36 Weeks and Slightly Miserable, But I Still Have an Awesome Husband.

How's that for a blog title? :)

That about sums up my week.  A couple weeks ago, my fingers in my right hand started going numb.  It wasn't too big of a deal, just a nuisance.  My right side at my rib cage was in pain - felt like a muscle there was being pulled.  My "educated" guess is that this all is because E always is laying on the right side of my tummy.  This all started a couple weeks ago and was annoying but still not much to complain about.

However, a week ago, that all changed.  My ribs were in SO much pain - like I'd taken a blow from a baseball right into my ribcage.  Nothing helped.  No sitting, not laying down, nothing.  Once I could finally fall asleep, all was well and I would wake up without any pain for at least a few hours.  I greatly looked forward to falling asleep so I could have some relief from my ribs.

Then a few days ago, I fell asleep at about 11 pm and woke up at 1 am in excruciating pain from my right wrist/arm.  I got up, walked around a bit, shook my arm, and fell back asleep.  About a 1/2 hour later, I'd wake again.  Walk around again, get some feeling back into my arm, and fall back asleep. This happened in 1/2 hour increments until about 4:30 when the pain and burning sensation was so unbearable that I couldn't stand it.  It literally felt like someone was holding my arm over a fire.  I got out of bed so I wouldn't keep tossing and wake up Skyler.   Nothing was making it feel better.  I massaged it, I shook it, I walked around to get blood flowing, I tried laying propped up so the blood flow was better....I eventually was so in pain and frustrated that I started bawling (very rare for me to cry from pain).  What happened to my perfect and wonderful pregnancy?!  I wanted it back!!!!

I finally sat down on the futon at about 7 am, too exhausted to do anything else. I laid my head back and I think I dozed off a little.  I remember three dreams that night from my small intervals of sleep (I almost never dream), and each one was about how much my arm hurt and how Skyler needed to help me fix it!  Skyler got out of bed at about 7:30 to find me still sitting up on the futon with my head back and eyes closed.  He said it was the most pitiful thing he'd ever seen and he felt so bad.  I told him that sitting upwards felt a little better and I joked that I wanted to go buy a lazy boy to sleep in instead of the awfully uncomfortable futon.

I somehow managed to sleep from about 8-11 am.  I then headed down to hang out with my mom that day and didn't get home until about 9 pm.  When I walked in the door, this is what I found:

Uh huh.  A lazy boy.  My dear, sweet, amazing husband called up his old roommate and asked if we could borrow the chair for the next few weeks until the baby comes!!!!  He went and got it and hauled it in our house after work that day.  I walked in the door and just about started bawling again.  I couldn't believe how sweet and thoughtful he was!  I was mostly joking about the lazy boy, but he took it seriously and thought if there was any way that I could get more sleep, he was going to help me get it! :)  *sigh*

I've slept in it now for the last two nights (and also have been wearing a brace for my wrist) and I have slept SO much better!  Conclusion: my husband rocks and I am so thankful for him!! :)

Aside from aches and pains, I've also been going to weekly appts with my midwives now.  Last week I had a SUPER fun appointment!  I was 35 weeks and got to have my belly painted!  One of my midwives, Patricia, is really good at watercolor crayons and feels for your baby and paints how your baby is laying/positioned on your tummy.  It turned out so cool!  And was relaxing to boot.  Here's a sneak peak at E. ;)

Kinda fun, huh?! Here I am now at 36 weeks:

This pic I thought looked so funny! SO round like a pumpkin :) I mean, good grief...the light reflects off of it... haha

And for fun...here's a comparison of my pretty little scars from my gall bladder surgery from February, and how pretty they look now on me. :) Look how spread out they are!! (P.S. if you're confused of the scar placement...the recent picture is taken in a mirror!)

And that's how Kayla and E are doing at 36 weeks... hanging in there, but ready to go whenever E's ready!!! :)

Love,
K

The BEST part of Christmas...

...According to Scooter:

Fir Tree Flavored Water!!!!

She anxiously awaits the tree every year.  December is the best month of her life.  :)

Love,
K

I Have Crafty Friends!

I just had to share all the crafty homemade goodness that we have been given for E!!  I sure have some very talented friends & family!  It was funny to see how many "natural" and "organic" things we were blessed with also... I guess they really know us!  I didn't realize how much of my hippy/Mennonite side shines through, I guess. :)

Anyway, here are our beautiful gifts from our awesome and talented friends!

BEAUTIFUL blue and brown knit blanket from my cousin Katie

Diaper cake from my friend Kaitlin (made with Pure and Natural Huggies, of course!)

Burp Cloths from my aunt Darla (I LOVE the "I Love Mommy/Daddy" fabric!)

Super soft and heavy weight flannel blanket and matching burp cloths from my aunt Janet 

(LOOOVE the birdie fabric!)

SOO cute and soft blanket from the amazingly talented Kristen!

Oh, and see this?:

It's not a printed fabric.  Nope.  She cut and sewed EACH on one to make her own spotted pattern!

Burp cloths and adoooorable bibs from Candy (who threw my shower). And she also made/painted these:

Baby E's first piggy bank and a photo frame for me to put E's stamped footprints :)  (I will add though, that Skyler was bummed when he saw the piggy bank.  He was determined to make E's first piggy bank out of clay...I told him he can make E's first CLAY piggy bank. ;)

Burp cloth, bibs, and super cool ribbon mini-blanket and cube!  The ribbons are all different textures so the baby will enjoy feeling each ribbon.  How cool! (And again, LOVE the bird fabric! SEE! People know me...weird. haha) This is from Jessi who threw the shower too.

SUPER cute photo frame from my talented scrapbooking cousin and dear friend Andrea!  (She threw my other birdie shower!)

And finally:

These are some bibs that I made a couple months ago for E.  I had planned to make several more and several burp cloths.  I'm glad I ran out of time because I was given such nice bibs and burp cloths!!  I still may make a few more burp cloths....but I think I'm good on bibs! haha :)

Anyway, I LOVE it all and can't wait to use all this homemade goodness on E!  Thanks again everyone - you guys are truly treasured!

Love, K

I Wouldn't Be the Only One...

I just have to make a quick note that yesterday while running errands, I totally saw a gentleman walking along one of the busiest streets here in Salem with none other, but one of these strapped to his back:

And I smiled... I so totally would not have been the only one... :)


Love,
K

Monogrammed Burlap Stockings

Yep, I made us some stockings!  Last year, I had just ran to the Dollar Tree when I realized that neither of us newlyweds had any stockings and I picked these suckers up:

(Don't they just look darling next to the thermostat?! ;)  We had no where better to hang them in our apartment....so only blank wall it was!)

Those stockings were cute enough for last year but this year I wanted to make some new ones, especially with the (soon) arrival of E.  

I just used those old stockings to make a pattern on some white burlap that I had left over from the "A" wreath that hangs on our front door.  I had some white cotton fabric from a queen sized flat sheet I had found at Target on clearance for $2, which I used for the lining.  I sewed both pieces together (lining and burlap) before I sewed both sides of the stocking together.   I cut out our initials (...and a kitty...you know, so our cats can have a stocking too!), from some toile fabric that I had (and had great intentions to make a tablecloth from, but have yet to do it....like 3 years later.)....added some eyelet trim to the tops and called it good!

And I now have a cute little mantle to hang them on!!  WAY better than just the wall... next to a thermostat.... :)

I am sure they would hang better if I had proper "stocking hanging things"...but I do not (hey, I didn't even have stockings last year!! one step at a time, ok?!).  Sooo, they currently stuck in the mantle with push pins. :)  So, don't actually put anything IN our stockings!

I love having the fire on and sitting in front of it wrapping presents or doing other projects; it is so cozy!!  Unfortunately, the girls love being cozy by the fireplace too and this is often what I have to compete with when trying to wrap presents or read my newspaper:

GET OFF!!!!! :)

Oh well, it's good practice for wrapping presents next year with an almost one year old, right?! ... at least that's what I keep telling myself. :)

Love, K

Bunting Banner Baby Shower (#2!)

I told you I was blessed this weekend!  It was a weekend of showering. :)

Sunday, a couple VERY dear friends, Candy and Jessi threw another shower for me.  This one was Anderson family and school friends....and my mom again. :)  A girl's gotta have her momma!! hehe

Unfortunately, I realized too late that I didn't get a photo of the beautiful table spread!  Poor Jess stayed up after midnight the night before making me a cupcake cake.  SO delicious - buttercream frosting and all.  I made sugar cookies again (not to sound boastful, but they seriously were so good.  It was the first sugar cookie recipe that I've tried out and actually liked the results!  Maybe I'll share the recipe... ;)

We had kind of a banner themed shower.  It all started with this quilt that I want to make for E:

From here

These were the fun invites they made (edited personal info out!):

Here's some pictures of some of the ADORABLE gifts we received!

 Little Bib from Jess...I thought it was a bib for like a "dolly and me" thing first! I still have lots to learn...haha :)

ADORABLE quilt from my mom.  I had found it at the Blackberry Junction (antique/craft bazaar) last month when we were together and I knew E needed this quilt from grandma... ;)

"Mom + Dad = Me" picture frame from dear family friend Ruth!

OH MY GOODNESS, leaning over was hard to do!! Look at my determination! :)

Car seat from Grandma Anderson

Handmade bibs from "Grandma" Candy.  SO cute!

Some of the ladies :)

And of course, in theme with "banner", I hung up my Ezekiel & Ellery banners again and asked everyone to write their little letters.  They are all SO sweet.  I cannot wait to put them all in a baby book for E. (...someday...hehe).  Voting at this shower was Ezekiel - 5 and Ellery - 7.... E, if you are Zeek, I'm sorry - you're being outvoted!!! :)

For now, the banners reside in the nursery hanging from the two windows in there...When E comes, I'll leave up the right banner. :)

And, last but not least: the only boy present at my shower...my little buddy Silas!!  He is the most adorable son of our great friends Zach & Gemma (who's wedding Skyler and I met at!)  This guy will be ONE YEAR OLD when E makes his or her appearance...So crazy :)

Thank you everyone for showering us with love!!  You are amazing friends and family and we are so blessed to have a support system built up of you! :)

Love, 

K & E

Little Bird Baby Shower for E

Picture heavy post!! You are warned! :)

Today E and I were blessed with a wonderful shower, hosted by my dear cousin/friend Andrea.  She did a great job!  My awesome Miller family and some other lovely friends came by to shower us with love! :)  We are so very lucky to have such an incredible support group of loving people in our lives.  I appreciate them all more than I can let them know!

The shower had a little birdie theme and was green and blue - colors of the baby room!

Here are some pictures from the day:

Baby E! (33 weeks)

Food Table

Andrea made her delicious Lemon Poppyseed Cake again that she had made for Krista's 30th Birthday.

(I'm still waiting on the recipe Andrea!! ;)

The lovely ladies:

My hilarious, uber adorable, sweetest grandma ever: Grace, and cousin Erica and new baby Addy! ... and yes, Grandma is folding all of my tissue paper for me. :)

Some of the Miller girls!

Adorable friend Jolie, some Miller aunts, Sheri & Janet, and two adopted family members, Joy & Rebecca (and baby!)

A display I created about Bella Vie Gentle Birth Center:

A banner I made for E!

I asked everyone to write little letters or blessings to E and then clip the note to Ellery if they thought E is a girl or Ezekiel if they think E's a boy.  It was fun to see what everyone thought!  I LOVE, love love the little letters.  They are soo precious and are most definitely going in a baby book for E.  

ELLERY (7 votes):

EZEKIEL (6 votes):

 

I don't know if you can read the most precious one up there, because it was written in pencil.  It was written by probably the most amazing, joyful, silly, giggly, gregarious, optimistic, unpredictable, loving woman that I have ever met: my special grandma Grace:

 Remember my grandma Grace?  I've talked about her before, when I told how we chose Baby E's names.

She wrote:

Baby Dear,

It is so exciting to wait for you.

Your mommy just told me we need to wait 7 to 9 more weeks, 

but we can wait.

Good things take time,

and you will be a good people person.

I already love you.

You will be my great grandchild

and when you're big enough to read this

I'll be in Heaven with our Savior Jesus Christ.

Love,

Great Grandma Grace

*deep breath*  I love you Grandma Grace.  Skyler, Baby E and I will treasure all the time left that we get with you - because YOU are an amazing treasure.  You have been the most incredible grandma to me, but I have also witnessed how much you are an amazing mother, mother-in-law, and friend.  I have learned a lot from you and hope I can be the same kind of mom, mom-in-law, and grandma as you are some day. 

I promise to always have gum in my purse when my grandkids ask.  I will have sleepovers with my grandbabies and let them choose the same book over and over again for me to read to them goodnight.  I will always expand my table and fill it with food for the ones I love.  I will let my children grow up, and release them into the world when it's time.  But I'll always be there with open arms whenever they come around to visit.  I will give an orange in my children's and grandchildren's stockings every year - because I know how much it meant to you to receive them when you were a kid, and I have loved receiving one from you every year as well.  I will let my grandkids write their names in the wet cement, have a chocolate graham cracker jar, and pick up random do-dads at thrift stores for them.  But most importantly, I will love them with an overflowing love, as I have seen and learned from you. 

We love you Grandma (Gum).  :)

Love, 

K