38 Weeks and 3 Days

Sorry the pics aren't the best - they were taken with my phone in low lighting!

Me, Emmet and Jason

Emmet's silly face and me!

Ryan and I!

My flowers and our name tags!

Wedding colors were coral and grey! Erik even had a coral suit! :)

The beautiful bride!

What a whirl-wind of a weekend! I don't think I stopped moving at all! It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend for a wedding and I felt so special to be part of Lauren and Erik's special day! Not only was it beautiful weather, Lauren was a beautiful bride! It was fun to see so many people I also haven't seen in a loooong time! Lauren and Erik had mixed gender sides that stood up in the wedding so it was fun to be next to old high school guys friends! My old friend Jason and I went to high school together. He now lives in Boston as a Four Seasons hotel manager. I think he is the only person I know who knew before college what he wanted to go to school for, graduated and has been working and LIKING his job! You just don't see many people who work in their field they went to school for or knew for so long what they wanted to do. I haven't seen Jason since my freshman year of college - 9 years ago! It was GREAT catching up! :)

Another old high school friend I got to catch up with was Emmet. He comes from a wonderful Irish family (both parents are from Limerick!) and was a very close friend of mine during HS. He went to Marquette though so we didn't go to the same school. You might think so since we went to a couple school dances together and Lauren and I even spent our Shorewood High Senior Skip day hanging out with Emmet! I can't remember if he was just off or skipped his school that day! haha! Emmet and I were able to dance the night away at Lauren's wedding just like the old days and I had so much fun being wild and crazy with him!

A huge highlight of the night was the gift from Lauren's dad and stepmom - Fireworks! A full 20 minute BIG display including an awesome grand finale! It was so cool to step outside on a beautiful clear night and watch them! A definite memorable experience!

Well as far as the baby news - there's no news! Boo! I am getting quite uncomfortable and cannot wait to have this baby. I hate to sound negative but I'm sore all through my hips (feels like I pulled every muscle!) and have a hard time doing everything from walking to rolling over and getting out of bed at night! I know it's common in the last few weeks but wow! Me and my fat ankles are definitely counting down the days! ;)

37 Weeks and 5 Days

Well what the hell is with this weather?? I was pretty excited to be having a summer baby, got all these cute summer clothes, took the last few weeks off before baby to be able to go for walks and get out of the house and it's cold!! And rainy!!! We had the one beautiful weekend the first weekend in June (which I promptly learned that pregnant women are more sensitive to sun and quickly fried my skin!) and I was hoping to get outside and tan these pasty legs for Lauren's wedding this weekend! So instead...I bought some spray tan! HAHA Just for the legs though - don't need to look orange or streaky in the arms or face! On the plus side the weekend should be beautiful for Lauren's wedding - mostly sunny and 70!

Ryan came with me to my doctor appointment this last Monday. Baby girl decided to sleep though most of the non-stress test so that took awhile but after the doctor checked me for the first time. Annnnd....nothing going on downstairs! He's still hoping that I can get things going naturally in the next week or two to try to avoid the induction. I've read and heard all the silly things that "can" help start labor and I'm pretty willing to try most except maybe suck down the castor oil...don't need to be feeling sick too! Blah! I go back tomorrow but just for the non-stress test which is good since I was pretty uncomfortable after my check. Lots of Braxton Hicks contractions and slow to move. The girls I babysat for on Monday night asked me why I was walking like that - I just said my back hurt haha! I've got to strap on some dancing shoes this weekend so I'm glad they are slowing down! :) I'll just dance her out!

BIG plus of the week - Dan, Mary, Bella and Elliot come home tomorrow!!!!! CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!! :)

37 Weeks and 1 Day

37 weeks

Yea me for keeping up with this! Blog number 2! So I have my doctor appointments twice a week - Mondays and Thursdays and this last Thursday appointment took for-ev-er! Had another non-stress test like usual but of course baby wasn't too into it. So it took close to an hour to get enough movement from the baby to "look good" on the chart.

Another perk of seeing the baby doctor is that I get to pee in a cup every time I go. Ok not much of a perk but I do appreciate they keep up on my health every time I go there! This time i had a small amount of protein in my urine (personal enough for ya??) and with the swelling in my hands, my slightly elevated blood pressure and my raging headaches (oh the joys of pregnancy) I had to have my blood drawn to check my platelets and see how my liver and kidneys are functioning because all of these things are symptoms of preeclampsia. I swear if it's not one thing it's another! Thank goodness they say every pregnancy is different! I sure hope any later pregnancies I have are! It gets pretty frustrating when I seem to always have something come up when I go to the doctor. Again though, so glad I have a great doctor who is on top of everything! Well my lab results came back and they were all normal. So good news for now. Just keeping a close eye on my blood pressure, headaches and swelling of my sausage fingers!

Ok, besides that stuff - I'm excited for this week! LOTS going on! Father's Day is tomorrow and very excited to say thanks and we love our Dads and Step dads! PLUS it's kind of Ryan's first Father's Day too. He surprised me with a really nice card on Mothers Day and I know he's excited to be a Dad soon too! I also get to see my brother Dan and his wife Mary and my niece and nephew Bella and Elliot this Thursday! Soooo excited for them to come into town! It'll be a quick trip but so good to catch up with them all! I miss them so much and can't believe how big the kids are already! The third fun thing this week is my friend Lauren's wedding! I've got bridesmaid duties this weekend and can't wait! It'll be a beautiful wedding weekend with tons of fun people! What a fun week! I'm sure it'll go by fast with being so busy which is nice too since it'll get me closer to this due date without time taking so long! :)

I'm sure I'll have lots of great pictures to share with you all!

36 Weeks and 4 Days

9 weeks

26 weeks

32 weeks

Day 1 of my Blog. I could spend this entire blog post telling you about my very in depth and detailed pregnancy but I will save you the next 4 hours. Instead I will try to sum it up into a few shorter paragraphs and then try to keep you up to date on things here on out!

The last year and a half has been an emotional up and down for Ryan and I. We went through two miscarriages which have left us stronger and more excited for this pregnancy and little girl to finally get here! I found out I was pregnant right before Halloween 2010 which left me having a very sober "Liquor Treat" at our friend Terri's house! After the miscarriages we decided to not tell anyone (not even our parents) until we hit 12 weeks and had a good sign we were through most of the danger zone so I pretended to have cocktails all night!

The first 12 weeks were...ummm... OK they were anything but a walk in the park! I was sick all day which also made it very difficult to not tell anyone! I rarely saw my meals come back up though because I was so nauseous ALL day I was hardly eating. I had this crazy gag reflex where foul smells and anything touching my neck made me gag. I had to skip my cute winter scarves and anytime I buckled my seat belt or zipped my coat too high made me gag. There were many mornings in the car where all I could do was laugh at myself because I didn't get sick just gagged all the time. It was pretty funny looking back on it. For food the only thing for weeks on end that even sounded good or went down well was a McDonald'd strawberry banana smoothie and gummy worms. Anything kinda sweet and cold seemed to be ok in my book. I lost 11 pounds by the time we told everyone I was pregnant.

Right at Christmas was 12 weeks and we thought it would be a great time to tell everyone. We first told my Dad and step-mom, Becky. My step-sister Kari and I played a trick on them as we exchanged gifts. Kari had Dad and Becky sit on the couch together and gave them a card. The card said something along the lines of "excited for family and what this year brings...yaddah yaddah" and I wrote after it "and can't wait for you to meet your new grandchild next July". Apparently Dad and Becky skipped the part at the bottom where it said "from Ryan and Katie" because they looked right at Kari and Chad and had to pick their chins off the floor. (Let's just say someone in their family have been fixed! haha) We all died laughing as we told them to read on and they figured it out quick. Too funny and very happy and excited time!

Wow, this isn't short at all. Sorry people! Read on!

That night Ryan and I went to my Mom's for the night. We brought a bottle of "champagne" and covered it with a cute Christmas bottle sweater. My mom took it off and was like, "sparkling grape juice?" but quickly realized why. She had been one I was trying to keep in the dark during the past 12 weeks so I would tell her about nights out drinking or having some wine. Sneaky sneaky? Not so sure - she's one smart cookie and I know she and my sister in law Mary questioned my going out! ;)

The next day was Christmas day and that's when we told Ryan's family. We gave a card similar to my Dad to Ryan's parents and they definitely had an audience as they read it. It was pretty cute as Ryan's mom, Mary, asked if they can share the news and we said of course! Everyone was very excited for us and it was neat to tell Ryan's Nana Bev about the pregnancy as she was JUST telling us how happy she was to have a great-grandchild, Aubrie who she just met the other day. So then with all the parents told, we were on our way to tell the world - facebook. Yes, on Christmas, we made it facebook official!

The next part of the pregnancy was not as sick as the first but I did get a 6 week sinus infection which sucked just as much. As my appetite came back, I was unable to taste food for almost a month! And what I did get down came back to haunt me with some serious heartburn! Doc told me to skip the Tums and go right to the good stuff - Pepcid. Miracle pills! :) Heartburn was starting to get under control, my gag reflex was starting to go away finally and then... gestational diabetes (GD) hit! 28 weeks along and another road bump.

So I won't bore you with details of my GD but I failed my tests pretty good. I was quickly ordered to change my diet and I stuck to it perfectly in order to try to stay off insulin. I even lost 3 pounds my first week being on it. My pre-GD diet had been pretty good where I was having lots of fruit and healthy foods and had only gained back 12 pounds. GD is different because your blood sugar is based on how much hormones are being put out by your placenta that day and even a healthy diet may not keep it away. So...the same meal one day may give you an ok blood sugar level and the next day put you through the roof. Verrrrry frustrating. In the end, I was put on insulin shots twice a day. I cried like a baby before I had to do my first one but it's gotten easier.

So now we come to today - 36 weeks and 4 days. I see the doctor twice a week for my GD and do a non-stress test each visit. I get hooked up to the fetal heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor and I stay there until the baby moves for a good 20 minutes. I have learned to make sure I eat before I go otherwise baby likes to sleep and I end up there for 2 hours. My doctor is Dr. Fred Westreich and he is at the Mequon Columbia St. Marys. I have really liked him and the fact he has stayed so positive through this pregnancy. He is cool, calm and collected and has a funny sense of humor which goes well with Ryan and my personalities. My plan is to deliver at the Columbia Center which is right there and is a really beautiful birthing center. It is so family and mother-orientated and I knew it's where I want to be. With the GD he won't let me go past my due date which is nice especially since this baby is measuring ahead already...yikes big baby!

My plan with this blog is to update about once a week. I am new to this but apparently can write a novel (sorry this one is sooooo long!) so I am excited to share our journey! I look forward to hearing how you like it and will update again soon! Please feel free to share the site with family and friends! :)

Katie and Ryan