Kathryn Reese Ezell is HERE!

August 9, 2013 at 1:23pm

6 pounds, 2 ounces

19.5 inches

So relieved that she's HERE and healthy!

First picture as a family of four! :)

Carter is seriously the BEST big brother and loves to "hold" and kiss baby sister. He speaks very softly to her, loves to give her paci to her (whether she needs it or not...), and has even shared his Momo with her when she was crying! (If you know Carter, you know that's a BIG deal!)

This just makes me melt!

Headed home with our new little bundle! We are all TOTALLY in love with this precious angel...ALL of us! 

38 Weeks: Just 2 Days to Go!

I. CANNOT. BELIEVE. I'M. STILL. PREGNANT.

Baby girl, you are just content as can be in there, so it looks like we will have to go ahead and evict you on Friday. All of my labor-inducing tactics that worked with your brother have failed me, so we are going to have to induce on Friday morning. I am SO ready to see you and hold you in my arms!!!

At my appointment this morning, your weight was 7 pounds, 1 ounce according to the sonogram, but those can be off by up to a pound so she basically said to expect somewhere between 6 and 8. (Thanks, lady, real specific.) Your brother was only 6 pounds, 2 ounces, so I'm betting you are somewhere in the 6's...I cannot believe that we'll find out in less than 2 days! The plan is to go in on Friday morning at about 7:30, and Dr. Harn believes you will be here by early afternoon given how quickly your brother's labor went. I hope he's right...so far, NOTHING about this pregnancy has been even remotely similar to your brother's, so I won't be surprised at all if Friday is a LONG day waiting on you.

Believe it or not, I'm actually feeling pretty good. I still have decent amounts of energy, and while the Braxton-Hicks I experience constantly are not fun, they are only occasionally painful. I've actually been sleeping somewhat decently, and we've been spending a TON of time in the pool as a family. My weight has stayed the same for the last 10 weeks, making my total gain for this pregnancy 21 pounds. The doctor was concerned about my lack of weight gain for a while, and he had me up my calorie intake to 2200 per day the last few weeks. (I was originally put on a 2000 calorie diet with my diabetic meal plan.) I've been following the plan, but my weight is just stuck and won't budge anymore, despite the nightly ice cream and frequent burgers we've been enjoying the last month or so. :) Dr. Harn said it's very abnormal to gain no weight in the third trimester, but since you look so healthy and are at a good weight that I should just count my blessings that I'll be back to my usual self very quickly.

Today is my last day of "me time" before your arrival where I have a day to myself with Carter at school...it's very bittersweet because the house is so quiet today (which part of me loves and knows is so fleeting), and yet, I'm SO looking forward to the noise and chaos of having my two kids at home with me next week.  Tomorrow, I plan to just soak up every last minute of Mommy/Carter time that I can...my heart is so heavy for him because I know his life is about to change so dramatically, and yet he is blissfully ignorant about the changes that lie ahead. I am so anxious about how he's going to handle things - he will love you, baby girl, there's no doubt in my mind. But I worry about how I'm going to be able to give you BOTH the love and attention that you BOTH need and deserve when there is only one little sleep-deprived me to go around. We'll find our way eventually...it's just the journey to find it that keeps me up at night.

With that said, this is going to be a WONDERFUL change, and we cannot wait to see your beautiful face on Friday, sweet angel! We already love you so much, baby girl! 

37 Weeks Tomorrow!

Well, baby girl, you are officially full-term in about 13 hours. Woohoo! We made it! Over the last month or so, I really had my doubts that we would make it this far, but it appears you are content right where you are for now. (Although let's be honest - that can change very quickly.)

We saw the doctor and had another sonogram this morning. Everything looks good, and you've made some progress since last week in your journey to D-Day. I have moments where I am SO ready and anxious to meet you and just want you here NOW, and I have other moments where I totally panic thinking about you being here sometime in the next 9 days. The good news is that my doctor is on-call this weekend, so even if you decide to come then, he would be the one delivering you. The only day you wouldn't be delivered by him would be tomorrow or next Thursday, so that's a relief. I really didn't want a stranger delivering me after all the time and attention he's given you and me over the last nine months. :)

In terms of how I'm feeling...it's up and down. Some days, I'm in a lot of pain, and other days I feel great and have tons of energy. Over the weekend, I had about 36 hours of false labor and contractions every 5 minutes. They never got super painful or increased in frequency, so the on-call doctor called it false labor and told me to get some rest so the contractions would stop. Two Tylenol PM's and 11 hours of sleep later, all was quiet again. It was disappointing, but you clearly weren't ready, sweet girl and decided it wasn't your day.

Hopefully this is the last weekly update and that the next post is announcing your arrival! We can't wait to meet you, little lady! :)

Kate's Nursery...on a budget!

 When I set out to design Kate's nursery, I was really worried about making it feminine and modern WITHOUT using any pink. (I just don't like that color!) I wanted to make sure the colors were not super babyish and would grow with her, so we settled on lavender and grey. I considered all purple walls but was warned by friends that I would get very tired of it. So, we went with a purple accent wall and grey other walls. Here's the view from the door - you can really see the contrast between the grey walls and the purple wall from this angle.

 Cube storage/shelf next to the crib. The "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" picture was a last minute addition thanks to one of many aimless Target runs. :)

 Bedding - this is a hodge podge of several PBK beddings, but the bumper is from the Quinn bedding line. The alternate crib sheet also has the grey and purple owls on it.

 Shelf arrangement above the glider.

 The glider was Carter's, and I looked into getting it recovered but it became a huge hassle and was going to cost more than I wanted to spend. Throw pillows to the rescue!

 This changing table/dresser combo was a floor sample at PBK that I got for 60% off - total steal! The changing table topper will unscrew when we are done with it and will become just a normal dresser at that point.

 (Forgive the power cord.) Next to the changing table on the wall, I hung a frame that will house all her monthly photos from her first year. Underneath is a precious magnet board that my mom found for pictures, artwork, etc. We just need to fill it!

My favorite part - the monogram decal. I bought this back in May when we finalized her name, and it is my absolute favorite part of the nursery. I just love the loopiness of it - it looks so feminine!

36 Weeks (Tomorrow)

The LAST belly pic...it's just getting out of hand.

Loving: The fact that we are down to a mere 16 days (or less!) until I have my baby girl in my arms, breathing and eating a little easier now that she's dropped, knowing that I am almost down with all this diabetes nonsense, and seeing my little girl's sweet, squished face each week at our sonograms. I've also really been loving how excited Carter is for his sister - he hugs and kisses my belly all the time and loves to "practice" for baby sister with a baby doll. His school is also right by our hospital, so every day on the way home, he points to it and says, "Kate come out of mommy's tummy there!" :)

Not Loving: Sleep lately has been HORRIBLE. I have this weird throat itch/cough that seems to become unbearable when laying down. When I'm up and about during the day, it doesn't act up, but at night, I'm coughing NON-STOP. I've also fallen victim to lots of bug bites lately since Carter and I spend so much time outside so between the cough, the itchy bites, and being SO HOT all the time, sleep is a distant memory at this point. The 100+ degree afternoons also...well, suck.

Favorite Foods: Popsicles (although I have to buy the no-fun no-sugar kind...dumb GD), Mexican (still), fruit of any kind, string cheese, and cereal.

Looking Forward To: Seeing if I've progressed at all at my appointment today, holding my DAUGHTER! [UPDATE: Things are happening!! The doctor was surprised by how much I had progressed over the last week and predicted a "very quick" labor for me once it really gets started. I'll spare you the exact details since that's very much TMI, but things are changing for sure. :)]

Anxious About: The logistics of her birth have been making me anxious lately. I don't have any reason to think she'll surprise us early or that it'll happen at 2am or anything like that, but you just never know with babies. What I'm really worried about how we are going to handle Carter if I need to suddenly go to the hospital at 3am or something like that, especially given that his birth was your typical "Honey, it's time..." wake-up call at 5am two weeks early. My mom has graciously said she will be the one to rush up here to take care of him no matter the hour, but she's 30-45 minutes away, and I'm beginning to have nightmares that I have this baby in the car. Prayers appreciated that we actually make it to the hospital. :)

34 Weeks...4 Weeks to Go?

I cannot believe that just 4 weeks from yesterday (at the latest!), we will have a baby girl in our arms. That is CRAZY! Baby girl measured 4 pounds, 13 ounces at our sonogram on Monday which put her in the 50th percentile for weight. They confirmed (again) that she is DEFINITELY a she, and everything else in my scan looked good. I was starting to worry a little bit about the fact that I haven't gained weight since they diagnosed me with Gestational Diabetes, but none of the doctors seemed concerned, so I guess I should just count my blessings! :)

As far as everything else goes, sleep is getting difficult because baby girl moves CONSTANTLY. She also gets the hiccups about 10 times a day...fun at first, kind of annoying at this point. I am about 99% certain that she dropped yesterday, because I got lots of comments from friends and family that I looked smaller yesterday, and I started having all kinds of other new symptoms that I won't mention here. (You're welcome.) I hear that with your second baby, dropping is a sign that labor is close, but I won't find out for sure whether or not we're progressing until my doctor's appointment next week. We shall see.

I'm really trying to savor each day I have with Carter just the two of us...but considering he's in a "No!" and "Mine!" phase right now, that's easier said than done. Not to mention the fact that I am HUGE, hormonal, and hot all the time...oh, and it's over 100 every afternoon which really limits our activity choices. Days with him are long, but the weeks and months fly by, and I know that very shortly, I'll miss how "easy" it was before she arrived.

Carter is still going to school on Monday/Wednesday/Friday because of all my appointments and because, in the words of my husband, "You deserve a break." (God bless him!) He loves it and is moving up on Monday into the official "Preschool 1" class - can't believe it! He will get to do Splash Day starting this week in his new room where the kids go out to the water park/splash pad on Wednesday mornings, so he'll love that. It's also good for him to be socializing with other kids on a regular basis that he knows, and it gives him some consistency in a kind of crazy time around here. He'll move to a Mother's Day Out/Preschool that's just two days a week after Labor Day, but for now his school days are healthy for ALL of us.

Next appointment/sonogram is on Wednesday, so until then...prayers that she stays PUT are appreciated!

Fourth of July

Another milestone - our last trip as a family of three! We had a blast, Carter was an angel in the car (both times!), and it was great to spend time with my parents away from the craziness of Dallas. And now, the pics!

 ONE MORE MONTH!

 He could've poured water back and forth between these cups ALL. DAY.

 "Horsey bites"