So its been a really long while since I blogged last, I know. I guess I have more to share now. Kaelyn is doing incredibly! She is crawling all over the place and pulls up on everything. Her favorite thing right now is to walk around, but of course she can't do that on her own yet, so we get to walk around with her, holding her hands. I have no doubt that she's strong enough to stand on her own, but the balance is just not there yet. My prediction is she'll be walking by 10 months, it may be a bold prediction, but very likely since she's only 8 months now.

Kaelyn is also vocalizing alot now. She is kinda stuck at "mama" or "ma-ma-ma-ma". We're trying to get "dada" in there, but she's having too much fun with "mama" right now. It'll still be awhile before she's actually understanding words, but its fun to watch her try sounds out and play with them. She gets so excited.

Marc is working on his newest creative idea, a podcast with Adam Colwell called "2 Dads & a Mic"! Basically the plan is to geek out about things like Star Wars and Invader Zim, as well as throwing in daddy tidbits, a little Christianity, and sports. I really hope they can get this up and running, I think it'll be a great creative outlet for Marc.

As far as myself I am currently dieting. I have become so unhappy with my weight that I'm taking all that frustration and turning it into determination to lose 46 lbs. I'm 3 weeks into my diet and have lost 10 lbs, only 36 more to go. My goal is to lose all this weight by Christmas, its ambitious, but do-able. I need to lose this weight so I can be comfortable with myself again. I let myself get very self-conscious when I'm around friends because they're all smaller than me. I know I shouldn't let this happen, but insecurity has been an ongoing problem I've had since I was a teenager. The second hope in losing weight is that I can look at pictures of myself and not cringe. I have a beautiful little baby girl and I know we plan on taking tons of pictures of her. I don't want to be scared to be in those pictures and when I am, I want to smile because of the memory the picture brings, not cringe at how I look. My biggest need for losing weight has to do with my relationship with Marc. No matter what I weigh I know Marc will always see me as beautiful, but I need to see me as beautiful as well so I can be comfortable and enjoy intimacy with him. I want to be the wife Marc deserves and I need to be happy with myself to really be able to be that wife. I'm excited for the results and am feeling very confident that I can make my goal. There is so much more I want to do in my life, but for now I'm concentrating on this goal and once I reach it I'll decide what my next one will be.

More than I could have asked for...

I have to say this somewhere...Kaelyn is a dream baby! I read all these stories about other babies never wanting to be put down, or not able to self-entertain, or still crying for hours at night and I just thank God everyday for this bright ball of sunshine in a little girl He gave me. She's not perfect. She seems to enjoy getting fussy during 241, probably because she is usually up during service as well as 241 and is getting tired. The crazy thing is that is probably my only complaint. She has started sleeping through the night most nights now, she is a good eater, smiles all the time, seems to be progressing as far as her milestones, and is generally very laid back. I really have zero reasons to complain. I did not deserve such a wonderful child, but God seems to have blessed me with her. I know there is still a whole lifetime worth of problems that are going to come up, but for now I just needed to verbalize how happy I am. I didn't want to do it on the Baby Center website because some of them are really going through hard times and don't need to hear how wonderful other babies are behaving.

Thank you heavenly Father for this blessing! I love my little girl so much and can't wait to be apart of her life!

Let the Emotions Flow!

Ok, so I'm now at 37 weeks and very ready for Kaelyn to come out now. I will definitely miss feeling her move and kick and squirm, but I'm so done with the rest of these pregnancy joys. I know its all apart of the experience, and I guess we can thank Eve for most of it, but I can't wait to hold my little girl.

I think Marc is ready as well. He got to spend a good amount of time holding some friends of ours little baby girl the other night. It was so cute cuz she was very much into him. She was smiling and cooing at him and then fell asleep in his arms while we were watching a movie. I think he's also ready because the last few nights I've been an emotional mess. I absolutely hate it when I'm being self-centered, but its just the way I feel these days. Like I'm going through all this so Marc should only do what I want. For example he wants to go to Waypoint's Christmas Show this week and I don't want him to because I want him home with me. Totally self-centered and then to make it worse I started listing a bunch of negative things just to try and prove my point that he should stay home with me. We got home and I felt awful about it, but then Marc was playing a game on his Iphone and I got upset again. After shutting the bedroom door in a somewhat loud manner, he realized I was upset and immediately came to talk to me. I knew I was being unreasonable, but I just wanted things my way, which made me cry more, because I hate being like this. I take joy in being a pretty laid back person and not very emotional, so it upsets me more when I'm like this. I just need to relax and not let my emotions right now get the best of me. It just feels that over the past few days my hormones have jumped up a few levels and all these emotions are right on the surface.

I know Marc is praying for me right now and many other friends and co-workers, so that is a definite blessing. I'm praying that Kaelyn will come next week, it would be perfect timing, but I am fully aware that these things almost never happen when you want them to happen, so I am trying to emotionally prepare myself for the long haul. No matter what, if Kaelyn has not come by the end of next week the 18th will be my last day at work. Just knowing that is a relief and helps. I think if I didn't have 8 hr work days to deal with on top of all the 9th month of pregnancy joys, things might be a little easier.

Tonight I plan on packing our suitcase for the hospital and Kaelyn's hospital bag as well. I am tasking Marc with getting the stroller and car seat set up and the base installed in our cars.

Well that's all for now. Tomorrow my doctor will be checking my progress, so we'll see what she says, but I'm pretty much expecting no real indication of how soon it will be.

Birthing Classes & More

Please excuse me, I am so bad at this blogging thing. I have a hard enough time just thinking of a status update on Facebook. Oh well I'll give it another try.

Last week we started our birthing classes with Amy Schull as our instructor. I was very excited to find out she was teaching the class. The class was very enjoyable I though, of course the beginning was a little slow being the introduction and all, but then it picked up. She had us get together into 2 groups, all the mothers in one and the fathers in the other. We got to share our likes and dislikes so far with the pregnancy. The answers were very similar in our group. We all love feeling the baby move and kick and we all agree the uncomfortableness and difficulty sleeping was no fun at all. The guys were kinda cute, they all agreed they don't like seeing their partners hurting or uncomfortable and not being able to do much about it. They also agreed feeling the baby kick was pretty cool. So far our class is pretty quiet whenever Amy tries to get us to talk. Marc & I will definitely be the most verbal I'm thinking, especially Marc. Of course this isn't his favorite subject. He has no problem taking care of me, getting the nursery ready, doing house and yard work, but when it comes to learning about what all is going to happen once we get to the hospital, he's a little weirded out. At first I thought he was just being really negative about the whole thing, but he's just learning how to deal with it all. Its funny to me because I'm the one that's gonna be going through it all physically, but he the one that seems to be struggling with it all. He promised he'll get better and knows I'm gonna be counting on him for support as we get closer to the day.

Marc has been great at home. He's done a ton of yard work keeping our backyard safe for our psychedelic toad addicted dog. Hopefully everything he's been doing will work next summer in keeping the stupid things out of our yard. He's almost completed painting the nursery. All that's left is a few borders along the ceiling. I love the color and can't wait to start decorating the room. We'll probably get the rest of the furniture in November. Marc has also been giving me leg and foot massages, which if you've ever been pregnant you know is a wonderful treat.

I had my 29 week appointment yesterday and found out the results to my glucose test. I'm very grateful that the results were good I do not have any pregnancy diabetes, that would have been a pain. I also found out that my belly is a little bigger than expected for where I'm at. The doctor plans to continue monitoring my growth over the next month and may order another ultrasound to be more sure of my due date. I'm trying not to get my hopes up for an earlier due date, but its hard. My appointments will now be every two weeks so we'll see what they say next time.

Well I think that's all for now. I still have to finish all my thank you cards from the shower. I got a really good start to them, but unfortunately I've let the rest sit for awhile. This weekend, I will finish them!

Until next time (which hopefully won't be too long from now)!

It's A Girl!

Well as I've now posted on Facebook and Gtalk, we are having a little girl.

Yesterday we had our first ultrasound, which was amazing! Just laying there looking at images of my baby girl moving all around as the nurse took snapshots of every angle. She measured the abdomen and the head size, showed us the little brain forming, the spinal cord, and a very strong heartbeat. The nurse confirmed that everything looks good and we have a very active baby on our hands. She also confirmed that Dec 30th is a valid due date based off the baby's size. I'm still hoping she will come Christmas week, but you never know.

Now comes the decision that will have a lasting effect all throughout my little girl's life. Her name. Both Marc and I are pretty confident about the actual name, but not the spelling. The 1st letter is the decision we are trying to make. He wants it to start with a C and I want the name to start with a K, but I'm not 100% on K so I'm trying to decide. I may ask for many friend's opinions to help me decide.

Even though Marc was hoping for a boy, he is very excited about having a girl. He was talking about father-daughter date nights last night, it was really cute. I think she's definitely gonna be daddy's little girl.

Next up is registering at Babies r Us. We 're planning on doing that this Saturday so its all set for the 1st baby shower! I'm very excited and due to a little deal I made with Marc while on vacation, he has to give me final say on decisions!!! Should be a fun day!

Little Bean's Heartbeat

So last month Marc & I got to hear baby bean's heartbeat for the 1st time. It was kinda funny because the nurse was telling us what to listen for, but everything sounded kinda mushy and we couldn't quite tell what was baby and what was me. It was still a very cool experience. Yesterday I had my 16 week appointment with my doctor and she pulled out the machine to listen to the heartbeat. It was, by far, the coolest moment I've had so far since finding out I am pregnant. The heartbeat was very clear and loud, it was like woosh, woosh, woosh, well that doesn't do it justice. It was awesome. Baby Bean has a very strong heartbeat and is doing well! In 2 1/2 weeks we get our 1st ultra sound and probably find out the sex of the baby! I really can't wait for that.

I was also excited to find out I've only gained 3 lbs this past month. I'm really trying to eat enough, but still not overeat so it was great to see I'm on the right track. Sadly after my appointment I think all the excitement boosted my appetite and I went to taco bell and, well, lets just say, I ate more then normal...

After dinner we went to see the newest Harry Potter and I think I had my hand on my tummy throughout the entire movie. Hearing the heartbeat has kick started my maternal instincts a little. There was 1 jump out of your seat moment in the movie and I think both me and the baby jumped. It was kinda funny.

That's all for now!

Sleeping Issues

Hi everyone,

As a continual effort to keep up with this blog I am going to write about my newest development in pregnancy: Sleeping Issues. I am finding it a little hard to be comfortable at night. I'm trying to use a pillow that I can lean on to help, but the getting up 2 - 3 times a night doesn't help. At least I'm still sleeping well in between my multiple trips to the restroom.

Our little dog Willow loves to curl up against us at night when she sleeps. Well with my pillow now blocking most of my body she has started sleeping near my feet sometimes. Well this morning as I was starting to wake up I heard what sounded like a flop and then scrambling noises. Turns out Willow fell off the bottom of the bed, but since she was under the sheets, which were tucked into the bed, she was stuck hanging halfway between the bed and the floor. It was when she started scrambling to get back up on the bed that I realized what had happened. I was a little worried at first that she had fallen head first and might be suffocating herself, but when I reached under the covers to pull her back up I felt she had fallen face up. You could tell she was a little traumatized by the whole event so Marc and I held her for awhile and then she seemed fine. She's such a funny little dog, I can just imagine her stuck in the sheets, not being able to move halfway between the top of the bed and the floor, it was kinda funny.

Getting through the work day has been a real chore this week. I have begun feeling very fatigued by the afternoon and just sitting in a chair staring at a computer screen does not help. I start to feel my muscles tighten up and my body feels really tense. I have to get up alot and walk around just to loosen up. Its been a real pain and I'm hoping this won't last too long. If it continues next week I plan on discussing with my Dr during my next appt on Thursday. The great part about my job is that my boss' wife is also pregnant so he is very understanding of all I'm going through. I told him about my afternoon struggles and he said that didn't surprise him at all knowing how his wife has been feeling. It's nice to have such an understanding boss, he's pretty cool.

Well, thanks to the suggestion of a friend I'm going to try to remember to take pictures of my growing tummy every few weeks and post them. It should be kinda fun to compare them later down the road.

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend!