Two Weeks

                                   Two weeks ago I looked like this...

WOW. They went by very quickly. The first week my mom was here and we had to go to the pediatricians office three times the first week home. The doctors wanted to keep an eye on her weight as she was not gaining as they would have hoped for. Dan has been home this week and we all are just getting used to being a family and enjoying each other.

Christmas does not seem like it is days away, I have purchased nothing for anyone. So family and friends don't take offense to the lack of presents from our family. I also have yet to order the birth announcements. Ya I know slacker! But eh, I will get them done... some time.

I feel good in terms of just having a baby two weeks ago, my incision is still tender and seems to get aggravated easily.  I have been living in muumuus and Dans lounge pants. My maternity pants seem to have a seam right at the incision area and I just don't like anything touching it. Its tender still. Other than that I feel good, I have been sweating like crazy which I didn't expect and the scale has shown a significant decrease since having my almost 10 pound baby.

I am amazed that I am writing this and have actually gotten this much out because it seems like all I do is breastfeed. I know thats good and thats what I am supposed to do, its just hard to sit there. I am not the best at "doing nothing" - and I quote that because of course I am not "doing nothing" but at times it feels like it.

Baby girl gives us some interesting expressions at times, my favorite is when she wakes up from a nap and stretches. She gets TONS of kisses and makes her little baby noises. She also loves to be swaddled and the Swaddle Me has become our best friend. She looks like a little glow worm when she is wrapped up so we affectionately call her our Bug.

Monday of this week she also lost her belly button! I found it when I changed her diaper that morning and had the doctor look at it when we went for a weight check. The doctor said it looked great and we can give her a regular bath. We were so excited about it! She loved it too, except for when I was trying to wash her hair but she loved the warm water and it was such a fun experience.

 After bath time we both took advantage of just loving on her with baby lotion. She got the best little massage and smelled SO DELICIOUS. You can also see her birth mark on her shoulder, I am interested to see what it will look like when she gets older, Dan has one on his ribcage that is brown in color, maybe it will look like that.

 Her feet are the cutest little things and she still wraps her legs and feet up like when she was inside my belly. Its amazing that her little feet are as big as Daddys thumbs.

Today is the big day, the day we meet our daughter!

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Can you believe it, no, me either. Or hubs. This is crazy, this is crazy. What is going on. WE ARE HAVING A BABY.

OMG. OMG.

I don't think I can get accross the Holy Sh*t feelings we both have right now. Its 4:56am hubs is still sleep, HOW!? I am excited and anxious. I can't believe the day is here. The freakin' day we have been talking about FOREVER, it seems. The day we have dreamt about thru this whole process. The day I get to look at my daughters face and HOLD HER IN MY ARMS, not just my belly.

This day will forever change my life, and my husbands and my parents and my sisters and my in-laws. My parents will become grandparents, my grandparents will become great-grandparents, my sisters will become aunts and we will become parents.

Excuse me, say what?!

Yea that been the consensus at our house for the last 24 hours. We just sit there and every now and again one of us will do the half chuckle under our breath, the sound you make when your mind is just blown to pieces and you have nothing to say.

This process is not at all like I had envisioned it to be, I saw the whole labor, pain, OW, type thing going on but nope. I get to sit here, my hair done, my makeup done, feeling good (little thirsty, but I can't have anything before the surgery) thinking about her arrival.

Wow, I can't believe this day is here. I am so EXCITED. I can't believe I am not working today or that seriously in 4 hours she will be here. 4 - FOUR. FOUR. Holy sh*t.

We are SO ready.



Hubs will be posting pics as soon as we can, so you all can see our baby.

6 days

Well well, this is my 6th to last day pregnant. Yes, we have a scheduled c-section because our dear daughter is a chunker. She was estimated to be around 9 pounds 11 oz (give or take a pound) This means the doctors no longer recommend attempting a vaginal delivery. Thats when my heart breaks a little and yes there were tears.

Of course I have been reading about natural drug free births and really wanted to test myself, my stamina, and proudly wear the badge of honor as I delivered my baby but thats not our story this time around.

We will be welcoming Baby Keiffer into the world December 8th at 8:30 am.

For now I am trying to get comfortable enough to sleep, finishing up work and planning a nice "just us" weekend.

As life would have it we also have to put down our first pet together, Baxter. He has been suffering with "kidney stones" if you will for the last two years and hubs and I talked about when we would not try anymore. We tried a surgery-type method last year and more recently we caught it early enough that it was just some meds and a shot, as he hadn't had the full blown blockage just yet. Although now its back and although we both love him and it breaks my heart to see hubs so upset we both know what we have to do.

                     Baxter cat we love you and so do some many others.

Still cooking...

Baby girl is snug in there, so snug she is taking up all the room I have left to eat and breath. Boy is she getting large. We go for an ultrasound tomorrow and from there we will see what the next steps are.

For now, these are my feelings that I expressed so eloquently to my husband...

Webster Christmas parade this weekend if you wanted to add it to our “just us” weekend schedule.

Because reminder this weekend is a “just us”  weekend. 

This may be the last weekend our family is two and I want to cherish it. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

So this month flew by, it is almost December and that means it is almost time to meet our little one.

Just a quick update because I don't feel like writing forever, work is crazy and I actually need to accomplish some things today.

I have been feeling ok since the hospital stay for dehydration this past weekend. It all started on Thursday morning when I vomitted and could not keep anything down for two and a half days. My contractions were a minute apart, my back was on FIRE, my mouth was so dry, it really sucked. But then I went to the hospital they hooked up an IV and pumped me full of three liters of liquid gold and sent me on my way. They also gave me some nausea medicine which I have been taking because I still feel like I am going to get sick. Knock on wood I have not since the weekend.

We have been working on her room and I am so patiently waiting for her chair to arrive, we still have a few weeks before it is supposed to get here but its one of the last finishing touches and then I will post the reveal. I still need to order the pictures I want to hang around her room, I am thinking I can do that this weekend when I am home.

I started to clean the house and organize it really well because after this past weekend, she could be here whenever and I don't want to get caught with a dirty house!

She is still measuring 3 weeks ahead, I am 37 and she is 40 weeks. I have a doctors appointment on Monday and an Ultrasound on Thursday so we will see what the doctors have to say then.

For now, I am thankful. I am hoping that I can eat some good food and have a really nice relaxing few days off. We can work on the house a little, and prepare for her arrival.

Ready for her to come out

I am ready. And I hope my body agrees. At least I think it does, or is heading in the right direction. Its 2:30 my back is killing me, my stomach muscles hurt now from puking so much. I am just a hot mess. But I would say even if this is early labor that I am a hot mess of labor. Thats right I am fairly confident that this is what my body is doing to prepare for her exit. Or its a really awful way of reminding me I am pregnant.

My last measurement was 40 weeks so baby is large enough to say she is in the 40 week category. Ideally the doctors would like to wait a few more days until she is 37 weeks due to her lungs, and that might just be what is going on right now. She may make her appearance at 37 weeks right on the nose.

The thing is I cannot imagine being in this stage for the next week. I obviously cannot work due to contractions every few minutes, sitting is uncomfortable and oh yea the puking. Who wants that in an office.

I just took a 30 minute shower and used up all the hot water after puking up green stomach acid... Yea aquamarine green. Especially if I cannot keep food down or in my body this can't last for very long. I should try applesauce or jello and some ice pops don't sound bad right now, my sore throat could use a little coldness.

I am going to try to hop back in bed with the heating pad and sleep a little.


Anytime your ready baby girl, you eviction notice is coming soon. ~ Love your mom.

Flash Back

I remember feeling really big here...

I didn't realize what big actually was...

Holy Baby.

WE CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HER!

Trying to get everything together

So this weekend has been good thus far. Yesterday hubs installed the car seats then worked for a bit then we went to have maternity pictures taken. My girlfriend offered to be the photographer and it was really nice because she let me lead and be the subject so I got exactly what I was looking for.

Just a few, the rest are on my facebook, click the link if you haven't looked. Maternity Pictures on Facebook

I was really happy we did them, I didn't really feel like it. Anything hubs was doing was getting under my skin, he wasn't even doing anything crazy just his breathing was bothering me. Haha. But I am really glad I did because I think I look beautiful, I really do. Its the first time this whole pregnancy that I didn't worry about my double chin or stretch marks and I just enjoyed having fun with Hubs at the water. Plus we are pros at taking pictures (October 31st was 7 years to the day that I first met him and look at where we are now) I have had him trained in the last 7 years.

We got home last night and it was already dark, BOO. But we ate some dinner and I got to working, I spent a few hours in her room last night I cut the tags off of the clothes we had and ran a few loads of laundry. I folded the first load and put it away, I hung some clothes up and got some of the extra stuff out of the room that isn't hers.

Obvi I just took some pictures...

The chair will go in that corner and I just bought that little table for a small lamp. We have to put the bookshelves up and I just made a word art for above the chair (see below)

Her closet, I had hubs add a shelf to get stuff up and we have three rods which is great. I am working on the dividers now. I bought them off line for $2 and I am painting them a grey chalkboard paint to change the sizes when I need to. 

The dresser I am filling with her clothes. I cleaned and put the changing table cover on and I have to get baskets for the shelves under the changing table. I have to fill the frame and hand them too. The rest of the clothes that are out need to be washed still. 

We added her banner to her room. And yes my makeup area needs to be cleaned. 

This is from the front of the room, we will hang the tree this afternoon and I am going to keep the wall above the crib blank as I would like to have some canvases made.

So we are getting there. So far this morning I have wanted to get tons of stuff done but its already 11, I have to leave around noon to get to Canandaigua for my shower with friends!!! SO I am out of time.

But I have been working on the word art for above the chair, let me know what you think.
I put the sample over it so no one takes it. I had to buy some of the stuff and am not giving them away.

OK I have to go get ready, throw the stuff in the washer in the dryer and head out! 

Ramblings at 5am

What else do you do at 5am when its pitch black out and you are massively pregnant. Blog. Hm. Yea I guess thats the answer.

Went to the doctor yesterday, she is still measuring about 3 weeks ahead. We don't have a definitive answer as to what that really means just yet but for now she will continue to bake, at least for another week.

Our second baby class was Wednesday night, I am glad that we are going. If for nothing else I think the hubs really got something out of it. We watched a birth video from the beginning to the delivery, so we got to see the home labor part (which is ideally what I would like to do) we saw her laboring in the hospital and then we saw the final stages where she was in mucho amounts of pain but the baby was born. It made me excited and anxious to start the process as I would like to labor in a similar fashion to that woman - if this baby allows it and it was nice for Hubs to see what the partner was doing during this process. I don't really think he thought too much into it and realized he will be an integral part of bringing her into the world. He is my partner and I need him the whole time. He has been getting better at accepting that challenge, I think he can see that physically I am just not capable of as much as before.

The weeks are going by ever so quickly, we have not been home before 9pm all week. I really don't like that at all, I am tired. Work is kicking my butt and I am really uncomfortable. We have just been running errands, picking up the car, dropping this off, meeting with sitters, baby classes, you name it and I feel like we have done it. I am sure this is all prepping me for whats to come but I really just want to take it easy.

I said to the Mr. yesterday that we really need to start preparing for her arrival, his response "I'm not worried". Oh ok great, did I say I was. Uh no. Just saying we need to actually get our shit together and prepare. Are our hospital bags packed - no. Car seats installed - no. Area for baby to sleep in our room - no. Seems like there are more no's than yes's. I have to wash her clothes and what not and my house is a disaster. My nesting instinct gets all used up at work and by 9pm I am dead. Literally on the couch, uncomfortable, but laying there.

By no means do I want to be complaining about this - pain is temporary - and I am making life which is pretty amazing. The days leading up to her getting her are harder to cope with. Making sure things are ready, having work be in the craziest, busiest time of year and just the physical limitations.

This weekend is the friends shower which I am really excited about. It will be great to see everyone that I have partially neglected.

Well its 5:24 I have wasted 24 minutes so thats good.

Phone Tree

Quick post -

As I keep getting bigger and everyone keeps wanting to know when she gets here I am putting together a phone tree. Pretty much Dan will call the parents and God parents and friends and family will take care of the rest.

If you are intersted in being part of it or want to be on it, let me know. Of course Dan will be updating Facebook as well so if you want to know but don't want a call keep an eye out there.



Hopefully with our little game of telephone "She's in Labor" doesn't turn into "Cheese and taters".

Photo Dump

So where have I been the last few weeks... living this crazy roller coaster of a life I have. We were blessed to have two very large families so the last few weekends have been spent celebrating the little life growing in my belly!

Stella is getting ready for the babies arrival as well, it seems that whenever the door is left open this is where we find her. 

We had the Keiffer family shower two weeks ago which was so nice and was really a great start to our baby collection. 

What Daniel Wanted to stimulate our future engineers brain. 

Last week we had our Cure family shower and it was amazing. The future grandma put her heart and soul into this party and it showed. It was so wonderful.

 The crew having some cocktails outside, nice face Matt! 

Awww loves! 

I love this picture! 

Mrs. Conrad, me, mom, Mrs. Gasper and my sister - These are teacher friends and Mrs. Conrad
was my pre-k teacher!

The game about us! It was hilarious! 

The topper of my cake, it was AMAZING!

The best moment of the day, my grandpa playing us a song. 

OK thats it for now. I just spent two hours on the computer looking for deals for the baby, found some clearance stuff and bought the hanger things for her closet. You can find the deals you just have to sit here and look. More on that later.