Emery's 3D/4D Ultrasound

Last week, Kyle and I headed to our 3D/4D ultrasound appointment!  I had received a coupon in the mail, and since it was $50 cheaper than our doctors office we thought we'd give it a try!  By no means did we go in there for amazing pictures, but more to just see Emery again, get her measurements and see what she was up to!  And that is exactly what we got!

The technician measured different parts of Emery's body, weight, heartbeat and more for us.  She's measuring about 4 days ahead of schedule still, which was such a relief to me since I hadn't been gaining weight.  I just wanted to make sure she wasn't behind schedule with our marginal placenta cord insertion!

So then it was finally time to see Emery in 3D... and look how well she was cooperating! hahaha

Yes you are seeing that right, those are both of her arms and hands covering her face, along with both of her legs and feet!! She was completely folded in half, and I think had been for a couple days as my stomach was ROCK HARD on my right side for a while.  I have no clue how that is comfortable for her, but she decided to stay like that our entire session!

Kyle and I got the biggest kick out of seeing her position, we loved it... just too cute.  We counted all her fingers and toes.  We also can tell that she has some chubby cheeks just like Kyle and I did as babies!

It's hard to tell what's swollen and what are her real features but it looks like she might have some big lips!  My lips disappear when I smile, so I'm very excited that she inherited Kyle's bigger lips!  She had her mouth open the entire time, and we even got to see her yawn, and stick out her tongue a couple times.

We think her head was resting on the placenta like a pillow.  How funny.

We also got a dvd of our entire session and have enjoyed watching that back over again.  We do qualify for a redo session for a small cost, but since we get to see her in 10 weeks we think we'll just wait!  We are so thankful for a healthy baby, and technology to actually see her up close every now and then!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(We are leaving today to drive to Raleigh to spend time with our families, so I won't be blogging over the next couple of days.)

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends,

focused on the birth of Jesus Christ! 

Love, 

Kyle, Leah, and baby Emery

29 weeks!

How Far Along: 29 weeks! 

(Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and her head is growing bigger to make room for her developing brain. To meet her increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because her bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.)

Size of baby: A tad over 15 inches long, and around 3 pounds!  (She's the size of a butternut squash)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 0 pounds again this week.  So I'm holding steady at 18 pounds total. I was concerned about this since I haven't gained any weight the past couple of weeks.  My doctor said that it is nothing to worry about, I'm still measuring fine and Emery is getting all the nutrients she needs from me.  My stomach measured 27.5 cm this past appointment.

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!  Emery Katherine will be here before we know it!

Movement: Still moving all the time.  I love that Kyle can poke around my stomach and figure out where Emery is sitting.

What I miss: Mountain Dew and Diet Coke! 

Sleep: Sleeping great.  Still getting up only once to go to the bathroom.

Symptoms: Nothing bad except if I'm on my feet a lot my back starts hurting.  I take lots of sitting breaks :)

Notes: I had my glucose screening test yesterday.  Let me just say the juice that they have you drink is SO good, seriously.  It is a mix between a flat sunkist and orange triaminic....I could have drank an entire jug of the stuff no problem :) I can definitely see the bottom of my belly button.  Still an innie although one side is kind of starting to stick out.  No dark line down my stomach, stretch marks, swelling or braxton hicks contractions yet! 

"To-do" items checked off our list:
- Primed, painted, cut, nailed up, putty-ed, and caulked the crown molding in the nursery & bathroom!

- Washed all of Emery's baby clothes and bassinet sheets.  I'm so excited to get the armoire all set up.

- Sent out Christmas cards.  I did not design them this year as we have too much going on, so I made it my mission to find some cheap cards. I am very proud to say that I only spent $4.90 + stamp postage total for all of them!  Seehere.com had some DEALS!

- Finished some "home made" gifts that were on our list for Christmas!  It was nice to have some craft time again!

- Plumber rerouted all of our pipes and wired the electricity.

- Kyle finished putting the dirt, gravel and concrete in our downstairs bathroom project.

Cravings: Slushies still-- ALL. THE. TIME!  Also, we bought a bag of the Reece's pieces the other day... Tara now I know why these are your favorite!! SO GOOD! 

Best Moments this week: Having a very productive weekend with Kyle and spending time with him since he's been traveling the past couple of weeks.

What we are looking forward to:  

- Our 3D/4D ultrasound TODAY at 9:00 am!  CAN'T WAIT to see her little features!  Our appointment last Saturday was canceled due to a server being down, so we rescheduled for Wednesday and got a $30 discount.  We are so excited about this appointment.

- Celebrating Christmas, just Kyle and I, on Wednesday night, then driving home to Raleigh to celebrate with our entire families for the rest of the week.

Plumbing, Concrete and Crown Molding Complete!

It was so nice having another weekend in town to make some more progress on our projects.  Starting with the basement bathroom project, a lot has happened!  Last week, the plumber came out and rerouted pipes and the electricity for us.

He worked a full day at our house to do it all as it was a ton of work for sure.  We were excited to see the pipes coming up for the toilet, shower and vanity as it helps us picture where they are going!  He also rerouted pipes to go behind the hot water heater to give us more space, and in turn gives us a bigger shower!

Next was Kyle's part, putting the dirt, gravel, re barb and concrete back in the hole! It was nice to not have all that dirt in our garage anymore!  There was a little high spot forming in the middle, so while it was still hardening he scraped some of that off.

When I went downstairs a couple hours later I noticed something...

Isn't that so cute?  Kyle carved our initials in the cement.  That's totally something that I would do, and I love that Kyle came up with that all on his own :)

While the concrete was hardening, we started priming and painting the crown molding in the garage.  Since I had already painted the walls I didn't want to have to paint the crown from a ladder too.  Once the molding was dry, we carried the trim upstairs for the crown molding project to start in the nursery.  It was NOT easy, we'll just put it that way.  Our walls are not straight so it was infuriating for Kyle to try to make the cuts for the pieces to fit correctly.  Chris came over, and with both of their brains and muscles together they finished the project.  Kyle and I finished it up with putty-ing the nail holes and putting caulk in the cracks.  Man what a difference caulk makes!!

I still have to paint over the caulk and putty marks but we are so excited that the trim is up!

Christmas tree ornaments!

I wanted to post about some new ornaments that we added to our collection this year (unfortunately if I did a post about all of the new ones it would take a little while so I just picked a couple)!  Keeping with tradition, we bought an ornament when we vacationed over the summer to St. John. I just love looking at our tree and remembering the places that we've visited together.

We went to a Christmas party with all of our n-wed friends last weekend and had a "white elephant" ornament exchange.  I was so excited to open and find 6 ceramic ornaments all in different shapes, hanging from red ribbon.  Also inside the box was a couple packets of scrapbooking rub-on words to rub onto the ornaments.  I thought FOR SURE someone would steal it from us, but they didn't-- yeah!!  I thought this was so creative of Paula & Chad, and might have to steal this idea to give next year at parties too!

Last year, Chris and Kathleen gave us an ornament in the shape of a Christmas tree that Chris made himself out of wood!  We just love this ornament, even the twine that it hangs from is cool.

Love having sentimental and creative ornaments on our tree for sure.  After 4 years of collecting together, it's finally starting to look full!  I've also been ordering and wrapping gifts like crazy this past week (I'm turning into a complete online Christmas shopper with all these free shipping deals), so we finally have some presents under our tree!

Happy 4 year anniversary!

Four years married to my best friend, AND we have a baby on the way...we are truly blessed!  
Love you Ky!

And happy 10 YEAR anniversary to my sister, Tara, and her husband Jamie!

Love that we got married on the same day, just 6 years apart :)

28 weeks -- Third Trimester here we come!

How Far Along: 28 weeks... in the 3rd trimester now! 

(She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.)

Size of baby: About 14.8 inches long, and she might be almost 3 pounds now!  We'll find out a better number next week.  (She's the size of a Chinese cabbage)

 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 0 pounds this week.  I'm still 18 pounds up. 

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!  Emery Katherine will be here before we know it!

Movement: Still moving all the time, and it gets a little uncomfortable when she stretches out! It's more cool then anything though to be able to feel where she is sitting just by poking my stomach in different areas and feeling where it's hard (her body).

What I miss: Mountain Dew and Diet Coke! 

Sleep: Pretty good still, only getting up once in the night to go pee, if that.

Symptoms: My left rib didn't hurt as much this week, so that was nice!  I am not enjoying bending over to pick things up anymore, as I always "grunt" on my way back up.  It's definitely getting more difficult!

Notes: Can definitely see the bottom of my belly button, but still an innie!  No dark line down my stomach, stretch marks, or swelling yet!  No braxton hicks contractions yet either, yeah!  I can't believe we are in the final stretch.  I've really enjoyed the 2nd trimester so hopefully the 3rd won't be TOO bad!

"To-do" items checked off our list:
- Actually registered for items at Target.

- Wrote and sent out thank you notes for my Shelby shower!

- Painted Emery's nursery and bathroom!
- Had a wonderful conversation with my boss about maternity leave.  The company is being so flexible with me in regards to coming back.  As of right now I'm planning on going back part time for a while to see how that goes with my commute.  
- Used my Paper Affair groupon ($20 for $50) to get thank you notes and paper for Emery's birth announcements!
- Used a coupon that I had received in the mail from Shutterfly (free $20 gift certificate) to order more thank you notes to use after future showers!  Love all these coupons that come when you announce you are pregnant!

- Kyle finished demolition on the storage room and rebuilt the bathroom wall!

Cravings: Slushies-- ALL. THE. TIME!  Also desserts at night.  I've always been a salty food fan, so to crave chocolate and desserts is very different for me!

Best Moments this week: Being in town over the weekend to get Emery's room painted, progress on the bathroom project, laundry completed, and our house cleaned!

What we are looking forward to:  

- Our 4 YEAR anniversary on Thursday!

- Our 3D/4D ultrasound on Saturday at 11:00!  CAN'T WAIT to see her little features!

- My glucose screening test next Tuesday... not really looking forward to this, but I will be relieved when it's over!  I will begin going to the doctor every 2 weeks from there on out! At least they gave me the drink beforehand so I don't have to wait in the Dr.'s office for over an hour!

OH and I have some exciting news!  My friend at work, Brooke, just gave me a ton of her daughters clothes, some of which still have the tags on them!  She was going to give them to good will if I didn't want them, and I am so excited to put Emery in these!

Brooke is also letting us borrow her bassinet for when Emery will be sleeping in our room.  We are so excited, as the pack n play was going to be a tight squeeze!  It is so cute!

Thank you so much again Brooke!!  We are so blessed to have wonderful friends and family that are so generous!

Bathroom Progress!

Kyle has made HUGE progress down in the basement on our bathroom project!  After he demoed the wall, the next step was to remove parts of our concrete slab in order to run plumbing to the shower, sink and toilet.  I kind of referred to this last week, but this step was a big hoopla!  Kyle rented from Home Depot a concrete saw, which ended up causing so much dust that it set off our smoke alarm and it looked like the Sahara in our living room!  I had to open all the windows and doors for the alarm to go off.  On top of that, it's gas powered and our neighbor came over saying that his house smelled like exhaust fumes.  Kyle had only cut about a 4 foot section, so we decided to return the saw and go straight for the jack hammer.

The jack hammering went great and Kyle was able to get every part of the concrete up that he needed to within the 4 hour rental period from Home Depot.  That machine is a beast though, and Ky was exhausted after maneuvering that 70 lb thing for 4 hours.  After he broke up all the concrete, the next step was to shovel & wheelbarrow out all of the concrete, dig out the gravel underneath, and the dirt underneath the gravel.  We were excited when Kyle finally hit the pipes!

On Sunday, Chris came over and helped Kyle rebuild the bathroom wall.  (We tore it down because we moved it out about 2 feet).  It needed to be load bearing, so they followed all the guidelines to build it correctly.

 

 

The plumber is coming out to our house on Thursday and will run all the plumbing we need for the bathroom.  Kyle is very excited to be done with demolition, and we are looking forward to the building stages!  Man I love having a handy husband!

Nursery Projects Begin!

Kyle and I were so excited to have a weekend in town (our first one in over a month!) to be able to get some of our bigger projects completed.  While Kyle was down working away on our bathroom project, I tackled painting Emery's room and bathroom.  I don't think many women who are 6 months pregnant do this, so I was very proud of myself for sticking it out and completing it.  And don't worry we had the fan going and windows cracked for ventilation!

Here are the colors we are decorating the nursery in.  Love how calming they are!  

(It's a greenish blue, sometimes looks light aqua sometimes looks mint.)

Saturday I worked for 3 hours getting the bedroom and bathroom ceilings painted in a lighter shade.  The original color was a khaki and we knew it would not look at that pretty together.  This was by far the hardest part since I've never had much arm strength!

Sunday I spent all day getting the trim and walls done in the bedroom and bathroom... 2 coats each!  We used the paint with primer in it to save some time since we were covering up yellow!

 

 Can you tell I was tired?  I would paint for a while, then lay down and nap for an hour then get to work again.

But it's done now and we love it.  Next step is to paint & put up crown molding (we have it in our entire house except for that room!).  We hope to get that done this weekend, it's coming together!

Our first baby shower!

Last weekend we spent in Shelby, NC with my best friend Lauren and her husband Matt.  We had THE BEST weekend, it was just such a treat to hang out with them for a couple days.  Matt and Kyle kept laughing the whole weekend, realizing how alike Lauren and I really are.  We seriously would be in trouble if we lived in the same city :)

Lauren graciously hosted my first baby shower on Saturday!  She had planned the menu perfectly, so Saturday morning we made all the delicious food and got the house ready for the shower.  She kept saying "only with your best friend can you make her decorate and make food for her own shower"... but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I loved helping!!  

Kyle was in charge of making the almond cookies and meatballs, and I handled the pickled sandwiches and cookie icing.  Lauren was busy making the punch and running around doing last minute things, but most importantly making us laugh in her 80's pj outfit.  And lastly, Matt was decorating the mantle, hearth, and stairs in the most beautiful greenery that he had collected from around town.  Seriously Matt if dentistry doesn't work out for you, I think you've found your calling.  Chaco and Tyson helped out too, they get along so great!

All the food turned out perfectly and was all so delicious!  Here is her food table!

And a closer view of some of the goodies:

We knew it was going to be a smaller shower (I am having a Raleigh shower but didn't want my Charlotte friends to have to drive so far to be there so that's why we held a small one in Charlotte!), but we really had no clue who was going to come since many people didn't rsvp regrets.  One of the biggest shocks to me was that SARA came!!! (Who else would take beautiful pictures like this?!).  Her and Joe drove all the way from Raleigh, and it meant so much to have both of my pregnant best friends in the same room!  Sara is 3 weeks behind me, crazy!

Unbelievably at the shower we had 4 pregnant women!!  It's so crazy how many of my friends are pregnant right now!  We just found out about Pamela's pregnancy a couple weeks ago, and it was so great to see her in person and catch up.  She as well had a long drive from Raleigh, so sweet of her to come!

Leah (26 weeks), Lauren (18 weeks), Pamela (12 weeks), Sara (23 weeks)

I was SO excited to see my good friends, Juliet and Ashley at the shower!  I haven't seen them in so long and I loved catching up.  Juliet and I were on the ASU Dance Team together all 4 years, and Ashley and I were in regular dance classes all through college.  I have missed you both so much!

My mom and Grandma came from Raleigh to join in the fun too!  It was so special having them there!

Everyone brought such sweet presents for little Emery.  I cannot WAIT to use all of this stuff and put her in these adorable clothes.  Thank you all so much!

Lauren and I took a belly shot together too!  I cannot believe that she's expecting A LITTLE GIRL TOO!!  Thank you so much Lauren for being such an amazing best friend and hosting this shower for me.  It couldn't have been more perfect!!  (Even if you did make me wear a "mom to be" medal around my neck the entire day!)

And lastly here is our entire group!  It was so intimate, I just loved it.  A huge thank you to Celia too for driving all the way from Asheville in the snow to come!  What sweet sweet friends and family we have!!

Christmas decorations are up!

One of my goals this week after work, was to put up all of our Christmas decorations!  I feel like as soon as I get them up, it's time for them to come down and since we have so many other projects going on, I only put up the necessities!  I do have up all my nativities set up, I just didn't take pictures of those for this post!

Here is our tree.  We went for the $39 Home Depot tree this year instead of cutting down our own in Boone.  Unfortunately, it looks a little like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree with holes everywhere, but it adds character:)

 

And here is our mantle with our stockings for our current family of 5 (Tyson & the cats of course)!  Can't wait to add Emery's embroidered stocking next year!! (YES I planned ahead last year and bought 3 other matching stockings that aren't shown!)

 

And here are our outside decorations!  Candle in every window and garland wrapped around the porch with bows at the end.

 

I love coming home, listening to instrumental Christmas music, turning on all the twinkle lights, and lighting a Christmas scent yankee candle.  Doesn't get much better than that! 

I am very proud of the decorations this year because I did them ALL BY MYSELF, Kyle didn't touch any part of them.  Where was he do you ask?  I'll leave you with this picture...

 Don't worry a blog post is coming next week about it.  Just picture: dust blowing like in the Sahara around our entire house, smoke alarm going off, neighbors homes smelling like gas, and one exhausted husband.  It's been a long week we'll just put it that way!

Do y'all have your Christmas decorations up already?