2 month checkup… what a fatty!

So little miss Sommer had a two month check-up and vaccinations yesterday. Overall, it went quite well. She is quite the trooper. So if you remember, at birth, Sommer was 6lbs 15oz and 21 inches long. Welllllll… now the stinker is 12lbs 7oz and 24 inches long!!!! She is growing so fast, its hard to believe! The doctor said that she now has cute rolls! (only as a baby are rolls cute… I wish people thought they were "cute" on adults… haha) She was so good throughout the whole appointment… and then came the vaccinations. She had to get three shots and an oral vaccine. She took down the oral just fine (cause we all know she loves to eat anything), and then came the shots. As soon as the first prick went in she starting crying! Thankfully though, it was pretty short lived. I held her for just a minute or so and then put her in her carseat. Basically, by the time we were heading out of the doctor's office, she was nice and quiet. She actually slept until we got home. The doctor said she would be a little crabby for like 24 hours (which she was a little crabbier than normal last night), but honestly, not nearly as bad as I expected! She is such a tough little munchkin.

Beside getting nice and chubby lately, she just overall seems to be growing before our eyes. She is moving around so much more, cooing like crazy, smiles up the wazoo, and trying her darndest to laugh! When you get her in the right mood, she will smile on and off for a good half hour! She smiles even more when you laugh at her! Those smiles just melt my heart! I just love to see her grow and reach new milestones each and every day!

So you all can enjoy her adorableness along with me… I am posting a bunch of photos and a cute video (from one morning at about 3am - if it works). Enjoy and happy Tuesday!

Just for fun!

So I just realized I could download the app to blog from my phone... And now I'm testing it out. This could mean more blogging for this mamma! I could more quickly update you all on my little peanut and all the silly things she does! Yeah for technology!

So I'm gonna try posting some pics from my phone, and hopefully it all works!

Almost 2 months old… holy moly!

So I'm going to start by apologizing for the almost 2.5 month gap in my postings… but I've been just a little busy! For those of you who don't know (and don't follow me on facebook or instagram) little Sommer Elizabeth Kirsch joined our little family on March 12 at 10:46 am. She weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 21 inches long (she is obviously going to take after her father in height!) I had a 16 hour labor, but only 5 minutes of pushing… thank goodness! Sommer decided she wanted to try to come out face up, so the last 2 or so hours of labor were spent trying to get the little acrobat to flip around so she came out face down. Thanks to a wonderful nurse who knew some crazy positions, we were victorious and Sommer came out safe and healthy! I was in the hospital for 2.5 days, and although it was nice to have the constant help and support from all of the nurses, it was such a wonderful feeling to go home with our new bundle (and to see my dear pups) to start our life as a little family!

Well… dear Sommer is now 8 weeks old and as adorable as I could ever imagine her to be. From the very beginning I thought she was very advanced… holding her head up at 1 day old (although I'm just slightly biased being her mom and all). She is now starting to coo and make all kinds of fun baby noises. Her smiles are becoming more and more frequent… and she grabs ahold of our hearts more and more each day! I never thought I could love anyone or anything as much as I love this little girl! I never want to leave her and I wish I didn't have to miss a minute of her life! Unfortunately work is a necessity in order to keep food in all of our bellies and clothes on our backs. It was quite a transition at 6 weeks, but its been fairly smooth (thanks to Brad's parents who are our "daycare" – they actually come and pick her up in the morning and brad picks her up on his way home from work). The transition would have been much more difficult had I had to put her in the care of a stranger! Thank goodness for family members who live close by! Well I could ramble on and on about my adorable mini me, but how about I just share a ton of pictures… ENJOY!

38 weeks… let the waiting game begin!

Today is March 1 and my official "Baby" month!!! I couldn't be more excited and anxious! March seemed soooooo far away… and BAM!!!… here we are in March. I guess to say that I'm anxious doesn't really cover the whole realm of feelings. I'm anxious to meet the newest Kirsch. I'm excited to see her beautiful face and hold those little hands/feet that have been kicking my inside. I'm scared that I won't know exactly when I'm going into labor or what to do when she is finally here. I'm overjoyed that this has been such a smooth and healthy pregnancy for both me and Baby K and these are anywhere from only days to weeks until we get to meet her. I'm overall just so thankful that we have been given the opportunity to expand our family and share the love that Brad & I feel for each other with our baby girl.

Brad has been so calm and collected throughout this entire pregnancy, that is was hard to tell how excited and anxious he was for Baby K's arrival. I thought I was the only one freaking out about her making her debut. How wrong I was! hehe. He keeps telling me to eat spicy food and do whatever I need to to get her out. He told me last night… "I want her to be here so we can hang out!" This was so frickin adorable to me, just picturing him and his daddy's girl chilling on the couch watching some sports together! Makes me tear up a little… cause those are the simple little moments I look forward to! I will say, I have been bouncing on my exercise ball and trying to walk around more to maybe, just maybe, help speed things up a bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% ok with her cooking in there till her due date, but if she wants to join the world a little early, I'm ok with that too!! We are all just so excited to meet her!

Well besides just being over excited to meet our baby girl, not a whole lot is new with me. (Weird, right, considering I'm over 8 months pregnant). I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, and I was 1.5cm dialated now, but still just 30% effaced. My weight, blood pressure, baby's heart rate and everything was right on target too. I have been feeling pretty darn good considering, although started to get a little more tired again, and the big ol' belly gets in the way a little more than it used to! One quick story about my belly… so our good friends Ryder & Wendy just bought a new house, and Brad & I were over there helping them out with a few things. Brad was helping to paint, and I was just doing to taping and taking off outlet covers. Anyways, Brad has just painted these half walls by the entryway, and I was standing in that area talking to him. Well about a half hour later I was sitting down eating with Wendy, and she looks at my shirt and ask, "What did you do?" When I looked down, I had a perfect little circle of fresh paint on my stomach. Sooo, I guess I still don't know how big my belly is because I stuck it up against the wall without even knowing! haha! I had a good laugh from that one!

Well I hope you all have a great first few days of March… and I will keep you all posted on any new happenings!

Hugs,

Betsy

OMG! 37 weeks… technically full term!

It is absolutely insane for me to think that I am already considered to be "full-term"! Seriously… where has the past 8 months gone! I can remember the day I found out I was pregnant like it was yesterday… and now we honestly could be meeting our baby girl any day! My emotions and thoughts are all over the board at this point… excitement, anxiety, overjoy, anticipation and just an overall disbelief that we are actually going to be parents! Its almost surreal. I obviously know that I have been pregnant and carrying this baby in my womb for 37 weeks, but now its hard to change the mindset to the fact that she is actually going to be here. She will be sleeping in the crib, and wearing all the adorable clothes and stealing our hearts! We soooo can't wait to meet her and introduce her to the loving family and friends that she is so lucky to have!

Along with these 37 weeks come all sorts of new aches, pain, feelings, etc. Since the little one has dropped (at least I think) she is not pushing up into my ribs so much, and breathing is much easier. BUT, on the other side of that is now she is pushing down into my bladder and lower stomach, causing all sorts of pressure down there that I haven't felt before. Walking and standing for any length of time seems to be a little more difficult just because there is so much weight being put on my upper legs. Not to mention the slight jolts of pain I get down my thighs every once in a while from her pushing on a nerve. But with all these changes also comes that, for some reason, I have actually been sleeping BETTER! I can't actually explain it, but its true. I also just feel this sense of peace because I think I am starting to realize that we are about as ready as we could be for her to arrive. Brad is very anxious for his baby girl to be here… he keeps asking how we can get her to just come already! <3 Its quite cute… she's gonna have him wrapped around his finger in no time!

So, speaking of her making her arrival… things are slowly but surely making progress. I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday… my weight, blood pressure and baby's heartrate were all right on target. And she did my first internal exam. Looks like, as of Tuesday, I am 1cm dialated and 30% effaced. Also, she was able to feel the baby's head, so she is definately down and in her "ready" position. Even though it could still be 2 or 3 weeks till she gets here, its just really nice to know that things are at least moving along! I'm very anxious to see how things are progressing at my next doctor's appointment next week!

So just to give you guys some fun photos to look at, I'm posting pictures of what I'm calling the "final nursery" pics, and some pics from my different showers!

Enjoy!!!

35 weeks… The nursery is done, and the Bun is getting close!

35 weeks… wow! Ummm, for those of you who don't wanna do the math, that's only 5 more weeks till my due date! I can't even believe it… but my body can! My tummy is getting HUGE, things are definately starting to get ready for this little one to be here… and taking my shoes and socks on and off has become quite the chore! I only wish I could teach the dogs to help pull them off! I love that I still feel comfortable wearing my heals and boots, but I tell you they are not the easiest thing to get off! haha! When i go in for my doctor's appointments, I have to make sure that I wear shoes I can easily get off so I don't look like a total moron trying to get my shoes off when they go to weigh me! ;) The nurses at the doctor's office are all just so impressed I still wear heels! honestly, besides my tennis shoes, I only have one or two pairs of slip on shoes! Knowing me, I will probably be walking into the hospital to give birth with heels on! I'm sure they don't see that every day! Ok, enough of a rant about my shoes!

I just had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything was perfect! (thank the lord!) My weight and blood pressure were perfect, my belly size is right on track, and the baby is head down with her little bum right under my ribs! Its so cute to try to picture how she looks in there! (although a little cramped!) I have to say, I have been so lucky with this pregnancy. No complications, no bumps in the road (fingers crossed) and just feeling pretty darn good overall. Yeah, I've had the sickness, tiredness, etc, but thats all to be expected with any pregnancy. I feel very fortunate to still be able to work out a couple days a week and just go about my daily life as normal (although maybe just a bit slower… and don't ask me to pick anything up off the ground!)

Next week is the start of my WEEKLY doctor appointments leading up the our baby girl's arrival! We are also taking a tour of the birthing center next week… which I'm excited about! This is all starting to get so real… and we are going to welcoming such a precious gift to our family in no time! I can't wait to share all this excitement with you guys!

Hugs and happy hump day!

33 weeks and getting anxious!

So I am now officially 33 weeks along… ummm where did the time go! If I do have this precious little one around my due date, we are only talking about 7 more weeks! That is absolutely hard to believe! As the weeks dwindle down, I'm getting more and more anxious to meet our baby girl! I keep trying to picture what she is going to look like and what it is going to be like to look into those adorable little eyes! (oh man… tearing up just thinking about it!) She sure is not shy about letting me know that she is in my belly and doing fine (although maybe a little cramped! – I don't know how I'm going to fit her in my belly when she is still going to almost double in size!) She is definately a mover and shaker! Brad and I actually found out last night what kind of music she really likes… PHISH! Surprise surprise! I had fallen asleep on the couch and Brad was playing video games. At one point he decided to put on some music (Live Phish album from Alpine Valley) instead of listening to the video game. As soon as he put the music on, I woke up and baby girl was moving and kicking up a storm! She didn't start moving until the music came on… and didn't slow down until a song or two later! Brad was so happy to know he was already rubbing off on his little girl!

In getting ready for the new arrival, last weekend my parents came down and brought the dresser that they refinished for the nursery, along with the white rocker that my Nanny gave us for the nursery. These were the last 2 major pieces we needed in order to put the nursery together. So after last weekend, the nursery is finally almost finished. I have a few last touches to add (a few things on the wall and hanging up the mobile), but other than that, it actually really looks like a nursery now. Its hard to believe that there will actually be a darling baby sleeping in that room so very soon! I just can't wait! hope she loves it as much as Brad & I do. Brad even said that he could just hang out in the room because it feels so cozy now!

Well besides all these "warm fuzzy" things going on with the baby, some of the discomforts that come along with your 3rd trimester are really setting in. Sleeping is still quite an issue… constantly tossing and turning, and my hips are getting really sore and tight from having to sleep on my side. My big belly is starting to really crowd my ribs, making it slightly more difficult to breathe at times. And when baby girl kicks my ribs, it literally takes my breathe away! Its amazing how strong a 4lb baby can be inside of you! I also am having a harder and harder time putting on socks and shoes because there is no comfortable way to work around this belly! I somehow manage… but I'm sure it is quite the scene if anyone were to watch me do it! Slip ons are going to be my best friend very soon!!

But seriously people… 7 more weeks! Thats it until this little miracle is here! Wow! I'm going to be in disbelieve until she is in my arms and I can kiss that little face of hers! Oh how I can't wait!

Hope you all have a fab week!