Jul 31, 2013

Letters to Baby K - Week 15


I can't believe I'm already 15 weeks pregnant! It seems like the weeks are starting to go by faster now and I'm definitely okay with that. The further I can get away from my first trimester the better! See ya later nausea! Praying it stays far far away, but with every symptom that disappears a new one appears. During week 14 headaches really picked up. I'm not sure what is causing them, but I'm guessing it is due to hormone changes or my increased blood volume/circulation. I'm also crying a lot more, but only at sad things or really happy touching things, not random weird things like a  cereal commercial or something, haha! I think the lowest point for week 14 was hearing the news of Kidd Kraddick passing away. It makes me tear up just think about it now! He was such a wonderful, funny, and generous man. I actually had the pleasure of meeting him once and I'm glad I got the opportunity before he passed. My husband must think I'm crazy. We were driving to work and listening to them talk about memories of him on the radio and I just start bawling. Justin knew why because all morning I just kept saying, "I can't believe he's gone!". I know that it's mostly the hormones, but I feel like I lost a part of my life since I listened to his show every morning. I know, I'm silly! Anyone else cry over silly things? I'd love to hear your stories!

I've also started feeling the so called flutters...I think? haha! They feel like bubbles or like a fish swimming. I know it is super duper early for someone who is a first time mommy to feel movements, but I can't help but think I'm feeling the early movements. I sure am ready for real/stronger movements and to be able to share that with my husband.

Other than that, week 14 was pretty calm. Baby K is now around 4 inches, about the size of an apple and weights around 2 oz. Each week I read baby updates to Justin, who always replies, "Whoa!! It's getting so big!!" haha! Dear God I hope I don't have a baby as big as my husband was!

If anyone has any questions or stories I would love to  answer/hear them! I respond to all questions here on the blog or through e-mail if you have your personal e-mail attached to the account you leave your comment with. See you next week for week 16!

Previous Weeks:
Week 14
Week 13
Week 12


Jul 25, 2013

Letters to Baby K - Week 14


Well, I made it through the first week of my second trimester...phew! My first trimester definitely wasn't a joy ride, but I'm sure it could have been worse. I survived solely on Zofran for a few weeks because none of the nausea tips were working. Eating crackers, drinking ginger ale, phi bands, ginger...none of it really worked as well at the Zofran. The nausea has definitely started to disappear and my energy is returning, somewhat. Hopefully week 14 is the magic week!

So, last week we did our 1st trimester screening which went really well. I had no idea until the actual sonogram that they look at the baby's nasal bone as an indication for whether or not the baby could possibly have Downs Syndrome. I guess I never really realized that children with Downs lack the nasal bone structure that children without Downs have, but it does make sense now that I know! Baby K's nasal bone was present and prominent, so no worries there, and the measurements of the neck looks great! We're still waiting on the results from the blood tests, but I'm not too worried.

This past weekend I actually felt amazing when I woke up Saturday so the Hubby and I went to breakfast at one of our favorite spots in downtown McKinney. I went nuts and order a Belgian waffle with chocolate chips, along with scrambled eggs and bacon, yum!! After we went shopping at some of our favorite antique shops looking for the perfect dresser/changing table. We hit the jackpot and found a beautiful Robin's Egg Blue/Teal solid wood antique 12 drawer French dresser! It was a little out of my price range, but the Hubby encouraged me to buy it since it was exactly what I had been looking for. He's a keeper!! ;) I will definitely post pictures of the nursery when we're all done! We were even able to clean out my ENTIRE craft room which we are turning into the nursery. It was no easy feat, trust me! Do you know how much crafting supplies I have?? A LOT! Luckily, the man cave closet is big enough to share with my Hubby and all of his hunting and computer stuff. I know what you're thinking, you gave up your craft room!? GASP! Seriously, I don't mind in the slightest! I knew it would one day be turned into a nursery and in all honestly I never really even crafted in there! I mostly used it for the storage for my craft and supplies and did my crafting all over the house, haha!

And in other baby progress news, Baby K is now the size of a Nectarine!...mmmm fruit, haha! Baby K is about 3.5 to 4 in from crown to rump and weighs about one ounce. So many other cool things are happening this week too like nails growing, baby practicing breathing, and even sucking it's thumb! My tummy is definitely growing and I can even tell that my belly button is becoming more shallow, freaky! I am up 4 pounds...but I think most of it is bloating lol. I hope to only gain about 20 to 25 lbs since I am so small, I don't think I need to gain much more than that.

I am most looking forward to our baby gender reveal shower in 14 days, hosted by my friend, Mandy, and really excited to see how she reveals it! She has given me no clues so that literally everything is a complete surprise!

See you next week for the start of week 15!!

Previous Weeks:
Week 13
Week 12



Jul 18, 2013

Letters to Baby K - Week 13


We have officially entered the 2nd trimester, whoo hoo!! I am slowly, but surely, feeling less and less nauseous. Thank goodness! My sister was blessed with hardly, if any, nausea/morning sickness. My mother on the other hand had it for 3 months with my sister and 5 months with me! I pray I don't follow in her footsteps in that aspect. Fortunately I can feel it getting better and I am so grateful for that! Other than the sporadic bouts with nausea, sore ta-tas lol and a tiny pimple breakout I've been pretty symptom free. Well I take that back...middle of the night potty breaks run rampant and of course my belly is really expanding! Surprising, I've only gained about 3 lbs which is amazing with how much my tummy has grown. I guess if you are a small person with a small frame you might show earlier than most? Either way it doesn't bother me, I love having a bump! I think prego women are just the cutest! Especially when they're in their 2nd trimester and their bumps really start filling out! However, pants have become the enemy. Not that they don't button/fit because they do. They just feel tight and uncomfortable when I sit, which is all day at my desk. I think it's time to A. buy a belly band, B. borrow some maternity pants from my sister, C. invest in more maxi dresses, or D. all the above....I'm going with D.

Today, Justin and I visit the Dr. for the 1st trimester screening to test for downs and any other possible chromosomal abnormality. I'm sure everything will be just fine, but I can't help but be a little nervous. Justin is as cool at a cucumber, he's not a worrier like me. I'm keeping my mind off of it and just looking forward to seeing little Baby K wiggle all over that ultrasound monitor! It is such an amazing feeling to see something that is a part of you coming to life and growing right in front of your eyes! I well up with pride and love every time I see that little one on the big screen. I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl and finally feel some movements!! Okay, I think that's enough updates for now. I hope to see you back next week for the week 14 post!

Previous Weeks:
Week 12


Jul 11, 2013

Letters to Baby K - Week 12

I have so many friends who are pregnant right now, none of which are bloggers, but I do have several other bloggy friends who have been documenting their pregnancy through blog posts and pictures, which I love! Such a great idea to document this amazing time in our lives so that we can look back and share it with our kids and family someday! I knew that I HAD to do this after seeing this very popular pin that I pinned onto my Little Child of Mine Pinterest board almost a year ago! I also found inspiration in these Pinterest pins, herehere, and here, too! You ladies did a fantastic job! I have no idea who started this trend of pregnancy documentation, but I do know, whoever she is, she is a genius, and women will be doing this for many years to come!!

I really liked all of the cute chalkboards, but I wanted to do something different, something personal and something that I could compile into a book for Baby K for when he or she was older. For my blog posts I'll be starting a new series called "Letters to Baby K". I'll be sharing new posts each week with a letter to Baby and a new bump photo! It might not be everyone's cup of tea sharing personal letters, but my blog is special to me, which makes this new series even more special to me! I can't wait to one day share these letters and photos with our baby and show them just how special they are, how loved they are and how they have fit like a perfect little missing puzzle piece from the very start. I'm having so much fun with this new series! I really hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them! So, lets get started with week 12!


What a fantastic week! I finally was able to share the big news with all of my family and friends through Facebook and I was able to tell my new co-workers! Everyone has been so wonderfully supportive and happy for Justin and I and that just makes my heart happy. Do you know how hard it has been to keep this little one a secret?! Jeez Louise it has been a toughie! Anytime someone would mention baby this or baby that I would want to just blurt out, I'M PREGNANT! What a sweet relief is has been to finally share the good news.

Next week Justin and I will be going in for our first trimester screening which will alert us to any possibilities that Baby K could have any chromosome abnormalities/downs/or Trisomy. I pray pray pray that nothing is wrong and that little Baby K is healthy and strong. I'm pretty sure baby is just fine. The heartbeat is healthy and I'm actually measuring a few days ahead of where I should be, which tells me baby is growing strong! Not that I would love our baby ANY less if there was something wrong, nor would it change my mind on keeping the pregnancy, but it is important to know if something could be wrong so that I can mentally and emotionally prepare myself for that situation. Like I said though, I'm sure all is well!

AAANNNNDDD in 26 days we will officially know the gender of Baby K!! Eeeeekk!! I absolutely cannot wait!! My original gut feeling was boy, but now everything is telling me it's a girl. Only God knows for sure, but hey I have a 50/50 chance of guessing right either way! We will be doing a fun gender reveal to share the news with some of our closest family and friends...the only catch is I have NO idea how it is going to be revealed, what the shower theme is, heck I don't even know what the invitations look like because my sweet friend Mandy, who I love, is throwing the shower for us and won't tell me a SINGLE detail! Ugh, I can't wait!!

Come back next week to see the growing bump and to read week 13's letter!


Jul 10, 2013

Baby K Is On The Way!!!


The Big News:
If you haven't gathered from the blog title, the above image, or sub title, I'M PREGNANT!!! I'm sure you figured it out, who am I kidding, I just wanted to type that. I'll type it again, I'M PREGNANT!!! *Squeal!*

The Backstory:
"Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God!!!", was the only phrase I could manage to get out of my mouth when I saw that little pink line. Pure joy and happiness is all that I felt. With tears of joy running down my face I stared at that faint pink line in total disbelief. I never imagined that I could get pregnant on our very first try! For one, I've been on birth control for almost 9 years! I figured it would take me a month or two to get my body back on track. Not only that, but I found out, in 2005, that I have Endometriosis. It was a mild case since we caught it early, but I still needed a Laparoscopy to remove the tissue. If you aren't familiar with Endometriosis, it's just uterine tissue growing in the wrong place, it's pretty common. Don't let me down play it though, because it is EXTREMELY painful! I remember being doubled over in pain to the point where I couldn't breathe it was so bad. The first time I experienced the pain I was in the car with an old high school boyfriend, who was ironically also named Justin, on the way home from a date. Bless his heart, he had no idea what was going on, and neither did I! I was talking one second and the next I was practically on the floor of his truck gasping for air. I ended up in the emergency room that night, no fun! Endo can cause a lot of problems, one major one being that you can't get pregnant. Since mine was so mild the doctors told me I should be fine, but the thought was always in the back of my mind. So, as you can imagine, I was very surprised when I found out!

My best girl friends have been on me to have a baby since the day I said "I do"! Every time I would say to them, "Guess what!?" they would always blurt out, "You're pregnant!" in hopes that I would finally say yes. It became an on-going joke between myself, Mandy, Khrystal, and Kelsey B. I couldn't wait to have kids, but knew that Justin and I needed to be financially stable and not only that, but we needed us-time. Time to actually be married and enjoy one another, and enjoy being married before we made such a life changing decision. After almost 3 years of marriage we decided it was finally time to try!

I am now 12 weeks pregnant and due on January 23rd 2014, two days before my birthday! Another January baby just like my sister and I. Needless to say, there will be lots of birthday fun each year in January! And if you're wondering, did we plan it to be right around my birthday, haha, absolutely not! Totally random that it ended up that way, I don't think we could have even planned that!

How I Surprised The Hubby:
If you know me, then you know I am a planner, just like my Momma. I had already planned how I wanted to capture it in a photo to share with my friends and family on Facebook, but I hadn't given much thought to how I would tell my husband. I guess I just didn't think it was going to happen so soon! I figured I'd have more time to think about it, ha, boy was I wrong! I wanted it to be a total surprise and to be able to catch his reaction to the big news. Literally, days after I started a new job I found out that I was pregnant! That has God written ALL over it! I was going to take Justin to dinner and celebrate the "new job" and surprise him by having the restaurant write "Baby K is on the way" on a dessert plate, but that didn't pan out. That weekend we celebrated my best friend's birthday with lunch in downtown Dallas and after lunch Justin went to workout. I had to run "errands" so that gave me the perfect excuse to get a head start before Justin left for the gym. I made a mad dash to Barnes and Noble to find the book, "Dude, You're Gonna Be A Dad!", that was recommended by a friend. I couldn't find it ANYWHERE on the sales floor and in a last ditch effort I asked the sales clerk to help me find it. She saw one in the system, but we couldn't find it on the floor. Finally, she checked the stock room, low and behold, she returned with the ONE copy that they had in stock, yes! I quickly returned home and set up the video camera to secretly record his reaction. I am amazed that he didn't see it, but we all know just how observant men are, ha! It was a small flip cam style recorder, attached to a small adjustable tripod, pretty small, but not super inconspicuous. I positioned it on the bar next to the fruit basket, hoping that is would kind of blend in. It totally worked! In the beginning of the video, you'll find below, he catches me starting to smile, which I didn't even think I was, so I had to quickly side track him with something I was working on in the formal dining room. After we come back into frame, I played it off that I had ordered a book online but they "sent me the wrong one" and that I thought he might like it, haha! He was so happy, it definitely brought tears to my eyes. Below is the video if you'd like to see his reaction, it was all very sweet and I am so happy that I could pull off the surprise for him! (working on getting the video uploaded!)


How We Surprised Our Parents:
After surprising Justin with the big news we headed to the dog park, something that we had talked about doing earlier that day. While we were throwing the ball with Dixie we discussed how we wanted to share the news with our parents. We knew that we wanted it to be in person, but there wasn't much time between all the things we already had planned on the weekends. Do you know how hard it has been to keep this secret?? REALLY HARD!

While still at the dog park, randomly, Justin suggests, "Hey, why don't we drive down and tell my parents tomorrow?" Mind you, it was like 7pm on a Saturday. Long story short, we decided to drive to Clear Lake which is about 5 hours from Mckinney! We just couldn't wait to share the good news with our family! We arrived in Clear Lake late and had to come up with a reason why we had come, we played it off as a friend having a couples shower. We decided to take his Mom and siblings our for breakfast and kept it "casual" by going to iHop as to not raise suspicion. Justin snuck away while we were waiting on the food and told the manager to have a waitress bring out a plate that said "Baby K is on the way!" and present it to his Mom. You'd think the staff of iHop would be smart enough to figure out the best way to do this...but you'd be wrong. Instead of using something like, oh, I don't know, maybe chocolate they use to draw on the kids pancakes or even ketchup to write out the message, what did they use? Pancake batter. (dramatic pause) Yes, pancake batter! Last time I checked pancake batter isn't thick enough to write a message and stay legible for more than a few seconds...which is exactly right, haha! The waitress brought out the plate and puts it in front of Valerie, who claps her hands says, "oh, how nice" and attempts to read it. She stares for a second, then out loud says, "Baby K..." to which the waitress replies, "is on the way!" Valerie's head jerks up and she quickly exclaims, almost yells, "Are you serious?!" Yep, we sure are! At this point everyone around us is wondering what's going on. As Valerie stands up to hug us, she turns to the restaurant, thrusts her fists in the air, and proclaims, "I'm going to be a Grandma!!" We couldn't have hoped for a sweeter reaction! Poor Taylor and Marissa (his Brother and Sister) were still trying to figure out what the heck was going on, haha, but it quickly sank in what had just happened. Everyone was so excited, mission accomplished, one parent down!

After breakfast, we drove 2 hours to his Dad and Step-Mom's house in Fayetteville for lunch. On the way we picked up cupcakes, three pink, three blue, and one white. One for each person who was there, according to their gender (Judy's parents were also in town). The white cupcake was of course for Baby K since we had no clue of the gender, which we topped with a pacifier, and stuck in it's own special box. We were able to film with no suspicion, although, Bob thought Justin said he was taking a picture, which is why he continued to just stare at Justin while Judy was opening the box of cupcakes, haha! I think he may have been in a little shock when he figured out what was happening, but he was really happy, despite his deer-in-the-headlights appearance, haha! Judy opened the special cupcake box that we told her was special for her and said, "Oh, look, a pacifier, how cute!" I think she thought we were going for something like hey thanks for being my step mom, I love you kinda thing. Justin saw she wasn't getting it and replies, "a pacifier, what does that mean??" and then it clicked! Judy kept repeating, "Nu uh!?!" and then started to cry, hehe! Unfortunately, the videos are unavailable at the moment, but we're trying to recover them from Justin's phone. I'll post them if we get a hold of it!

Last, but not least, we surprised my parents! My sister had recently delivered her bundle of joy, my niece, Hollynd, so when else is a better time then that to surprise my parents, haha! "Hey, guess what you just met one grandchild, the second one is on the way!" hehe. In between telling Justin's parents and mine we were able to schedule a quick photoshoot to take pregnancy announcement photos (which you'll see more of below) and decided we would surprise my parents that way. My parents were in town to visit and we were getting ready to head out to dinner. Before leaving I say to my Mom, "Oh, hey, by the way, do you remember Katelyn? The one who we modeled for in that wedding photoshoot? Well, she was in town the other day and we did some more photos with her, come look!" My mom goes, "Why didn't you tell me about that?" to which I reply, "Oh, I just didn't think about it." We all sit down on the couch, my parents and I on one end of the couch and Justin on the other end, pretending he is playing on his phone, while he is secretly recording. I start scrolling through the pictures, and the first ones are of Justin and I hold a banner that reads "January 2014" My dad is observing the images and reads it out loud with a big smile on his face, "January twenty fourteen (pause) is that when y'all are going to have a baby?" Cue my mother's jaw hitting the floor, haha! She had no idea Justin was filming and of course, being the worrier she is, her first question, besides "ARE YOU PREGNANT?!" was, "What are you going to do about insurance?" since I had just started a new job, haha, oh Mother...it was priceless and funny! (Don't worry I have great government insurance, she forgot I was still covered under her insurance lol) Needless to say, they were thrilled to learn their second grand baby was on the way!! (Still trying to recover this video too)

Everything is happening so fast, but all in all we are so so happy and cannot wait to meet our little one! Below are some more pictures from our pregnancy reveal photoshoot, love love love! And come back tomorrow for my new blog series, Letters to Baby K!

Photos by: Southern Charm Photography