Less then 1 week!

We are so thrilled to finally be so close to our due date. We have had a couple times in the past week where we thought it was time but this little girl just likes to keep us on our toes!
Tuesday we thought my water had broken, but it hadn't, but after that things just didn't feel right so on Friday our Midwife Lisa sent us to St Boniface Hospital for a fetal assessment. So we went and things for the most part looked good. She scored 6/8 but because she failed to show them she is practicing her breathing I had to do a non stress test. Well she showed them that she is just fine, just likes to do things when no one is watching! So she is all good.
Last night major contractions started, they were getting closer and closer together and more painful. Some how I managed to fall asleep and they faded out (which is actually a good thing because I really needed a good nights rest!)
So we are hoping now that she waits till Saturday (our due date!!) to make her grand entrance! We are so excited to meet her and but are willing to wait a few more days!
Her room is all done and waiting for her, her big brother can't wait to meet her either!
Here are some pics of her room! And our fall family pictures!
Looking straight into her room!

Looking into her room!

The change table side of the room!

All her pretty girly clothes!

Her beautiful bed!

Another view of her bed!

Close up of her bedding!

The tutu we cant wait to see her in!


A family pic!

Ky and Mommy! (and baby sister too!)

Ky and Daddy!

To my daughter

The child that is within you is a lovely thing.
Someday it will grow to laugh and to sing.
The child that is within you is a beautiful girl.
And just like her mother, as precious as pearl.

She'll have hair that's soft, and lovely blue eyes,
She'll grow strong and healthy, happy and wise.
Her beauty will have to be seen to be believed.
I love her dearly though she's not yet arrived.

I will love her, I know it through and through
In my heart I know, she'll look and act like you.
In my life there could be no more satisfying treat,
Than to have a little one, like you, playing at my feet.

When I look into your eyes my heart is feeling torn.
I can sense a loving child that is begging to be born.
She'd fill our lives with joy, we never would be sad.
She'll hug me and she'll kiss me, because I'll be her Dad.

The times when she's afraid she'll come right to me.
I'll pick her up and hold her, I'll put her on my knee.
She'll know that she is safe from everything that's bad,
She'll hug me and she'll kiss me, because I'll be her Dad.

When I'm very old, and it's time for my good-bye,
I'll take her by the hand and I'll tell her not to cry.
I'll tell her that I love her, I'll tell her don't be sad.
She'll hug me and she'll kiss me, because I'll be her Dad.

Iron Therapy

So I am now on iron therapy. My hemoglobin and ferritin level are extremely low (my ferritin to the point that I am only .5 away from being the lowest it can possibly be) so we are having to take very aggressive measure to try and bring them up. This is not agreeing so much with me, which means poor baby girl has to put up with Mommy throwing up even more. A normal iron dose for a person a day is 15-30mg and I am required to take a 300mg dose, and because I don't absorb iron well its very important that I take it with high amounts of vitamin c to help with absorbing it. Well its so hard on my body. Thankfully my Kytril is now 100% covered and I am able to now keep food down. The nausea is still quite present and the burning from everything I have to take is not fun. But its all worth it. If it prevents me from bleeding too much after delivery and insuring nothing happens to me so I am here for my family then I will do it. This time I also will be continuing for a while after I give birth to help my iron levels stay up and for my body to have good stores!

So on to the better stuff! My mom picked up baby girl's first year calender yesterday, it matches her baby book. I am so excited. I am so lucky to have my mom, she has been such an amazing support to me and always has helpful information (she was the one who said to stop taking iron at night and do it during the day with a meal, and sure enough, she was right!! Thanks Mom!!) She got some really sweet stuff for the baby including this sweet daisy light for her wall, which is up and I turn on at night and sit in her room just thinking about what life will soon be like. She is also going to be there for the birth, which is awesome for me because she is such a strong woman and that always helps me to find my own strength (not to mention she is a pretty darn good photographer and captured amazing shots at Ky's birth!)
We have been working hard to get the house super clean and ready for baby, its amazing how much cleaner you want things when your nesting. Poor Todd is probably sick of cleaning, but we're just not done yet lol. Hopefully by next weekend. As soon as the nursery is done we will post some pics of that too. Its pretty exciting to be so close, hopefully closer then we know!

Well I have lots I need to get done and little time to do it in peace and quiet (Ky is napping right now) so I best get on with things. Till next time!

Always busy!

Well, as you can see its been a long time since the last entry. Life just never slows down. Its now September and we are getting so close now. Hard to believe just how far we have come. The nausea and throwing up is still present and not showing signs of letting up and the meds are still our lifesaver lol. Since the last entry lots has happened. Todd went back to work and Ky started back to school today. I started Iron Therapy in hopes that my hemoglobin will go up before delivery. Our Midwives are great and are being really proactive about it. And speaking of our Midwives, Carolyn is back. She was our primary with Ky and we just love her. She is such a wonderful caregiver and we couldn't be more thrilled to be in her care again. We saw her last week and she was happy to see us. She involved Ky in the appointment which was great. He got to put the doppler on my belly and find the heartbeat. He was pretty thrilled to help. When she measure my uterus it was measuring a week bigger, which lines up with the due date we believe to be correct (Oct 3rd instead of 10th) which would make us 36w3d right now instead of 35w3d. That puts us even closer to this little girl arriving.
We had a pretty rough week last week, with 2 funerals on Todd's side. We are praying thats the end of loss for a long time. But it should made us thankful to have each other and cherish all the time we get together!
What else, oh well the kids rooms are almost 100% done, just some paint touch ups and trim to finish. Ky is moved into his new room and the nursery is almost all done. We washed all the newborn stuff and the hospital bag is almost all done being packed. Just a few small things left to do and some major cleaning and then we will be ready for her to arrive. Hopefully in about 2 weeks, as its very obvious that there is not much room left in there and each day it becomes more and more uncomfortable lol but all so worth it!!
Here are some recent pics!

Kyler's new room!





A comparison of the kids, Ky at birth, baby on 3D ultrasound at 30w3d.


Pregnancy progress to date!


Kyler on his first day of school!

Busy busy busy!!

Well its been a month since the last blog entry and thats because we have been so busy. Preparing for a baby and keeping up with a toddler is a lot of work. Not to mention finding time to enjoy the few nice summer days we get!
The pregnancy is progressing well, baby is growing just as she should be! We had a small scare last week when we had about 5 hours+ with no movement. We went met our midwife at the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors to watch her heartbeat and movement. Her heartbeat sat around 150bpm (which is high for her) and after about half an hour she finally started to move around. A big relief for Todd and I. And thankfully Ky was able to go to my moms work while we were there (Thanks Mom!) and had a great time with her!!
We have been doing a lot in the preparing for baby area. We started to paint Kyler's new room so that we can get him moved out of the soon to be nursery. We ordered all the nursery furniture and bought the bassinet and travel system. We also have gotten lots of the little things we will need for her! Its lots of fun shopping for a little girl!
We started a site to make guesses for the date, weight, time and length of this lil girl and hope everyone will make their guesses!http://www.expectnet.com/games/LilGirlH We will post the winner on here and hopefully a pic of her with the winner once she is born! Hard to believe we only have 9.5 weeks left! We will try to post more often and tomorrow we will post pics from our 3D/4D ultrasound!

Some recent pics!

A recent family pic!


The crib bedding we have picked out for our Baby Girl!


The pregnancy progress so far!


Ky on the train at Tinkertown!


Daddy putting together the new stroller!


Ky & Mommy on the merry-go-round!


Ky & Daddy on the train!

Happy Canada Day!

Well today is the day we get to celebrate living in such a great country. We are going for our 4th time to Grandma's block for the games and pig roast. We are really looking forward to having our baby girl with us next year! Hard to believe we have almost hit the 7 month mark and there are only 101 days left till our due date! We have come so far.
Yesterday we bought our Travel System. We are so excited to have finally made a big purchase and have something that we MUST have for our daughter. It will be so much better once she is here and using it! Daddy did a great job of putting it together and Kyler was a great tester for the stroller!
Baby girl is moving lots and giving huge kicks now. You are able to feel with your hand which side of the belly she is sitting on! She is still loving when Daddy reads to her every night, she is already such a Daddy's girl its so cute!
Ky asks everyday if baby is coming now and he is so excited to meet his baby sister. He came with us to our midwife appointment last week and got to hear her heartbeat which was 145bpm. We met our second midwife Lisa and really like her, she is wonderful! After our next appointment we will start going every 2 weeks, hard to believe we are that close.
July is rooms month, we hope to get Ky's room painted and him moved in and then we can start on the nursery. Both rooms need lots of work so it will be good to get them done before I am too pregnant! We did our baby registry ( mostly for ourselves so we have a list of what we plan to buy) and cant wait to get it all and her room ready for her!
Well its time to get Ky all tattooed up and in his Canada outfit so we can celebrate our country!
Till next time!

Update

Well I have been waiting for Todd to do a post but since he forgets easily I figured it was way past due to update our blog.
So lots has happened. We will go back to May 25th when we had our anatomy scan (ultrasound) at the Vic. It was a horrible experience, we barely got to see baby and left feeling like something was wrong. Well 2 days later we got a call from our Midewife saying the results were back and they found some problems with the baby. First she said that the scan showed that there was very little amniotic fluid which was not good, then that part of her right ventricle in her heart was missing and lastly said that her head was malformed which was something that could lead to mental retardation. We were shocked, it didnt seem right that our baby could have something wrong with her. She was moving so much, giving lots of kicks and seemed to be growing normally. Our Midwife said that we were booked in for a fetal assessment at St B on that Friday. It was going to be a long 2 days. Friday finally came, my Mom came along to watch Ky and we went to see our baby and find out exactly what was wrong. Well not 5 minutes into the scan she stopped and Todd and I both prepared for the worst and she said "I want you to listen to what I am say, there is NOTHING wrong with your baby, that is a perfect baby in there"
I teared up right away, oh what a relief, I was so scared and would have felt horrible if something was wrong with our little blessing. But again God showed his grace and she is perfect, and she confirmed that it is 100% a girl! She then said lets have some fun and spent 20min showing us our baby girl (she looks just like her big brother, we got a good face shot!) It was truly the best experience, and so truly amazing to find out she is PERFECT!
So once we had that done with we had to deal with Ky and the lump on his neck. We now know that it appears to be a cystic lump and is not cancerous and will be something that can easily be removed if need be. Another praise God for that!
Next was Kyler's 3rd birthday. Hard to believe our lil man is 3 already. We had a wonderful day celebrating our little man, including lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was fantastic. We had family and Curtis over dinner and cake and Ky had a blast.
We are now working hard to get the house and yard in order. Lots to do before our little princess arrives. Our biggest task will be changing the rooms around and painting. We are 3 days out from being 6 months along and I am very noticeably pregnant. Yesterday Ky & I went to Motherhood Maternity and I bought my first outfit, some cute shorts and tank top. Since I am down almost 40lbs with this pregnancy my sizes are smaller, that was fun!
This weekend is Father's Day and then the following is the Shaw family picnic at Tinkertown. We have a busy summer ahead of us for sure! Oh and Ky graduates from his first year of Montessori tomorrow, hard to believe our baby girl will be here with us next year at his second year grad! We are truly truly blessed!
till the next entry, which should be by Todd!

She kicked.... And Daddy felt it!!

So Daddy felt baby girl for the first time on Tuesday, it was very exciting. She is moving so much more now and Todd is able to feel her at least once a day! Hopefully soon Kyler will be able to feel her now too. We know she can hear us now and she reacts to sound, so every night Daddy reads her our special book for when the baby in the tummy, a Dr Seuss book!
We had a midwife appointment on Tuesday as well, the heartbeat was 150bpm, which is great, lower then what Ky's was at this stage of the pregnancy. Its hard to believe that 3 years ago at this time we were waiting for him to arrive, next month he will turn 3 and next year he will have a baby sister helping him celebrate his birthday!
It seems like summer is finally here which is great as we make the plans for Kyler's big #3. We are spending lots of time outside and enjoying having such a great backyard. We are looking forward to having our baby girl enjoy it with us next year! I am still dealing with extreme morning sickness, last week from Tuesday to Wednesday I threw up for a total of 18hrs straight, not a good day. I am still on my meds but only as needed which hopefully wont be for very much longer. We have so much to do around the house to get ready for this little girl including switching the bedrooms around and painting both the kids rooms, we are very excited to get that all done. Also going through all the baby stuff in the basement to figure out what will work for her. I hope this summer goes by fast, as we are so excited to meet this little girl.
Our anatomy scan is on Monday morning, I am so excited to see her again. Hopefully she will be good and they will get all the measurements they need!

It's a.....GIRL!!!

So we went for our ultrasound on Monday May 4th and we found out that the little peanut growing inside me is a baby girl!! We are so thrilled. She was so stubborn or shy. She did not want to show between her legs lol. It took about an hour, of her crossing her legs, tucking into the fetal position, putting her hands down and just being in the wrong position but we finally were able to see the money shot and those words "are you guys ready... congrats guys its a girl!" never sounded so amazing. We both teared up and couldnt believe it. What a blessing. A perfect son and now a daughter on the way!
Its amazing to be able to refer to as her or she or baby girl. We have a name for her but are keeping that in the vault. We are looking forward to meeting her and know the next 21 weeks is not going to pass by fast enough. We are looking forward to shopping for her and doing up her nursery. We are sure going to be busy this summer!

here is a shot of my belly growth. We are taking the pics every 2 weeks right now!


And here is my newest scrapbook page with both our kids on it!

The countdown

we are counting down until we find out if this little one is a boy or a girl. We are so excited to find out this time. We go on May 5th, which is only 15 days away. Woohoo. We invited my Grandma to go with us again, and no we will not be sharing right away, so you will all have to wait until we are tell you. This past weekend was busy, we celebrating our nephew's 10th birthday! And next weekend we have a MS walk. Hopefully it wont be like every other Sunday for me where I wake up puking. I am ready for that to be done.
Poor Daddy is sick right now, hopefully he will feel better soon. Lots going on at work for him right now and stuff we may be able to post about soon. Its all very exciting for us!
Baby is moving lots now, hard to believe we are at 16 weeks already, it seems to be going by so fast. We are now 4 weeks away from being half done, wow. And there is no hiding that there is a baby growing in my stomach now, I have a very visible baby bump now!!
Well its time to get some laundry going!! Till next time!

Second Ultrasound!!

So we went for our second ultrasound on Tuesday (what a great birthday gift!) and my Grandma came with us. It was her first ultrasound ever and what an amazing experience it was. Baby has grown so much since we the last ultrasound. And still super active. Peanut was moving their arms lots and putting on a really great show for us. The heartbeat was fantastic sitting around 160BPM!! Ky loved seeing the baby too, its so wonderful to have him be so apart of this pregnancy. We are going to start taking belly pics this weekend as I am really starting to show now.
It snowed again so we are still waiting on Spring, Easter is just around the corner and then hopefully May 5th will come soon as that's the day we find out if Peanut is a boy or girl!! We are so excited and can hardly wait. Its hard to believe that I will be 14 weeks tomorrow, time is just flying by!

Here is baby at 13weeks 3days!
here is baby flexing its arm!

and a good profile shot!

Peanut sucking on their hand!

A front view of Peanut!

another good profile!


Till next time!!

First Midwife Appointment!

So we had our first Midwife appointment today! Despite the terrible weather outside (can you believe we had a blizzard so late in March) we made it there on time. After all the initial questions we got to hear the heartbeat (its 160ish) which is great! My blood pressure is perfect so all is looking good. And we got the best news, our primary midwife from with Ky, Carolyn will be back from her extended maternity leave in September so we will get to see her for the end of the pregnancy and hopefully she will be at the birth! This is so exciting for us, we really had a good connection with Carolyn! Ky did ok, he was loud so we know to not bring him till later in the pregnancy! Toni let him listen to his own heartbeat and his tummy, he really liked that. He looked at the pictures on the wall that shows the different stages of pregnancy and he was able to connect that with the baby in mommy's tummy, our smart cookie!
We go back in late April and will hopefully get our ultrasound date then. And the good old physical exam, lucky me!!
We have a busy few weeks coming up, my birthday, our third wedding anniversary, the end of the first trimester, Easter and my mom leaving for her trip to Calgary! So it should keep us busy. We seem to be pretty housebound right now with the horrible weather out there.
We are so excited for the ultrasound next week, its coming so fast! We will be sure to post all about it and some pics too!
Till then!!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Well today is a day we love, cause its all about the Irish! We started the day by enjoying some Lucky Charms cereal for breakfast, a special treat in our house! Ky has school today and they are making green milkshakes!
We have 200 days left in the pregnancy! We went to babymoon ultrasound on Friday and got to see peanut, perfect as perfect can be! Peanut did a little dance and even had the hiccups. It was so nice to see how much baby has grown already! The morning sickness has lessened and the nausea seems less intense but is still very present. I am not throwing up as much which is a really good thing. The acid reflux is still a pretty big obstacle but I am hoping that will settle soon too. Our first clothing purchase for baby was a onezie that says Baby's first St Patricks Day! We purchased it on our trip when we were down in Grand Forks. We are very excited to see baby wear it next year!
We go for another ultrasound on March 31st and my Grandma is coming with us. This will be her first ultrasound and we are very excited to have her join us. Its also a special day because its my birthday, what a perfect gift, getting to see our baby! Hopefully I will be feeling a lot better by then so we can also enjoy a nice meal out!
Well thats where we are at right now. The weather is nice, the snow is melting so hopefully that wont mean an even bigger gap in between post. I will try my best, and hopefully Todd will start making some posts soon too!

Here is our best pic from our ultrasound on Friday!

Hello morning sickness

Well I have yet again been struck with morning sickness. Not as bad as with Ky because by almost 8 weeks I had already been in the hospital a couple time. But its bad enough that I am back on the Kytril (65$ for 10 pills...ouch) I am just getting through the days, totally exhausted but I feel like I can see a light at the end of this tunnel. I am hoping my second trimester brings some relief!
We have told very few people about our pregnancy, my Grandma was the first family member and then my mom. Her reaction was less then stellar, she never really seems that thrilled for her children when they are expecting. But we are thrilled beyond words!
Todd has been amazing. So caring and helpful and just taking great care of Ky and I. He's been such a trouper through my sick nights and really rough days. This fathers day he is gonna get totally spoiled!
We are planning on going for an ultrasound on March 30th and bringing my Grandma with us. She has never been before and we would really like her to be apart of this pregnancy. She is such a wonderful Great Grandma to Ky and are so happy she is around to be part of our childrens lives.

I am officially done with working. The morning sickness is keep me home now and I am sound asleep by 9:30 most nights if not earlier lol I am hoping for a burst of energy come the second trimester so I can get a lot done around the house!

Well thats where things are right now. As of today we are 7w5d along and looking forward to the coming weeks!

The big brother!!

Well I dont want to forget to post about our first lil miracle. Kyler is 2yr 8months and our pride and joy. We are so excited for him to be a big brother. Right now you can talk to him about whats happening but I dont think he really understands what happening, which is fine because we dont want him to spill the beans.
He is such a creative, adventurous boy. It will be so awesome so see him with his baby brother/sister. I can already picture the trouble the two of them are going to get into.
2 nights ago when we went to check on Ky after he went to sleep we found all kinds of treasures in his bed with him, half the play fruit from his kitchen, a bowl on his butt, 3 books, 12 cars and a few other things. oh and broccoli. Ky has quite the imagination and spends lots of time where he is supposed to be sleeping sneaking around in his room!
Something that is really important to us is keeping him involved in the pregnancy and preparing him the changes that are about to happen in his life. Its changes for the good but we still understand it will be hard on him. We ask him if he will share mommy and daddy with the new baby and he hmms and haws and then says OK!!
He's such a great kid, he has been a blessing since day one and will be such a great helper when the new baby comes!

Test #4

Isn't that just the most amazing thing to see!! I am so thrilled. We are so thrilled. I am starting to think more about life with 2 kids and its so exciting!!

3 Positive tests!!

So I have done 3 pregnancy tests now and they have all given me a positive, so its really sunken in now. We are really having a baby...WOW!!! Today we went and looked at strollers and baby stuff and it was so wonderful. We picked up a book for Kyler about mommy having a baby and we are talking to him about it already. He wants a baby sister!!
I am hoping the next two weeks go well, thats when the bad nausea started for me with Ky. I am hoping and praying that I dont experience it the same this time. Now the important part is getting the HCG levels from the doctors and seeing if they are elevated. If they are then that means that we will have to go for an early ultrasound, the internal kind (yuck) to see if there are one or two growing in there. I am so nervous to find out. Hopefully just one little peanut.
Overall we are both over the moon happy and excited.

We're expecting!!

Wow. Those are the words that I am finding myself saying most often right now. Its pretty amazing to think that we are expecting baby #2.
I will take you back about 12 days to bring up to speed on our journey so far. Last week Tuesday I got sick, throwing up and very weak. I had been feeling off for a few days but dismissed it as the bug that had been going around. We after a couple days of throwing up and still not feeling any better I thought something was up. I had also begun to get some pregnancy symptoms. I got this feeling that maybe I was pregnant. I was even getting cravings. Odd for me. So finally on Saturday night Todd asked me if I was pregnant, well maybe, but I doubt it how could that be. The pregnancy symptoms just continued to increase and so Monday we did a pregnancy test (thats 11 days before my expected period) and sure enough we got a faint line. WOW WOW WOW. Its so early so of course I am feeling skeptical, so I went to the walk in the next day and the doctor ordered prenatal blood work, which we are still awaiting the results of, hopefully tomorrow. Today I was at the $Store and noticed they have pregnancy tests, well I decided that I get one and give it a shot, well sure enough, its positive too. Even tho two tests now tell me I am I really need to hear it from the doctor. We are over the moon so excited to be expecting baby #2. Praying for a pregnancy that isnt as hard as my first one and a healthy baby! Its all so exciting.
I have to admit those, that I am a bit worried about twins right now. Being that my pregnancy was detected so early on the home test that must mean my HCG levels are high, which can be an indicator of a multiples. So we shall see what the doctor has to say.

Keep posted, we will keep this up to date with our journey!