Update

One day I will blog again.

But for now I am busy dealing with a lot of this:

And a little bit of this:

She is so worth it.

More to come soon....

Dear Baby,

The doctor teased me this week. On Tuesday, he said you may be here within the week. Being dilated to 7 cm seemed to make him think that. Your father and I got so excited and nervous. We made sure our bags were packed. We ate a good meal. We couldn't sleep from the excitment so we sang songs until we finally slept.

On Wednesday, I felt awful. I was so glad to feel awful. I just knew you would be here soon!

But I think the doctor jinxed us. On Thursday, I woke up and felt fine. Completely normal. It seems now that you will never come!

You see, I used to be very nervous about your arrival. In fact, I was fine with waiting another 2 weeks. You seemed very content where you are, and I was fairly comfortable. The whole delivery thing seemed scary. But now all that has changed. The thought of you finally joining us made me so excited, and now I can't wait! I wish for labor pains. (I am sure I will regret that.)Plus, I am not so comfortable anymore.

Now, I get up everyday and go to work hoping it will be my last day for a while. Every weird feeling I have I think maybe it could be the start of labor. Family is anxiously awaiting our phone call saying you're on your way. I debate calling the doctor to see if he is sure you can't just come now.

But nothing happens.

All because the doctor jinxed us.

Why won't you join us? We are ready. I think you are too. Please hurry.

Love,

Your mother

Baby Shower Numero Tres aka Work Family Shower

I cannot say enough good things about the people I work with. They are awesome. And not just because they bought me terrific presents. :)

My work family threw me a baby shower. It was AMAZING.

Although I did get really nervous opening gifts in front of people. (There are more people at the shower at other tables, but I don't have a picture of everyone.)
There was YUMMY FOOD: (Not pictured is HOMEMADE VANILLA ICECREAM. My favorite.)

And of course a delicious homemade cake filled with strawberries. Oh AND it's cute:

And let's not forget the amazing gifts. Adorable stuff too. We even go the travel system AND pack-n-playI have been dying to have:

After it was over, my car was loaded full of loot. It was so thoughtful of my co-workers and bosses to do this for me. I am so blessed to work with such amazing people. I was overwhelmed by all they did for us. I cannot thank them enough.

Thank you!

Baby Shower Numero Dos aka Family Family Shower

My wonderful sister-in-laws, Angela and Katie, threw me a baby shower. It was so much fun and so nice to spend time with family.

Food:

Family:

Kase's Cousin Reagan



Melanie & Holly




Cousin Nikki




Niece Sophie

Laura & Holly

Before Kase was born, they thought he would be a girl. His grandmother had bought some dresses for Girl Kase and mailed them to his mother. Since he wasn't a girl, he obviously didn't want to wear such cute little dresses. So his mother stored these dresses away for the future..... She passed these cute dresses onto our sweet little daughter.

Mother-in-law SuperDeb, Laura, & Kase

Sister-in-law Angela & Laura

Dad, Laura, & Mom

Mom, Sister Melissa, & Laura

Mom & Laura


Thank you everyone!!

Baby Shower Numero Uno aka Church Family Shower

My friend at church, Lea Ann, threw a sweet baby shower for me at her house. Several friends from church came and spoiled me and our little one.

Games: Everyone had to draw a baby on a piece of paper on top of their heads. Then I got to pick the best baby. I picked the one my mom drew. I didn't know it was her drawing. It was just the only baby with a cute face (and arms and legs).

Presents: Everyone was so nice and the baby got some really cute dresses and onesies. It was a really fun time.

Thank you!

Hey Look Me Over

My mom use to sing a song to us as kids. It goes something like....

"hey look me over, lend me your ear. Fresh out of clover, mortgage up to here, but don't pass the plate folks, don't pass the cup. I figure whenever you're down and out the only way is up. And I'll be up like a rosebud, high on the vine. Don't thumb your nose, but take a tip from mine. I'm a little bit short of elbow room but let me get me some and look out world here I come."

Anyways. Sometimes I do feel a little fresh out of clover.

But not this week. This week I am feeling pretty lucky, and very blessed.

Kase was able to start his internship this week. He was laid off last October and has been fulltime student-ing since. But this week he's back to work, and he loves it. Plus he graduates in 3 weeks! We are excited.

This weekend is looking pretty lucky too. My parents and sister are coming for a visit. And there are some fun baby showers involved! (I wish my brother and his wife could come visit. Hint hint if you happen to ever read this.)

Plus the weather has been awesome.

AND I've also decided our baby is very lucky. In the last 2 weeks, while walking to work I have randomly came across 4 four-leaf clovers. How lucky is that? It's all the baby.

So...

Look out world, here we come!

Baby Update

Last Thursday we went to the doctor for another ultrasound to check on baby's kidneys. The good news is that one kidney looks perfect. The other kidney is still swollen with fluid, but they were able to tell that it is definitely a blockage somewhere. So, we should be able to deliver at Parkwest instead of UT. She should be fine. She will probably have to have surgery a few weeks after she is born to clear out the blockage, but apparently it is a very common surgery.

We are relieved and feel very blessed. I was worried we would have to deliver at UT and they would have to take her away immediately to perform emergency surgery and I would have to go home without her. But it looks like things will be OK. But we will take whatever happens and do what needs to be done. We just want to meet our baby girl.

Other happennings at the doctor's appointment:

Baby:
- Baby weights 3.8 lbs. Still big for her age.
- She is stubborn and would not move around as needed.
- She looks strong and everything else looked good.

Me:
- I drank the sugary orange drink for my sugar test and it was not bad at all.
- I bruise like a peach. Thank you blood-removal-nurse-lady.

Other people at doctor's office:
- While waiting in the waiting room there was another couple there who made us feel like we were in an episode of '16 and Pregnant'. I giggled a lot because of this.


So we had a good doctor's visit. We love our little baby and her big feet.

Baby Update

Friday we went to the doctor for our 25th week checkup.

They did another ultrasound to check on the baby's kidneys. Her right kidney still has a blockage somewhere and is swollen full of fluid. It made my heart hurt to see her perfectly small bean-shaped left kidney next to the huge black (fluid shows up black on the monitor) right kidney. We'll have to do another ultrasound to check on the kidney again in 4 weeks. They want to make sure the kidney doesn't get too large and that the amniotic fluid levels stay high enough. She may have to be delivered early if things take a turn for the worst, she may need surgery when she is born, or everything may be OK and she could go full-term and just need medication to clear out the blockage. We're hoping for that one.

Other than that everything else looks good. Strong heart and good bones. She weights 2 lbs already, which is big for her age. And her feet are HUGE! Already 2 inches long!

It was fun to see our baby again.

Here are pictures from the 3 ultrasounds we have had so far. I labeled things because it just looks blob-like to me:



7 weeks- a tiny peanut:
20 weeks- looking like a baby: 25 weeks- She is bigger and squished and kept moving around a lot so they couldn't get a lot of good pictures. Here she looks like Skeletor. It's just one eye, nose, and skeleton mouth: 25 weeks still- They tried to get her huge big foot. It's the blobish thing above her body. HUGE
25 weeks still: This is a picture where they tried to get her hand. I can see an arm and a fist.
Anyways. We are really excited to meet our baby. We're praying that things get better with her kidney. We love her so much already. She loves her daddy already and moves around a lot when he talks to her.

One day I will post pictures of my growing belly. But my computer is slow uploading things. Stay tuned.....

Obsessed

So I decided to not buy much for the baby until it gets closer to baby time. Mostly to save money because we're hoping we get a lot of hand-me-downs, and I want to wait until after any baby showers so I know what we need.

But there is one problem with my plan.

I can't stop thinking about baby stuff.

I dream about it.

I MAY have even drawn a picture of what I would like our nursery to look like. Hoping that doing this would make me stop obsessing. I MAY have even considered taking measurements of the room so I could draw this picture to scale. I MAY have showed this picture to my husband and he still loves me. But I won't tell you if I really did that cause that would be embarrassing and dorky.

I don't want anything fancy. Just the necessities.

Anyways. I broke down and bought ONE thing for the baby/nursery a few weeks ago.

I had been eyeing this item for a while. It was on sale. Free shipping. I could build my Target rewards points. It was a sign.

So our baby has crib bedding.

She doesn't have a crib, but at least she has bedding.

And now I am making you look at it because I keep thinking about it.

Sorry.

Sugar and Spice

and everything nice.

We're having a girl!!!!

Kase has broken the family trend of having boys first. He's always been a trend breaker. We are super excited. It was so fun to see the little one's face and bones and fingers. The baby was very active. Kase's mom and my mom were able to come with us to the ultrasound. It was so fun to have them there. One of my favorite things is seeing how excited Kase is. I love it.

It was so cool to see the baby move on the monitor and feel it move at the same time. Weird! Amazing that she has grown from a tiny blob to a tiny baby.

Everything looked good on the ultrasound except one of the baby's kidneys looked a little off so we will have to keep an eye on that. It's kind of scary, but I feel that whatever happens she will be ok. Plus it means we get to do another ultrasound that's covered by insurance, and see our baby again.

Any girl name suggestions? We had a boy name, but I think girl names are harder. There are so many!

Guess!

It's that time.

Thursday we go to the doctor for our 20 week ultrasound. (And the only one covered by insurance so let's hope it goes well.) I'm so excited to see our little one. Yes we are going to find out (hopefully) if it's a boy or a girl. (Assuming the baby cooperates.)

So if you want to guess beforehand please do!

I am guessing girl. I just feel like it is a girl. But I'm probably wrong. I will let you know!

Guess away!