Mikey's Birthday Celebration!!

As most of you know, it is a tradition of ours to celebrate your birthday for one week. The celebration starts 3 days before and ends 3 days after. So Mikey's birthday celebration started on Friday! He got his first present Friday Morning. I bought him two clocks that he wanted. One for the playroom and one for the livingroom. We stayed in for the night, just the two of us, and cooked dinner and watched a movie.

On Saturday morning, Mikey woke up early and headed to Plano. Mikey's parents got him a hot air balloon ride for his birthday, so he and his Dad went together. I would say that I used the pregnancy card to get out of this one, but the truth is, I am just scared!! The thought of being so high up in a little basket is quite scary. I think hot air balloons are so beautiful, but I would rather look than ride. Mikey said it was amazing and he took some great pictures. He said that it was so peaceful and quiet. It was probably the closest thing to floating in there air that you can do. Mikey got all of the preparation and the flight on video, so that I could experience it with him. They flew over 75 (scary) and over neighborhoods. The most adventurous part is the landing, and they had no warning. Basically when you are in the air, you are at the mercy of the wind. The captain doesn't steer or have any kind of path...you just go where the wind takes you. So when your hour is up, the pilot just starts looking for a place to land. They found this little park and down they went. Apparently the only way to land is to slow it down, then the basket hits the ground and tips over and you fall out...not graceful at all! Mikey's balloon actually had it easy, the balloon that was following them hit a tree to slow down (almost tipped the passengers out) and then they hit a light pole during their landing and knocked it down. Very scary! So if a hot air balloon ride is in your future plans, BEWARE OF THE LANDING.

After Mikey came home from his amazing experience, he got to open his next present. I bought him a Dallas Cowboys flag to hang out on the flag pole. We put it up and it looked great! We spent the rest of the day hanging around the house. Watched some football and played on the computer. I am taking up Digital Scrapbooking, so I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out my new software. It is pretty cool! Saturday night, Mycah and Mikey's friend Justin came over to hang out. We had such a fun night. We got in the hot tub and had a fire outside in our fire pit and roasted marshmellows. Then we came in and played Super Mario Brothers. It was definitely a "Mikey" kind of night.

On Sunday morning Mikey got his 3rd present. He needed a new Dallas Cowboys tshirt to wear on Sundays. I kind of took over his when I got pregnant...it had a little more room than mine. I found the perfect one! It is navy blue with the Cowboy Star on the front. I thought it was perfect, and then I looked on the back. It says "Dad" with the number one on it. It was too perfect. So we were all set for the game with our Cowboy shirts and our new flag flying. They had no excuses this week! Mike, Connie, Mom, Dad, Mycah and her boyfriend Cory all came over for the day to celebrate. Mom brought some yummy chips and dips for the games. We routed for the boys, and they barely pulled it out. Connie made dinner and we had a nice sit down dinner at the house. We ate Salad, Prime Rib, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Bean Casserole. It was a nice treat and very delicious. We had a Chocolate Birthday Cake for dessert. It was so much fun to stay in for Mikey's birthday celebration with the family. We got to take our time and eat when we wanted and we had plenty of time to talk with each other. It was a great day!!


Yesterday was Mikey's actual birthday. He is 28, just like me!! He opened another present in the morning. I got him some white tshirts and boxers (necessities). We met for lunch and got pedicures. They were great. Mikey picked out a pretty color for me that Kiley will like. After work, Mikey got his last present. I gave him a MasterCard Gift Card to spend on anything he still wanted for his birthday. I think he is going to buy some cologne with it. We went to dinner with Brandon and Sara at Campania's in West Village. Neither of us had been. It was a cute little pizza place and the best part is that it is BYOBottle of Wine. Brandon and Sara got him a Dallas Cowboys Hard Hat and he wore it until he went to bed last night. The Cowboys better start stepping up and winning some games, Mikey is all set with attire for the rest of the season!!

This afternoon, we have another Sonogram and Doctor Appointment. I will post any updates when we get back!

Also, let me know what you think of the new blog....I was just playing around.

38 Weeks

This week's belly picture is a special treat, compliments of a professional photographer. As you know, we took maternity pictures last weekend. Alycia sent me a few last night as sneak peaks and said she will post the rest of them as soon as she gets them up on her website. I can't wait to see all of them! I am keeping the ones on the blog PG rated, fully clothed =). If you are interested in seeing others, let me know. Kiley and I had our 38 week checkup this morning and it went pretty good. I actually lost a pound of the water weight which was good. No swollen ankles this week. I'm not really sure what causes that, but I am not complaining about losing a pound! Kiley's heartbeat was 154 beats per minute and my blood pressure was good. My belly is still measuring small at 35 centimeters, so she still had me schedule a sonogram for next week to make sure Kiley is growing.

The doctor talked about inductions. She said that Baylor is cutting down on their tolerance for inductions because a large percentage of them are ending up in C Sections. She will be out of town next week and was inducing some of her patients this week, but the hospital was sending them home. I am ok with not being induced. I think my anxiety will kick in if I know the actual day and time that Kiley is going to come. I think she will be spontaneous like her Daddie and come when she wants. She said that my cervix is actually facing backwards towards my tail bone, so she can't get a good feel of it, but she is pretty sure that it is still closed. I told her that I really don't feel like Kiley will come anytime soon. She did say that she doesn't let any of her patients go past 41 weeks, so we will revisit the induction option if I approach November 11th. We scheduled a sonogram and our 39 week checkup with Dr. Reyes (the other doctor in the office). If for some reason, Kiley hasn't grown since the last sonogram, we will also have to discuss a staged induction where they ripen my cervix. So there are still so many unknowns and we will continue to play the waiting game. We will have another weekend to pack the hospital bag, install the car seat and create a phone tree to share the news. I think I am going to start the countdown to November 11th, 21 days to go!

As another precaution, Mikey and I went to vote today in case she decides to come on her actual due date which is November 4th, election day. This weekend we are celebrating Mikey's birthday. He and his Dad have a hot air balloon ride scheduled for Saturday morning and we are celebrating with the family on Sunday. I am sure Kiley is being the sweet little girl that she is and letting Daddie enjoy his 28th birthday before she comes into the world to join our family.

37 Weeks and counting....

So I just realized that I am two weekends and one doctor appointment behind! I will try to make this as short and to the point as possible. I really don't have any pictures to make it more exciting either! Last weekend was busy and relaxing all in one. On Friday night, we went to a tx/ou party. Our friends Heath and Katie are big Sooners and they put on a great party every year. Mikey introduced beer pong to the party and had a grand old time. We left about midnight. I was proud of myself for lasting that long 36 1/2 weeks pregnant! On Saturday morning, we got up early and headed South to Waxahachie. I stayed the weekend with Mom while Mikey, Dad and Mycah all went to Jacksonville. They went to Jacksonville for multiple purposes. Of course the number one reason was to spend quality time with family =). They also went to meet my cousin Matt's new baby girl, Macy Lane. Mycah said she is adorable. I will have to have her send me some pictures for the blog. Dad and Mikey spent Saturday chopping firewood. I don't think Mikey has ever been so exhausted. They worked so hard. It also just so happened that it was MudFest weekend down in Jacksonville, so Mikey and Mycah had to experience that also. The way that Mikey described it was that they had a big group of people on 4Wheelers and they all tied coolers to them and went mudding on trails all day and night. I interpreted it as floating the river, except in Mud. They said it was a blast. So while they were away having all of the fun, I spent the weekend with Mom. It was great. She made me some yummy meals and I did a lot of relaxing on Saturday. We also did some scrapbooking. Sunday was a busy day. I got my hair and makeup done in the morning and then we went over to Shannon's bridal shower at the Kroh's. They did a great job. Everything was beautiful. After the shower, I went back to Mom's, got the dogs and headed back up North to meet Mikey. Then we drove to Keller for our maternity pictures. We haven't seen any of them yet. I am really nervous about seeing them! We had tivoed the Cowboy Game, so we came home and watched it on Sunday night...so disappointing....

Last Tuesday, I had my 37 week checkup. My weight and blood pressure were good. I had gained water weight which was kind of depressing, but my doctor said it was normal at this point in my pregnancy (also a reason I am nervous about seeing the maternity pictures). Kiley's heart was beating at 156 beats per minute. My bloodwork came back normal, so that was good news. My stomach is still measuring small, so Dr. Stevenson told me to schedule another sonogram for 39 weeks (it will have been 3 weeks since my last one). She just wants to make sure that everything is growing properly. She also reminded me that she will be out of town the week of my 39 week checkup and sonogram, so I will be seeing Dr. Reyes that week. If there is any indication in the sonogram that we need to induce, Dr. Reyes will make the call. She checked my cervix and nothing had changed from the week before. She said to be patient, Kiley just isn't ready to come yet =).

We had another good weekend this weekend. Friday night we stayed in and caught up on some shows on our DVR. Then we decided to get the old school video games out. We played Ms. Pacman and Super Mario Brothers. It was so much fun! I couldn't believe how much we remembered. Saturday morning we woke up and got our Aggie Gear on. Big game against #5 Texas Tech. Even though I got my Masters Degree from Tech, I am an Aggie for Life! We went to our friends Justin & Ashley's new house to watch the game. Justin played baseball for Tech, so it was a fun rivalry, and they only live a couple miles from us, so it was a short drive. I was proud of our Aggies even though we lost. They made it a good game and it was fun to watch. On Saturday night, we went to dinner with our friend Stacy E. Mikey hadn't seen her new place yet, so we met her over there and then went to Mi Cocina. We had a lot of fun and the food was delicious! Saturday night, we had our first official fire! It was very cozy! On Sunday, we watched the Cowboys lose AGAIN. It was so frustrating! I did the laundry and then Mikey's parents came over for dinner. I made chicken spaghetti and it was delicious!

So now I am all caught up. I have my 38 week checkup tomorrow and will post when I get back. I am still working and we are just waiting. Mikey keeps telling me to pack my bag for the hospital and I keep telling him to install the car seat and get it inspected. Neither of those happened this weekend...we don't think Kiley is coming anytime soon...she is comfy in there and as Mikey says, she needs to bake a little bit longer.

36 Week Checkup

After a long week of waiting, we finally got to see Kiley for the first time since we were 18 weeks and we found out she was a girl. Well guess what? She is still a girl! The parts of her body were a lot harder to make out this time because she is so much bigger and you can only see one part of her body at a time. This is the best picture we could get. It is a profile of her face. That is her arm in the picture next to her face. The sonographer measured her stomach, head and leg to make sure that she was growing as expected. She measured at about 35 weeks and 3 days and I was 36 weeks and 2 days. She explained that the margin of error with sonograms gets bigger the later in the pregnancy. We are up to a 3 week margin of error, so her size is well within the 3 weeks. We weren't surprised that she is a little small...Mikey and I aren't very big people and we were both pretty small when we were born. She weighs 5lb 10oz, so if she gains the normal 1/2lb per week, she can still be over a 7lb baby which is a good size.

Kiley slept through most of the sonogram. She wasn't in the posing mood. We did get to see her drinking and that was pretty cute. It must be why she gets the hiccups all the time. She has pretty lips and cute cheeks and she even has a little bit of hair. We saw all of her fingers and toes. We also got a better idea of how she is positioned in my stomach. She is basically in a V with her head down and her butt up in the air. Her feet are almost touching her head. It can't be comfortable, but that explains the different kicks and pokes that I get. Hopefully her head should stay down, but she can still move from side to side. At the time of the sonogram, she was facing my left side. Seeing her made me want to hold her in my arms so much more. As Mikey says, she needs to "bake" in my tummy for a while longer, but we are getting so anxious to meet her.

After the sonogram was over, we met with the doctor for my 36 week checkup. My weight and blood pressure were good. Her heartbeat was 156 beats per minute, but my stomach was still measuring small. She said that basically I am hiding baby. It will be interesting to see how much I grow in the next couple of weeks. My strep B test came back negative, and they took blood for the LAST time...wooohooo!! They will send the results to the hospital. I think it was just a CBC to check my iron levels. Of course they will poke me in the hospital, but at least I don't have to get any more taken for the next few weeks. She checked my cervix again and it was still softening. She could feel Kiley's head and could push up on it and Kiley would float up a little. She said that was a good sign that there is still plenty of fluid around her. Dr. Stevenson said that the odds say that I won't have her in the next week, so we made another appointment for Tuesday the 14th!

Mikey, Dad & Mycah are all heading to Jacksonville this weekend to get firewood and meeting my counsin Matt's new baby, Macy Lane. Mom is staying in town with me since I can't leave. I am looking forward to a weekend of rest and relaxation and some TLC from Mom. Hopefully Kiley won't pull anything crazy while Daddie is gone.

Mycah's Birthday!

Last week, we celebrated Mycah's 22nd birthday. Can you believe she is 22? I sure can't. I know she hates when I say this, but she is just so little, she can't be 22. I know that I am just in denial as a big sister, but I also know that I am very proud of her. She's has grown up to be such a beautiful young woman with a great career and a place of her own. She is so good at what she does and has a great apartment to call home!

To celebrate her birthday, we went with the family to Melting Pot. It is one of our favorite places. If you haven't been, I totally recommend it. It is such a great experience and the food is delicious. We had a nice big booth (contrary to my birthday dinner), and had all 4 courses. It was just enough food where we weren't miserable when we left. We went back to the house where Mycah opened her presents. She made out great! Happy Birthday Mycah, we love you!

Little details for our little girl.....

I know that some of you don't care about this kind of stuff, and it may seem a little pointless, but some of you do. And some of you are far away and haven't seen much of the nursery, so allow me to point out all of the little details for our little Kiley girl!

These are the letters that the girls used as decoration for Kiley's shower. We hung them above Kiley's crib.

These are two new picture frames. We put the family wedding picture in the Family one, and will probably put one of our maternity portraits in the purple one.

Marmee bought her this Live Laugh Love frame at a cute little store in Waxahachie. We put one of my and Mikey's baby pictures in two of the frames and we are going to put pictures of her next to us. We also framed her sonogram picture in the frame next to it and added the changing pad and cover to the changing table.

We added little purple and white flowers to her curtains to make them a little more feminine.

Look at the little butterflies flying around Kiley's room. She loves butterflies just like her Mommy.

We put up black cording all around the room to break up the purple wall and the white ceiling.

The girls used these round hat boxes on the table at the shower and they let me keep them for Kiley's room. We used them as storage and they look great too!

Our friends Christi and Dylan wrapped their shower gifts in the box and my Aunt Pat sent her gifts in the basket. We used both of them for storage and they look great. We just have to train Boo that the toys in the basket are Kiley's, not his. My Nonie knitted the blanket for Kiley and it matches her room perfect! Buddy is also in this picture. He likes to lay in Kiley's room. I think he will be a good protector.


Here is a picture of Kiley's wardrobe. All of her clothes are so little and adorable. This was before the second two showers and before we washed them all and organized them by size and style, but you get the point.

This picture is of more storage in her closet. We don't have much room in the rest of the house to store Kiley's stuff, so we are storing all of her stuff in her room. If you look closely, you can see the labels on each drawer. I will have to teach Kiley how to make labels and stay organized. To the right of the drawers is the infamous Coach diaper bag. We will be stylin'.

So I just realized that I didn't take a picture of the new rug. The only one I can find is this one of Mikey and Brandon sleeping on it. This was the day of the baby shower and they were "playing" aka drinking all day. Yes, Sara and I are very proud.

Ok, have I bored you enough? I am sure there is at least one person out there that will appreciate this blog entry. I sure do! Love to all!

35 Weeks!!

So I just looked at my blog archives and it has been 4 weeks since the last baby update. A lot has gone on in the last 4 weeks, so bare with me, this might be kind of long. To summarize, we have had 4 baby showers, 5 classes, 4 nursery updates and 2 doctors appointments. You have seen all of the wonderful pictures of the baby showers, so at least I have kept up with something. After 4 showers, we got so much that we needed, and not too many clothes. I think we have a good amount of clothes. They are all washed and hanging in her closet....sooooo cute!! We did receive a few duplicates that we still need to take back to Babies R Us and exchange for a few things that we did not receive and still need. I am hoping that it will be close to an even trade. We do have diapers and a car seat...I think those were the two necessities to bring her home from the hospital, so we are good!

Now for the classes. A couple months ago, we signed up for 4 classes at the hospital. The first one that we attended was the Breastfeeding Class. It was very beneficial and well worth it. It is hard to know how much we will benefit from it until I actually get to try to breastfeed myself, but I am really glad that Mikey was there with me. We learned all of the benefits of breastfeeding, and now he is also aware of the support that I will need from him.

The second class that we attended was the childbirth class. Probably the most beneficial. I think that I wrote in an earlier blog that I had a "pregnancy moment" with this one. When I signed us up, I didn't realize it was 3 weeks long. We were able to attend two out of the three classes and we learned a lot. It was so neat to see pictures of what my body looks like from the inside. Kiley is taking up so much room these days and I always wondered where all of my other parts were (stomach, intestines, bladder, etc.) I think it was good for Mikey to see where all of my "discomfort" comes from. We also went on a tour of the hospital. We learned where we will park and check in. We also saw a delivery room and walked through the labor and delivery process. We talked about comfort measures, how to know we are in labor, when to come to the hospital and listened to an anesthesiologist speak.

The third class we took was the infant and child CPR class. Mikey and I have both been CPR certified in the past so this class was a good refresher. CPR actually has changed since we were certified. If it has been a while for you guys, now it is actually 2 breaths to every 30 thrusts, and there are some differences for an infant and child than with an adult. Very beneficial. Our philosophy is that since we know what to do, we will NEVER have to use it. We will have to change the philosophy to never have to use it on Kiley or our other children, because Mikey has already applied something he learned in the class last weekend. Long story short, he was participating in a bike race last weekend and came up on a car accident that had just happened. There were 6 high school girls in one of the cars. He had to pull one of the girls out of the car and use her shirt to wrap around her face and head where she had sustained some pretty bad gashes. He called parents and kept her and some of the other girls calm until the paramedics arrived. He called the parents earlier this week to make sure everyone was ok. There were some pretty bad injuries, broken neck, pelvis, legs, cuts, etc. My husband is very brave and I am proud of him for how he reacted in the emergency situation. I know her parents were very grateful that he was there to help. He even finished the 46 mile race after all of this. He is one tough guy!

Our last class was the Basics of Babycare. This was a good one for Mikey to attend, because he has never held a baby, much less changed a diaper or given a bath. We learned all of these things and it was very beneficial. We also learned how to swaddle Kiley and take her temperature. We even got to practice everything! So we are done with all of our classes and I am very glad that we took them. I feel like we know so much more than we did before them and it makes us feel more prepared for Kiley. I know that we won't know everything, but the classes definitely put us more at ease for labor and delivery as well as caring for a newborn.

Finally, the doctor appointments. Our 33 week checkup was pretty routine. My weight gain and blood pressure were good. Kiley's hearbeat was 157 beats per minute and my stomach was at a 33. She informed me that at my next visit, I would be tested for the Strep B virus so I would have to undress (which is something I haven't done in months).

Tuesday was my 35 week checkup. My weight gain and blood pressure were good and Kiley's heartbeat was strong at 158 beats per minute. She did the Strep B test (will get results in a few days) and then checked my cervix. I promise this will be the most graphic I get in these updates. My cervix is still closed, but it is soft which is good. When she measured my stomach, it was still at a 33 (same as two weeks ago). She said that sometimes the measurement from the outside isn't accurate enough and we needed to schedule a sonogram for our next visit to check her size. It didn't hit me right away, but as I left the office, I broke down. I was concerned that Kiley stopped growing. My wonderful husband talked me through my concerns and helped calm me down. He said that we need to focus on the positives, like the fact that she had a strong heartbeat and that I had gained weight. He told me to keep positive thoughts because the negative ones won't help the situation at all. He is right and that is what we are doing. Later that day, I called the doctor back just to ask a few questions. They said that we shouldn't be concerned about Kiley's well being, she is fine, the only reason to do the sonogram is to confirm her size and that we still have the same due date. I did feel a little better, but will feel a lot better once we see that everything is ok. I am now going to the doctor on a weekly basis, so our sonogram and next appointment is scheduled for Wednesday, October 8th. Please keep us in your prayers. The bright side is that we get to see Kiley again before she is born. We haven't seen her since I was 18 weeks pregnant!

Another positive note is that Kiley is very active every day. She definitely livens up at night. She is getting tighter in there, but still manages some pretty hard jabs and kicks. She also gets the hiccups an average of 3 times per day. When I was little, my parents used to tell me that I was growing when I had the hiccups. So hopefully Kiley is growing a lot! According to my weekly emails, she is over 5 pounds. I guess we will know for sure next week. Stay tuned for news on our next doctor appointment, and we have also scheduled maternity pictures for next Sunday the 12th!

As for the nursery, we have put a few finishing touches to make it extra special. I will post pictures tomorrow!