37 weeks.... Full term and .....The waiting game begins :)

I'm promising not to be that awkward social media poster who talks about inappropriate things at the end of pregnancy, so I will just say that the doctor says things are coming along as expected... The baby could basically be here any time in the next few weeks, but i assume she'll be close to her due date :)

I'm enjoying this time spending time with my husband, friends, and extended family and finishing up Christmas stuff...

We are ready for Christmas and are working to be ready to meet our little girl. As of Friday the 7th she was weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz. all of the text books say about a half lb per week is gained during the last four weeks. That would put her at 8'13 if she makes it to full 40. We will see, but I'm not too terribly worried about a huge baby anymore. I don't think she'll be making double digits...

The doctor at baptist did say she has hair :) kinda surprising but exciting. Hope she likes hair bows! Her proportions are good, she has a slightly big head and long legs, but her abdomen is right at the 50th percentile, meaning there is no increased risk for birth defects.

The school semester is over so before lucie is born I hope to get the house straightened up just a little but more and I think Patrick and I are both hoping to make it through our anniversary on the 19th to have one last nice date before our life changes;) we will see though, because the timing is not our own!! We're sure that whenever she comes it will be the perfect time...

We will continue to keep updating about the progress, but the next few weeks are sure to be a waiting game. Christmas is such a sweet season to be welcoming new life into our home and we are anxious to have that news.

Katie

Thanksgiving and more...

We had a very fun and jammed packed weekend for thanksgiving. We spent thanksgiving day at Patrick's parents house and the day after at my moms. Lucie didn't like thanksgiving round 1. She must've felt smushed... On thanksgiving round 2 I had to eat very lightly as to not upset our little princess.

On Friday night we had the opportunity to go see the story tour with Patricks parents at church. It was a really good show that chronicled the bible from genesis to revelation with good music :) Lucie liked the bass and danced along.

Saturday we were blessed to have my wonderful cousin and aunt throw me a baby shower :) it was fun getting to see the family and Tara for the shower! Lucie got some lovely new things.

Saturday night my sister Meaghan got engaged to an awesome guy, Taylor. We are so happy for her and Taylor and their future together. Looks like 2013 will bring 2 new members to the family :) we went to brunch Sunday after church to celebrate! Gotta love Cracker Barrel!

I went to the doctor today for my check up. They are every week now... Lucie's movement has slowed down a bit so we did an ultrasound to check her movement. It took forever to wake her up. The u/s tech was shaking my stomach and had me drink an entire sprite.....nothing. Then they took a noise maker out to wake her up. Nothing... After several attempts she finally mustered a couple of kicks to let us know she was okay in there. I hope this stubbornness doesn't last, or labor and delivery could be long...

The good news is that the ultrasound confirmed that Lucie has dropped and is very low. As of now she's in great position for labor. I commented that I didn't look like I had dropped, and the ultrasound tech kindly reminded me I don't have much of a torso and I have a big baby. Apparently it doesn't always look "dropped."

We are still doing the ultrasound at baptist east next week to measure for large gestational age and to see if the second ultrasound machine shows the baby as above the 90th percentile as well. If it does we will start talking about the different delivery options.

The good news is seems like everything is going well and the baby is healthy. We are anxiously awaiting her arrival, and honestly, as soon as the school semester is over i will be ready for her to be here :)

Xoxo
Katie

Lucienne is HUGE and mommy is freaked out....

So--- I went into the doctor today for an ultrasound @ 32 weeks. The ultrasound tech took all of Lucie's measurements. Then she took them again. I was watching as each measurement popped a different gestational value on the screen from 31-36 weeks. Her head is like 36 weeks size. Her femur length is full term already I'm pretty sure. At this gestational age she's supposed to weigh about 3 1/2 lbs. they estimated her at 4 lbs 14 oz today. She's almost a 5 lb baby and I have 8 or 9 weeks to go?! Wait... What was that about the baby gaining a half a pound or more per week for the rest of the third trimester? Yikes! I'm totally freaked out that this girl is going to be HUGE. I am legitimately worried about a double digit weight at this point. They are going to do an LGA (large gestational age) ultrasound at BHE in a few weeks to see if their measurements come up the same...

The good news is she is otherwise healthy. Her heart rate is 153 still and she's really active. I got a picture of her but her face looks totally smushed up.

This past week I have been having Braxton hicks and some back pain...new and interesting experiences each week!!!

In the back of my head I'm wondering if my due date is off and if she might come before January. I'm trying not to get my hopes up though...

Oh, and not only is Lucienne huge, mommy is huge too. See pics below.

Katie and Margee had Lucie's crib skirt made as a shower gift. It turned out so cute and matches her bed! Check out those pics too :)

Xoxo Katie

Countdown--- 9 weeks !

Well --- I'm still waddling along. In fact Patrick and I just got back from a 3 mile waddle around the neighborhood. :) I am walking as much as possible and eating lots of spicy food... I'm not ready to have the baby yet, but I figured a little preemptive preparation was in order.

New on the symptom list this week are heartburn and slightly swollen hands and feet. Pretty normal for 31 weeks. I am also having trouble sleeping... I guess you don't realize that when you flip yourself in bed your used to using your abs. When you don't have that option anymore it's more of an ungraceful hoist to roll over. I keep reminding myself I'm getting lots more sleep now than I will once little girl is born...

I went to the doctor yesterday and it seems like everything is going just fine. Lucie's heartbeat is nice and strong and all of the blood work came back good from when I did that gestational diabetes test. There's nothing to signal any pregnancy complications thus far... Next Friday we will have an ultrasound to make sure there is still now IUGR- which is a potential complication of celiac and pregnancy. Very unlikely that there will be any problems but I'm thankful for the extra peek at Lucie :) Then I will have one more visit in November and will switch to weekly visits in December. I asked Patrick today how it felt to think that He could be a dad next month :) !!! So exciting. He's gonna be awesome!

I've been doing lots of preparing in the nursery. We've got the furniture rearranged just a bit... It's still nowhere near ready but hopefully in December we can get it together. Over the weekend I decided to install the carseat in the car. (We still need to take it to the fire station to have them check it). What I didn't realize is that not all carseats fit in all cars. I think the one we ended up getting (graco snugride 30) is going to end up being okay. I was slightly freaked out at first when the base hung over the end of the seat! After much Internet research, I found that as long as the part of the base that is closest to the rear if the car cannot move more than an inch in either direction, the car seat is fine... I felt guilty about having a compact car until I found out that this particular carseat hangs over the edge of a Yukon and several other HUGE vehicles. Then I didn't feel so bad. It's America's #1 rated carseat according to the box so I guess there are a lot if people out there driving around with the same dilemma!

We ended up picking growing children pediatrics as the pediatrician for Lucie.... After much recommendation and consideration. I figure we can always switch if something goes awry but I talked to the OB about it and she says she's always heard good things :) I think all of the recommendations we got were probably great!

I'm quickly approaching the end of my school semester in 4 weeks. I still have lots to do and should probably be writing papers and not blogging... :)

Katie

Sunday :)

I was so privledged to have a very good friend and her mama through me a beautiful baby shower this past Sunday. Lucie got lots of neat things. I wish my husband would've told me I looked like crap before I walked out the door... that is a different story though.

Here are some pictures from the shower:

 The table was set so pretty...

 playing a game...

 Lucie's gifts...

 Lauren made these cute frames for Lucie's room...

 Christina and Sophia

 Lucie's cute chair! Thank's Sis and Tammy...

Margaret, Katie R, and Amber

As you can see, Lucie is going to be one pretty pink princess. I was so thrilled to have such a fun and lovely shower.

In other news, we are in the process of picking a pediatrician... please pray that we make a good decision for our family.

Katie



An update on Lucie's progress...

So I had my doctors appointment this afternoon where they do the screening for the gestational diabetes. They also did the regular ultrasound stuff and measurements.

I realllllllllly wanted a good clear U/S picture of Lucie, but I guess I didn't have enough fluid before hand. I was kind of disappointed.

This is the picture that came out the best. Looks like little girl was sleepy. She wasn't really bouncing around a lot like i thought she would be, especially because i had to drink the orange glucose drink literally right before the ultra sound. This is what Lucie looks like from the outside: 

She is getting big. In fact, the doctor now says she is measuring two weeks ahead. She weighs approximately 2 lbs and 13 oz. Overall she's off the charts, but they say that because they are averaging in all her measurements and her legs are unusually long--- like her daddy's I guess. That's skewing the rest of the average. Her head size is in the 75% currently and they said her belly is in the 30%. So i guess we have a long-legged Lucie thus far. My doctor never changes due dates, so her due date will remain the same.

I did the glucose test and it wasn't that bad. I didn't throw up or feel awful or anything like that. Hopefully the results come back okay, otherwise I will have to do a longer version of the test.

The doctor did say I've gained a lot of weight since my last visit. She said are you exercising, eating healthy, etc... ? Um yes! Trying my hardest! The total weight gain for the pregnancy is supposed to be 25 lbs and I've gained 16 so um... i guess its safe to say I'm not really on track any more....She said if I'm doing my part thats all I can do so, I guess we will see! Not to say the doctor has no common sense, but If you weigh me in the middle of the day vs. first thing like normal, and with a full bladder, i could see some skewed results. Especially because as the weather gets colder, you get weighed with more clothes on etc. Oh well, what can ya do? Next time around I want a sweet and slightly plump doctor. Or maybe a man. It's hard to have some 100 lb pixie stick trying to discuss pregnancy weight gain with me. No matter how good her intentions.


Patrick and I went to Nashville this past weekend to celebrate our "baby moon." It was just a short trip but we had the opportunity to go to the grand ole' opry, country music hall of fame, and to see the parthenon. we stayed really close to Vanderbilt and were able to spend time walking around the campus some. It was nice to get away one last time before little Lucie is born.

The doctor wanted to talk about getting vaccinated for the flu and for the whopping cough. Apparently the CDC recommends both of these vaccines for pregnant people. I told my doctor I would think about it. Here's my beef... first of all whopping cough. At an all time high in the US. 1st question to my doctor... so if i get vaccinated will the vaccine pass onto the baby and keep her safe? the answer- we don't know yet. 2nd question- Is the vaccine safe for my baby? Answer- no studies have been done on pregnant women. So you want to me to be a guinea pig? (ok, i just thought this part). Im okay with getting vaccinated after she is born. And the doctor advises all who will be around the baby to get vaccinated. I'm even okay with that. But while your pregnant your body can do funny things. I'm not sure I'm ready to just hop on board this  'lets vaccinate everybody because the CDC wants to scare people' train. About the flu shot. I have never had the flu. I have had the flu shot 3 times. Thats because it was free at work. The last time I got it I really didn't feel hot afterwards. they used to tell pregnant women not to get the shot....I'm not really okay with this either. Hopefully i don't regret this, but my gut instinct tells me to take my chances and my vitamins, and to decline these vaccines.

I'd be interested to hear what the other pregnant mommas have to say about all this stuff. As a first time mom it seems so hard to navigate through all of the decisions.

Hope everyone is doing well! Patrick and I are gearing up for an exciting rest of the month and are looking forward to lots of fun in store for the fall. Lucie hopefully just under 12 weeks away :)

Katie

Lately...

So the past couple of weeks have been extremely busy... We celebrated my birthday the 8/9/10th with family... It was quite the marathon weekend! We really enjoyed getting to see the family and hang out for a bit. My favorite part was that Patrick took me to Seviche on Saturday night... We hadn't been before and it was SO good. The guacamole is amazing.

Mom's been busy shopping and sewing for Lucie. Lucie now has her first church dress and shoes! She also has a taggie toy personalized with her name!

We were so excited to find out this past weekend that two of our very good friends are having a little girl too!! They are just 4 weeks behind us. So excited for Lucie's first friend :). Congrats Rulketters!!


Lucie's growing by the day it seems. Patrick and I have been walking 2-3 miles most nights to keep the exercise up... I'm looking closer and closer to the fake belly at motherhood maternity.

I'm currently on a quest for the perfect crib skirt for Lucie's bed. I want a pink ruffled one. I haven't seen anything anywhere that matches what I want and I'm starting to get frustrated by the process! Who knew finding a crib skirt would be so hard! I did see one at pottery barn I like but I'm not sure if it's the right color pink....

15 weeks to go with baby L! (if she cooperates!) so far everything has been smooth sailing so hopefully the rest of the pregnancy won't be too too awful!

Here, there, and everywhere!

Things have been busy in la casa de Kennedy lately. Patrick is continuing to study for level 1 of the CFA exam which takes a ton of time. I also started back to school. he had a minor freak out last night because we lost his calculator manual. Then I solved the problem by finding a PDF file of the manual online. Keep your opinions on who is nerdier to yourself!

I had a minor flip out when trying to decide what classes to take this semester, whether to keep going to real school or switch to an online program etc... There are so many factors.

I decided to keeping going to u of l and I'm taking 12 hours this semester. It's a lot but I'd rather do it before our little girl gets here. Sooo at the end of this semester I'll have 24 hours completed and 18 to go (about a yr and a half more).

Last weekend we went on a 1 night trip to Cincy for a wedding. We stayed at the hotel where the wedding was. We had a gift card to the movies in Cincy so we went and saw a movie at Newport at the levy and then headed over to the hotel... We had a good time but had to hurry home to get to Patrick's grandmothers birthday lunch and a baby shower we had planned for Sunday. I would've liked to have stopped by IKEA while we were up there but oh,well.

We did stop by waffle house on the way home. Waffle house= so bad but so good.

This weekend is labor day weekend and we are looking forward to a quieter weekend. We are going out to dinner with some friends tonight and we'll go to church on Sunday, moms for dinner, and,of course, will probably be trying to find a place to cheer on the cards. I mean cats. ;)

Yawn, we sound boring. Patrick needs to catch up on studying anyways and there is always laundry!

P.S--- I decided after last year that I couldn't neglect my cards completely so I would cheer for ul during football season and uk during basketball season... Sounds like a good compromise, right ?!

Don't answer that question....

Katie

The Baby Name Game

Patrick and I have had names picked out since before we announced we were expecting. From what I hear I don't think it usually happens like that.

I've seen people go in circles forever about names...this, that, the other. It's overwhelming. What's in a name anyway? In my opinion, EVERYTHING. And I am super picky. I'll walk you through my criteria. You can judge me and my OCD later.

Rule 1: No Top 20 Names.
Ok, I'll say it. There are some super-cute names on the top 20 list. But, i grew up as "Katie S." Ok, now how annoying does that get, always having to go by your last initial. And now, even in adult life I'm Katie K. or Katie Kennedy because there is another Katie at work. Another Katie at book club. In fact I think I have like six Katie's in my cell phone contacts. Patrick's best friend's wife's name is also Katie. So now I am also called "My Katie" in that situation.

My mom said she had no idea Katie was so popular when she named me that. And to be fair, I am named after my two grandmothers (Katherine and Lorraine.) Maybe in Germantown, TN. , where I was born, it wasn't as popular... but in good ole Catholic town Louisville it's pretty common.

So here are the names that were automatically eliminated for us because of this rule(This is the 2011 list):

1	Jacob	Sophia
2	Mason	Isabella
3	William	Emma
4	Jayden	Olivia
5	Noah	Ava
6	Michael	Emily
7	Ethan	Abigail
8	Alexander	Madison
9	Aiden	Mia
10	Daniel	Chloe
11	Anthony	Elizabeth
12	Matthew	Ella
13	Elijah	Addison
14	Joshua	Natalie
15	Liam	Lily
16	Andrew	Grace
17	James	Samantha
18	David	Avery
19	Benjamin	Sofia
20	Logan	Aubrey

Rule #2: I love old fashioned/traditional names. Not so much like Gertrude and Cornelius... but classic names. I like names that aren't too trendy or fleeting, or where you will be able to say, "Oh, I bet you were born in 2012!" Lately, these old fashioned names are becoming en vogue again and I love it.

Rule #3: No famous names. With the last name of Kennedy there are lots that are off limits. Jacqueline, Caroline, Jack, John, Teddy, Rose, Robert... The list goes on, right. Sorry, but I don't want to explain to my kid why their name's in the history text book, on the news, or whatever.

Some other considerations.... I like family names and biblical names. I think it's sweet to honor those who mean a lot to you through nomenclature.

I have to say, our boy's name came to us easier. "William Luke." If the baby had been a boy he would've gone by Luke. I know what your thinking -- you broke rule #1. Ok, your right. BUT that is my husband's first name and his grandfather's first name and the baby wouldn't have used that name any more than Patrick uses William. so I justify it in that way.

But our baby is a she-baby. And her name came to me one day while walking. I didn't think of the spelling or diminutives, anything like that, but I thought Hmmm... Lucy would be a sweet name. It met rules 1,2, and 3 and Patrick liked it. Ironically, it meant the same thing as Luke which is "light." I thought that was sweet too. This baby will certainly be a light in our lives!

Since We were sure our baby was a boy anyways I didn't consider it much again until we knew the baby was a girl. Before we knew, we were secretly calling the baby "Baby Lukey" as a compromise between the two names and with the discussion that we would finalize a name after we actually new the sex. But from 8 weeks on it was "Luke or Lucy."

Low and behold Lucy stuck. I can't for the life of me fathom changing her name. It's like this has always been her name how could we possibly change it? Plus we really like it. And, we've found out in a couple ways that it meets the family name criteria....

Lucy's kicking me as I'm writing this.

Anyways, we still have a couple secrets up our sleeves. I haven't told you the middle name. Because I don't know. We've got it narrowed down to a few names and depending on what we feel like when she's born we will pick one of them. We also haven't told you whether or not Lucy will be spelled L-U-C-Y or a different way. Because we haven't really decided. We might also have another secret up our sleeves... ;)

So anyways, for all practical purposes we will call her Lucy. Love it or hate it that's her name. All we have to say is one thing. "I LOVE LUCY!!"

Oh, and for the record, here are the Socialsecurity.gov official stats on the name from 2011:
In the year 2011 Lucy was ranked #72. Sounds perfect for us. A name that is known but not too popular.

For all those preggos out there who want to scrutinize names go to www.socialsecurity.gov and search baby names to find out just where your little one's name ranks!

Baby K is no longer an "it"!

Yesterday morning we had our ultrasound. It was quite an interesting experience. I tried to keep my husband from weighing himself on the old-school scale while the nurse wasn't looking, but to no avail.  :)

When we got to the ultrasound room the tech said the baby looked very active and healthy. Then she said, "Oh look how hes moving around so much." He? We told her we didn't want to know today. We even gave her a card and an envelope to write it down and seal it up so we wouldnt know.

I had read somewhere  that all ultrasound techs say "he." But really? After the ultrasound we left knowing that the baby seems healthy. And my husband left "knowing" it was a boy. He was sure the tech doesn't just say that and made a mistake...

Well... a good friend, Katie came over last night to stuff the cupcakes with pink or blue icing. She spent a long time getting them to look perfect so there was no way we would be able to tell from the outside whether Baby K was a "he" or a "she" until today.

Patrick was sure though. And he wore his blue.

So at the gender reveal everyone's watching as we're nervously about to take the first bite of these cupcakes.  Patrick's confidence was sky high though. He had this one. Or so he thought....

The inside of the cupcakes were PINK! I was so shocked I started crying. I really, really, really, thought we would be team blue. We're  I am totally excited though. And I guess Patrick is coming around. Although, the facial expression he made was priceless!

Funny thing is, most people in the family thought it was a boy! My sister, Meaghan, takes all of the credit for being right. (Then again, she's never been wrong about anything.)

Here are some pictures from the big surprise!

Patrick actually said, "congratulations" to me afterwards. Like I had won a bet or something! Thanks, hon. Congrats to you too!

We cant wait to meet our sweet, little, orange juice loving girl! I hope she's not too much like her mama....

-Mama K.

I haven't been so pumped in a long time...

So, I'll start this post off by saying we're heathens. Yes, we skipped Sunday school this morning. We went to Panera for salad (ok, I had salad anyway) and I had some grocery shopping I needed to take care of.

We're grocery store junkies and whenever a new grocery opens in town we have to go check it out. We're so spoiled to live within 3 miles of a Kroger, Target, Wal-Mart neighborhood market, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Rainbow Blossom. We ventured a little further today to the new Earth Fare at the Summit.

It's amazing!! For those of you who don't know, I've been gluten-free for 9 years. They have by far the best selection of gluten free options of any of the specialty stores. They also have fairly reasonable prices. I found them to be cheaper than whole foods. When you walk in the door they have coupons and we used probably 5 of them. The best part was it was stuff we normally buy... GF Bread, Red Hot Blues, Veggie Chips... They also have the most beautiful produce department...

A man who worked there approached us to let us know if we spent $10 then we could present a coupon for a free whole chicken! Patrick said ,"Are you serious right now?" So we ended up getting a free chicken.

Then when we went to check out the check out lady was super nice and told me to text something into my phone and we got an additional $5.00 off of our items. And she gave us a free reusable bag!

Moral of the story is I love great deals you should totally check out Earth Fare. Although it's a little more of a drive (at least for us) they have way more organic produce than any other market, their prices are lower, they have way more gluten free options, and the people who work there are awesome!

P.S. They don't sell a single item with high fructose corn syrup!

:)
Katie

Thursday's Random Musings

So, today is the first day a person who I didn't tell I was pregnant asked when I was due. I think its the way this dress fits. Anyways, it totally caught me off guard. I was in the snack shop at work when he asked me how many "months" I was. I said Um. I don't really know. Between 4 and 5? The funniest part is I always thought this guy was blind... apparently just his wife is.

Then, it happened again. It was some construction worker down in the hallway. He said "All this back n' forth a walkin' gonna be good once yer baby done come. How many months is ya so far? Like two er three?"

Thank You. Are you hitting on me?  All this bump love all at once. Makes me think that it could be worse. There are a ton of worse things to say to pregnant women. I'm guilty of saying some of them before I realized they could be misconstrued.

Some Examples...

1. OH! You're definitely having a girl. Your carrying all over. (So I'm not just fat in my belly?)
2. Wow! You look like you're about to pop. (Yeah in 4 months. And I have a baby, what's your excuse?)
3. You look tired. (Thanks for that. I got up like 3 times last night to pee and I'm caffeine deprived.)
4. (My Favorite). Soooooooo we're you all trying? (not trying hard enough to not try. non of your beeswax but NBD! Thanks for asking...)

Have a good Thursday! I'm looking forward to these storms coming and cooling things off.

:) Katie

Our little bean....

Has been on best behavior this week. I've been feeling good and Patrick does his part by talking at my belly. I'm now craving spicy foods. We had Thai-Siam on Friday night and it was awesome... I might be the only pregnant woman who totally loves the spicy hot stuff...only for dinner though. Usually for breakfast and lunch I want fruit and orange juice. Good luck applying that madness to any old-wives tales.

That being said, we are only 11 days away from finding out what baby K is. I'm hoping for a platypus. Kidding. We want a healthy human baby.

As far as those wives tales go- I don't know that they can be trusted. Here's the scoop so far...

Chinese lunar calendar- girl

Foods- mostly boy I think

The way I carry- who can tell? Maybe slightly high but I attribute that to never having a waist to begin with...

That wierd hand test- boy

Sleep position- girl

No extreme nausea- girl

Key test- boy

Acne- girl

Mood swings- yep, girl

Dream test (opposite) - boy

Stress test- hard to say probably boy

You can see the meaning behind all the "tests" at http://goodfinking.com/2010/01/10/boy-or-girl-old-wives-tales-may-tell/

So your all's guesses are as good as mine!!! We can't wait to find out.

To keep you entertained, my sweet mother in law took me maternity shopping and while shopping I decided to try on the fake belly. The sales clerk said this is supposed to emulate 7 ms pregnant. I hope this is more like 9 yikes.....

And also a picture of the "real" bump just shy of 19 weeks (4.5 months)

- Katie

Baby brain?

I've totally felt at about 75% brain capacity since being pregnant. I'm convinced it's slightly dangerous. Here's a list of "oops" moments so far this week.

1. Finding my strawberries in the pantry.
2. Losing my belly band.
3. Falling over because I backed into the wall while vacuuming.
4. Getting flipped off for turning the wrong way down a 1 way street on my way home from work. ( the same way I go home every day).

And some previous "oops" moments...
1. Accidentally taking the wrong exit in the way to work and getting lost in the ghetto.
2. Arriving half an hour late for a dentist appointment because I convinced myself I needed to leave work at the time the appt started... On accident...
3. Accidentally making my car payment out of an old account with a 0 balance that I'm too lazy to close and incurring o/d fees--- yikes!
4. Walking around with my pants unzipped ( a few times now, luckily I was wearing long shirts)
5. Forgetting to turn the lights off on my car.
6. Shaving my right leg and not my left.

I'm hoping things will go smoother when the baby comes.... Phew... It's not always easy with this bun in the oven!!!

OHHHHH...We're half way there!... (almost)

We are excited to be starting week 18 with baby in-utero on Thursday. So far the pregnancy has been easier than expected. I would say the toughest part hit this past week when I caught a viral stomach bug. It was totally awful and left me wondering what in the world to do. I did nothing but lay around and eat popsicles all weekend. I felt cheated out of my precious weekend and drained going back into the work week on Monday. P.S. My home is still a wreck and I'm nervous about the earthy/crunchy/granola/ organic cleaning supplies doing their job in the bathroom. Not sure that Cloroxing the H-E- double toothpicks out of the floor is the way to go while pregnant either. Thankfully, the bug has subsided. I feel sorry for the poor unsuspecting souls in the office who have yet to catch the bug. :(


 The more interesting development this week is a new craving for...... Jalepeno Cheetos! This morning I packed some in my lunch. Then the chip monster must've sneaked into the pantry and had a few because when i came back to get some more tonight they were almost gone! (As were the BBQ chips and the Red Hot Blues). Don't worry, I went ahead and finished the bag. In other news, I had my first class at Baptist East .I wasn't sure what to expect but when I got there I walked into a room full of couples. I thought maybe I had walked into a TTC (Trying to Conceive) class on accident, but they assured me I was in the right place. The class was called "having a healthy pregnancy." I would've brought my husband along if I thought it would have EVER been of any relevance to him... I guess I missed the memo. Also this man and woman came into the class with a screaming toddler. All I could think about was saying, "Excuse me, sir? Are you pregnant? No? Then why don't you take your kid into the hallway while the rest of us try to learn." Hmph. Hormones. *Rant Over.* 


We are getting super-excited to find out the gender of "Baby K" in just 2 and a half weeks. I can hardly contain myself. I even researched the cost of elective early gender determination ultrasounds. Ultimately I decided $89.00 was steep, we would never watch the slideshow once the baby was born, and I didn't want to go to Hoosierville to get an ultrasound in a non-medical facility. Sounds sketchy. So we're going to wait until August 17th. I'm kind of wondering if they would let Patrick use the flip video during the ultrasound while we are finding out the gender of the baby. It sounds totally against HIPAA. I think maybe the way to go is to go ahead and start video taping while the ultrasound tech is busy trying to watch the screen. Maybe we'll catch at least some of it on tape before they go all HIPAA on us? 


"Baby K" is going to have so many friends! We are super pumped that many of our friends have found out they are going to have babies in the December/January/February time frame as well! I heard the baby boom was attributed to the CATS and the CARDS making it to the final four this year!!!! An interesting, yet very plausible theory. We'll know for sure if all of the babies come out with uni-brows. 


We will keep everyone posted on how things progress. For those hoping for a belly picture there's only a slightly larger lump of fat right now. Try back later.




 :) Katie