We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a very happy New Year!Love,
The Withers
Kyle, Brandy, Kayleigh, Tucker & Zeke
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
6 months
Kayleigh is 6 months old today! Holy moly!
I don't know where the time has gone. It's gone so much faster now that I'm back to work and I wish I could just freeze time right now because she is SO much fun! My winter break is starting this upcoming Wednesday. I'll get 2 weeks off with her and I. CAN'T. WAIT! This is definitely my favorite age so far. Her personality is really starting to develop and she's jibber-jabbering nonstop now. As of last weekend, she is officially a roly poly. Up until then she was strictly a roller from her back to he stomach to the left. Now it's back to tummy either direction and tummy to back either direction. She's also starting to realize if she wants to look or get to something that is not her reach or view, she can turn herself around. So fun to watch.
She's been sitting up for a couple of seconds by herself for awhile now, but in the last 2 weeks she's really started to fly solo with little help needed. My little girl is growing up WAY too fast! Sitting up is quickly becoming one of her favorite things so that she can see everything and know what's going on.
On Thanksgiving we gave her her first real food-sweet potatoes! She made some hilarious faces but after a couple of bites she was having no problem eating them. Since then she's had peas, carrots, green beans, squash, bananas, and as of last night-apples. She has liked everything she has eaten which makes me happy. I'm hoping she grows up liking more of these fruits and veggies than her mommy does. She of course loves her rice cereal and now oatmeal.
She's still a phenomenal sleeper. She goes to bed at 8 every night and I usually have to go wake her up at 7:15 when I'm ready to take her to daycare so I can go to work. And on the rare occassion (like last night), she slept until 8:45 this morning! Needless to say, she gives this mom and dad plenty of beauty sleep and we love it.
Here's a couple more fun things about our little angel:
-Still the happiest baby I've ever seen. (No joke-this child rarely cries.)
-LOVES to read and look at books (this makes my heart smile. Proof that she's truly my baby girl)
-Loves to get kisses from Tucker and would love for Zeke to let her touch him. haha
-Loves anything that crinkles. One of her favorite toy is this blue elephant with crinkly stuff in it.
-Favorite toy-a little monkey that plays the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and has two red dots that light up on its cheeks when you play it.
-Favorite food-probably carrots or squash so far. She had no problems annihilating both of those veggies.
-BOYS! I hope this is not a precursor to what she will be like when she gets older. She lights up whenever there is a guy around-Kyle, my dad, his dad, Brandon....
-sucking her toes and looking at her hands.
-my favorite thing-still cuddling with her momma when she's tired. I'll be said to see these days go. I'm sure they are closer than I want them to be.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Wow! Where did the time go?!
Holy smokes! I have completely neglected my blog for the past 2 months?!!? So sorry. Luckily our lives are pretty uneventful with the exception of our sweet little miss. She keeps us busy and entertained.
I know everyone raves about how wonderful their kids are, but Kayleigh is truly an awesome baby. I definitely think that Kyle and I hit the jackpot with this little one. She will be 5 months in 9 days. 9 days!! Again-I have no idea where time has gone. She's growing up so insanely fast. We took her for her 4 month appointment a couple of weeks ago. She finally started to gain a little more weight(now at 12.6), but is still in the 23rd percentile. I'm not really worried-she's eating and gaining weight and those are the most important thing. Length was 24 1/2 in and somewhere in the 60th percentile. Kyle and I are just convinced that she's going to be a skinny girl. Although since the doctor cleared her to eat rice cereal now, her little thighs are definitely starting to chunk up. So cute! She also got her 2nd round of shots at the doctor. Same result of course-cute, happy, smiling face until she realized something was pricking her. She was a trooper and was over it in 5 minutes. She did great last time after her round of shots-just tired, but no fever. I was hoping that would be the case this time and it was. She was just really tired, but never had a fever, and most importantly still slept through the night. Her first experience with rice cereal was hilarious. Her facial expressions were hilarious. Of course it's something new so it's taken her awhile to get used to it, but she's finally getting the hang of eating with a cereal and kicking it all to the back of her mouth to eat. I was a little worried about how she would handle Daylight Savings Time. She goes to bed at 8 and I typically have to go wake her up around 7:15 in the morning (did I mention she's a sleeper?). But to no avail, she did amazing! No problems whatsoever and it was a smooth transition. You would have never known that we gained an hour back.
She is doing so many new things since my last post it's unreal. She is now laughing (music to my ears), rolling over from the left side on her back to her tummy making tummy time no longer as much of an issue as it used to be, she can sit up in her Bumbo, she's definitely learned who Kyle and I are, and she has found her feet which are her favorite thing these days. She can even suck her toes-can you do that? haha. On a serious note, I have to sadly admit that she is totally a daddy's girl. She is all about Kyle right now which breaks my heart and makes me smile all at the same time. She's always got her eye on him.
We got a new couch a couple of weeks ago....FINALLY! It's an early Christmas present from both sets of our parents. We have desperately been wanting to get one for almost a year now. We ended up getting a sectional with an ottoman and a chaise and we are absolutely in love. It's been the best gift ever. Only downside is that Kyle is on a comfortable couch again, making him fall asleep anywhere from 7-8 pm again. The dogs are not as big of fans. With the new couch came new rules-NO DOGS ON THE COUCH! Tucker has adjusted, Zeke-not so much. We have to set the ottoman a certain way, use the gate from the stairs and a chair from the kitchen to block off all access points onto the couch. We were sitting something in the ottoman so they couldn't jump over it, but Kyle didn't do it the other day and came home to Zeke laying on the couch. Crazy dog just wants what he wants. Overall they've been good about not jumping on it considering how used to it they were before the new couch.
It was Kayleigh's first Halloween this year. She was my little baby bumblebee. Rather than go out and spend a ridiculous amount on a costume, I just grabbed some wings and a headband from Meijer for $5, some striped leggings for $10 from Gymboree that I had a gift card for, a black onesie we already had, and a black tutu from Target for $6. $11 spent total. She looked too cute! We went to my parents house first so that they could see her in her costume, and then went to Kyle's parents. She was a trooper but was up and missed her 7 pm nap so she got a little cranky and exhausted by about 7:45. I'm looking forward to next year when she can walk around with us for Halloween.
Fall and I have a love/hate relationship. I absolutely LOVE fall because of the beautiful weather, leaves changing colors, and anticipation of all of the wonderful, fun holidays that are coming up. However, I also hate fall because it's now dark when I'm driving home from work (yes, I'm still here until about 5:30 or 6 EVERY night), and the colder weather. I despise the cold weather and even more, the snow that will grace it's presence on us before soon I'm sure. Having said that, I can't wait to eat Thanksgiving dinner and celebrate Kayleigh's first Christmas. She'll still only be 6 months and really won't understand but she's already made Christmas exciting again just by being here.
I'll try to be better about posting.
I know everyone raves about how wonderful their kids are, but Kayleigh is truly an awesome baby. I definitely think that Kyle and I hit the jackpot with this little one. She will be 5 months in 9 days. 9 days!! Again-I have no idea where time has gone. She's growing up so insanely fast. We took her for her 4 month appointment a couple of weeks ago. She finally started to gain a little more weight(now at 12.6), but is still in the 23rd percentile. I'm not really worried-she's eating and gaining weight and those are the most important thing. Length was 24 1/2 in and somewhere in the 60th percentile. Kyle and I are just convinced that she's going to be a skinny girl. Although since the doctor cleared her to eat rice cereal now, her little thighs are definitely starting to chunk up. So cute! She also got her 2nd round of shots at the doctor. Same result of course-cute, happy, smiling face until she realized something was pricking her. She was a trooper and was over it in 5 minutes. She did great last time after her round of shots-just tired, but no fever. I was hoping that would be the case this time and it was. She was just really tired, but never had a fever, and most importantly still slept through the night. Her first experience with rice cereal was hilarious. Her facial expressions were hilarious. Of course it's something new so it's taken her awhile to get used to it, but she's finally getting the hang of eating with a cereal and kicking it all to the back of her mouth to eat. I was a little worried about how she would handle Daylight Savings Time. She goes to bed at 8 and I typically have to go wake her up around 7:15 in the morning (did I mention she's a sleeper?). But to no avail, she did amazing! No problems whatsoever and it was a smooth transition. You would have never known that we gained an hour back.
She is doing so many new things since my last post it's unreal. She is now laughing (music to my ears), rolling over from the left side on her back to her tummy making tummy time no longer as much of an issue as it used to be, she can sit up in her Bumbo, she's definitely learned who Kyle and I are, and she has found her feet which are her favorite thing these days. She can even suck her toes-can you do that? haha. On a serious note, I have to sadly admit that she is totally a daddy's girl. She is all about Kyle right now which breaks my heart and makes me smile all at the same time. She's always got her eye on him.
We got a new couch a couple of weeks ago....FINALLY! It's an early Christmas present from both sets of our parents. We have desperately been wanting to get one for almost a year now. We ended up getting a sectional with an ottoman and a chaise and we are absolutely in love. It's been the best gift ever. Only downside is that Kyle is on a comfortable couch again, making him fall asleep anywhere from 7-8 pm again. The dogs are not as big of fans. With the new couch came new rules-NO DOGS ON THE COUCH! Tucker has adjusted, Zeke-not so much. We have to set the ottoman a certain way, use the gate from the stairs and a chair from the kitchen to block off all access points onto the couch. We were sitting something in the ottoman so they couldn't jump over it, but Kyle didn't do it the other day and came home to Zeke laying on the couch. Crazy dog just wants what he wants. Overall they've been good about not jumping on it considering how used to it they were before the new couch.
It was Kayleigh's first Halloween this year. She was my little baby bumblebee. Rather than go out and spend a ridiculous amount on a costume, I just grabbed some wings and a headband from Meijer for $5, some striped leggings for $10 from Gymboree that I had a gift card for, a black onesie we already had, and a black tutu from Target for $6. $11 spent total. She looked too cute! We went to my parents house first so that they could see her in her costume, and then went to Kyle's parents. She was a trooper but was up and missed her 7 pm nap so she got a little cranky and exhausted by about 7:45. I'm looking forward to next year when she can walk around with us for Halloween.
Fall and I have a love/hate relationship. I absolutely LOVE fall because of the beautiful weather, leaves changing colors, and anticipation of all of the wonderful, fun holidays that are coming up. However, I also hate fall because it's now dark when I'm driving home from work (yes, I'm still here until about 5:30 or 6 EVERY night), and the colder weather. I despise the cold weather and even more, the snow that will grace it's presence on us before soon I'm sure. Having said that, I can't wait to eat Thanksgiving dinner and celebrate Kayleigh's first Christmas. She'll still only be 6 months and really won't understand but she's already made Christmas exciting again just by being here.
I'll try to be better about posting.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Sunday at the Park
This weekend was pretty low key for us. We only had one thing really planned and that was Phil and Jessica's annual luau that they have at their house for close family and friends. We had a good time and ate some great food. It was nice to talk to everyone and catch up. Kayleigh definitely got spoiled and was passed around to virtually everyone there. Kyle and I could definitely tell it was different having her with us in comparison to years past because we ended up leaving around 10 because she was tired and just would not stay asleep when I put her down. I'm starting to realize that if we are not home when it's time for her to go to bed, she has a hard time staying asleep. I think there is just too much going on and she knows she is out of her element. So we saddled up and came home. I think she was asleep as soon as we hit the interstate.
Sunday was just quality family time for us because Kyle worked all day Saturday at the Imagination Station for overtime. We knew we wanted to take the dogs somewhere new for a walk. Now that we are finally getting into our new "normal" it was time to give the dogs some of the attention they used to get. Kyle has really been wanting to go to the Battlefield and take them by the creek to see what they do. We tried this, but there was some sort of church luncheon there and there were too many people there to just let them off their leashes and have fun. So we went back to the car and brainstormed. I suggested going to Prophetstown State Park because I knew there were trails and the dogs would LOVE it. Kyle agreed so we headed that way. We were a little bummed when we got to the entrance and realized that you had to pay to get in. It was $6 for the day for a car. We knew we obviously wouldn't be there all day, so Kyle really didn't want to pay $6 to take the dogs for a walk, but I talked him into it. They needed to go somewhere, it was a gorgeous day, and we were already there. I've lived in Lafayette my whole life and that was my first time being there and man was it gorgeous there. It was so quiet and peaceful. I was surprised to find out how many things you can do there. You can take a camper or a tent and camp, they have a playground and picnic area, biking and hiking trails, and even a full court basketball court. We just parked the car and did one of the biking trails. With Tucker's leg he can't really walk as far or do as much physical activity as he used to so we have to be sure we don't push him too much. We ended up being there for about an hour and a half. It was SO beautiful. We let the dogs walk around and of course sniff EVERYTHING! To say they loved it is an understatement. We left and decided that we are going to get a yearly membership there. It's only $36 which isn't bad and we would definitely get the use out of it. It's not that far from home and we could go there at least 6 times a year to get our money's worth. Kayleigh enjoyed the walk and sightseeing as well. Speaking of-I think naptime is over-I hear some cooing and laughing. Here are some pictures from the day.
Sunday was just quality family time for us because Kyle worked all day Saturday at the Imagination Station for overtime. We knew we wanted to take the dogs somewhere new for a walk. Now that we are finally getting into our new "normal" it was time to give the dogs some of the attention they used to get. Kyle has really been wanting to go to the Battlefield and take them by the creek to see what they do. We tried this, but there was some sort of church luncheon there and there were too many people there to just let them off their leashes and have fun. So we went back to the car and brainstormed. I suggested going to Prophetstown State Park because I knew there were trails and the dogs would LOVE it. Kyle agreed so we headed that way. We were a little bummed when we got to the entrance and realized that you had to pay to get in. It was $6 for the day for a car. We knew we obviously wouldn't be there all day, so Kyle really didn't want to pay $6 to take the dogs for a walk, but I talked him into it. They needed to go somewhere, it was a gorgeous day, and we were already there. I've lived in Lafayette my whole life and that was my first time being there and man was it gorgeous there. It was so quiet and peaceful. I was surprised to find out how many things you can do there. You can take a camper or a tent and camp, they have a playground and picnic area, biking and hiking trails, and even a full court basketball court. We just parked the car and did one of the biking trails. With Tucker's leg he can't really walk as far or do as much physical activity as he used to so we have to be sure we don't push him too much. We ended up being there for about an hour and a half. It was SO beautiful. We let the dogs walk around and of course sniff EVERYTHING! To say they loved it is an understatement. We left and decided that we are going to get a yearly membership there. It's only $36 which isn't bad and we would definitely get the use out of it. It's not that far from home and we could go there at least 6 times a year to get our money's worth. Kayleigh enjoyed the walk and sightseeing as well. Speaking of-I think naptime is over-I hear some cooing and laughing. Here are some pictures from the day.
Kayleigh loved the walk and looking around at the park
Mission accomplished-the dogs were EX.HAUS.TED!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Landon's 1st Birthday
I'm still working on catching up on my blogging since Kayleigh's been born. Our nephew, Landon, celebrated his first birthday back in July. I can't believe he's already a year old! He's growing so fast! But it's so fun to see his personality start to develop as it has been for the past couple of months now. Around 10-11 months he started to hit his ornery streak. I have to admit it's a funny ornery streak. He's a smart little kiddo and is fun to be around. Of course, he still has Kyle wrapped around his finger like you wouldn't believe. He definitely loves his Uncle Kyle and Uncle Kyle definitely loves him!
The party was at Brandon and Tonia's house. They had a great turnout of family and friends. It was nice to see everyone there, especially our friends that live out of town, and catch up. Landon LOVED his cupcakes that he got to eat for his birthday. He definitely had no problem reservations about eating something new. He just dove right in and had his first one gone in about 3 minutes! He got lots of great presents and clothes that will keep him busy. Although now that's he's walking more and more the toys have taken a backseat.
Here are some pictures from his special day:
Happy boy with everybody singing to him-notice the face before the cupcakes (nice and clean!)
A vanilla and a chocolate cupcake later....ALL DONE!
He's such a cutie with that smile of his
Playing on his gift from us
Two peas in a pod
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Kayleigh Marie Withers 6.17.11
Our little bundle of joy has finally arrived and I realize I am extremely late in posting this. Things have been extremely crazy to say the least. Ironically enough, my water broke about 2 hours after my last blog on June 16th. It's quite the story.
I had been outside reading most of the the day on the 16th. It was a gorgeous day outside and I wanted to have the dogs out as much as possible because the next morning I was scheduled to be induced. Kyle called on his way home from work and asked me to make him a sandwich because he hadn't had lunch yet. I got up and heard something make somewhat of a popping sound, but didn't think anything of it. By the time I got to the door going into the house from the garage I had my first contraction-though I wasn't sure at the time. I made it into the house and was able to get the bread and peanut butter out for Kyle's PB&J, but when I bent over in the fridge to get the jelly, my water broke-kinda. It was only a little bit, so I wasn't really sure if that's what it was although I did know I didn't have an "accident". At exactly that time Kyle was walking into the house from the garage. I looked up at him and told him that I thought my water had just broke. The look on his face was priceless. He asked me if we needed to go "like right now". Haha-I had to laugh. I told him to go ahead and take a shower and get something to eat really quick because I wasn't 100% sure and wanted to see if it happened again. Well it did, but still not a lot so I called the doctor's office and they told me to come in and the doctor would check me. Thank goodness I had finished packing my hospital bag the day before because once the doctor laid me down and checked me my water completely broke in his office! We were having a baby!
To make an extremely long story shorter, I'll skip to the happy news! Kayleigh Marie Withers was born on Friday, June 17th, 2011 at 4:22 a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. And for the time being that was about the only good news. Apparently I was running a fever during labor which put a lot of stress on her and made her run a fever as well and also caused her heart rate to sky rocket into the 200s. Our baby girl was having a tough time breathing when she was born so they had a NICU nurse come look her over. The nurse told us that they were going to have to take her to the NICU for more observation. Mind you, neither Kyle or I had held her at this time. They let me hold her for 10 seconds and they took her. I told Kyle to go with her so he knew what was going on because I obviously wasn't going anywhere. They told Kyle that she was going to have to stay there for 48 hours because she had to be on oxygen and was being fed through a feeding tube. We later found out that she had some sort of infection and would have to stay in the NICU for 7 days while she received antibiotics. We were crushed to say the least. Luckily she was off the oxygen within a couple of hours that first morning and was off the feeding tube the next day. We knew this was what was best for her and I definitely wanted her coming home healthy, but this was definitely not how Kyle and I envisioned welcoming our first child.
Sunday night was the hardest night of all. I got discharged to go home. I made it right outside the hospital doors and saw Kyle waiting in the truck for me to go home and I lost it. It hurt me so much to know that I was leaving the hospital without my daughter. I felt guilty and horrible even though I knew it was better for her and there was nothing that I could do. Kyle and I spent the next 4 days in the NICU with Kayleigh. I was able to nurse her which was nice despite everything. Luckily she had no problems whatsoever latching on or the process in general so that made things nicer.
Kayleigh finally got to come home Thursday night after her last antibiotic treatment. Words cannot begin to describe how nice it was to bring her home and to see her not hooked up to any cords or wires. Her daddy could finally hold her and not be paranoid or worried that he was going to hurt her. As hard as this whole process was, I think it was the hardest on Kyle. He had never been exposed to anything like what we went through with Kayleigh and he was petrified the whole time we were in the NICU with her. He definitely did not like seeing his baby girl the way she was, but once we got her home he scooped her up and cuddled forever with her.
Here are some pictures from that first week.
I had been outside reading most of the the day on the 16th. It was a gorgeous day outside and I wanted to have the dogs out as much as possible because the next morning I was scheduled to be induced. Kyle called on his way home from work and asked me to make him a sandwich because he hadn't had lunch yet. I got up and heard something make somewhat of a popping sound, but didn't think anything of it. By the time I got to the door going into the house from the garage I had my first contraction-though I wasn't sure at the time. I made it into the house and was able to get the bread and peanut butter out for Kyle's PB&J, but when I bent over in the fridge to get the jelly, my water broke-kinda. It was only a little bit, so I wasn't really sure if that's what it was although I did know I didn't have an "accident". At exactly that time Kyle was walking into the house from the garage. I looked up at him and told him that I thought my water had just broke. The look on his face was priceless. He asked me if we needed to go "like right now". Haha-I had to laugh. I told him to go ahead and take a shower and get something to eat really quick because I wasn't 100% sure and wanted to see if it happened again. Well it did, but still not a lot so I called the doctor's office and they told me to come in and the doctor would check me. Thank goodness I had finished packing my hospital bag the day before because once the doctor laid me down and checked me my water completely broke in his office! We were having a baby!
To make an extremely long story shorter, I'll skip to the happy news! Kayleigh Marie Withers was born on Friday, June 17th, 2011 at 4:22 a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. And for the time being that was about the only good news. Apparently I was running a fever during labor which put a lot of stress on her and made her run a fever as well and also caused her heart rate to sky rocket into the 200s. Our baby girl was having a tough time breathing when she was born so they had a NICU nurse come look her over. The nurse told us that they were going to have to take her to the NICU for more observation. Mind you, neither Kyle or I had held her at this time. They let me hold her for 10 seconds and they took her. I told Kyle to go with her so he knew what was going on because I obviously wasn't going anywhere. They told Kyle that she was going to have to stay there for 48 hours because she had to be on oxygen and was being fed through a feeding tube. We later found out that she had some sort of infection and would have to stay in the NICU for 7 days while she received antibiotics. We were crushed to say the least. Luckily she was off the oxygen within a couple of hours that first morning and was off the feeding tube the next day. We knew this was what was best for her and I definitely wanted her coming home healthy, but this was definitely not how Kyle and I envisioned welcoming our first child.
Sunday night was the hardest night of all. I got discharged to go home. I made it right outside the hospital doors and saw Kyle waiting in the truck for me to go home and I lost it. It hurt me so much to know that I was leaving the hospital without my daughter. I felt guilty and horrible even though I knew it was better for her and there was nothing that I could do. Kyle and I spent the next 4 days in the NICU with Kayleigh. I was able to nurse her which was nice despite everything. Luckily she had no problems whatsoever latching on or the process in general so that made things nicer.
Kayleigh finally got to come home Thursday night after her last antibiotic treatment. Words cannot begin to describe how nice it was to bring her home and to see her not hooked up to any cords or wires. Her daddy could finally hold her and not be paranoid or worried that he was going to hurt her. As hard as this whole process was, I think it was the hardest on Kyle. He had never been exposed to anything like what we went through with Kayleigh and he was petrified the whole time we were in the NICU with her. He definitely did not like seeing his baby girl the way she was, but once we got her home he scooped her up and cuddled forever with her.
Here are some pictures from that first week.
Her first picture-a little pale
All hooked up in the NICU
Getting to hold her for the first time in the NICU
All buckled up in her car seat to come home...FINALLY!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
It's About That Time...
Well, since my last post I have continued my weekly visits to the doctor. The first time I had a weekly appointment and got checked I was 2 cm dilated (and 50% effaced, though I did not know this at the time). I went back the next week for just a routine appointment and much to my dismay and curiosity, I did not get checked. My doctor was leaving to go out of town for a week for the 3rd appointment. We were sure that Kayleigh would decide to make her grand entrance when he was gone, but she obviously has not. Last week when he was gone, I saw the nurse practitioner and she told me that I was still 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced-no progress in basically 2 1/2 weeks. I was pretty bummed. At that point I was thinking that she was never going to come. I've cleaned just about everything I can clean here at the house-windows, blinds, bathrooms, bedrooms, etc. Boredom was starting to set in (yes, I know a child is no cure for boredom, but that's what I have to look forward to).
So Monday I went to the public library for the first time in years and checked out some books. Kyle obviously loved making fun of me for it, but it was so great to be back in the library to check some books out. I haven't done that in years. It's something that my mom and I used to do all the time when I was younger and I loved it. Hopefully someday I will be able to do the same thing with Kayleigh and she will enjoy it just as much as I have. So anyways, I checked a couple books out and already have 2 finished. Luckily they have both been really good. I started off with Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin and just finished Rosie Dunne by Celia Ahern. Both very good reads. I still have 2 books left to read, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen as quickly as these last two have gone.
I went to the doctor again yesterday for another checkup and boy have there been some changes! Kayleigh has officially dropped, I am now 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. The awesome news is that I'm already through the first stage of labor and haven't felt any contractions. The said she's a happy, healthy baby. Kyle and I asked about the possibility of me going early or possibly being induced early (every major event and birthday just so happens to be next week when she's due). He said he had no problem inducing me early because she is doing great and I am so far along as far as being dilated and effaced. His response was "How does Friday sound?"
So I will be induced tomorrow morning at 8 am. However, he did say he would be surprised if I made it til Friday without her coming. And we are under strict orders to "be good". Apparently no more hanky panky for Kyle and I. I believe it was when he told us that he would be surprised if I made it to Friday that Kyle started laughing hysterically (this is what he does when he's freaking out and thinking "OH SHIT!"). Definitely not what we were expecting when we were going in to that appointment, but we are both so excited. It's hard to believe that the time is finally here and that Kyle will get to celebrate his first Father's Day with Kayleigh this year! There are so many thoughts and emotions going through my head right now, it's hard to make sense of all of this! The only thing I can think is WOW! and CRAZY!
So, next time I post, I'll be a mom, Kyle will be a dad, Tucker and Zeke won't know what struck their perfect world, and we'll both be the two happiest people in the world!
Wish us luck!
So Monday I went to the public library for the first time in years and checked out some books. Kyle obviously loved making fun of me for it, but it was so great to be back in the library to check some books out. I haven't done that in years. It's something that my mom and I used to do all the time when I was younger and I loved it. Hopefully someday I will be able to do the same thing with Kayleigh and she will enjoy it just as much as I have. So anyways, I checked a couple books out and already have 2 finished. Luckily they have both been really good. I started off with Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin and just finished Rosie Dunne by Celia Ahern. Both very good reads. I still have 2 books left to read, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen as quickly as these last two have gone.
I went to the doctor again yesterday for another checkup and boy have there been some changes! Kayleigh has officially dropped, I am now 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. The awesome news is that I'm already through the first stage of labor and haven't felt any contractions. The said she's a happy, healthy baby. Kyle and I asked about the possibility of me going early or possibly being induced early (every major event and birthday just so happens to be next week when she's due). He said he had no problem inducing me early because she is doing great and I am so far along as far as being dilated and effaced. His response was "How does Friday sound?"
So I will be induced tomorrow morning at 8 am. However, he did say he would be surprised if I made it til Friday without her coming. And we are under strict orders to "be good". Apparently no more hanky panky for Kyle and I. I believe it was when he told us that he would be surprised if I made it to Friday that Kyle started laughing hysterically (this is what he does when he's freaking out and thinking "OH SHIT!"). Definitely not what we were expecting when we were going in to that appointment, but we are both so excited. It's hard to believe that the time is finally here and that Kyle will get to celebrate his first Father's Day with Kayleigh this year! There are so many thoughts and emotions going through my head right now, it's hard to make sense of all of this! The only thing I can think is WOW! and CRAZY!
So, next time I post, I'll be a mom, Kyle will be a dad, Tucker and Zeke won't know what struck their perfect world, and we'll both be the two happiest people in the world!
Wish us luck!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
One Step Closer..
Thursday was the last day of school and boy am I glad that it is finally over! I really had a good year for it being my first actual year in a classroom. I of course had a couple crazy, annoying parents and a few students who just pushed my buttons, but I also had a lot of great students and parents also. We didn't have to go back on Friday for the teacher's records day if we had all our stuff done, but I wanted to get things moved around and cleaned up before I left for the summer. With Kayleigh coming soon, I didn't want to have to go back at the end of the summer and do it. So I went in Friday, Sunday morning, and Monday thru Wednesday to clean cabinets, rearrange my room, move bulletin boards, go through old files and resources I had. I got rid of a bunch of stuff but also got myself more organized which is such a huge relief. So I can now officially consider myself on summer vacation. I don't plan on going back to school until August to help out whoever is going to be doing my maternity leave. It's a nice feeling.
Last Monday we went to our first weekly visit to the doctor. It was also the first time the doctor checked me to see if Kayleigh is working her way on down at all. Luckily, to all of our surprise, I was already 2 cm dilated. Not sure about being effaced or anything because he didn't say so. I was keeping my fingers crossed that she wouldn't come until at least school was out so I could finish the year with my class. She cooperated. Now school is out and I am praying for her to come any day now! I know it's early, but I want more time with her. 9 months is too long to wait. I went again yesterday, but to my disappointment didn't get checked to see if I had dilated anymore. He did feel to make sure that she was still head down-which she is-and he even said that I had started to drop. He did tell me I would get checked next Wednesday, so I'm already counting down the days to see if there has been any progress. Our doctor is on call this weekend so if she does come, he will be there. Unfortunately I don't think we'll be that lucky. He's supposed to be gone June 8-12, so I'm sure she'll decide to come when he's gone. We will see.
My feet have officially turned into cankles and look like tree stumps by the end of the day. I thought I was going to get lucky and not have to deal with any of that, but last Thursday (the last day of school) I looked down at my feet at about 1 oclock and they were SO swollen. They've gone down a little, but with the heat and being up on them a lot they still swell daily. Definitely my least favorite pregnancy symptom.
Kyle's parents have opened their pool and the temp is already 86!! My kind of pool water! I don't have a maternity swimsuit, but have tried on some of my regular ones. I think if I go swimming-which will probably be this weekend-I'm gonna go all out and just bare it all wearing one of my regular swimsuits. At this point-I don't really care. I just want to cool down a little bit and relax. Hopefully everybody will understand. haha!
Hope everyone is enjoying this nice weather that we are finally getting! I know I am. Tucker and Zeke are loving being outside again! We'll keep you posted.
Last Monday we went to our first weekly visit to the doctor. It was also the first time the doctor checked me to see if Kayleigh is working her way on down at all. Luckily, to all of our surprise, I was already 2 cm dilated. Not sure about being effaced or anything because he didn't say so. I was keeping my fingers crossed that she wouldn't come until at least school was out so I could finish the year with my class. She cooperated. Now school is out and I am praying for her to come any day now! I know it's early, but I want more time with her. 9 months is too long to wait. I went again yesterday, but to my disappointment didn't get checked to see if I had dilated anymore. He did feel to make sure that she was still head down-which she is-and he even said that I had started to drop. He did tell me I would get checked next Wednesday, so I'm already counting down the days to see if there has been any progress. Our doctor is on call this weekend so if she does come, he will be there. Unfortunately I don't think we'll be that lucky. He's supposed to be gone June 8-12, so I'm sure she'll decide to come when he's gone. We will see.
My feet have officially turned into cankles and look like tree stumps by the end of the day. I thought I was going to get lucky and not have to deal with any of that, but last Thursday (the last day of school) I looked down at my feet at about 1 oclock and they were SO swollen. They've gone down a little, but with the heat and being up on them a lot they still swell daily. Definitely my least favorite pregnancy symptom.
Kyle's parents have opened their pool and the temp is already 86!! My kind of pool water! I don't have a maternity swimsuit, but have tried on some of my regular ones. I think if I go swimming-which will probably be this weekend-I'm gonna go all out and just bare it all wearing one of my regular swimsuits. At this point-I don't really care. I just want to cool down a little bit and relax. Hopefully everybody will understand. haha!
Hope everyone is enjoying this nice weather that we are finally getting! I know I am. Tucker and Zeke are loving being outside again! We'll keep you posted.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Almost There
I guess I lost track of time and when I last posted. I can't believe it's been almost 2 months. A lot has happened in the past 2 months. Tucker has continued to recuperate and has now been cleared to behave like a normal dog again-with a few stipulations, but all in all we have been really pleased with how he's been doing. We've been taking him on walks and to different parks as much as we can. Unfortunately all the rainy weather we've had lately hasn't made it that easy. It seems like he's doing better and better. We can definitely tell when we've pushed him too much because he'll take it easy and not do much for a day or two and will have more of a limp. Zeke is excited though because he can finally run and play with Tucker a lot more than what we've allowed in the past 3 months since Tucker hurt his leg.
Back in April I turned 25. Holy cow! Actually it wasn't too bad. It's kinda crazy to classify myself as being that old now, but I guess that's part of it and what happens. I think next year might be a little harder when I'm creeping more towards 30. I still feel so trapped in time and like we should be 18 and in high school or 21 and in college. This growing up and getting older thing really boggles my mind sometimes.
Speaking of grown up things-I am now officially in my 9th and final month of being pregnant. We have 4 1/2 weeks left until my due date and I must say that we are ready. I really think that I've had a great pregnancy. Really no bad experiences or things that I hate, but I have to admit that I don't think being pregnant is one of my favorite things either. Kyle and I are both very impatient people and 9 months is an awful long time to wait. He is definitely getting more antsy and anxious than I am. I think he tells me at least 3 or 4 times a week now that he's ready for Kayleigh to be here. For someone who was so set on having a boy, he's definitely come around a full 360. I think she's already got him wrapped around her finger. It's cute though. We had an appointment a couple of weeks ago and were told it was going to be our last ultrasound-aka the last time we were going to be able to try and see miss Kayleigh's face. Up until now we have never been able to see her and we didn't think we were going to be able to this time either, but at the last minute she turned and we were able to see her face. She's of course adorable, although I am a little partial. I think she will have Kyle's nose and possibly his lips. (I hope-he's got sexy lips). =) We learned that she has some chub rolls on her legs and still quite a bit of hair. It definitely made me even more ready to see her. This Monday starts my weekly appointments until she is born. We will see if I am dilated or effaced at all on Monday. I'm hoping there's something. I would like to work until the end of the school year, but if she decides to come early once school is out, I'm totally okay for that. We'll see what happens.
A couple of weeks ago we had my big baby shower with family and friends. My godmother Donna and best friend Jackie threw the shower for me. We had it at Columbian Park's little hall...drawing a blank on the name of it right now. It was a beautiful shower and we definitely were blessed with a nice day. We had a great turnout and Kayleigh was definitely spoiled with lots of amazing gifts. Let's just say after the shower we were pretty much set. Kyle and I didn't really have to go out and get much afterwards. I am so thankful for the amazing friends and family that we have that were there to support us. It definitely made this whole experience finally real. We just did finally get everything put away within this past week. I was worried we wouldn't be able to find a place for it all, but luckily we did.
On Thursday Kyle and I took the dogs with us to Happy Hollow Park to get maternity pictures taken. One of my students' moms is a photographer and she offered to take pictures as a congratulatory gift. She told us we were more than welcome to bring the dogs, so we took full advantage of that since we don't really have any pictures of the 4 of us. It was a nice, warm overcast day-perfect for pictures, but apparently also perfect for the mosquitos. We got eaten up! It was totally worth it though. Her son brought in a couple of the pictures Friday for me to get a preview and I was SO impressed! I can't wait to see the rest. She also offered to take pictures of Kayleigh once she's here and anytime after that when I wanted. SO EXCITED!
And I think the most exciting news is that the last day of school is this Thursday and I CAN NOT wait! After dealing with the kids for the past 3 weeks since they've officially "checked out", I am officially "checking out" also. Hopefully it'll be a fast week and I won't be too emotional. There are definitely many of my kids that I will miss dearly, but a couple that I can't wait to be done with. All in all, I'm ready for a break from work, kids, and relax before my precious girl comes. Should be an interesting next couple of weeks.
Back in April I turned 25. Holy cow! Actually it wasn't too bad. It's kinda crazy to classify myself as being that old now, but I guess that's part of it and what happens. I think next year might be a little harder when I'm creeping more towards 30. I still feel so trapped in time and like we should be 18 and in high school or 21 and in college. This growing up and getting older thing really boggles my mind sometimes.
Speaking of grown up things-I am now officially in my 9th and final month of being pregnant. We have 4 1/2 weeks left until my due date and I must say that we are ready. I really think that I've had a great pregnancy. Really no bad experiences or things that I hate, but I have to admit that I don't think being pregnant is one of my favorite things either. Kyle and I are both very impatient people and 9 months is an awful long time to wait. He is definitely getting more antsy and anxious than I am. I think he tells me at least 3 or 4 times a week now that he's ready for Kayleigh to be here. For someone who was so set on having a boy, he's definitely come around a full 360. I think she's already got him wrapped around her finger. It's cute though. We had an appointment a couple of weeks ago and were told it was going to be our last ultrasound-aka the last time we were going to be able to try and see miss Kayleigh's face. Up until now we have never been able to see her and we didn't think we were going to be able to this time either, but at the last minute she turned and we were able to see her face. She's of course adorable, although I am a little partial. I think she will have Kyle's nose and possibly his lips. (I hope-he's got sexy lips). =) We learned that she has some chub rolls on her legs and still quite a bit of hair. It definitely made me even more ready to see her. This Monday starts my weekly appointments until she is born. We will see if I am dilated or effaced at all on Monday. I'm hoping there's something. I would like to work until the end of the school year, but if she decides to come early once school is out, I'm totally okay for that. We'll see what happens.
A couple of weeks ago we had my big baby shower with family and friends. My godmother Donna and best friend Jackie threw the shower for me. We had it at Columbian Park's little hall...drawing a blank on the name of it right now. It was a beautiful shower and we definitely were blessed with a nice day. We had a great turnout and Kayleigh was definitely spoiled with lots of amazing gifts. Let's just say after the shower we were pretty much set. Kyle and I didn't really have to go out and get much afterwards. I am so thankful for the amazing friends and family that we have that were there to support us. It definitely made this whole experience finally real. We just did finally get everything put away within this past week. I was worried we wouldn't be able to find a place for it all, but luckily we did.
On Thursday Kyle and I took the dogs with us to Happy Hollow Park to get maternity pictures taken. One of my students' moms is a photographer and she offered to take pictures as a congratulatory gift. She told us we were more than welcome to bring the dogs, so we took full advantage of that since we don't really have any pictures of the 4 of us. It was a nice, warm overcast day-perfect for pictures, but apparently also perfect for the mosquitos. We got eaten up! It was totally worth it though. Her son brought in a couple of the pictures Friday for me to get a preview and I was SO impressed! I can't wait to see the rest. She also offered to take pictures of Kayleigh once she's here and anytime after that when I wanted. SO EXCITED!
And I think the most exciting news is that the last day of school is this Thursday and I CAN NOT wait! After dealing with the kids for the past 3 weeks since they've officially "checked out", I am officially "checking out" also. Hopefully it'll be a fast week and I won't be too emotional. There are definitely many of my kids that I will miss dearly, but a couple that I can't wait to be done with. All in all, I'm ready for a break from work, kids, and relax before my precious girl comes. Should be an interesting next couple of weeks.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A Sigh of Relief
Tucker had surgery on his leg on Wednesday, March 9th. We ended up staying here and doing the surgery locally through Tippecanoe Animal Hospital. I took him in that morning before I went to work which was not a good idea. I was crying before I even left the house, bawling the whole way there, and bawling the entire way to work. I'm going to blame it on the pregnancy hormones, even though I tended to be a pretty emotional gal before all of this. Ideally, Kyle should've dropped him off and saved me the heartache. Anyways, the doctor said they would do x-rays first to be sure that it was indeed a tear and if it was they would proceed with the surgery. If it wasn't torn he said they'd be giving me a call to pick him up because they wouldn't do the surgery then. When I didn't hear anything by lunch I knew it was a tear and they went through with the surgery. However, we were not allowed to call and check on him until 3. Kyle called and they said he did really well and to call back the next morning at 9 to see how he did overnight. If everything went okay and Tucker was eating and acting "normal" we would be able to pick him up Thursday.
That night was really awkward. Mind you we have had Tucker since about a month after we moved into our house, which will be 3 years in June. It was so weird not having him around and it did nothing but play mind games with us the whole night making us think and worry about him. What was he doing? Was he in a cage? Was it too small? Was he lonely or crying? Were there other dogs there barking incessantly driving him nuts? Was there anyone there? We definitely missed him WAY more than we anticipated. Kyle said when he got home Zeke was running all around the house and yard looking for Tucker. It was pretty sad.
Kyle called the next morning and to our relief they said he was doing great and we could pick him up at anytime. Kyle was already taking Friday off to stay at home with him, so we waited until he got off to go pick him up. Luckily my kids at school were in specials most of the afternoon and my principal was nice enough to just let me leave without taking any time off as long as someone could take care of my kids for 15 minutes and dismiss them at the end of the day. I was relieved and so excited all day to see Tucker, but I was also very nervous. I had no idea what it would be like once he got home, and I was constantly praying that this surgery would work and we wouldn't have any problems. We paid alot of money to fix our dear Tucker's leg.
He was definitely excited to see us when we got to the vet although I think we were even more excited to see him and know that he was still alive. We had never left him at a vet since we got him. If we left, he had always stayed with a family member. After seeing how he acted that first night we got him home, I'm convinced he was slightly traumatized by the whole experience of being somewhere new, not knowing anyone, and being by himself. He was a very needy and quite the attention seeker that night. I'm not complaining though because I was just as bad. I was glad our boy was okay and home again. He was getting around pretty well, but slowly because they had put a lot of thick bandaging around his leg to protect the incision, staples and sutures. He was obviously not used to this big, bulky thing being on his leg so it was hard for him to adjust to figuring out how to sit and lay down as well as get up. Pretty painful to watch. That night was the worst night he's had since we've had him. He had to go outside about 3 times and was constantly whining for attention and someone to be by him. Needless to say, Kyle was glad he didn't have to work the next day and I was wishing I didn't have to. That next day was a long one, but I was relieved because that was my last day before spring break and being off for a week.
After that first night he kept getting better each day. By Friday he had figured out how to sit/lay down and get up without much difficulty. He still wasn't eating a whole lot but that was pretty normal for just having had a major surgery. Our main concern became the medication we had to give him. We were giving him 3 pain pills and 3 antibiotics twice a day. After a lot of trial and error, a lot of frustration, and trying MANY different things, we realized the only way we could get him to take the pills was to give it to him in roast beef lunchmeat and to not let him see us doing it. He's one smart cookie. Any other way he would sniff the meat and turn his head away at it. He knew those pills were in there and he didn't like taking them. I was so glad when we were done with those.
We took the bandage off that first Sunday after his surgery. We were only supposed to leave it on for a maximum of 5 days or until it slipped down and the staples were exposed. We were starting to see some of the staples, so we knew it was time. Again, we were nervous, but Tucker was a trooper and didn't whine or anything when we took it off. After that we noticed that he was able to move around a lot better and he even began to toe touch.
Each day he has been getting better and better and acting more like his usual self. He's becoming the awnry little guy that we love so dearly and that sometimes drives us crazy. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks and we are really impressed and happy with everything. The main concern of him getting an infection is gone and we took him today to get his staples and sutures taken out. The doctor was really surprised and impressed with how much weight he was putting on it already and told us that we could begin to take him on short walks. He will like this because we've been extremely hard on him when he gets up. He was only getting up to go to the bathroom, eat, and move from room to room. We'll take him back in 4 weeks, on my birthday coincidentally, for one last checkup with this vet and then hopefully he'll be doing even better on his road to recovery.
This mom and dad are sighing one big sigh of relief that a very expensive and what we considered risky surgery has turned out better than we could've imagined. After all the stress and worrying about whether or not we should pay all that money 3 months before the baby arrives, we are glad that we did it.
Here's some pics of our little guy since the surgery.
They had to shave the hair on his leg for the surgery. Here's a pic of the 13 staples and 5 sutures he had.
That night was really awkward. Mind you we have had Tucker since about a month after we moved into our house, which will be 3 years in June. It was so weird not having him around and it did nothing but play mind games with us the whole night making us think and worry about him. What was he doing? Was he in a cage? Was it too small? Was he lonely or crying? Were there other dogs there barking incessantly driving him nuts? Was there anyone there? We definitely missed him WAY more than we anticipated. Kyle said when he got home Zeke was running all around the house and yard looking for Tucker. It was pretty sad.
Kyle called the next morning and to our relief they said he was doing great and we could pick him up at anytime. Kyle was already taking Friday off to stay at home with him, so we waited until he got off to go pick him up. Luckily my kids at school were in specials most of the afternoon and my principal was nice enough to just let me leave without taking any time off as long as someone could take care of my kids for 15 minutes and dismiss them at the end of the day. I was relieved and so excited all day to see Tucker, but I was also very nervous. I had no idea what it would be like once he got home, and I was constantly praying that this surgery would work and we wouldn't have any problems. We paid alot of money to fix our dear Tucker's leg.
He was definitely excited to see us when we got to the vet although I think we were even more excited to see him and know that he was still alive. We had never left him at a vet since we got him. If we left, he had always stayed with a family member. After seeing how he acted that first night we got him home, I'm convinced he was slightly traumatized by the whole experience of being somewhere new, not knowing anyone, and being by himself. He was a very needy and quite the attention seeker that night. I'm not complaining though because I was just as bad. I was glad our boy was okay and home again. He was getting around pretty well, but slowly because they had put a lot of thick bandaging around his leg to protect the incision, staples and sutures. He was obviously not used to this big, bulky thing being on his leg so it was hard for him to adjust to figuring out how to sit and lay down as well as get up. Pretty painful to watch. That night was the worst night he's had since we've had him. He had to go outside about 3 times and was constantly whining for attention and someone to be by him. Needless to say, Kyle was glad he didn't have to work the next day and I was wishing I didn't have to. That next day was a long one, but I was relieved because that was my last day before spring break and being off for a week.
After that first night he kept getting better each day. By Friday he had figured out how to sit/lay down and get up without much difficulty. He still wasn't eating a whole lot but that was pretty normal for just having had a major surgery. Our main concern became the medication we had to give him. We were giving him 3 pain pills and 3 antibiotics twice a day. After a lot of trial and error, a lot of frustration, and trying MANY different things, we realized the only way we could get him to take the pills was to give it to him in roast beef lunchmeat and to not let him see us doing it. He's one smart cookie. Any other way he would sniff the meat and turn his head away at it. He knew those pills were in there and he didn't like taking them. I was so glad when we were done with those.
We took the bandage off that first Sunday after his surgery. We were only supposed to leave it on for a maximum of 5 days or until it slipped down and the staples were exposed. We were starting to see some of the staples, so we knew it was time. Again, we were nervous, but Tucker was a trooper and didn't whine or anything when we took it off. After that we noticed that he was able to move around a lot better and he even began to toe touch.
Each day he has been getting better and better and acting more like his usual self. He's becoming the awnry little guy that we love so dearly and that sometimes drives us crazy. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks and we are really impressed and happy with everything. The main concern of him getting an infection is gone and we took him today to get his staples and sutures taken out. The doctor was really surprised and impressed with how much weight he was putting on it already and told us that we could begin to take him on short walks. He will like this because we've been extremely hard on him when he gets up. He was only getting up to go to the bathroom, eat, and move from room to room. We'll take him back in 4 weeks, on my birthday coincidentally, for one last checkup with this vet and then hopefully he'll be doing even better on his road to recovery.
This mom and dad are sighing one big sigh of relief that a very expensive and what we considered risky surgery has turned out better than we could've imagined. After all the stress and worrying about whether or not we should pay all that money 3 months before the baby arrives, we are glad that we did it.
Here's some pics of our little guy since the surgery.
Poor guy with his "cast"-it was actually a light red but looks pink
They had to shave the hair on his leg for the surgery. Here's a pic of the 13 staples and 5 sutures he had.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Poor Tucker....
Well, since my last post, we haven't really had much exciting happen. About 2 weeks ago when it was really nice outside we took the dogs for a walk. Once we got home we decided to stay outside and play with them for awhile-a decision Kyle and I both regret. We both wish we would've just gone inside and wonder if any of this would have ever happened.
Anyways-it was warm so all of the snow that we had gotten was finally melting. Most of it was gone, but the ground was definitely still saturated and slick. We play a game with the dogs where Kyle or I will take them to one end of the yard and keep them while the other one takes off running around the house-we let the dogs go and they love chasing after us. So Kyle took the dogs and I took off around the house. A couple seconds later I hear their chains clanking together because they have already almost caught up with me (I'm going to blame my slowness on being 5+ months pregnant). All of the sudden I hear Tucker yelping over and over again-I look back and he is just stopped with his back left leg hiked completely up. I knew right away that something was wrong because he will usually only yelp once or twice if he hurts something-this time he did until I turned around and look at him. Even then, he wouldn't even move. It was all he could do to walk inside the house and lay down.
Trying to be optimistic, Kyle and I decided we'd wait a day or two and see how he was doing before we totally freaked out and took him to the vet like crazed, overreactice parents. That night, Tucker didn't really move much so we knew something was up. When the next morning rolled around and he was still almost totally hiking his leg, not putting any weight on it, we knew we had to take him in. So Kyle called and got him in the vet that afternoon. Luckily it was at 3:30, so I left right after school got out and met him there, where we got the worst news for our poor little Tuck-he has torn his ACL. I was an emotional wreck-again I'm blaming this on the pregnancy. Don't get me wrong-I love Tucker to death, but he is moreso Kyle's baby and I was the one who couldn't stop crying for 3 days. Kyle was just so mad. He has always said that Tucker has had something wrong with his back legs.
So they of course suggested surgery because of his weight-132 lbs. Apparently if we don't get it fixed he will more than likely always have a limp, it could re-tear, and it could cause so much pressure and additional weight on his other back leg that it could tear too. So after taking their recommendations we called Purdue and another vet to determine prices. OUTRAGEOUS!! Purdue was going to charge $3500 when it was all said and done. To make an extremely long and frustrating story and time short, through many calls with our vet and other vets we have decided to have the surgery done by a local vet that is a little cheaper, yet still expensive. It's been a very tough decision with the baby being only a couple of months away and I'm thankful we have had the time to really think this through. We tend to be very impulsive people when it comes to decisions like this. Tucker is only 2 1/2 and he has been our kid so far. It's a gamble, but we have talked and both agree we want it done, but that if it happens again we won't be able to pay for another surgery and will have a HUGE decision to make. I definitely don't want our pup suffering by any means.
So his surgery is this Wednesday and I will drop him off before I go to work, he'll stay the night at the vet, and Kyle will pick him up Thursday after he gets off work. He's taken Friday off to stay at home with him and make sure he's doing okay and doesn't have any problems. Fortunately I have the next week off for spring break so I can watch him that whole week. As the surgery gets closer I'm getting very nervous and hope that everything goes okay and our guy can get back to normal. He just hasn't been the same ole Tucker since he's gotten hurt and it's tough to watch.
I'll keep you posted. Please keep your fingers crossed for our sweet Tuck.
Anyways-it was warm so all of the snow that we had gotten was finally melting. Most of it was gone, but the ground was definitely still saturated and slick. We play a game with the dogs where Kyle or I will take them to one end of the yard and keep them while the other one takes off running around the house-we let the dogs go and they love chasing after us. So Kyle took the dogs and I took off around the house. A couple seconds later I hear their chains clanking together because they have already almost caught up with me (I'm going to blame my slowness on being 5+ months pregnant). All of the sudden I hear Tucker yelping over and over again-I look back and he is just stopped with his back left leg hiked completely up. I knew right away that something was wrong because he will usually only yelp once or twice if he hurts something-this time he did until I turned around and look at him. Even then, he wouldn't even move. It was all he could do to walk inside the house and lay down.
Trying to be optimistic, Kyle and I decided we'd wait a day or two and see how he was doing before we totally freaked out and took him to the vet like crazed, overreactice parents. That night, Tucker didn't really move much so we knew something was up. When the next morning rolled around and he was still almost totally hiking his leg, not putting any weight on it, we knew we had to take him in. So Kyle called and got him in the vet that afternoon. Luckily it was at 3:30, so I left right after school got out and met him there, where we got the worst news for our poor little Tuck-he has torn his ACL. I was an emotional wreck-again I'm blaming this on the pregnancy. Don't get me wrong-I love Tucker to death, but he is moreso Kyle's baby and I was the one who couldn't stop crying for 3 days. Kyle was just so mad. He has always said that Tucker has had something wrong with his back legs.
So they of course suggested surgery because of his weight-132 lbs. Apparently if we don't get it fixed he will more than likely always have a limp, it could re-tear, and it could cause so much pressure and additional weight on his other back leg that it could tear too. So after taking their recommendations we called Purdue and another vet to determine prices. OUTRAGEOUS!! Purdue was going to charge $3500 when it was all said and done. To make an extremely long and frustrating story and time short, through many calls with our vet and other vets we have decided to have the surgery done by a local vet that is a little cheaper, yet still expensive. It's been a very tough decision with the baby being only a couple of months away and I'm thankful we have had the time to really think this through. We tend to be very impulsive people when it comes to decisions like this. Tucker is only 2 1/2 and he has been our kid so far. It's a gamble, but we have talked and both agree we want it done, but that if it happens again we won't be able to pay for another surgery and will have a HUGE decision to make. I definitely don't want our pup suffering by any means.
So his surgery is this Wednesday and I will drop him off before I go to work, he'll stay the night at the vet, and Kyle will pick him up Thursday after he gets off work. He's taken Friday off to stay at home with him and make sure he's doing okay and doesn't have any problems. Fortunately I have the next week off for spring break so I can watch him that whole week. As the surgery gets closer I'm getting very nervous and hope that everything goes okay and our guy can get back to normal. He just hasn't been the same ole Tucker since he's gotten hurt and it's tough to watch.
I'll keep you posted. Please keep your fingers crossed for our sweet Tuck.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Yeah-We're THOSE Parents
So since my last post we have officially finished getting all the really "big" things (in my eyes) done for our little miss's arrival in June. Shortly after my last post we got the baby bedding in and I was relieved because it looked as good in person as it did online. Kyle had been telling me to go and just buy a crib mattress while we were waiting on the bedding to get here so that when it finally did I could put it all together to see what it looked like. I insisted that we wouldn't need it right away and that we would just wait and register for it. Clearly my husband knows me way too well because the bedding came, and there we were that night driving around town looking at the very poor selection of crib mattresses available. I was determined to get one and we finally did. We came home and put it all together and it looks great! I will post pictures soon. I was even happier because Kyle liked it also-not too much pink for him.
This past weekend I went to Edinburgh shopping with my friends from Hershey and Kyle stayed at home-painting! We decided since the bedding and furniture are overall pretty dark that we didn't want anything extravagant and dark on the walls. We went with a really pale pink and an ivory color. Again-I was nervous because Kyle's initial thoughts were that there would be NO pink painted on the walls. I worked him into settling for a pale pink and he was happy we did. We were somewhat restricted in what we could do because of the different heights of our ceilings upstairs, so we went simple. I figure I can jazz it up a little bit with other decorations within the room. Again, I will post pictures here soon.
Needless to say I feel like we're way ahead of the game, but I really can't say that I expected any different. We are both the type of people that when there is something to be done and we are excited about it and/or want it done-we get it done ASAP! I told him I wanted the majority of stuff done before I got huge and uncomfortable. Being lazy and out of school while I'm 8-9 months pregnant sounds ideal.
Now it's on to the task of looking into classes to sign up for and registering. Again, I know it's probably early for both, but I know the dates of classes are not "regular" and will be here before we know it. There are a couple I am interested in taking, but I don't want to do too many to get too much information or have it be a waste of time. I know I'll be lucky if I can talk Kyle into going to more than one so I better chose wisely. As for registering, it's just one more thing I would like to have checked off my list before I am big, uncomfortable, and the last thing I want to do is walk around a store for hours looking at everything.
And apparently even though my own personal shopping time has decreased due to my increasing size and inability to fit into normal clothes anymore, that doesn't mean I haven't steered towards buying "her" anything. The kid is spoiled already and I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into. The girls clothing is just too cute and she is quickly creeping on having just as many clothes as her mom. I just can't seem to help myself when I see a cute outfit. I've been trying to buy in a variety of sizes because I know it all goes by so fast anyways. However, now I am forcing myself NOT to buy her anymore clothes because I'm sure that will be a popular gift whenever I have my shower.
Stay tuned for the big announcement of her name...
This past weekend I went to Edinburgh shopping with my friends from Hershey and Kyle stayed at home-painting! We decided since the bedding and furniture are overall pretty dark that we didn't want anything extravagant and dark on the walls. We went with a really pale pink and an ivory color. Again-I was nervous because Kyle's initial thoughts were that there would be NO pink painted on the walls. I worked him into settling for a pale pink and he was happy we did. We were somewhat restricted in what we could do because of the different heights of our ceilings upstairs, so we went simple. I figure I can jazz it up a little bit with other decorations within the room. Again, I will post pictures here soon.
Needless to say I feel like we're way ahead of the game, but I really can't say that I expected any different. We are both the type of people that when there is something to be done and we are excited about it and/or want it done-we get it done ASAP! I told him I wanted the majority of stuff done before I got huge and uncomfortable. Being lazy and out of school while I'm 8-9 months pregnant sounds ideal.
Now it's on to the task of looking into classes to sign up for and registering. Again, I know it's probably early for both, but I know the dates of classes are not "regular" and will be here before we know it. There are a couple I am interested in taking, but I don't want to do too many to get too much information or have it be a waste of time. I know I'll be lucky if I can talk Kyle into going to more than one so I better chose wisely. As for registering, it's just one more thing I would like to have checked off my list before I am big, uncomfortable, and the last thing I want to do is walk around a store for hours looking at everything.
And apparently even though my own personal shopping time has decreased due to my increasing size and inability to fit into normal clothes anymore, that doesn't mean I haven't steered towards buying "her" anything. The kid is spoiled already and I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into. The girls clothing is just too cute and she is quickly creeping on having just as many clothes as her mom. I just can't seem to help myself when I see a cute outfit. I've been trying to buy in a variety of sizes because I know it all goes by so fast anyways. However, now I am forcing myself NOT to buy her anymore clothes because I'm sure that will be a popular gift whenever I have my shower.
Stay tuned for the big announcement of her name...
Friday, February 4, 2011
Halfway there already?!
Well I'm officially 20 weeks-halfway through the pregnancy-and I can't believe how fast the time has gone so far. There have definitely been times when I have felt like time is dragging, but when I think back to when we found out on Oct. 13th that I was pregnant, time really has gone by fast. The good news is that I've been feeling great. People kept telling me that once I hit the second trimester things should go back to normal and they were right. I'm no longer gagging over everything and am not tired all the time. I think I'm most thankful for the less frequent trips to the bathroom recently. I felt like I was always in there that first trimester. I'm sure that will come back as she gets bigger. When we went to the doctor for our ultrasound her head was on my bladder-apparently it's comfortable. I've finally started to gain some weight (about 5 pounds) and my belly has officially POPPED! It seems like within the last 2 weeks you can definitely tell I'm pregnant. The girls at work are telling me it's about time. She is also kicking more and more. What I once use to feel only once or twice every couple days has turned in to quite a few times everyday. It's still nothing Kyle can really feel, but I think hopefully sometime soon he'll be able to feel her. It's truly such an amazing feeling! As I feel her in there right now!!
Kyle is finally coming to terms with having a girl. He's even gone with me to pick out a couple of outfits for her. This is when I truly realized how much trouble I was in-the girls stuff is just too cute. I'm going to have to keep myself in check. We've even picked out her crib bedding. This was honestly much harder than I thought it would be. I'm kind of thankful we aren't having a boy because I know those options are so much more limited and I really would have had trouble deciding. I wanted something classy and elegant-NOT with flowers and butterflies, which seemed to be just about everything. When I did find something that I liked, it was either $500+ or Kyle didn't like it. We finally decided on some custom bedding off of EBay and are currently waiting to get it. I'm so anxious to get it and see if it looks as good in person as it does online. If not-I am dreading the searching process again.
The weekend after we found out we got new carpet upstairs. It's been something that we knew we would want to replace eventually, but now that we're having a baby I told Kyle I would rather start out with some fresh, new carpet that we know what's been on it. There's a guy that he works with at the city that lays carpet on the side, so he got us a good discount on a really good carpet and installed it for much cheaper than the average carpet store. I am so happy with what we chose and it definitely made the house look 10 times better. I had told him before that I wanted to get carpet in the living room also. We currently have hardwood, which looks nice, but with two large dogs that shed the hair collects so much. I also would feel more comfortable laying the baby on a carpeted floor than a hardwood floor. He wasn't so sure about thise at first. After we had all the new carpet installed he informed me that we are getting carpet in the living room once winter is over. I guess I couldn't have asked for that to work out better. Maybe I can convince him to carpet our bedroom too.
So naturally I have been working my tail off to get everything organized upstairs again. We had to move our massive computer desk to lay the carpet and decided to put it in the smaller of the two bedrooms upstairs, making the nursery the bigger bedroom. I'm glad we did. It makes it look more office-like now. The only piece of nursery furniture that we had to put together was the crib. We of course did that as soon as the carpet was laid. So now all of the nursery furniture is set up and in the room. We're just waiting on the bedding to make sure that we like it so that we can paint and begin decorating. I'll have to take pictures of what things look like right now post new carpet and pre nursery decorating.
I'm trying to talk him into driving down to Indy tomorrow and look at Babies R Us-maybe register. I know it's early, but might as well. It's winter and I'm tired of sitting in the house doing nothing-especially after having 2 snow days and 2 2-hr delays this week. I'm so ready for spring. I want warmth and sunshine back. This winter weather is definitely not helping me with my desperate want for a vacation to the beach. Hopefully we only have this month and nice weather will be on it's way in March. One can only hope.
Hope everyone survived the winter storm!
Kyle is finally coming to terms with having a girl. He's even gone with me to pick out a couple of outfits for her. This is when I truly realized how much trouble I was in-the girls stuff is just too cute. I'm going to have to keep myself in check. We've even picked out her crib bedding. This was honestly much harder than I thought it would be. I'm kind of thankful we aren't having a boy because I know those options are so much more limited and I really would have had trouble deciding. I wanted something classy and elegant-NOT with flowers and butterflies, which seemed to be just about everything. When I did find something that I liked, it was either $500+ or Kyle didn't like it. We finally decided on some custom bedding off of EBay and are currently waiting to get it. I'm so anxious to get it and see if it looks as good in person as it does online. If not-I am dreading the searching process again.
The weekend after we found out we got new carpet upstairs. It's been something that we knew we would want to replace eventually, but now that we're having a baby I told Kyle I would rather start out with some fresh, new carpet that we know what's been on it. There's a guy that he works with at the city that lays carpet on the side, so he got us a good discount on a really good carpet and installed it for much cheaper than the average carpet store. I am so happy with what we chose and it definitely made the house look 10 times better. I had told him before that I wanted to get carpet in the living room also. We currently have hardwood, which looks nice, but with two large dogs that shed the hair collects so much. I also would feel more comfortable laying the baby on a carpeted floor than a hardwood floor. He wasn't so sure about thise at first. After we had all the new carpet installed he informed me that we are getting carpet in the living room once winter is over. I guess I couldn't have asked for that to work out better. Maybe I can convince him to carpet our bedroom too.
So naturally I have been working my tail off to get everything organized upstairs again. We had to move our massive computer desk to lay the carpet and decided to put it in the smaller of the two bedrooms upstairs, making the nursery the bigger bedroom. I'm glad we did. It makes it look more office-like now. The only piece of nursery furniture that we had to put together was the crib. We of course did that as soon as the carpet was laid. So now all of the nursery furniture is set up and in the room. We're just waiting on the bedding to make sure that we like it so that we can paint and begin decorating. I'll have to take pictures of what things look like right now post new carpet and pre nursery decorating.
I'm trying to talk him into driving down to Indy tomorrow and look at Babies R Us-maybe register. I know it's early, but might as well. It's winter and I'm tired of sitting in the house doing nothing-especially after having 2 snow days and 2 2-hr delays this week. I'm so ready for spring. I want warmth and sunshine back. This winter weather is definitely not helping me with my desperate want for a vacation to the beach. Hopefully we only have this month and nice weather will be on it's way in March. One can only hope.
Hope everyone survived the winter storm!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Our precious baby girl
Well we found out that our little one is not shy at all. We went in for our ultrasound today and the legs were spread wide open for us to see that we are having a precious little girl! There was definitely no room for error. I have to laugh because I was talking to one of the girls at work today about the sex. She told me-"if it looks like a turtle it's a boy, and if it looks like 2 or 3 white lines it's a girl". I told Kyle about it on our way there, so when the ultrasound tech was done looking at all the organs she proceeded on to ask us if we saw the 3 lines that she was pointing at. It was at this point that Kyle remembered the story I had told him on the way there, where his hopes of having a little boy to play with our nephew Landon and other little friend Phillip were eliminated. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically because everyone we know has been giving him a hard time saying how it's going to be a girl-esp. my parents who called it right when I told them I was pregnant (moreso to get under his skin and give him a hard time because they knew he wanted a boy so badly). Even though his hopes of having a boy are gone now, he's still excited and even more nervous now of what's to come. I don't think he realizes how that little girl will have him wrapped around his finger before he even knows it.
It is such a relief to finally know that it's a girl. We have been debating since we first found out that we were expecting. There are so many different things that you can look at and consider-the chinese calendar, heart rate of the baby, if the mother is carrying high or low (I still don't really know what I am classified as), morning sickness, cravings of salty or sweet foods, etc. According to the Chinese calendar which is apparently 90% correct, we were supposed to have a boy. Mind you this calendar was right for ALL of our friends. My pessimist husband said of course we would be the 10% that it is wrong on. haha. The heart rate was what was conflicting-we had heard both sides-the higher heart rate=boy, lower=girl, and vice versa. Our nephew Landon was around the 150s the whole time and ours was 152 when we went in December. I haven't craved sweets at all and more salty foods which are apparently typical of women pregnant with boys (again going against the "trend"). As you can tell it's quite easy to over-analyze and debate the sex of a baby based on all these crazy things. I'm glad it's over to say the least.
Our appointment went good. I guess I didn't realize everything that they would check and go through with us. They went through all of the major organs, pointing them out, taking pictures and telling us that everything looked great (a huge relief). Kyle was somewhat anxious to ask our doctor about my weight because I hadn't gained a pound and was 18 weeks. He said as long as I'm eating and not throwing what I'm eating then I'm totally fine. That was a relief because even I was wondering. I've been eating like a horse so it's hard to believe that I haven't gained anything.
Now we're on to the fun decisions of thinking of names and choosing baby bedding, designing the nursery, etc. I'm sure I'm really in trouble now.
It is such a relief to finally know that it's a girl. We have been debating since we first found out that we were expecting. There are so many different things that you can look at and consider-the chinese calendar, heart rate of the baby, if the mother is carrying high or low (I still don't really know what I am classified as), morning sickness, cravings of salty or sweet foods, etc. According to the Chinese calendar which is apparently 90% correct, we were supposed to have a boy. Mind you this calendar was right for ALL of our friends. My pessimist husband said of course we would be the 10% that it is wrong on. haha. The heart rate was what was conflicting-we had heard both sides-the higher heart rate=boy, lower=girl, and vice versa. Our nephew Landon was around the 150s the whole time and ours was 152 when we went in December. I haven't craved sweets at all and more salty foods which are apparently typical of women pregnant with boys (again going against the "trend"). As you can tell it's quite easy to over-analyze and debate the sex of a baby based on all these crazy things. I'm glad it's over to say the least.
Our appointment went good. I guess I didn't realize everything that they would check and go through with us. They went through all of the major organs, pointing them out, taking pictures and telling us that everything looked great (a huge relief). Kyle was somewhat anxious to ask our doctor about my weight because I hadn't gained a pound and was 18 weeks. He said as long as I'm eating and not throwing what I'm eating then I'm totally fine. That was a relief because even I was wondering. I've been eating like a horse so it's hard to believe that I haven't gained anything.
Now we're on to the fun decisions of thinking of names and choosing baby bedding, designing the nursery, etc. I'm sure I'm really in trouble now.
It's Moving!
So I thought I felt the baby move on December 21st-our last day of school before break-but I wasn't sure and definitely thought it might be a little early since I was only 14 weeks. The kids were just starting to arrive at school and I was shoving my face with a quick snack (an oatmeal creme pie) when I got this fluttering feeling on the right side of my belly. I freaked out and called my mom to ask her if it was possible. She told me it might be too early, but that would definitely be what it felt like if it was. That was the only time I felt it that day. I hadn't felt the feeling again until last Wednesday morning when I went to McDonald's (bad-I know) for breakfast before work. Apparently the baby LOVED it because it was going crazy the whole way to work as I was eating. It was so exciting to feel it move and so much. I think Kyle was a little jealous when I called him freaking out. But a couple nights later we were sitting on the couch watching TV and he was able to feel it a little bit. He thought it just felt like my stomach was growling (haha).
We go today to find out if it's a boy or a girl!! And let me tell you-we are ready. Kyle definitely more than me, but we are ready to know so we can start planning. We're tired of the upstairs being a mess and nursery furniture everywhere. I'm more excited to get new carpet and get rid of the nasty stuff that's in there now. Kyle's just ready to know if it's a boy or not so that they can play with Landon and Phillip and grow up with them like all of our boys did. We will see. I really don't care either way as long as the baby is healthy. I think I'm secretly gunning for a girl though. Only time will tell. I'll post later to let everyone know.
Happy New Year everyone! I know I'm about 18 days late, but better late than never. I have no complaints about the new year so far-things are definitely going good. We spent New Year's Eve with our close friends-Brandon, Tonia, Jessica and Phil. We went to Bluefin for an outrageously expensive but fun dinner and then hung out at Brothers all night. It was definitely a different experience going out to a bar and not drinking (due to being pregnant of course), although everybody else loved knowing they had a 100% sober designated driver. Everyone else had a good time and that's all that matters. We stayed out until about 1:30 and then hung out at Brandon and Tonia's for a little bit. I think we rolled into bed around 2:45. Extremely late for me these days since my average bedtime is now between 8:15 and 8:30.
Life has been pretty boring lately. It's winter and nothing really exciting to do. I had 2 weeks off for winter break which was definitely much needed. Both the kids and I desperately needed a break from each other. However, they forgot all the rules and routines once we returned to school. So the first couple of weeks back have been rough. I can't believe half the year is over already, but am looking forward to the end of the year so I don't have to deal with one specific student in my class anymore.
Hope everyone else is doing good.
We go today to find out if it's a boy or a girl!! And let me tell you-we are ready. Kyle definitely more than me, but we are ready to know so we can start planning. We're tired of the upstairs being a mess and nursery furniture everywhere. I'm more excited to get new carpet and get rid of the nasty stuff that's in there now. Kyle's just ready to know if it's a boy or not so that they can play with Landon and Phillip and grow up with them like all of our boys did. We will see. I really don't care either way as long as the baby is healthy. I think I'm secretly gunning for a girl though. Only time will tell. I'll post later to let everyone know.
Happy New Year everyone! I know I'm about 18 days late, but better late than never. I have no complaints about the new year so far-things are definitely going good. We spent New Year's Eve with our close friends-Brandon, Tonia, Jessica and Phil. We went to Bluefin for an outrageously expensive but fun dinner and then hung out at Brothers all night. It was definitely a different experience going out to a bar and not drinking (due to being pregnant of course), although everybody else loved knowing they had a 100% sober designated driver. Everyone else had a good time and that's all that matters. We stayed out until about 1:30 and then hung out at Brandon and Tonia's for a little bit. I think we rolled into bed around 2:45. Extremely late for me these days since my average bedtime is now between 8:15 and 8:30.
Life has been pretty boring lately. It's winter and nothing really exciting to do. I had 2 weeks off for winter break which was definitely much needed. Both the kids and I desperately needed a break from each other. However, they forgot all the rules and routines once we returned to school. So the first couple of weeks back have been rough. I can't believe half the year is over already, but am looking forward to the end of the year so I don't have to deal with one specific student in my class anymore.
Hope everyone else is doing good.
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