I stood or sat. He said it sounded like the result of the botched epidural #1, but if I could live with the pain, then it would go away in about a week.

We packed all of our stuff up, and I was wheeled out to the car. The wheelchair was excruciating for my neck, since I had to sit up. The car ride home was also absolutely horrible for my neck. Once we got home, I flopped on the couch to lie down.

But we were happy to be home! The dogs were happy, too. Lily was curious enough to give a good lick to Emma's head. Lennon was (and still is) very interested whenever Emma makes a noise. We are fine to have them sniff and lick her, but we are trying to manage Lennon's interest level by giving her billions of toys to keep her busy.

Part 2 to come later!

Belly Picture - Week 39

We went to the doctor this past week (38 weeks and 4 days), and the doctor said things are looking good! Wonderful amniotic fluid, baby's weight looks good (41st percentile; approx 7 pounds but the estimates usually run a little high), and everything looks great on the ultrasound.

The ultrasound technician at our doctor's office absolutely loves her job, and you can tell. She gets so excited when she gets a good picture of the baby, and she prints it out right away for us. This week, the baby was already in the head-down position, so the technician was having a hard time getting a good 2-D shot. She seemed defeated, but then she pulled out the 4-D wand and gave us a few pics.

I always think the 4-D ultrasounds are really creepy, so I wasn't quite prepared to see puffy little Peter lips on the giant, flat screen, 52" ultrasound TV.

The 4-D ultrasounds have lots of amniotic fluid and blobs floating by, which make it even weirder as you are watching. I imagine she wasn't too happy with the technician poking and prodding around for 20 minutes. We will see if she still looks grumpy after birth :). 

39 Weeks

During the physical part of the exam, the doctor said softening is starting but no dilation. Her prediction is a late baby, so we will just see what happens! She wants us to prove her wrong, but we are going to discuss a possible induction if we make it to the appointment this Thursday, the 20th. I would be happy with a December 20th or 21st baby, but she may end up being a late-comer. We'll just wait and see!

37 Weeks and 4 Days

Well, sleep is getting difficult. Twice this week I woke up waaaay before my alarm went off and couldn't get back to sleep at all. My mind just goes crazy with weird thoughts. I am not actively worrying or thinking about something, but as soon as I fall asleep, my mind decides to fixate on something. Anything really. If I watched it on TV before bed, I dream about it.

This week's doctor appointment was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing, I guess. The baby's heartbeat was 138 (normal). I didn't gain any weight this week, but I honestly think it's because my stomach feels more squished this week. The doctor asked me if I was having any symptoms or complaints this week, and I told her, "No, it's been a pretty bland week for pregnancy." She thought this was really funny. *shrug*

This week has been an abusive week for my hips though. It feels like she is pummeling me from the inside. I would swear sometimes she is trying to punch her way out.

I have also noticed an increase in my fatigue. I get exhausted sooo easily. If I get up and walk into another room, I feel like I carried a 200 pound man on my back. Needless to say, I have been spending an increasing amount of time on the couch. My heart beats a million beats a minute from just sitting. It's crazy!

Hiccups are still happening daily. Also, I think my child is part golden retriever. Every so often I feel this spastic shaking inside my stomach, and it feels like the movement a dog makes when they scratch their ear really fast. Sometimes I think it's the dog on the couch or on the bed, but then I realize it's coming from inside my body. I have no idea what's going on in there.

We got new carpet! It is so nice and soft...and hopefully not as much of a dog hair magnet as the crappy carpet we had before. Bonus: this carpet is not 20 years old AND is not green, so these are giant pluses.

We went to a parenting class this week, and it was pretty useful. A pediatrician was there, and she answered all of the questions everyone had. We also got a fancy poster of baby poop. Peter couldn't look at it. Ha.

I was talking to a friend today on Facebook. We are both actually due on December 23rd, so it's nice to compare stories. I can't tell you how hilarious and comforting it is to hear that someone else doesn't realize they have crumbs and stains on their clothes. These boobs...they hide the view of all the junk that lands on the belly.

I've been trying to wrap all of the Christmas gifts this week. It has been slow going, since I get tired after wrapping 4 gifts. Wrapping involves lots of leaning and stretching. Tough stuff!

Christmas 2012 (AKA Maternity Photos)

These pictures were taken at the beginning of Week 37. Enjoy!

  

 

 

 

And just to clarify....

:) 

9 Months -- AHH!

We had our 36-week doctor appointment on Wednesday. From here on out, this means doctor visits are weekly, and pelvic exams come back into the picture -- huzzah!

The baby's heartbeat was 152, which is pretty much where it's been hanging around lately. My blood pressure was good, so these swollen legs are just a result of normal water retention.

I've been sneaking a peek at my records every time I go to the doctor because I am always curious what the "fundal height" is that week. Just in case you don't know, the fundal height is the way they measure your uterus (aka stomach in my opinion) to see how the baby's growth is. The doctor hasn't told me anything about the baby's size, but I saw that my fundal height has been matching my number of weeks since sometime in the 2nd trimester. If you are 36 weeks, they expect you to measure 36 cm. So yay!

No dilating going yet, which is fiiiiiine by me. The baby was in head-down position at the appointment, so we'll see how much she wiggles each week and changes position.

My doctor asked us to make a Birth Plan, which I never wanted to make because I am not that high maintenance...but after that crazy birthing class, I realized the things I do NOT want. No mirrors. No 10 person party in the delivery room.

I'm pretty open to my doctor's recommendations though. I think she's a smart woman. She's educated. She went to school for this (several times). She delivered thousands of babies. I have never done this and have never taken a medical class before. I value her opinions and her expertise in this area. With that being said...if you are reading and thinking that Peter and I might make poor or uninformed choices, please don't worry. We are educated people also, and you will be able to make all of the decisions you'd like for your own labor and delivery.

For the past 2 days, I've noticed that my lower back has been popping a lot. I think the relaxin hormone is kicking in again -- it's never fun. My pelvis has returned to being pretty sore, and now that my lower back is feeling achy, my body thinks it's 92 years old.

I am pretty bad at drinking water just for the heck of it. I usually drink when I eat, so I've been trying to make myself drink more. I'm not sure if that's why peeing in the middle of the night has increased or if it's all of this internal pressure going on.

This stage of pregnancy is pretty uncomfortable, but even with that being said, I don't feel horribly unlike my normal self. I just miss being able to get off the couch without assistance :). Wiping my woman parts on the toilet is also pretty hilarious.

There is still a lot to do. We need to install the car seat, pick a pediatrician, actually do one GOOD cleaning of the entire house, hope that the new hallway carpet gets installed this week or sooner, make a stock pile of sugar glider food, etc. I'd say for the most part we have all of the baby equipment and stuff we need. It's just a matter of making sure we do all of the things that probably won't get done again for months.

Today is Christmas Decorating and Hospital Bag Day.

Childbirth Prep Course

*Warning: Contains graphic information and a lot of use of the word "vagina."

Peter and I had our Childbirth Prep Class last weekend. We opted for the 8-hour weekend course instead of the 4-day event during the workweek.

When we arrived, we were the only couple there for a while, but they slowly started trickling in. Soon our room was filled with 9 other couples.

We had to start by introducing ourselves, and everyone said their name, due date, doctor's name, and any other little tidbits of information we wanted to provide. I was surprised to hear that 8 of the 10 couples were due after me because I thought everyone looked like they were going to pop any minute now. Shh -- never tell them I said that!

Everyone seemed pretty normal, and most of their stories made us laugh because we could relate. So naturally, I thought this was going to be a pretty mild 8-hour day.

As a side note, I would like to state for the record that I am now terrified of child birth. I have seen The Joy of Life video in health class before, watched A Baby Story on TV, and have heard horror stories about childbirth from just about every mom I've ever met...but when you know that childbirth is inevitable, it takes on a whole new scare factor.

The little "intensity" -- this is another word for "pain" -- charts made me want to cry. Here is my interpretation of the Stages of Labor charts we saw.

So with all of that being said...lunch was somewhat silent as I sat there and ate my chicken sandwich in shock.

After showing us 15-or-so charts, we got to watch "the real thing" as depicted by 3 "real" women. I don't know where you get 3 women who are willing to allow someone else to film their childbirth and their hoohaw for the world to see...but I am going to guess it's at a hippie commune where women go into labor just because "they love how great it feels! Get me a mirror! I can't get enough of this stuff!"

In the middle of this 3-D animated DVD complete with actual birthing scenes, the guy next to me starts asking questions. First he asks about the importance of a birthing tub. "Could I just put my wife into a hot tub?" he asks. Immediately the instructor says no because of public water that could be infected with germs. "What if it's my hot tub?" Her answer is still no due to temperature. "What if I turn the temperature down?" She says, "Let me put it to you this way, sir...your wife probably weighs 150+ pounds right now. You are not going to get a Stage 1 pregnant women into a hot tub safely and then get her out when she reaches stage 2 or 3." He just didn't get it.

The video also referenced the "ring of fire." This was very concerning to the guy next to me. "Um, is there anything I could put in there to help...you know...stretch it out and get it ready for childbirth?" 

HOLY CRAP! DID HE JUST ASK IF HE COULD GAUGE HIS WIFE'S VAGINA? 

Yes. Yes, he did folks. The instructor very quickly said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Sir, please understand that this process has been happening for thousands upon thousands of years. A woman's body knows how to get ready for childbirth. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE INSERT THINGS INTO HER VAGINA!" The most disturbing part was how he turned to his wife after this comment and said how he didn't agree; he really thinks they need to start getting it ready by stretching it out. 

Finally, the instructor talked about how sometimes a woman can accidentally poop during all of this pushing. She was really trying to lessen the fear that women have of this possibility by explaining that a woman's body generally starts shutting down the digestive system a few days before labor, so there is less "stuff" in there. I think she referred to labor poop as "little deer pellets." 

Well, this guy just wasn't having it. This absolutely disgusted him, so he raised his hand. "Hear me out...what if...we took some sort of tube...and shoved it up there, so it would just whisk the poop away?" A POOP TUBE.

Once again, the instructor had to explain that he was really focusing on the wrong thing. I think he was imagining an active "spray" that just continued during the whole pushing phase.

I think the best part of the day was how everyone quickly turned and looked at the guy each time he raised his hand. And his wife...she didn't seem phased by his questions. That was the weirdest part.

All-in-all...we laughed, I cried due to my new-found knowledge of this inevitable doom, and we have a funny story to tell you. 

You'll Poke Your Eye Out

On Thursday night, I was working at the dining room table...when all of a sudden, Lennon decided to go into super stealth mode toward the stairs. Her ears perked up, and she ran with a purpose toward the steps.

So I looked over and saw a little furry body hopping down the stairs. It was Tubby, the sugar glider. This sugar glider loves to get out and test his fate.

Tubby (on the left)  

Tubby before his diet

I ran to the steps and grabbed Tubby, yelling to Peter to grab Lennon, and at this same time, Lennon jumps toward my hands, scaring Tubby...so Tubby proceeds to jump on my face. Yes, face.

And wouldn't you know that I haven't clipped his dagger nails in a few months, even though I keep telling myself, "I really need to clip his nails." Just in case you don't know what their feet look like, here is a great pic I found online; it really showcases the talons of death well.

Where do his nails land, you ask? IN MY EYE. Like actually ON MY EYEBALL. At this point, I don't want to pull him off my face, since his nails are like little hooks, so I just have to wait until he moves off of my eye. 

We called the eye doctor at 8:30 pm, hoping he had an answering service that could tell me what I should do. Luckily, my wonderful eye doctor was on call, and he called in some eye antibiotic gel that night. So I saw in Rite Aid with one eye closed -- I could't really open it because it would just start pouring tears down my face.

My watery eye :(

Me moaning on the night of "the incident"

My eye doctor was able to see me first thing the next morning and gave me more antibiotic gel. So yea... for about 1.5 days, it was almost impossible to open my eye. Luckily, all is healing well, and I don't look like a cyclops anymore. However, I do have this awesome M-shaped scratch in the middle of my cornea. Wee!

The day after...disregard my messy kitchen.
It has been cleaned since then.

My favorite part of this story is how both the lady at Rite Aid and the nurse at the eye doctor's office both looked at my file and said, "Happy Birthday!!" Hahaha! For some reason, this makes me laugh :).

Busy, busy!

Over the past few weeks, we have been super busy -- not even doing baby-related things necessarily.

This week was my brother's wedding, so there was a lot to do in preparation for the wedding day, and work has been crazy because of a deadline.

 The wedding was yesterday, so I am super exhausted. I don't know how Peter managed to do it, but he stained the whole backyard's fence today. What a champ! :)  We are also trying to get new carpets installed on our stairways before the baby comes. We'll see if this was a bad choice or not...maybe it will force me into cleaning-mode. I haven't really gotten there yet. I think it's because of being out of breath a lot.

Jeanne has been bugging me for belly pictures. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

Almost 34 weeks - Jerry's Wedding Rehearsal

Not great but I was tired of posing. Every picture was horrible.
33.5 weeks

Had a doctor visit this week, which went well. The baby's heartbeat was 148. We have one more 2-week appointment, then after that, the appointments will be every week. Yikes!

Next weekend is our birthing class. I'm not actually looking forward to that. It scares me to be in a room filled with pregnant ladies. The last thing I want to hear is another breastfeeding story. HA! :)

In other news, Jerry and Rachel's wedding was beautiful. The weather was perfect, and everyone had a great time. Even though my brother was a ball of nerves, I think he survived just fine :). Welcome to the family, Rachel!