So much to do

There's so much to do before a baby comes! At my last appointment my midwife assigned me the task of beginning to look for a pediatrician. I've started doing that using a list of pediatrician's on the American Academy of Pediatrics website that live near our house. The next step is to call and set up interview's to see the offices and speak with the doctors.

After that, I think my next big task will be to start looking for child care options. This is the one I'm not thrilled about. I wish I could stay at home with my little one for the first few years. I would love that, but that doesn't look to be an option currently. So I have to go through the gruelling task of finding someone I don't know that I will have to trust with the care and protection of my new baby. Obviously I will be doing TONS of research on the places/people I check out and I will keep you apprised on that.

And then there are the "smaller" things to do like get the baby's room ready, even though he/she will be staying in our room for quite a while. Figure out what types of diapers I want to use, get the house ready, and a big one...

Get the pup ready for a new sibling. That one will be interesting. I downloaded an e-book from the internet called "Good Dog, Happy Baby". Believe it or not, there are only a few of the things we need to work on with Drake. Item 1, jumping up to greet us. Yes, he does this and Marc has kind of been the encourager of this since he was a little pup. But it was too cute to resist, it still is some days... that is until we have a handful of grocery bags and we're trying to make it up the stairs while he's jumping up and at the same time trying to stick his head in the bags to see what's in there! Another issue he has is walking. I love walking my dog because I love to see his little curiosity in EVERYTHING he passes. It's just so cute. What I hate about walking my dog is that his attention is on EVERYTHING he passes and not on me when I'm trying to tug him out of the way. This trait has also been a part of him since his puppy-dom but it's not like we haven't worked on it! He's been to hunt dog training where he learned to heel while wearing his hunting e-collar, however, he lacks that ability while on a normal walk. According to this book, I should try training him with a pinch collar. So I finally picked one up last night. The thing looks so evil! With these prongs that are meant to pinch. Well, I'll try working with him on it this weekend. I just don't want him to loose his excitement when we say "wanna go for a walk?" and his ears perk up and he starts pacing near the door. Hopefully, it will only take a bit of training but with Drake, it's never that easy. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!