Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe that the holidays are here already. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful day here in Georgia, the sun was shining and it was about 60 degrees. We started our morning off with the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and a breakfast of coffee cake and this sinful bacon recipe that I just got from a coworker. Next on the list of activities was on to Greg's (Matt's Dad) house. There was a ton of food and everything was so yummy. I think Kellen enjoyed it to as he really gave me a couple of good kicks after I finished eating...or maybe he was telling me that I ate WAY to much! It was a nice day all of Matt's step-brothers and sisters were able to come with their families and Andy, Crystal and Ansley were there. Also my stepbrother-inlaw's family came too, so it was a house full. It was fun to see all the kids run around (6 in all). Ansley and Madison have grown so much and really are too cute when they play together.

To answer the question of the Holiday season...am I ready? Well the honest answer is yes and no. Yes, I am very excited for Kellen's arrival and can't wait to meet him. I have all the normal questions running through my mind...."what will he look like", "will he be a good sleeper", "will Matt and I be good parents", and so on and on. Physically though I can say I am ready to not have the swollen feet, the clumsiness, the extra weight and all the other not so fun stuff that comes with pregnancy, but I will miss feeling him move inside of me, all the kicking and turning. Then there is the part of me that is not ready...the part that is worrying about everything and anything. There is a part of me that is very scared to take on this next chapter of our lives. That part of my thoughts is becoming smaller and smaller every day. My friend Allison asked me if I was ready and I said, "physically yes, but mentally I am excited and scared to death all at the same time." She told me that she had felt the same, but now cannot imagine a life with out her baby girl! Seeing Madison come up to my Amanda yesterday and give her a kiss and say "I love you" for no reason took the cake and really made me ready to meet Kellen and see the type of person that he will grow up to be!

A piece of exciting news in our family is Amanda and Kevin found out that Baby #2 is another girl! So Kellen will be surrounded by 3 girl cousins! :) Look forward to pictures of Kellen in a princess dress or something of that sorts! :) I had a Drs appointment the other day and everything seems to be going well. My blood pressure is normal along with all the other fun things that they look at. Kellen's heart rate continues to stay strong and I am measuring right on schedule. The midwife told me that he is head down and down there pretty good. She also told me I can take my old friend "Zantac" for my heartburn...Tums was just not cutting it anymore! I think that was the best news of the day!

Happy Holidays!!!

Thank you Family and Friends!

Finally I am getting around to blogging about our Baby Shower. It was so much fun and we enjoyed every minute of it! The weather was wonderful and everything was decorated super cute. My friend Jennifer made the cutest animal cupcakes and balloons. Jerilyn, Ms. Cobb, and my mom made some yummy food...I ate till I was literally sick! :) Our friends Scott and Deborah Anne made a trip from Augusta with their new addition to the family, Sarah Scott. She is the cutest little angel you ever did see, I think my mom could have held her all day! Matt's mom, Marquitta, was able to be here from Colorado and share this exciting time with us. We got a very cool frame from Denny and Ashly that we can put pictures of Kellen as he grows each month. Andy and Crystal spoiled us and Kellen rotten with a very cool monogrammed diaper bag filled with all sorts of goodies. Jenn and Charles gave us a diaper genie...they thought it would come in handy since this baby is part Matt! :) Chris and Jenn gave us a monitor and Matt has had a lot of fun playing with it. When my mom came over, he turned it on and went upstairs and started crying like a baby, my mom looked at me as I died laughing and asked, "what is that?Even family from Indiana that couldn't be there sent a jump-a-roo! And that is just to name a few...on Sunday with all the gifts put in piles on the Dining Room table, I looked at Matt and told him that we are very blessed to have such a supportive family and such wonderful friends. My sister gave us our car seat and a box of diapers. His room as now been filled with baby stuff galore. We got our glider in that we ordered and it fits perfectly. The painting is almost done and the only thing missing now it Baby Kellen! We are so excited, we can hardly wait, but know that now is the time where he is growing like a weed and preparing for life outside my tummy! Let me just say thank you again to all of you! Matt and I are very lucky to have each and everyone of you!

29 weeks down 11 (or so) to go!!!

There has been so much going on and so much to tell! I still have not blogged about our shower that was almost two weeks ago, but I am waiting on pictures from friends so I will get them posted soon! On Sat we had another Hypnobirthing class. It has been so nice to learn about relaxation not only for Kellen's birth, but for my everyday life. Even with the few things that I have learned so far I am able to let go and relax. We did a little bit of yoga and lots more practicing on finding that deep relaxation that I will need for my birth. After class we headed over to the hospital to do a tour. It feels good to now know where we will be going and how things will go once I go into labor. I know that we cannot predict how the birth will go, but I now know what to do when it is time to go to the hospital. The hospital is very family oriented and the baby will never leave our room, unless there is an extreme emergency and also some pediatricians like to do their examination in the nursery. Other than that Kellen is with us the whole time. The Nurse also told us that the NICU is mommy and baby, so Kellen will never really be away from us even if he has to be in ICU (not that I think he will, but it is nice to know that they are very family oriented). I went to the Dr's today for a checkup and everything looks good. His heartbeat is strong and all my vitals are good too! Last night I was staring at my belly and Matt asked me what I was doing....I told him to watch. You can see Kellen moving around it is the strangest, but coolest thing I have ever seen! He has even woke me up on an occasion or two with all his kicking and moving! We are growing more excited by the day for his arrival! We can't wait for all of you to meet him!

Hypno - What???

As I have mentioned before Matt and I have decided that we would prefer an all natural, no drugs birth. It didn't start out to be about the drugs and how they affect our baby, it started out that I am afraid to lose control and the idea of being drugged and not being able to feel things scares me to death. At first Matt thought I was a little crazy and said that it is my body and my decision so he would support me all the way...I am not sure that his mind has changed (he has always thought me to be a little crazy), but he has been the most supportive husband and I could not ask for anything more. So my journey began researching and and talking to friends and my Dr about what was right for me. My Dr's office introduced me to Corrinna (a Doula that works with my OBGYN) and we talked for close to 45 minutes about options I had and also introduced me to the idea of Hypnobirthing. The theory behind Hypnobirthing is that a woman's body is designed to give birth and focuses on helping her to relax and work with her body and baby. It focuses on training your body to reach a deep level of relaxation through breathing, visualization, and light touch massage techniques. Once I did some more research on Hypnobirthing, I realized that this is the route that I wanted to take. So Matt and I started taking classes to learn the different techniques. We went to orientation a couple weeks ago and then this last Saturday we had our first class. Each of the 5 classes are 2 1/2 hours long and we will spend them learning and practicing techniques to help me reach deep relaxation. During the class we watched a couple videos and after one that showed a very peaceful birth, Matt said, "that is the birth I want for you". It has been so interesting learning how to put myself into a deep relaxation...I am no where close to being able to do it, but it seems to get a little better every time we do our homework. Each night we put on some soft music and through light touch massage and reading of a script Matt tries to help me find my place of deep relaxation. I can say one thing...it really helps me to fall asleep! :)

Still growing!

We had such a busy week last week and I have so much to say that I am going to split it up over the next couple of days. Last Tuesday we had another ultrasound. At 27 weeks, Kellen is weighing in at 2 lbs 10 ounces. The Dr says if he continues to grow at this rate he will weigh 8 to 9 lbs at birth. He was moving a lot during this ultrasound so we did not get as good as pictures as normal, but the top left picture is a profile of his face with him sticking his hand in his mouth. The bottom left picture is a little bit clearer profile of his face. The two right pictures are of his face, looking towards you! The Dr looked over everything with us and let us know that Kellen's kidneys are a little larger than last time, meaning they have filled a little more with fluid. He said there is still nothing to be concerned with, but they are continuing to monitor them closely. Other than that Kellen is looking good! On Wednesday I went to by normal Dr's appointment and this time I had a list of questions that I wanted to get some answers to. I had to take another glucose test at this visit so I drank a fruit punch flavored drink that could make anyone sick and then had to wait an hour for them to draw my blood. Hopefully all will come back okay on that! As for my questions...I asked the one question that I have continuously received from everyone around me...Why are we getting so many ultrasounds? The answer...It is because they are monitoring Kellen's kidneys. There are a couple things that anytime there is anything irregular about them they will monitor a mother very closely. One of them happens to be the kidneys. I learned that the kidneys are connected to the amniotic fluid, so the Dr's are watching his kidneys and also the fluid around him to make sure that everything is functioning correctly! Who knew! There are so many things that you just don't think about before you have a baby. I also finally found out that the test I took to determine if I was a carrier for cystic fibrosis came back negative. So all seems well and normal!