Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

Friday, November 27, 2009

Nursery Update!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! After our turkey day yesterday (or, as we know it, our "chicken & noodles" day!), we spent some time today working on the nursery. Daddy Geoff built the crib and put up the curtain rods. The bedding set is so cute! I've started decorating, and the nursery looks so adorable! I'm having so much fun setting everything up. Bella and Zoe are, as we like to call it, "live on the scene" investigating the new room and all the goodies inside of it. Throughout the rest of the weekend, we're going to start tackling the mess that is the entire downstairs of our little townhouse...

We had a doctor's appointment this morning, and Kyra's doing great! Mommy, on the other hand, has put on a little more weight than expected. Since I was sick over the last couple weeks, I haven't been as active as usual so, now that I'm mostly feeling better (except for a nagging cough) I'll be going for more walks. Hopefully I can keep the weight gain in check for the rest of my pregnancy. I'll be 28 weeks this weeks, and I can't believe I'm already entering my 3rd trimester! Kyra is now facing head-down, and I've been feeling her moving around and kicking quite a bit lately.

Only 12 weeks to go!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Sneak Peek At Kyra's Nursery!

Painted closet doors
Door to the bathroom
Door to Kyra's room
A window waiting for curtains!
Carol's work-in-progress dresser


Super-comfy glider chair
And matching gliding ottoman

The nursery has officially been painted, and I couldn't resist posting a few sneak peeks! There wasn't the best lighting in the room when I took these pictures, so try to imagine that the pink and green are both a bit brighter. The colors turned out so cute, and Carol and Phil did such an amazing job! Carol's coming back on Friday to put another coat of white on the dresser. We're adding a few white shelves to the pink wall above the dresser. I'm looking around for some cute drawer knobs for the dresser and the closet. Next up, Geoff gets to assemble Kyra's crib, hang curtain rods, and we get to start decorating the room! I also just ordered the cozy chenille glider chair and ottoman pictured above! I can't wait for those to arrive! I'm planning to add a couple other brown accents to match the pink/green/white color scheme. Kyra's Grandma Linda lovingly purchased the stroller/car seat travel system and matching Pack 'N Play from our registry, which are currently waiting to come out of their boxes. I know we'll get tons of use out of those items, so thank you Grandma!!

I'm 26.5 weeks along, and currently trying to kick the cold that I've been dealing with for almost a week. Luckily it just seems to be a head cold, but it's still really annoying! I'm not sure if my cough has been bouncing Kyra around a bit more, or if she's been doing that all on her own, but I've definitely been feeling more kicking and movement recently. Geoff finally got to feel her kicking, so that was very exciting! I can't tell for sure, but at times it seems like she's responding to our voices. It's really fun to think about her wiggling around in there!

This Saturday we're going to the wedding of Geoff's longtime friend, Erik Hugstad, and his beautiful bride, Kristin Hodges. Geoff will be standing up as a groomsman, and I will happily be seated as a wedding guest! Standing for long periods of time isn't exactly my favorite thing now, so I'm looking forward to sitting back and watching the festivities! We'll take pictures at the wedding, so I'm sure I'll get a bump photo or two of myself to post. This Saturday will also mark a couple milestones for us: our 11-year dating anniversary, and also 3 months until Kyra's due date! After 11 years together, I guess it's about time that we're finally adding a baby to our little family (not that our 8.5 year old kitty babies, Bella and Zoe, don't count!)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Kyra Is Kicking!!

Last night, Geoff and I were wondering if Kyra might end up being a calm and quiet baby, considering that I haven't been feeling too much activity from her and very few kicks. Well, after what I've been feeling (and seeing!) this morning, I think she's trying to prove us wrong!

I've been sitting here with my laptop, fighting off the desire to procrastinate on research I need to do for a big school project I'm working on. Of course, right when I get down to business and actually start my research, what do you know? Huge kicks! I actually watched my tummy move at least 4 times - big thumps! (the photo above is not me, it's just something I found online. I have no idea if it's real, but after the giant thumps I saw this morning, who knows!) There were a handful of other smaller movements in there, and she's still sort of moving around now as I'm typing! So of course I'm a bit distracted and am having a hard time focusing on doing research. Instead, I'm sitting here talking to Kyra, trying to get her to keep kicking. Research is going to have to wait, since I'm definitely going to continue talking to her and watching my tummy until she falls asleep! Hopefully Geoff is around the next time she decides to get some kicking exercise!

Tonight we're off to our next childbirth class, where we'll practice Lamaze breathing and labor positions. Grandma Carol and Grandpa Phil have been working so hard on Kyra's nursery - you two are amazing!! The room is completely cleared out, except for Kyra's changing table and dresser. The walls are primed and ready to be painted! CaPhwa, as our nieces Mia and Maddie called them when the were too little to say Carol and Phil, are coming back tomorrow and Sunday to keep working! So hopefully soon we'll have some pictures to post of the nursery as it really begins to come together!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Childbirth Classes

We had our first childbirth education class last night at St. John's, where we'll be delivering Kyra. We'll have one more class next week, and then in December we go to a Breastfeeding class and Baby Care Basics class. We should be experts after that, right? Leading up to last night's class, I was wondering if it would scare me more for the delivery, or (hopefully) leave me feeling a bit more prepared. It was a mix of both throughout the 3 hour class, but overall Geoff and I both left feeling more prepared. Ironically I think I'm less concerned with the actual pain of delivery (send the epidural and pain meds my way, please!), but am more nervous about having the stamina to endure the entire delivery process if it turns out to be a lengthy delivery.

We were shown a large diagram (similar to the one above, but with notation on each of the organs), which compared the female anatomy before pregnancy to a woman carrying a full-term baby. I've seen similar images already, but last night's diagram made it clear why I'm running for the bathroom more frequently now and don't seem to have room to eat large meals anymore. The weight of the baby rests entirely on top of my bladder and compresses it, and yet we're told to drink 8-12 glasses of water/fluids per day! Us poor women just don't get left with much room in there! My uterus is apparently the size of a soccer ball now, and will continue to grow to a watermelon size!

Last weekend, Grandma Carol and Grandpa Phil came up to help Geoff and I around the house. They took a ton of stuff to Goodwill, helped Geoff with a plumbing problem under our sink, sanded Kyra's dresser to prep it for painting, cleared out our patio, and the list goes on and on! Amazingly, they're still willing to help and are coming back up on Monday to continue clearing the nursery and get started on painting! We picked out the paint colors last week, so I'm excited to see the room start to really take shape! I just feel guilty that I can't be helping more with all the manual labor. I wouldn't say that I'm a control freak necessarily, but it's hard for me to be so removed from this process. But luckily we have some very generous and willing helpers in our family! In our class last night, one of the husbands was trying to convince all the couples in the room that his wife was crazy for making him paint various rooms in the house, assemble the crib, and lay down tile flooring. He just couldn't seem to understand that his wife is nesting and acting completely normal (normal for a pregnant woman). He was convinced that his wife should be doing all the work! Seriously! I'm very happy to be married to my wonderful husband who, although I suppose possibly could think I'm crazy at times, let's me think I'm completely normal, volunteers to help out, and doesn't try to convince the world that I'm nuts just for wanting my house set up before I have a baby.

There's still tons to be done, and we just don't seem to have the room to efficiently move everything around. But we're making it work. It's a bit of a puzzle right now, in terms of where to move things, but it'll all work out in the end. I don't think we'll be having any dinner guests anytime soon though!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Happy Birthday Daddy!





Today Kyra and I are wishing Daddy a very Happy Birthday!!

Tonight I'm going to make a Birthday dinner for Geoff (Kyra's going to help eat it!) - I'm planning Thai Chicken Satay with Jasmine Rice. It's a Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meal, so I'll see how long it actually takes me. I made it a long time ago, and it was delicious!

I'm now 24 weeks pregnant, and feeling some stronger kicks. Supposedly around 28 weeks, other people should be able to start feeling her kicks when they touch my tummy. Geoff keeps trying, but so far hasn't felt her yet. We're excited to (hopefully) find out the sex of Baby Larson later today!! Team Blue or Team Pink? We'll see - that baby better be cooperative today during his/her ultrasound!

Here are some pics from our Halloween Trick-Or-Treating last weekend. We all had a great time. All of the kids were adorable, and many of the adults were dressed up too. I'll have to get more kid pics from Jen and the others who had their good cameras with them. I definitely feel like a bad Aunt for not having more pictures of Mia and Maddie, but my little camera wasn't really holding up well in the dark and the kids were really moving so fast from house to house to get all the candy they could carry! Geoff went as a "Hollywood Douchebag" and I went in Geoff's very cute "Bun In The Oven" costume, which we got a few comments on! I also had on my "Crazy Jack's Haunted Pumpkin Patch" t-shirt on, so I was feeling very festive!

(above) Jen as Strawberry Shortcake, with her little pumpkin, Izzy
(above) The one picture I managed to get of Mia (witch on the left) and Maddie (princess in the middle)