Louisiana visit and baby shower!!!

Kyle and I took a road trip to Louisiana. It was the longest trip EVER. We've driven it before and swore we'd never do it again, however, we thought it would be the easiest solution to haul our gifts back from the baby shower that my family threw for us. I think we are done with this road trip and will definitely be traveling via airplane in the future. Anyway, we had a WONDERFUL time in Louisiana. It was so nice to visit with the family again. Kyle's parents came down from Arkansas to visit with us as well. On Friday, 9/18, we gathered everyone together (20+ people) and had dinner at a local cajun restaurant where we enjoyed good food, company, and a live cajun band. We had a great time.

On Saturday, 9/19, my sister hosted a baby shower for me in her home. My hostesses went to such a great effort to decorate and make the day special for me. Kyle and I received alot of wonderful and useful gifts and we cannot express how appreciative we are to have such supportive and loving family and friends. Here are a bunch of pictures from the baby shower:

My sister, me, and my mom...

My sister and I...

My mother-in-law, me, and my mom...

My mother-in-law and I...My aunts and I...

My aunts, my mom, and me...

Tanya, Jaiden (my Godchild), and me...

Me :)

My wonderful shower hostesses and I:

Opening some gifts :)

Proud daddy-to-be after the shower...

We had a wonderful trip and can't wait to visit again in the spring for Sydney's Christening.

Love,
K&K&Syd

24 week ultrasound

We had another appointment with the perinatologist on 9/9/09 to check Sydney's growth and her heart. We were fortunate to be able to see the same doctor. He was absolutely amazing and gave us some awesome news! It appears that Sydney's VSD (as discussed on the 8/12 post) has closed and her septum appears fully formed! We are so stinkin excited to know that our precious baby girl is doing well. Also, the EIF was undetectable with this scan, however, it could have been Sydney's placement during the ultrasound. She is still head up, butt down and in a complete pike position (called a Franks breech position) with her legs in front of her body....feet in her face. We have some time so she may turn. Here are some shots from today's photoshoot:

Thanks to all of you for all of your thoughts, love and prayers.

Love,

K&K&Syd

23 weeks and preparing for baby!!!

Okay, so the nursery furniture is ordered and the theme is officially picked out. We chose this nursery furniture set (by Munire in Majestic in espresso):

We chose this bedding and some of the coordinating accessories (my mom and dad already bought the bedding and mobile for us):
Kyle and I bought the wall hangings to do a project for Sydney's nursery. Daddy painted the letters of her name and attached them to the hangings.

Here is the finished product. They will be hung somewhere in the nursery once the furniture is in place.This is me the day we found out we were expecting:This is me at 23 weeks (nice and plump):Hope all of you are doing well!!!

Love,

K&K&Syd

Update on the New Year's MUSTS list!!!

Oh man I know it has been a while since I've updated my New Year's MUSTS list. When I decided to look at it, I was thrilled to see the progress. Let's look at each individually shall we:

1. "Take better care of myself!" - Well....Prior to getting prego, I had lost about 25 pounds. I have since gained some of this back due to the enlargement of my uterus. I am doing great, not necessarily dieting, but trying to eat my servings of veggies and fruits. I have had a chicken aversion since becoming pregnant that unfortunately hasn't gone away.

2. "SCRAPBOOK more!!!" - I have not taken many classes lately, but I have been spending alot of time throwing pages together from previous classes. And I've also been working on assisting my baby shower hostesses with the shower invites. My next project is to work on Sydney's baby album, Christmas cards, and Sydney's birth announcements. After all, I need something to keep me indoors and out of the 115 degree heat!

3. "Organize my scrapbook room" - I am so thankful to say that we have successfully completed this one. I LOVE my new scrap space. If you missed it, see my post from 4/3/09.

4. "TRY to stop biting my nails!" - This is still a work in progress. Old habits are definitely hard to break. I am proud to say that I no longer chew them off until they bleed....I know - GROSS!

5. Get a new blackberry" - DONE! Kyle and I got new blackberry storms and we still love them!!!

6. "Take some cake decorating classes" - I'm also proud to say that this one is complete!!! I took a cake decorating class at Michaels with my friends Joleen and Lynette. It was such a good experience, but there was alot of work involved. Here are some pics:

Cake 1:

Cupcakes: Final cake:After the last class....Yummy!

7. "Visit California." - still a work in progress....

8. "Think, feel, act, believe positively!" - I live by this every day.

9. "Minimize stressers!" - I have also made great progress with this. I have recently cut my hours at work to accomodate doctor's visits and to spend more time relaxing and enjoying the remainder of my pregnancy. I need to take care of the little life that is growing inside of me!

10. "Expand the family" - So thrilled and excited about this. I am 23 weeks today and we are counting down the days until we meet our little MIRACLE SYDNEY!!!!!

Love,

K&K&Syd

Over halfway there!

So, I never updated since our appointment with the perinatologist. I must say that Kyle and I were very impressed and liked the doctor very much. He was so informative and straight with us, giving us so much information. We got to confirm that she is still, in fact, a little girl! Sydney was chilled for the majority of "the show" with not only her hand in front of her face, but also her legs. What crazy positions these babies get into. At that appointment (19 weeks), she measured about 9 ounces - right on for her age. We found out that she may have a ventricular septal defect (VSD). It is basically a hole between her two ventricles, which is not normal and causes a bit of blood to shunt incorrectly. It will sometimes correct itself once she gets a little older and bigger, so we have to go back when I'm 24 weeks to do another ultrasound to see if it has closed. The doctor felt very optimistic and stated that if it doesn't correct, it is "fixable".

The other thing they found was an echogenic intracardiac focus (EIF). It is basically a bright white spot seen on the ultrasound of the heart. It is considered to be harmless and apparently present in up to 11% of the white population, higher in other ethnicities, with no significant effect on the development of the heart. The doctor did inform us that there are some studies that state that an EIF does increase the risk of Down Syndrome by 2 x's the normal risk for age. He gave her a risk of having Down's of less than 1/400 (0.25%) because of my age, the EIF, and the fact that she is currently showing no other markers of Down's. He and his ultrasound tech measured every part of her little body, including the nuchal fold of her neck, legs, brain, arms, stomach, organs, etc. Everything checked out and he could not locate any other issues. We are fairly positive that the outlook is good, but have to be prepared for whatever COULD be. Kyle and I decided to forgo the amnio to definitively diagnosis an abnormality due to the risk of miscarriage (1/200 or 0.5%) being higher than the probability of her having Down's. It would not change anything anyway and we are going to love and cherish her no matter what!!!!!!!

Here is a shot from this appointment (19 weeks 3 days):

My waist has definitely started to change shape and I had to officially retire my jeans at 20 weeks. I can still fit into my dress clothes and hope to be able to for a couple more months. I have been feeling Sydney move from time-to-time. Nothing consistent or major. The peri also confirmed that I have an anterior placenta which means that the placenta is located in the front of my uterus, creating a buffer between baby and my tummy. This will make it harder to feel her move at an early gestation.

Kyle and I have been busy planning for baby. We are cleaning out the room that will be the nursery. We have already ordered the nursery furniture:
http://www.munirefurniture.com/pdfs/Majestic.pdf
We ordered it exactly as it appears on the first page (flat top in espresso). We also started our registries at Target and Babies-R-Us. It was alot of fun and I couldn't get the laser gun thingy out of Kyle's hand.

We are so excited to be heading to Louisiana in September. My wonderful family is throwing us a baby shower. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family!!!! I can't wait to see all of them.

Hope all of you are well.

Love,
K&K&Syd

18 Week Ultrasound

Hello everyone! Yesterday was our 18 week anatomy scan. The only thing that we were truly able to find out is that we are having a baby GIRL! I am totally shocked because my gut said that this baby was a boy. Kyle had a hunch that it was a girl. Neither of us really had a preference on the baby's gender, but we did want to find out. And I'm so glad that we did. We have officially decided on the name Sydney Violet. Both names are very significant to us - Sydney being my late grandfather's name (Sidney) and Violet being Kyle's grandmother's name.

The next and most important step is to be sure that she is developing okay. The ultrasound tech had a difficult time viewing all of her anatomy especially her heart and spine because of the way she is positioned. This plus the extra fluffiness that mommy has on board and my history of hypertension warranted another in-depth ultrasound with a perinatologist. (NOTE: I am happy to report that my blood pressure has been stable at 110/60 with minor fluctuations.) We have an appointment next Wednesday early AM with the peri and we pray that they give us an "all clear" bill of health for our baby girl. I'm trying not to stress too much about it and I'm going to look at this as an opportunity to get to see our baby girl one more time. Please keep us in your prayers. I will update as soon after the peri appointment as possible.

In the meantime, here are some pics of yesterday's photoshoot.....

Here are her baby GIRL shots...

Baby's face and belly...

Baby's foot...

Hope everyone is doing well.

Love,

K&K & Syd

One Trimester Down!!! Woooowhoooo!

I must admit....it feels so good to be done with the first trimester! It's a landmark that we have been looking forward to for a while. I've been having lots of growing pains/aches, but doctor says all is well and progressing as planned. I swear I have felt the baby move in the past few days - like little fluttering, almost like the baby is doing somersaults! It doesn't feel like any gas pains that I've ever felt before, but who knows. I'm sure that in the next month or so I will know for sure.

I had another ultrasound today (at 14 weeks 3 days). It was a great ultrasound to say the least. The ultrasound tech was so unbelievably nice and very informative. Kyle and I both saw what appeared to be "boy parts", but the ultrasound tech says still too early to tell. Heart rate is running in the 140-150s depending on if the baby is sleeping or jumping around. Baby has long legs (like daddy) and a big belly (like, well...). Placenta placement is high.

I met with the NP after the ultrasound (Kyle was able to come to the ultrasound, but had to miss the appointment to go to work). She said everything looked good. When I met with the doctor on Monday, he was worried about my cervix and my ovaries but both checked out okay. I go back in 3 weeks for some tests that the doctor chose to defer to the second trimester, then I will be scheduled for the "big show". I'm hoping to be able to do it the last week in July, but it will depend on the availability. Here are some shots from today's "photoshoot":

Baby's big belly...

Hi grandmas and grandpas! Baby looks like it is waving, but it the hand quickly went behind the head....I guess getting ready to relax or what I think has been aerobics!

I had a week or so of feeling pretty normal, then I'm back to being nauseated. The doctor upped my dose of Zofran and it seems to be working okay. I'm now getting really bad heartburn lately, but I haven't been eating well lately. :(

**10 Things That I Miss Since Becoming Pregnant:**

1. Coca Cola

2. The ability to hold my pee for extended periods of time

3. Not waking up a zillion times throughout the night because I need to pee or because I'm hot

4. Being able to take certain medications especially Ibuprofen

5. Not being nauseated all the time

6. My favorite jeans that are too tight and cutting off my circulation

7. The occasional alcoholic beverage

8. Eating fish whenever I wanted, especially seared tuna

9. Sleeping on my stomach

10. Our family :)

But NOTE: These are VERY small sacrifices that I am totally willing to make while cooking this beautiful bundle of joy (and after baby is cooked, of course)!

We feel unbelievably blessed and cannot express how much we appreciate all of the support that we've been receiving. We are excited to be traveling back to Louisiana in September. Not sure when we will be back that way because Baby Kelly is due around the time we normally visit, so they are throwing us a baby shower! I'm so super excited and thankful!!!

We hope that everyone is doing well and we look forward to seeing you all soon!

Love,

K&K (and Baby K)