It's A Girl -- Kinsey Ann

KINSEY ANN

August 30th, 2008

3:26 am

8lb 8oz

21.5" long

Nine Days Overdue!

Day nine.....hmph! And yes, we've tried it ALL! I saw my doctor again yesterday (and had another Non-Stress Test). He says I can be induced at 10 days overdue, but if you look at a calendar you'll see that 10 days over is a Saturday of a Long Weekend. So my induction is booked for Tuesday -- the day after LABOR day! So my August baby is turning into a September baby. I never would have guessed. But we're still crossing our fingers that baby will arrive before Tuesday (I won't hold my breath though).

Yesterday's Non-Stress Test:

41 Weeks Pregnant (9 Days Overdue):

Wednesday was our 4th Wedding Anniversary (Love You Tim!). I spent 6 hours of that day canning peaches at my sister-in-law's. My mom went into labour with me while canning and I was hoping it would be the same for me. Nope! Just left me with a sore back. We did go out for a super nice dinner that night to celebrate our Anniversary.

So on to Tuesday. At least there's a definite end in sight now.

One Week Overdue!

Is it necessary to be a full week overdue? Our baby doesn't want to come out and meet us. My doctor is super surprised that I haven't even felt one contraction yet. Nothing! He says everything looks like I should be in labour soon. He's hesitant on inducing me because he says both the baby and I look very ready. Ready or not...the baby's not coming. I have doctor appointments every couple of days and Non-Stress Tests at the hospital all the time too. Last week Tim said that he thought it would be cool if the baby was born on our anniversary. I thought that seemed like forever away. Well, tomorrow is our anniversary and I can only hope the baby comes then.

Here's me at the hospital for another Non-Stress Test:

Waiting for the results of my Non-Stress Test:

The print-out of the Non-Stress Test. The top row is the baby's heart rate and the bottom row shows whether or not I'm having contractions. See those two peaks? Wohoo two contractions, but I didn't feel them:

Letter to Our Baby

Dear Baby:

When are you coming to meet us? Your daddy and I are trying so hard to be patient. We've been waiting so long to meet you. We know you love being all snuggled in Mommy's tummy, but Daddy is sure wanting his turn to hold you. We are so anxious to meet you and each day we await your arrival with even greater anticipation. We're so excited to have you join our little family. We love you so much already!

Love Your Mommy

Wondering & Waiting

I'm waiting, but the anticipation of meeting our baby is draining me. I'm so tired. Each night I go to bed and wonder if tonight will be the night and then morning comes and I wonder if today will be the day. Last night I had some "ouchie cramps" from 11:30pm till 2:30am and then they stopped. I was disappointed. I feel like I could cry at the drop of a hat today and for no particular reason. It's SO NOT about having this pregnancy over with. I love being pregnant. I'm just so anxious and excited to meet our baby. To hold him or her in my arms. To see this little person that I've never met and yet I love so much. Just wondering when baby will arrive....

Maternity Photo Shoot

On my birthday I had my maternity photo shoot by Jill Alston Photography. I was 35 weeks in these photos. If you want to see more of them then click here. I'm pretty self conscious about the bare belly ones, but I think she did a great job with them.

More than a little nervous...

Have you heard this story about the two babies from the Lethbridge Hospital? Tim heard it on the news last night at work. Just Google it. It's all over the Internet. They are saying that the babies didn't contract the infection from the Lethbridge Hospital, but still what else would they say. Now I'm so paranoid to have my baby. I think I'll just keep him/her in forever. It's safer. I feel for the families of those two little babies. I couldn't imagine.

Ahhhh! 39 Weeks Pregnant!

Only one week left. I've been buzzing around the house trying to get everything ready for the baby. I think I'm pretty much there. This nesting stuff really helps a lady with a giant belly get a lot done. But I will admit that scrubbing bathtubs on my knees with my tummy in the way was pretty difficult, but boy do they sparkle now. I promised myself I couldn't start reading Breaking Dawn until the house was 100% ready to bring our baby home. And thank goodness for Tim. He's been such a big help around here too. I couldn't have done it without him.

I'm still feeling....normal. No cramping, no contractions, no nothing!! Baby seems to be loving it in there. I'm still okay though. Even now at the very end with swollen ankles, still throwing up, and so not being able to sleep at nights -- I love being pregnant. I'm not anxious (yet) to have this part over with. I love this little life I feel inside of me. And besides, Tim anxious/impatient enough for the both of us. He's gonna be such a good daddy! However I'm SO EXCITED to meet our baby. Ahhhhh!

My Baby Bump at 39 weeks:

And remember to check out the Baby Bump Photos album for more pics.

Camping - Payne Lake

A couple of weekends ago we went camping with Trent, Tara, & Blake and Kendall, Julie, & Kyla and Tarren to Payne Lake. We were out in that area for Kyla's Baby Blessing and decided to make a camping trip out of it.

We tried out the canoe Tim just got from a guy at work. I had to trade life jackets with Tim to get one to fit around my belly. Even Tim's was super snug. And my balance in the canoe was terrible. I thought I was going to tip us more than once.

Tim and Trent did some fishing. However Tim's first cast went right into the trees when the wind caught it.

Went and bought some ice cream and bumped into this family. Their kids so adorable.

We hung out around the fire until Tim fell asleep in his chair cuz he just came off a night shift and hadn't slept. And Tarren hung out by himself around the fire sometimes too (like this picture shows).

I had to ice some swollen ankles. Yes, it's a wicked flip-flop tan line that I have. But it's not too noticeable when my feet aren't swollen stumps.

Blake hung out with me in the trailer while I iced my feet.

Then we had our own fireworks show. Very impressive.

And on the way home we lost our canoe out of the back of the truck (stupid hook broke). But we found it out in this farmer's field. And lucky for us it didn't hit our truck or trailer.

Look What Tim Got!

Yesterday Tim got a brand spankin' new 2008 Dodge Ram 1500. It was his turn for a new truck cuz I got the new car last year. However I blame Kendall for this purchase. Apparently when we were with them last weekend he told Tim about this wicked deal that Dodge had on right now. Well Tim jumped on that "wicked deal" and now we have a new truck. The price was awesome. The truck is fully loaded (without leather though) which totally beats the tape deck we had in our last truck. hehe And I really can't complain about the four doors that this new truck has. It'll be awesome for the carseat. And Tim's so excited about the 5.7 Hemi that it has. It should make pulling our trailer while hauling the quad (when we get the quad back) so much easier now.

Summer Holiday (Part 2)

After dropping off our broken quad in Jaffray Tim and I headed to Montana to spend a few days camping at Dickey Lake and shopping in Kalispell. We camped there last year and loved it.

Tim hanging out at our campsite:

Tim snorkeling:

My baby bump at about 37 weeks:

After spending 3 days there we came back to Jaffray. On Saturday morning us girls and kids drove down to the Farmer's Market, while the guys quadded down (Tim borrowed one of my dad's quads). We had breakfast there and wandered around.

Tim, Dad, and Brendan taking a break:

Tim and Brendan:

And one of the days Tim and I went with Jenn's family to the Bull River Fish Hatchery near Jaffray. The kids always love it there and I wanted to show Tim those giant trout they have. We took a picnic and had a good time.

Tim and I at the fishing pond:

Jenn's family at the fishing pond:

Uncle Tim and Jayda trying to touch one of the turtles:

Just hanging out at the turtle pond:

Everyone feeding the giant fish:

We headed home the next day as I had a doctor appointment and Tim had night shift. Guess that's it for our summer holiday. If you want to see more pictures check out the Camping 2008 (Part 3) Photos on the side of our blog.

Summer Holiday (Part One)

Tim took some days of work and we headed out for our summer holidays. Our original plan was to spend the entire time in the States, but with me being so close to the end of my pregnancy I was a little too nervous to go there. Didn't need to have the baby outside of Canada. So plans changed.

We went to Chinook Lake in the Crowsnest Pass first. We thought we'd check it out after these guys went there. It was super beautiful (as the Whiddens have shown), but we didn't take any pictures cuz we weren't there long enough. So here's Part One of our Summer Holiday.

Tim was SUPER excited to do some quadding around there. We went with our neighbours. In the morning Tim went out on his quad with the other two guys from Stirling. Less than 30 minutes later I see only two quads coming back to the campsite. I did the quick scan to make sure there were still three guys...check. Then I did the scan to see which of the two quads were coming back...not Tim's. CRAP! Tim limps over to me and our conversation goes like this:

-Are you okay?
-Yes.
-Where's the quad?
-Back there on the trail.
-Why didn't you tow it back?
-It's in pieces.
-Did you roll it?
-So they tell me.
-You don't remember?
-Nope.

So 3 km from the campsite on the first ride of our holidays Tim destroyed his quad. Broken axles, missing tires, broken throttle cable, broken break cable, and tons of cosmetic damage too. And that's the stuff that we could see. We're still waiting to hear from Kawasaki with the actual repair estimate. Gah! But in the end who cares. Tim walked away (or limped away) from a crash that should have hurt him...BAD. And that's all I care about. Quads can be replaced. He didn't have a scratch on him. All he had was a bruised hip, a broken visor on his helmet, and no memory of going for the quad ride (the memory is fuzzy but slowly coming back to him now). The guys say he actually flipped the quad twice went he hit a giant rut in the trail. Needless to say that ended the quadding part of our summer holiday. We winched the broken quad into the back of our truck and went to Jaffray to see my parents.

See those big beefy tires? Just spent close to $400 on them. They only have 5 km on them. And now no quad to put them on. Tim sold them to my dad as it'll be quite a while before we have our quad here again.

Playing Catch-Up

I've been so busy that I just haven't had time to post lately. But I'll play a little catch-up today. On the 19th of July was my 26th birthday. Yikes! Tim got home from night shift that morning and woke me up with breakfast in bed and a birthday cake. It was great! Plus I got a gift from him that I was really wanting and that evening I went and had my maternity photo shoot. I was spoiled on my birthday.

Me, my birthday cake, and my tummy at 35 weeks:

Yesterday I had my doctor's appointment. Looks like everything is going well. I'm measuring small and my doc said that's okay cuz it just means I'm not going to have like a 10lb baby. Sounds good to me. Baby's no longer breech and my doc said he'd be REALLY surprised if the baby didn't stay head down now. I'm now 37 weeks and could technically have the baby any day. But I'm still feeling pretty good, so I'm still counting on at least another 3 weeks to get everything ready for baby. I feel like there are 101 things that I still need to do before baby can arrive. But Braxton Hicks are slowing me down (oh well). We did buy a crib last week though and have it set up now (with no bedding yet). And I think I have all the basics to at least bring baby home -- I just picked up some little sleepers (in blue and pink), some diapers, some wipes, and such. Now on the agenda for this weekend is packing my hospital bag. THREE WEEKS TO GO!! I'm so excited!

Here are Tim and I setting up the crib (sorry the one pic is blurry):

Hey, It's Me!

I'm back. We've been off camping. So many stories to tell you (no I haven't had our baby). Running out of time in my days to get everything done. Will do an update post soon. I promise!

Stay-At-Home-Mom

After 7 years of working for the Government of Canada, as of last Friday, I'm officially a Stay-At-Home-Mom (with no kids...yet). I never would have thought that I'd be off work 6 weeks before my due date. It sure wasn't the plan. But my doctor felt my swelling was too bad to continue to work. He wanted me off immediately, but I went back in for 3 more days to wrap work up and train someone to cover off my desk. I'll admit it, when I walked out of my office at 4:30 last Friday I looked back at my desk and I was teary eyed. But I KNOW I'm leaving to do a much greater job, a more difficult job, a way more rewarding job, an eternal job -- that of being a mother. And I'm so overjoyed to have that opportunity. Both Tim and I are so excited. Not too much longer now. Less than 6 weeks to go!

Here I am in my office my last day. Can't complain about the view I had -- that field usually has a ton of our sheep and lambs out in it, but I didn't get them in the picture:

And a baby bump picture (34 weeks):

A Bit More Camping (Writing on Stone)

We went camping at Writing on Stone again this weekend. Tim's dad was driving up from Vegas so we thought we'd camp close to the US border for him. Tim's sister, Rachel, and her family came out too. We had a good time. The food was super yummy! And Tim even lost a bet that he and I made so he had to do all our dishes that day. However the BUGS were insane. They drove us all bonkers. They were kinda like little fruit flies and they were everywhere -- up your nose, in your eyes, in your mouth, you name it! As usual we spent time down at the river and in the hoodoos. I stuck to strolling through the hoodoos this time though -- no more climbing for me. I don't bend so well at 7.5 months pregnant. For more pictures click on the Camping 2008 (Part 2) Photos (Page 3) link on the left of the blog. And click on any of the pictures below to make them bigger.

Tim and the dogs stopped for a picture with me:

Tim & Dex jumping from hoodoo to hoodoo:

Taking a break (33 weeks pregnant):

Either my belly's getting bigger or my shirts are shrinking -- I think it's the latter (haha):

Family photo at our campsite:

Just Click Away

Whoa! Thanks to "Anonymous" for the mean comment they left on MY blog. (Pretty brave when you don't have to sign your name.) Here's the thing...it's MY blog and I'll write what I want on MY blog. No one is out there forcing you to read -- so don't. Just click away. I don't need your snarky comments. My previous post was NOT meant to sound as if I was complaining. And I guess that's a risk I take when I type out my thoughts. It was a post about what's happening with me and my baby during my pregnancy for MY journal keeping and so that MY friends and family know what's going on. And I've re-read the post where you left your comment and I still don't see that it reads as though as I was complaining -- I read it as stating the facts for me and to update my family and my friends. But I guess that's the chance I take when I type posts as it's pretty hard for readers to tell in text if I'm happy, mad, sad, joking, being sarcastic, stating the facts, or complaining.

Yes, you win Anonymous. You were successful in upsetting me. How dare you say I'm ungrateful! You have no idea of the prayers, fasting, blessings, and temple attendance that has been offered on behalf of my baby. No idea! So just click away.

I'm Just Swell!

Pregnancy & Swelling! Swelling & Pregnancy! For me, these two go hand-in-hand. And the summer heat isn't helping out with my swollen legs/feet/ankles. I'm trying to keep them iced and elevated. But then there is work. Sitting at a computer desk for 8 hrs a day...not so good. My doctor has put me on part-time work. But that was before this last weekend.

Saturday night my feet were SO SWOLLEN. It felt like my skin was going to burst. I could barely walk. Tim stayed up till after 1am (while I was sleeping) just icing my ankles. Then Sunday morning I went to get out of bed to get ready for church thinking the swelling had gone done. Oh no! Couldn't even put weight on my feet. Couldn't get myself to the bathroom. Nothing! They were terrible.

I took it easy for 4 days and then decided to try work again. I went in yesterday. Had my feet up the entire time I was there. Couldn't stand still, but walking was okay. But by last night I could hardly walk again and I was super dizzy. Tim had to help me up the stairs to our bedroom. So I'm at home again today.

I'm not sure what to do anymore. I've tried staying in bed or on the couch with my feet elevated and ice on them, but I got tired of reading, watching TV, playing card games on my cell, and playing the Wii.

I've tried cooling them in freezing glacier water in Waterton:

Tim carried me out to the middle of this creek to cool them (knowing I couldn't get back out by myself):


Also tried cooling them in our chilly pool. Yes I'm fully clothed. My plan wasn't to get into the water. Tim and my aunt (who shared her hat with me) forced me in.


Guess I go back to see the doctor again....