Hi Gang,

Hope everyone is doing well. Mion and I are doing really well, steadily inching towards our big day! (BTW, 7 weeks from Monday!!!) We have another appointment w/ Dr. Parker on the 19th to see if Beck has turned. As our last appointment, he is still sitting totally upright and indian style. As far as I can tell he has made no movement to turn. Sometimes I can feel his little head up by my rib cage and can just about cup it with my hand. Pretty awesome feeling!

XO!!
KCH & Beck

Quite a bit has happened since last time I posted. Last week Mion and I have ordered our first shipment of cloth hybrid diapers and today we ordered our car seat and stroller.

-Did you know that it takes at least 500 years for a disposable diaper to completely biodegrade and that Americans put as many as 50 million diapers into landfills each day? I didn't either but when I found that out I, personally had no choice but to start researching my diapering options. In one of my many sessions of scouring the Internet I came across what I think is the most amazing invention for the diapering world EVER! They are called gDiapers. They where invented by a mom in Australia and are now headquartered in Portland Oregon. gDiapers are able to combine the convenience of a disposable diaper and the reusable aspect of the cloth diaper. A gDiaper insert will fully biodegrade in between 30-50 days. You are able to flush the gDiaper insert down the toilet, throw it in the trash or compost it in your compost pile. The cloth outer portion is very chic, it's kind of like a t-shirt material. The gDiaper marketing team calls them Hybrid Diapers. FYI: gdiapers are also a Carbon Neutral product. Hang on a second while I climb down off of my soap box and I'll tell you all about our car seat and stroller...

Ahem... Thanks for waiting.

As you all know I drive the smallest cars on the road...Mini Cooper S. And so our selection of car seat and stroller have been very stressful for me. I just knew I didn't have to give up my Mini Cooper just so I could have the ridiculously huge Graco travel system and Beck in the car at the same time. Again, after many session of scouring the Internet I was able to locate 2 companies in the UK that sells in the US. The reason I ended up with a British company is because, well, the Mini is British and from all I found they really do have a better handle to traveling light then we Americans do. And since we are going to have a new baby and the 100 pounds of his gear to haul around, I figured I would try and get an edge where I can. The stroller is made by Quinny and the model we chose is the Zapp in Lime. It is the smallest folding stroller on the market to date. It's small enough, once folded, to put into an overhead compartment on an airplane. Our car seat is made by Maxi Cosi and we chose the Cabriofix in Lemonade. There's not a whole lot that is revolutionary about the car seat just that it is made to go with the stroller we really wanted.

XO!

KCH

Nursery

Here are some pictures of the nursery. Mion has painted and assembled the crib and it looks phenomenal!

Here is a picture of the lamp we bought for the baby room. The lampshade we got on Ebay and the lantern base we found at Target. I just love the night light feature!! I know, I know! I'm a total nerd!

Sorry it's been so long

24 weeks 4 days...which means that this week has been the end of my 6th month. Super exciteg and yet super overwhelming as well. I never thought it would go this fast.

Since I last logged in Mion and I have purchased a crib, I was able to find exactly what I wanted and we are now in the process of prepping it for paint. After seeing the picture of our bedding in the pottery barn catalogue I just couldn't picture anything but a RED crib...So that's what were doing. We picked out a color called Heirloom Red at Lowe's, it's a really hearty brick red. Perfect for our bouncing baby boy.

We had our 6 month appointment on Thursday and all is still well. Par for the course we are still Mr. Man continues to stay just a little bit ahead of all the measurements. Even thought we moved my due date up to match him last month, this month he is measuring about 2 weeks ahead again. According to the Fundal (the top of the uterus) Height he is at 27 weeks. (Dad, sounds like the nickname "Moose" was spot on!) Chances are that we are just at the tale end of a big growth spurt. We'll see what our next appointment holds. If "Moose" continues to measure that far ahead we may indeed tweak the date again. Let's hope not, I'm not at all prepared for an August delivery. YIKES!!!

I'm two days into a 6 day vacation. I'm really just taking some time to get some things in order. Plus Monday is Mion and my 3rd anniversary so we are going to try and head south to the cold springs in Sulfur. All I want to do is find a rock by the water so that I can put my toes in the water and lay in the sun like a little prego lizard...But much cuter!

Mion and I have settled on a first name and are working on a middle....No, I'm not announcing it here...You all get your own private announcement. :)

XO!
KCH

23 weeks

This is a picture of the nursery bedding we picked out. I just got the bumper pad this afternoon, and if you can belive it, it's even cuter in person!!! :) I found it on the Pottery Barn Kids website on clearance. And since it was on clearance some of the essential pieces where sold out. But we were able to find them all on EBAY. We got the Quilt, Bumperpad, Duvet Cover, Sham, Crib skirt & lamp shade for under $300.

XO!

KCH

I KNEW IT!!!

Well like most of you know I was totally right!!! It's a little boy! Mion and I are very excited and are starting to work on names. It's really tough! I thought I had a pretty good idea of what kind of names we would like and even had a few front runners.....WRONG! Now that we are picturing a little curly headed toddler running around Grandpa Don's barn we are back to the drawing board.

XO!
KCH, MSH +1

IT'S A BOY!!!
pictures to follow

XO!
KCH

By far my favorite of Evy. Totally captures her personality. Tie-dye tongue and all.

I promise! This wasn't posed. She's really just that perfect! Simple but Perfect!!

20 weeks

So i was reading today on a baby website that not only were other mommies to be feeling the flutters and kicks of the baby, but they where also able to lay on the back or side and press against their bellies and feel the baby puch back....Yeah, I'll be trying that TONIGHT!

In the mean time here are some pictures of our biggest babies...The Girls.

XO!

KCH

This last one is of the baby's hand.

Baby Pictures

This one is of the legs. They are stretched out straight with the toes pointing up. Looks like it is for sure taking after Mion in the long leg department.

Baby Pictures

This one is a picture of the baby's profile close up. You can really see the features of the face.

Baby Pictures

Here's a picture from our recent ER trip. This picture shows the baby's profile. You can also see the little knees and legs

18 weeks 3 days

Just checking in to let you all know that we are doing really well! I haven't had any more pain for the last couple of days and that is a huge relief.

We had another appointment w/ Dr. Parker last Friday and everything went really well. My nurse did a Doppler to hear the baby's heartbeat and it was back up to 156 (it had fallen a little bit while we were in the ER, I'm pretty sure that was due to the morphine). Dr. Parker is very pleased with everything so far. I have only gained 1.5 pounds! WOOHOO! But I can feel the changes happening in my belly.

We are scheduled for an u/s on the 27th to determine the gender! I say Boy. Mion says Girl. Only time will tell.

XO!
KCH +1

Discomforts of Pregnancy...

So yesterday on my lunch hour I had some pretty severe abdominal pain that actually caused me not to be able to walk or stand up straight. After a minute or so the pain eased up and so I loaded up and headed back to work, only to have the pain happen again in the parking lot of the bank. After crawling for a few feet, Afton, one of the tellers came upon me and went inside to get some help. After causing a huge scene on the curb of the bank Laila took me to the emergency room. Joe Thompson, our teller Operations Manager followed us in his car just to make sure everything worked out okay. They checked me in and wheeled me back to my room. After the drew blood, set up the Foley catheter, hit me with a dose of morphine for the pain, Mion arrived. With the help of the morphine, things where a lot less intense by now, and I was a lot less scared. I knew that I would be just fine but I was horrible scared for the baby.

We had an a very in depth u/s that lasted for about an hour. We got to see absolutely every aspect of our little guy....No we didn't find out the sex - Boo. Our u/s tech measured every single thing in order to make sure that the baby was developing and not under any stress. The most interesting thing was that we found out that the according to the babies development we are at 17 weeks 2 days. That's one week further along than we thought. 6 ounces, 143 bpm, perfect.

In the end we where discharged with the heading "Discomforts of Pregnancy", Mion and I say more like the Death Throws of Pregnancy...but that's just semantics. We are home now and under doctors orders for lots of rest and fluid.

Baby is great, I'm doing better.
XO!
KCH

P.S. I have some great pictures from the u/s I will be posting tomorrow.

Pictures

Here is a picture from our first u/s. This u/s was at 6 weeks and considering our history was just to make sure everything was going well. We got an A+. (Note: The baby/embryo was 2.2 centimeters long then)

Correction

Our next appointment is APRIL 6th. OOpsie!!

Catching Up

This is my first post..how exciting! As you all know Mion and I are pregnant and we wanted a place for everyone to be able to check in and see how things are going. And it looks like you've found it! Welcome. As of today I am 15 weeks and 2 days along or finishing up my 4th month. This pregnancy is so very exciting for us. Mion and I have had 2 successful ultrasounds so far. At our last appointment we got to use the doppler for the first time to hear the heartbeat. Talk about overwhelming!!! I wasn't at all prepared for how hearing a little heartbeat would make me feel. There really is nothing to describe how wonderfully bizarre this experience has been. I can't wait to see how the next 5 months unfold. And now with the help of our new blogspot, you have front row seats!!!

We have another Doctors appointment on Feb 6th. So if nothing else I'll check back in then to let you all know how it goes.

Love,
KCH