And our baby girls name is...

Blaire Kendall! So relieved and happy to have her name! :)

Another little girl on the way!

We are so excited to be having a little sister for Kennedy!

At the beginning of my pregnancy I thought for sure I was having a boy, but a few weeks before my ultrasound I started thinking I was having a girl...and I was right!

Now all we have to do is come up with a name which is proving super hard this time. I've went through my 5000+ baby name book 7 times already and have searched and searched the internet. I know I have 4 months...but I'm a planner, and I needed to have a name last week! Wish me luck on my hunt...

To the doctor

I went...and found out that I have a sinus infection. I can't even explain how terrible I feel now. My throat literally feels like it's on fire. I am so ready to start feeling better. My dr prescribed me a z-pack so if I don't feel better in a week from taking it, I'll have to get another weeks worth. I haven't been able to sleep the last four nights without waking up every hour...I toss and turn and can't breathe out of my nose.

I was never sick during my pregnancy with Kennedy and can't remember the last time I was sick actually. I'm normally a very healthy person but I hate the way I feel right now. Thankfully, Kennedy has been a perfect angel for me the last few days and I haven't had to run around chasing her. Maybe she realizes that I'm not feeling well, she even went to bed at 6:30 today...I'm hoping that's because she didn't nap today and not because she is also getting sick. I can't imagine having only a week in between the time she was sick and when she gets sick again.

Here's hoping that I start feeling better ASAP, there are so many things I need to do...and that I get a decent nights sleep...I REALLY need it

We're a bunch of sickies

I always tell myself that I need to start getting better at updating this blog...then a million things happen and it doesn't even cross my mind. Now that my house is clean, laundry is done and I don't really have anything else to do I figured I can get back to it.

This last week has been crazy. Kennedy started to get a fever the Sunday before last but we figured it was just from teething because her molars look so swollen. The next morning she woke up with a fever of 102.4 and it just kept climbing throughout the day even with medicine. She was so lethargic and wouldn't even move. She wouldn't eat or drink, which is so unlike her. Mike still thought it was teething, but I disagreed and took her to the doctor. I didn't see my normal pedi but a nurse practitioner (I didn't know this at the time) The NP checked Kennedys ears and throat and said they were both clean of any infection. She then said it was probably a viral thing and would just go away with medicine and time. She asked my pedi to come in at the end of the appointment just to double check and I'm glad she did. My pedi at once asked if I was pregnant and said that Kennedy most likely had parvovirus b-19 or fifths disease. She said that 50% of people get it and it wouldn't do anything to harm Kennedy...it would also go away with medicine and time. The symptoms of fifth disease are slapped red cheeks, a high fever and a lacy rash...Kennedy had all of the above but my pedi said that once she got it, she would never get it again. Just to be sure, she also wanted to check Kennedy for a urinary track infection because it can also cause the symptoms she had.

Since there is no way to make a baby pee in a cup to collect their urine, they had to tape this bag to her private parts to collect it. The NP told me the worst part was taking it off...and great I had that job once we got home. They put her diaper back and on gave me a cup to put her urine into after it collected in the bag. I don't know who came up with this invention but let me just say it flat out sucks. As soon as I got home and checked her bag, it was halfway off of her and all of her urine collected in her diaper. I called the dr's office and a nurse told us to go to statcare and that they could give us another bag. We decided instead of making four trips by bringing her home and back after she went to the bathroom, that we would just wait in the waiting room until she went to make it easier. We were there three and a half hours and she wouldn't drink anything. My in-laws even brought popsicles and she wouldn't touch them. A woman came out to let us know that if we admitted Ken they could give her a catheter and it would be over in a few minutes. This is the LAST thing I wanted to do because I know how painful they can be...so we decided to wait another half an hour to see if she would go on her own before we would admit her.

Well, of course, a half an hour went by and we made no progress so we took her back to get a cath. This was one of the worst experiences of all three of our lives (Kennedy, Mike and I) It took the nurse WAY WAY WAY too many tries to cath her...and as soon as we were about to say something, she got it in. Mike and I were both fuming and I wanted to leave right then and there. I felt so bad we made her go through it when...yep, she didn't have a UTI...but at the same time we really needed to know because she would have needed more medical attention if she had a UTI instead of fifths disease. Also while we were the there the dr told us that she looked like she had classic fifths disease, so at least we knew what she had.

I called my OB the next day because fifths disease can cause complications in pregnancy...they had me come in for blood work and my NP explained to me that if I've had it any other time in my life, the blood work would show it and that I wouldn't have to worry about a thing. She said that if I didn't have it then I would need to come back in a month and have my blood retaken. We would need to see if I got it from Kennedy since the symptoms in adults and children are different. IF I do have it then I would have to get weekly ultrasounds until the baby is born....fifths disease causes anemia in an unborn fetus and could possibly need a blood transfusion before he/she is born...but we're praying that it's not going to be needed...and ultimately that I've already had it sometime in my life and then we won't even need to think about it anymore.

The NP said it will take about 4-5 to get my results back so I'm just waiting, waiting waiting...and hoping for very good news.

Thursday Kennedy made a full recovery and has been feeling great ever since....I however on Saturday started to feel under the weather. It started out with a sore throat and progressively got to a severe sore throat, coughing, running/stuffy nose...Pretty much everything from the bottom of my neck up hurts. Every night has been challenging to sleep...not only am I uncomfortable because I'm pregnant....but now I can't breathe and can't swallow without cringing in pain. This morning my throat felt like it was on fire and still does. My nose is like a leaky faucet...sometimes runny and sometimes stuffy. I sound like a monster when I talk, no joke... and I'm scared to death of sneezing or coughing for fear of the pain.

I HATE being sick...I hate being sick while preggo and I REALLY hate when it interferes with my plans. I was so excited to take Kennedy swimming with her friends tomorrow but not only am I sick...but most of them are as well...If every one's feeling up to it, we may try again next week. I think it's just something going around in the air now...I can't wait for this cold/flu season to be over...and I really can't wait until it starts getting warm outside.

On a more positive note...I'm 18 weeks along now and in three weeks we will know if Kennedy will have a baby brother or a baby sister :)

Our house: Before & After

Here's a link for photos of our before and after pictures of our house. We moved in the end of last January...so we've almost been here a year! Anyways...our house didn't exactly have to have a lot of work done to it, besides new carpet, lights and a good scrubbing, but we wanted to change it and make it our own. We painted every inch of this house...and it took forever. We had to get all the painting done before our carpet was installed...and before our carpet was installed we lived on the sub floor. This was not a fun almost 2 month of our lives because we had to wear our shoes EVERYWHERE...out of the shower, to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It was nice though that Kennedy was only 4 months old and not mobile, so she spent her days in pack and plays, activity centers and high chairs. Getting these things done with a baby was hectic, but I'm glad we did it all then rather than now. She slept a lot more then and didn't get into things...I can't imagine doing all this stuff with her now!

Just an overview of what we did...downstairs we painted EVERYTHING...installed a new ceramic tile floor, got new carpet installed, new appliances, painted and added new hardware to our kitchen cabinets, removed the existing mantle and fireplace surround and added tile and a new mantle, we had to install lights pretty much everywhere because the previous owners took them, new toilet, vanity, mirror and light in the guest bath, oh and Mike and Denny replaced every single light outlet...we had almond, and I wanted white :) We plan on adding a tile back splash in the kitchen as well as replacing our old counter tops.

Upstairs we continued with the painting, carpet, outlets and lights. We filled in the doorway to our closet from the master bedroom and made a new doorway through our master bath. We also had to install new closet rods because they were taken as well. Kennedy was in the nursery for a while, but now that baby number 2 is on the way, we moved her to a new bedroom. Our room is done except for some decorations...we need to get some curtains, some things for the walls, a new bedspread etc. I'll post our final bedroom pics once we have all this done :)

Our next project will be the hallway/kids bathroom. I was able to get all the rust stains our of the bathtub after I scrubbed for 2 hours so we decided to keep it because it is very kid friendly. We need to replace the toilet and add the ceramic tile. We are going to keep the existing vanity, but paint it espresso bean and add new hardware. We're also going to get a new vanity top, faucet, mirror and lights...and then I'll have to find something to hang on the walls. I'm hoping we can get this project done before baby D is here.

Down the road we plan on gutting our bathroom. We want to get 2 new vanities, mirrors and lights. We'll also install ceramic tile and get a new toilet. We plan on making a completely tiled shower...although I am changing my mind a little and am wanting a soaking tub with a tile surround. We'll see what we decided after Mike and I talk about it.

Long term projects would be building a deck and putting up a fence. Mike wants to get the driveway done this year...and we need to so something about this landscaping because there is none! I would really like to get a little chair set with a table for our front porch...oh and we also need to get new outdoor lights for the entry way and garage.

So that's where we are for now...I will post as we finish more things...I'm just so happy to feel like we have made this house our home...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004599&id=1569368582&l=4a3d4e7cdc

Yes, it's true. Miss Kennedy Reese will be a big sister on the 4th of July!

Happy Birthday

This time last year I was laying in a hospital bed just waiting to be fully dilated so I could start to push...I was starving because I hadn't eaten since noon the day before. A little back round story...

September 30th, 2008: My due date, also my birthday. I spent the day cleaning our townhouse just in case Kennedy came that day. I wanted to be ready for her, but was feeling like my body wasn't going to go into labor. I wrote Kennedy an email willing her to come that day (I started writing to Kennedy when I was pregnant. I was going to write in a journal, but decided that I can get a lot more out when I type, so I decided to make her an email address. I wrote a lot when I was pregnant, and quite a bit now. I plan on continuing until she graduates high school or when she gets married/becomes pregnant I think it will be really nice for her read. I'm not sure how this will work for boys...I'm not sure they will care, but I'll do it anyways) Around 4ish I started to feel a little flutter in my stomach every two minutes or so...it wasn't painful, but I called my doctor's office anyways just to make sure. (I was actually kind of pressuring the nurse that I was speaking with to tell me that I was in labor...I figured since I would be induced two days later, they would just keep me tonight if I wasn't really in it. Not smart thinking) The nurse said she would recommend coming in. I don't know why I didn't call Michael to tell him, I think because it was so close to the time he was coming home, and I wanted to see his reaction when I told him we needed to go to the hospital. So he came home, I told him we needed to go, we got our bags together and headed out the door. (For those of you who know how big of a planner I am, you probably know that my bags were packed a month or so in advance)

On the way to the hospital, we counted my "stomach flutters" and they were about two or so minutes apart still. We checked into the hospital and they put me in a small room to monitor my contractions, if I was having any and to see if I was in labor. They checked me and I was two cm, which wasn't great news because that's what I was at the doctors office the day before. I called my parents to let them know even if I wasn't in labor and would be sent home, we still needed to cancel my birthday dinner plans because I would be at the hospital for a few hours. Mike left my birthday card in the car...he didn't plan on coming to the hospital that night and forgot it in the car during the rush of coming into the hospital. He ended up giving me a napkin with my birthday present written on it. It was for clothes as I lost weight from having Kennedy. His delivery wasn't the greatest...he wrote something like $80 for size 8, $100 for size 6, $150 for size 4 and $200 for size 2. I have never been a size 2! In his defense, I did have a couple pants from express that were a 2...but different clothing fit different ways, so I wouldn't consider myself that size. It also said on the bottom of the napkin that no changes could be made to it...but don't worry, it did.

I was laying in the bed and all of a sudden got the worst menstrual cramp ever. The doctor and nurse came into my room and asked if I had moved to my side. I told them that I didn't, but just a sharp pain...the beginning of my many painful contractions. They checked me again and I was 3 cm! (Which was a good thing because their computers were down and they could only take whoever was in actual labor...if I didn't progress, they would have definitely sent me home) They brought me to the room I would stay and deliver in. I really like that about Aultman...you stay in one room the entire time, and your baby never leaves...well, only to get tests done. You can request to let your baby stay in the nursery, but I really enjoyed her staying with us the entire time.

I got into my room, and the contractions were getting really painful. A few family members from both sides were there at that point...I felt a little awkward talking like normal, then clutching the bed and moaning because a contraction was coming on, then going back to talking like nothing ever happened. That ended soon enough though because the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural. I was scared to death and almost in tears. They had me lay on my side, but every one else I've talked to has sat up. I don't know if they had me that way because I wouldn't jerk as much? Anyways, I was laying down, my nurse was holding my hand, probably 8 inches from my face..and it was done. I felt so silly because I was so worried about nothing. My IV hurt pretty bad, my epidural didn't hurt at all. After it set in it was the weirdest feeling. I couldn't move my legs at all, and could barely feel when I touched them. Every so often my epidural would start wearing off, so they would just give me another dose. They broke my water, and I was progressing pretty quickly. The nurses thought I may have been able to have her on my birthday, but 12am rolled around and that didn't happen. They told me to get rest because I would need it, but I don't know of any expecting mother who can sleep in the hospital waiting for the arrival for their baby.

The next morning we just played the waiting game. My parents, sister's and Michael's parents were there. The nurse came into check me again and said that it wouldn't be long. I was 9cm, but had a little anterior lip. An anterior cervical lip happens when the presenting part is not positioned correctly on the cervix, causing unequal pressure that results in unequal dilation. So, they recommended waiting a little while to see if that would change. Shortly after they checked me, I started to feel like my epidural was wearing off. The nurse told me that I shouldn't get another dose only because I might not be able to push the correct way. I listened to her, and believe me, next time I will not! I started to feel the urge to push, and they let me try. It was only the nurse on my left and Michael on my right. He asked the nurse where the doctor was, and she said that only when I began to crown would the doctor come in. She told us it was not like the movies and T.V. shows. I felt like I pushed forever. I could tell Michael was getting excited because he could see the progress I was making, I unfortunately could not and was getting tired of it. During the pushing, I told Mike that I was able to spend how much ever on whatever size for my birthday present and he agreed. He better have!

I began crowning and the doctor came in. I felt like I pushed forever, but it only ended up being a little over an hour. My epidural was completely gone and I could feel everything...it was literally the worst pain I have ever felt, but a pain that you quickly forget about. I felt so hot so they put a towel on my head, and my nurse was constantly feeding me ice chips. It's so crazy how much you have to push. When you have a contraction they want you to push 3 times for 10 seconds each...that's 30 seconds of straight pushing when you're hot, tired and in tons of pain. I felt like there was no end in sight, but at 11:05 it was there. They put Kennedy right on my chest and I just bawled my eyes out. I remember Mike asking if it was ok for him to take pictures and he just snapped away. I wish I would have looked at him when she was being born to see his reaction. Kennedy came out in the posterior position which means she was facing up instead of down. This happens in only 5-12% of delivery's. She had a scratch on her face from her fingernail because her hand was against her face during delivery.

I couldn't believe she was actually here! So many things ran through my mind as she was laying on me. I just cried and cried, but she didn't. I was a little worried, but knew that she would be taken care of. They took her off of me to clean her up and check on her. She and I both had fevers...I remember laying there shivering and shaking because I felt so cold, and hoping that she wasn't feeling how I did. She finally cried and I was over joyed.

My original plan was to just spend time as a family before anyone came to see her, but I knew how excited everyone was in the waiting room...so I told Mike to tell them they could come in for 5-10 minutes to see Kennedy. I'm glad I did...just the look on their faces was priceless. Everyone was so happy that she was finally here, and anxious to come back so they could hold her.

It was nice when everyone left and it was just the three of us. We purposely didn't tell most people that she had been born until a few hours later just so we could have some alone time. When I look back on our hospital stay and being there it just brings back so many great memories...although it was hard waking up with her almost every hour there, it was so amazing to finally have her outside of the womb.

I feel like this last year has just flown by. I cannot believe how big Kennedy is. I can barely remember what it was like when she was first born. I wish I could just rewind time, but it is exciting to see how she's growing and the things she can do now. I can't explain how much and the way I love her...if you're a mother than you can understand. Kennedy is my whole world...everything I do in my life now is for her. She truly is the love of my life.

Happy Birthday Kennedy Reese, you've turned my life upside down...in only the best ways...