Santa Pic

We headed up to Simpsonville for Christmas eve/day to spend it with Chris's parents. It was very nice and relaxing which was much needed. :)

While we were there we went to HollyWild animal park to see the christmas lights and animals. It was HILARIOUS. I wish the pictures had turned out better but basically there is a section of the park where you drive in and feed animals bread out of your car....and I'm not just talking deer. We fed zebras, horses, BISON, emus, ostriches, and other animals that I don't really know what they are. The brave ones would stick their heads RIGHT in the car. It was so funny....especially when the bison, which was huge, kept following along the side of the car everywhere we went and the Zebra started trying to eat Chris's moms hair. Very unexpected but worth the trip.

They also had a petting zoo area where Santa happened to be, so we got Zach's picture with him. I'm not gonna lie.....Santa creeps me out a little but he really was a nice guy, just had a new grandbaby himself. :) It's not the best quality pictures cause it was a print we scanned in.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Can't believe Zach will be a month old tomorrow!!! Crazy. Still working on that sleep schedule.....which means there isn't one. He eats every 30 minutes a lot of times when hes awake and sleeps sometimes for 3 hrs at a time at night and sometimes for only an hour at a time...it's a toss up. They tell me some day that will get better. ;) Obviously Zach was very enthused about Santa...

Little Zachary

So I don't have much time for blogging these days. I am still getting used to being a new mommy and trying to figure out this new sleeping schedule. ( I haven't mastered the "sleep when he sleeps" routine yet). But I thought I would post a little something.

This 1st picture is Zachary at home this last week. He is pretty cute if I do say so myself. When he was first born (Nov 30th at 3:30pm, 8lbs!) we thought he looked like my side of the family cause his nose was pudgy and he had chubby cheeks, but once his nose popped out a little it was clear that he is a Kauffman boy. :) This is Zachary at the hospital. I love him!
Annnnnnnnnd this is Chris's baby picture.

I couldn't find a great one of Zachary where they are in the same position but I'm sure we have some cause he keeps his hands just like this a lot of the time. :) Can you see the similarities?? The eyes, and mouth and hair line, and chin are all the same. So cute! Only thing is at this point Zachary's hair is looking kinda reddish tinted...we shall see!
Eventually I will find time to post more. :) I should be sleeping right now....

Almost Parents

Chris and I will be parents sometime tomorrow! (unless he reaaaallly takes his time and then I guess it could be tuesday). We are both pretty excited and just ready for something to happen. I don't really feel nervous at this point but I don't really know fully what to expect so I'm trying not to anticipate anything and to just be prepared to take it in stride. We both relaxed today and took naps :). I'm not sure I will sleep much tonight so I'm glad we both got some rest this afternoon. We have to be at the hospital at 6am.

Finally have a few pics for ya.

This first one is kinda random but funny. It's Chris and me at Fazoil's. It was taken earlier this week when we went with Erin. She took it cause we have spent MANY dinners at fazoils throughout the pregnancy. It's weird cause we never went there much before but for some reason it sounded good to both of us a lot and they have some pretty good deals (espeically Thursdays) so we ended up there a whole lot. :) Basically we are recognized by the staff. Haha. Chris took this yesterday. This is a pretty common site. Our dog thinks she is a person and she LOVES laying with us like this. Since I've been pregnant, especially lately, she doesn't spend much time laying with Chris. I'm wondering what she will do once her pillow is gone and there is a baby in her place. ;)
Don't you just wanna squeeze her!! :)

Ok here is the last and final prego picture. I feel huge next to the tree. Haha! I think its the angle...and the fact that my tummy is quite large. :) I have been very uncomfortable this whole week and in lots of pain...it's hard to get up once I'm laying down. It's pretty funny though too.

Well, we would appreciate everyone's prayers tomorrow. I hope things go smoothly and quickly and safely. Hopefully we will be posting pictures of a beautiful, perfect little boy soon!!

I will be a mommy very soon..wow!

Drumroll Please......

I had another appointment today. 38 wks and 3 days according to the doctors schedule. Everything was pretty much the same, aside from the fact that I am in pain a lot more (this kid is getting bigger and bigger the longer he waits). :)
We did FINALLY get some ultimatum though - if nothing happens before then - we will be inducing on Monday. Yes, November 30th!
The doctor did a "thorough" exam in order to - as she said - try to help contractions start on their own. I like to call it - OWWW!!! Haha, it did NOT feel good. But so far nothing has happened today so we will see.
I know that once the process starts there is no stopping it but I feel ok about the fact that I at least know something will be set up for Monday if nothing happens before. I am just so tired of anticipating!!
Please be praying for us and the baby. Chris is really in his busy season at work, poor guy, and he is trying to get everything lined up and under control for the next several days so that he can be free when the time comes. I am anxious but trying not to anticipate pain or complication or the overwhelming experience we will be going through once he is here. :) I just wanna see him too!!
I've been having migranes the last couple of days. Didn't end up seeing the neurologist because he was "called out of the country on an emergency"...which they failed to let me know until I was ON MY WAY to the appointment. But really its ok with me cause I would rather see if there is still a problem after the baby is born or if it just seems to be pregnancy related before I go to a neurologist anyway. Doctor was fine with that.
Who knows maybe we will have a Thanksgiving baby....then we would all be holidays! (technically - if april fools counts). ;)
I know I have been HORRIBLE about posting pictures. I need to take some now since this is apparently the end. I am so huge I don't see how I continue to grow but it sure does hurt at this point. :) I barely have any clothes that cover me up. Anyway, I will try to remember to take a few pics but if not - you will have to wait til there is a baby to see pictures of. :) Woohoo!

So the Dr. Says...

I'm sitting here in Chris's office - still no luck with the internet at home. Thought I would give a little update cause I had another appointment this afternoon.
Nothing has changed since last Monday according to the doctor. Still 3 and 1/2 cm and 90% effaced. She says the baby is still sitting really low. (I am definitely well aware of that- VERY sore pretty much all the time now)
It took her a loooooooong time to find the heartbeat today which has never happened before but he kept moving out of the way. I would have been freaking out a little if I hadn't felt him kicking himself away from the machine. It was kinda funny. She said it's been a while since she has had one try THAT hard to get away from her. :) Once we FOUND the heartbeat it was fine though.
She said she was going to "let me go" one more week. We go back next tuesday and I guess if nothing has happened by then we will discuss inducing and stuff. She said she doesn't really think I will still be pregnant by this time next week though. I would be more excited about that comment....except that she told me 2 weeks ago that she didn't think I would still be pregnant last weekend, so really that could mean nothing.
I am getting pretty anxious. It's not fun to be this big and uncomfortable and STILL waiting on my baby boy to get here. I feel like we mentally prepared ourselves 2 weeks ago and nothing has happened and I'm just getting impatient. :)
On a random/interesting/weird note: I have had a couple of spells where I have had weird vision issues in the last week and 1/2. I didn't think much about it cause I know people say your vision can get worse while you are pregnant, but when I told the doctor today she seemed a little concerned. Basically, 2 separate times I have had spans where I cannot see correctly - as in, I try to read something and can only see half of a sentance or only portions of a page or screen and no matter how hard I try - I cannot focus on the rest. It's the strangest feeling. What made it a little more concerning is that the first time it happened I was also slurring words for a few minutes. (I think I tried to say one sentance to Chris 4 times in a row and there was one word I just COULD NOT spit out no matter how hard I tried.) I also tried to type an email during that time and had to keep erasing it because I was typing things....just not the words I was trying to type. It was SOO weird. That only lasted a few minutes so I let it go. Then my vision went all wacky again yesterday at lunch for about 45 minutes (no slurring this time) so I figured I'd better ask about it. The doctor said it COULD be nothing but that if it happens again she wants us to drop what we are doing and see her immediately because she wants to do some tests with my blood pressure. My BP has always been really good, even throughout the whole pregnancy. The doctor always tells me that mine BP when I'm pregnant is better than hers is when she isn't pregnant. But it's possible that something could be triggering it to increase at certain times and she just wants to check it if something similar happens with my vision or speech again. Hopefully it won't happen again.
So that is basically it. Every morning I wake up and wonder what I am waiting to feel that will let me know that I am in labor. I'm not looking forward to the pain, but I am looking forward to something happening that means our baby will be HERE. :)
Please oh please let him come soon! - as long as it's healthy for him to do so of course. ;)

A lots has happened

This is Chris. I am making my first appearance on this blog. A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks so I thought I'd post a little update. Our internet at home has not been working lately, so Christie has not been able to get online much. Here is the latest:

A week ago Monday we went to the doctor. It was an educational visit for me. I learned a lot of new vocab words like dialated and effaced. Apparently our baby is ready to get life started sooner than later, because we were still over a month from our due date and she was 3 cm dialated and 80% effaced. I was not shocked until the doctor explained what these new words meant... then I was a little shocked. She seemed to think that there was a good chance that she would go into labor before 37 weeks, which would be considered full term. Today, marks 37 weeks, so we are pretty relieved that he did not come before today. Apparently our hospital has a policy that if a baby is born before 37 weeks (even 5 minutes before) they automatically keep the baby for the first 6 hours to monitor the health. We are thankful to be able to avoid that.

So basically what I am saying is that we are in hurry up and wait mode. We went into a little panic that day after the appointment. We rushed to pack a bag for the hospital and get a car seat so that we could actually take him home if he came early. Here we are, two weeks later, still waiting. We are still 3 weeks before the due date, but we are awaiting Zachary Paul Kauffman's arrival any day now. I'll keep you posted.

Baby Shower

So yesterday my friend Erin threw us a baby shower. This is me and Erin. :) We have been close friends since high school.
My family also helped out a lot. My mom helped with the cooking and dad ran the grill. This shower was set up to be "guy friendly" :).
We had a cookout and no shower games. It was a lot of fun!
(ps - love how Lily posed for this picture)


Since Chris was invited to this one, he got to help open the wonderful gifts. :)

The food was great!

We really appreciate everything that Erin and Mom did to make the shower great and all of our friends that joined us and helped us get ready to the baby to be here.

I wish we had a picture of all of the guests together. It was cool to have friends from church, college, work, and family all together in the same place. :)

We missed those of you who couldn't be there. (And susan, I did not pull your picture out but we know you guys were still there in spirit. :) We do hope to see you soon though and to meet Rilynn!)

Only 5 and 1/2 weeks to go! I have another appointment this Thursday and hope to find out more about how things are progressing and if they think he will come "on time"....I don't know if they can give any prediction at this point but I am curious!

I feel like my stomach is weighing me down now. :) When I turn over at night I have to support it or its really hard to move! Haha. I'm starting to have more discomfort but still can't really complain. I feel like I have had a great pregnancy compared to the struggles and issues that some people have so even though its getting more and more uncomfortable, I don't wanna fuss too much.

The biggest pain so far has been some lower back pain that comes and goes. Last Friday it was pretty consistently bad but it went away by Saturday. It's probably just the weight of my stomach or how the baby is laying or something.

He is still quite active.

Some days I am soooooo ready to see him and have him here. I also know that I should be appreciating the last few weeks of baby-free life, which I am trying to do also. I tend to have adjustment issues with big changes so I am trying to prepare for the first weeks to be emotionally difficult , but we will see. :) It's almost time!!

lil update

Well I was gonna wait til I had some pictures from the shower my sister threw for me last weekend to post antyhing but I have not been able to get them from my cousin yet so they will have to wait. Until then...thought I would update a little since I haven't in quite a while.

Lets see...

I am 33 and 1/2 weeks along now.

I feel huge.

No swelling yet, which is great. Still wearing the wedding rings and everything.

I have no clothes that fit....well, no long pants really which is difficult since it's been kinda chilly this week...I don't wanna buy anything else though - we are so close! Haha.

Doctors appointment this last Friday went well. I started getting a little sick on Thursday. It kinda came out of nowhere and hit fast - sore throat and drainage - but the doctor said my lungs sound clear and I didn't have a fever or anything. She suggested sudafed and rest and said to call if I get a cough or fever at anytime...so far, just drainage and stuffy head and the sudafed does help....so did the amazing amount of sleep I got on Friday afternoon and night. :)

I tried to get a flu shot for a few days last week, the only problem is NO ONE HAS ANY!! Everywhere I have called is either totally out, or out of the ones that don't have much mercury and that is the kind that pregnant people have to get. I don't understand why they even make one with mercury at all, but what do I know. My doctor said it's fine cause the flu that it is for does not actually come around until January, but it will be pointless for me to get one if it's not soon cause it takes the immunoglobins 4 weeks to transfer to the baby and if it's not going to eventually help the baby I'm not planning on getting it.

The baby hurts me a lot more now. Haha, he tries to stick his arms and legs in places that they can't go....like through my stomach or around my sides. It's funny looking but painful. :) Least he's movin around well.

My sister and brother in law came in from Memphis last weekend for the shower that she threw for us. It was great and lots of fun. Things are starting to come together in the nursery.

I had an emotional week a couple of weeks ago - where by the time I got home from work I would just be crying for no reason at all...it was weird cause I haven't had too much craziness as far as my emotions go throughout the pregnancy but my hormones must have been up to something then. It was funny but not funny at the same time cause i really was emotional...I just didn't know why. :)

It's crazy to think that we will have a baby here in like 6 and 1/2 weeks. Sometimes that seems like a long time and sometimes it doesn't at all.

So I guess that is all the news I can think of to share for now. I haven't taken pictures of my pregnant self in a while - hasn't seemed that appealing - haha!

Gotta go - I need to pee again. ;)

Hmmmmmmm....???

Chris and I have been talking about how excited we are about seeing our baby and seeing the different ways that he is a mix of us.

Some babies/children don't really look like their parents much, but usually there are at least some similarities.

.... I just think it would be great if our baby gets Chris's hair. :)

I love those curls! I just wanna squeeze him! :)

I had an appointment today. I'm still measuring well and doing fine. My numbers on the 3 hour glucose test were MUCH lower than the 1 hr test, which is good but weird how that worked out. I have been having some false contractions but no real ones yet. I honestly didn't know that it was possible to be having real ones yet but apparently it is. Other than that I have just been increasingly uncomfortable. I guess I didn't expect much more discomfort until closer to the end but I guess I am getting bigger all the time and so is he so it's bound to happen.

The baby is head down and hopefully stays that way. That does explain the increased pressure on my bladder recently...there is a head pushing on it. :)

They want me to get a flu shot....boooooooo!! I REALLY was hoping that wouldn't come up because I NEVER get a flu shot and NEVER get the flu. I talked to the doctor about it and she said I certainly don't have to but that they strongly recommend it because if you DO get it while you are pregnant there are far worse problems than if you aren't pregnant. Also, there are immunoglobins (sp?) in the shot that actually strengthen your immune system and those pass to the baby which helps it have a stronger immune system as a newborn. Since it will still be flu season when the baby is born that would be a good thing. I will probably go ahead and get it but I'm not too excited about it. I'm afraid that it will somehow make me more likely to get the flu in the future and since I never have it, I don't want to do anything that could alter that. Decisions, decisions. :(

Other than that things are going well. I am very excited that the weather is getting cooler and have even had the windows open some which I hope doesn't end up making me sick but I just LOVE it. I am so excited that autumn is here! It's my most favorite.
My sister and her husband are coming next weekend and she and my mom are throwing me a shower. I am very excited and happy to get to see them!

Woohoo!

Chris and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on Tuesday. We went to one of our favorite restaurants - Miyos. Yummy! It was a very nice night with the most wonderful husband on the planet (in my opinion). :)

Wednesday marked 30 weeks for me. Yay!! Finally out of the 20's. :) I really can't believe I still have 10 weeks to go but at least we are getting there. :)

Lil' Zachary is a crazy mover. I can feel him kicking my ribs a lot and he seems to think he can move my pelvic bone if he hits it hard enough. :) I have been able to feel when he has the hiccups recently which is funny. I have another appointment next week so hopefully things are still going well. As far as I can tell they are. Just getting bigger and bigger....I dont see how I'm supposed to get bigger for over another 2 months....

Also, my friend Susan is in labor RIGHT now and I am very excited for her...even though I'm sure she is just ready to be through this part right now. I can't wait to see what her ladybug looks like! :)

Glucose Testing

Guess who got to take the 3 hour glucose test?? That's right...me. :) I was totally not even concerned about it cause I was sure the results from my 1 hour test would be normal. But they weren't....barely. The "cutoff" for normal on the glucose test is 130...my test came back 132. (So close!)
So Chris and I went bright and early wednesday morning (up at 5:30) so I could do the 3 hour test. He was so nice to keep me company! :) The drink was even sweeter....and I now see why people say it's gross. It's not so much that the taste is bad per say...its just soooooooo sweet that it makes you feel sick. And sick I did feel. :) But I held it down. For some reason it gave me REALLY bad reflux though.
I made it through the fasting and the multiple needle stabbings and finally got to eat and got some sleep.
Found out yesterday that my numbers were normal this time which is GREAT news cause I definitely didn't want to have gestational diabetes.
Just a little bit of news for ya! Another appointment in 2 weeks.

28 weeks and stuff :)

Chris and I went up to stay with his parents on Labor Day. It was nice to get away and to see them, especially since we prolly won't be making many trips for a while once the baby comes so we were happy to get the chance now.

While we were there we got to stop and see Susan and Sep. Susan was my roomie in college and she is also pregnant. She is very close to her due date (lucky) :) It was nice to get to hang out for a while. We definitely did lots of baby talkin. Hope it is ok with you that I posted these pics Susan. :)

Here is me and Susan! And "Ladybug" and Zachary Paul of course! :)

Lily went with us to their house. They have a dog named Suka. It looks like they are getting along but it took a lot to get this picture. Suka was tryin to be the lady of the house and Lily was being a pansy so they pretty much were not best friends. It was funny to watch though.

k so this is 28 weeks and a few days. Getting bigger and bigger. Able to wear less and less of my wardrobe. Haha.

Chris's parents bought Zachary his crib and it came in this week. Chris and I put it together and I love it. It looks great! It didn't take us too long to do it either.

I went for my 28 wk appointment and Dr. said everything is still great. I'm measuring well and so far no major problems. I did the glucose test and they were supposed to call me Friday with the results but I didn't hear from them so I will call Monday to make sure everything was fine.

Other than that I have just been more uncomfortable at times. I don't sleep through the night - ever, without waking up cause something hurts. Haha. It's not that bad though. And I have started having pretty bad acid reflux the last few days but Tums has taken care of it so far. I have never had that problem before so I'm sure it's related to the pregnancy, I know its pretty common. I just hope it doesn't mean the baby has Chris's reflux problems....no thanks on the projectile vomitting. ;) We shall see!

I have also been dreaming about giving birth a lot lately. It's not realistic though cause it's pretty effortless and painless in my dreams. Haha! I wish!

3 more months to go!

Painted!

We got the nursery all painted in the last couple of days. It's so nice to feel like at least something is done. :) It's still just an empty room at this point but at least its all ready to set up. We love how it turned out!

Lily loves it too. :)

Milestone

Today is the first day of my 3rd trimester. :) Finally made it here! It feels like time is dragging on pretty often so I am excited about any milestone at this point. Haha.
Let's see, anything new to share?...
...Chris and I have started working on the nursery. We got our paint and we have been prepping the walls this week. Hopefully he can start painting by this weekend. We are excited cause Chris's parents bought our lil' boy a crib which should be coming in very soon so we will get to start putting that together too.
Can you tell the nesting is setting in? :)
...I am trying not to freak out over weight gain right now. That is sort of an issue for me but I think I am doing alright at this point.
...I have another appointment next week. I have to do the glucose test thingy which I hear is not so fun cause it tastes gross but I'm not really worried about it. My doctor said at my last visit that it was extremely unlikely that I would have gestational diabetes but that everyone gets tested so we would make sure anyway.
...I am getting closer to settling on Zachary Paul for the baby's name. Chris loves this name. I like it too but haven't been able to settle 100% on Zachary. I still want to have another name for back up in case I don't think he looks like a Zachary once I see him, haha, but so far that is where we are leaning.
...Our lil' boy is around 2 pounds now and should be around 14.5 inches. His facial features are mostly developed by now too. I wish I could see what he looks like! :) Hopefully at some point we get the 3D/4D ultrasound but I haven't really talked to the Dr. about it yet so I don't know when or if yet.
...He is still extremely active. Always moving it seems like. It's funny to just lay there and watch sometimes. My whole stomach is moving around. Haha. It makes me feel like an alien or like I don't have control of my own body or something...which I honestly don't right now. :) It's so cool though to know that it's our own little baby in there and it's always reassuring to feel movement as opposed to not feeling any. I just can't imagine what it will be like when its a 7 lb baby prodding me from the inside instead of just 2 lbs. Oh my! :) Guess I will know what it's like soon enough!

Maybe we will have nursery pictures to share soon.

Chucktown

This last Saturday Chris and I went to Charleston with the rest of the pastoral staff from church. Our new senior pastor started last month and he thought it would be a good time to get away and get to know each other's families. We were also going to take staff family pictures to update the website, etc. I honestly wasn't too excited about being 5 months prego in the pics just because I don't know when we will redo them again so I might be pregnant on the website for the next 2 years. ;)

It was a pretty humid day but it was a good time. I thought I would share some of the pics.

This is the whhhhole group. :) Nice lookin crew huh?

Here's us! This is about 24 and 1/2 weeks prego. Still have 15 wks to go......oh my. ;)

This is our new Senior Pastor Paul Johnson and his family. They are really a great family and we are so so happy to have them here and excited about the future of our church.

This picture kinda makes me laugh. Mostly cause they decided afterwards that wearing the same thing made them look like a boy band. Haha. They are going to try again on that one. :)

I just think this pic is too cute. Wesley (hangin on to the pole) belongs to Brad and Krista (youth pastor) and Ellis belongs to Paul and Erin.

Ha! Gotta love a group like this!

What a Week

Well I don't have any cool pictures or anything to post....even if I HAD had some they might be lost forever because our computer crashed this week. Fortunately we have backed everything up on an external hard drive but not since May so anything since then is long gone. :( I hate when stuff like that happens!

BUT the computer wasn 't the only thing that crashed this week....a deer also decided to crash into the side of the car while Chris was driving home....at 3:30 in the afternoon...on a regular very populated road. So weird! Fortunately Chris was not hurt at all. The car was pretty messed up around the front driver side fender but after some work from Chris it is at least drivable again (which is good because we considered getting a new one for a couple of days and....lets just say, its not an option :) ) Both of our cars have been having some trouble recently so this on top of that was not very encouraging but we are ok and still have 2 cars that are drivable at least.

I had my 24 wk appointment on Wednesday and everything was fine. I have started meeting the other doctors in the clinic (since you never know who will be on call when you go into labor). Our baby boy had a good heart beat and I was measuring just right according to the doc so good news all around. :)
On another note I am starting to feel exceptionally large at this point (which scares me when I still have 4 months left).

It has been a draining week. Basically Chris and I are fine but exhausted after a long long week with no days or nights off. I have been waking up (to use the bathroom) every night and then finding myself unable to get back to sleep for sometimes up to 2 hours each night so I am truly feeling EXHAUSTED at this point. I even took the doctors advice and took a benedryl last night but still had the same problem. Hoping to make up for that tonight by going to bed early cause its the only break we will have this weekend. Tomorrow its up and going by 7 to get to Charleston to be with the rest of the staff from church and their families for the day and then sunday we will be at the lake all day with our sunday school class for our class party....then here comes monday again. :) Oh my goodness I need a day off! Haha.

Here is a question for anyone who happens to have an opinion - what is a good price for each pack size of diapers?? I have wanted to start stocking up some but I never know when I am getting the best deal. Anyone know? Susan?? (you are the only one who ever comments - haha).

Hope everyone else has a great weekend!

Ohh, and I almost forgot...
My very sweet and thoughful husband knew I was having a rough day and he bought me flowers! :) It definitely made the work day better.

Charlie Bit Me

If you haven't seen this youtube video you need to cause its great. 

I don't know if you can upload the videos on these blogs cause I'm not smart enough, so I just put the link. 

Enjoy please. :) 

Ok people.....

It's a Boy | It's a Girl | I'm Expecting Graphics

Yay!!!

21 wks

So this is 21 wks. I'm not really a fan of the pictures I take at this point in my life but hey, it's life and my baby is in there so it's great. :)  

Not much new to tell. Doctors office called and my thyroid activity is being regulated well with the medication they put me on so thats good. I DID have to fill my headache med. prescription but praise the Lord - it works!! I haven't had relief from a headache in 5 months so I am satisfied even though I don't really like having to take something. 

We ARE gonna tell if it's a boy or girl but haven't gotten to talk to my brothers yet so patience please. ;) 

I am excited about the fact that I only have 19 wks left....thats on the opposite side of 20 so it makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere. Haha. ...I know the hardest part is yet to come but I just wanna get to 9 months safely...and if time could go a little faster that would be awesome. ;) 

One more for the road - I cut my head off in it on accident but it shows the belly alright. :) 

 

20 Week Appointment

Chris and I went for my 20 wk appointment this last Thursday. I am halfway there!! SOO glad to be over that hump and on the other side. :) 

The news: Everything looks great according to the doctor. She said all the fluids around the baby were perfect, the organs and limbs and spine looked perfect and the size (11 oz) was perfect. Heart beat was also good. She said my weight gain was just right too but I'm not sharing what it is. :) 

Annnnnnnd YES we did find out what we are having. Annnnnnnd you just might be in luck if you want to know what it is because we aren't so sure that not telling people is going to work out. Actually, I already used a pronoun today that gave it away to one person, haha, but only once. 

So, if you want to know you can probably find out in the next couple of weeks but we aren't 100% sure what we are doing yet. 

We also thought we had settled on names for both a boy and a girl but I think I am backing out of the name we chose so we are back to square one on that too. :) 

I've had some pretty nasty headaches so the doc gave me a prescription but I haven't filled it yet cause knock on wood I haven't had one in over a week and she said that most people stop having them so bad after 22 weeks so I will wait and hope I don't have to take anything. (Tylenol does NOTHING).

Other than that the only interesting info is that our baby apparently moves around more than average. The ultrasound lady kept commenting about how active it was the whole time and so Chris asked the doctor if there was any correlation between that and overactive/hyper children. She said that they have just started doing research on that so there isn't really any evaluation at this point but that HER baby was very active in the womb and is NOW a VERY active child....so we shall see. She said that since Chris and I both seem pretty calm we will probably have a calm child, but I say that's not always true. So we will just wait and see. It sure does move around all the time though. :) 

I keep forgetting to take pictures, I need to. I will post some soon. People are definitely able to tell now...although it's still pretty hard to tell when I am in certain scrubs. 

We and very thankful for the good news and hope things keep going well. :) 

Vacation 2009

We got to go on vacation 2 weeks ago and boy was it a trip. Lots and lots of driving, but it was fun and way better than flying (because I hate flying). 

We drove to New Jersey the first day and spent some time with Chris's friend Mark. It was great for them to catch up and nice for me to get to know Mark a little more because I had only met him at the wedding before now. 

After that we headed to New York City where we met up with Chris's parents and brothers for a couple of days. We spent some time in the city - 

did some walking and site seeing, 

relaxed in central park, 

and visited the Museum of Natural History. 

From there we stopped in Connecticut to see some family friends of the Kauffman family. We ate dinner with the Pecks and had a great time just hanging out. 

Finally made it to Boston from there where we stayed with Kyle and Matt (Chris's bros) the rest of the time. We went downtown/site seeing, did some shopping (specifically picked up a couple of Red Sox items for the baby), did lots of sleeping in, and hung out with the family. (PS - new transformers move = waste of time). 

THEN we got to drive back...the trip up had a few stops, which was nice. We decided to take a different route home because on the way up we got stuck in DC traffic for over 2 hours. We left Boston at 6 am, and drove, and drove, and drove.... and drove. As of now I despise Virginia and Pennsylvania because they take a million hours to cross. :) We ended up stopping somewhere in North Carolina around 7pm (yeah 13 hours of driving with few quick stops) where we got a hotel for the night. It ended up being really nice because it was a brand new Fairfield Inn and it was just a really nice last night of vacation to relax, do some swimming, get some sleep and get a free huge breakfast. :) 

I did fine throughout the vacation. I was kind of sore after sitting in the car so long both ways (especially in my neck which spurred on some headaches) and I had to do a lot of stopping and sitting in New York but other than that, no problems other than an ankle blister. :) Now if I could just get back into my routine of getting up early and working all day. :) 

There's a lot going on the next several weeks. Our new senior pastor is finally coming next week. We are pretty pumped and looking forward to that. Chris has some activities coming up at work and we will finally get to start doing some decorating in the baby's room once we know what it is...we just have to lock sneaky people out of the room so they don't try to find out the sex. ;)

18 wks

This is from about 16 and 1/2 weeks along. It's finally starting to show! :) So far, everything is still going well. I have had some pretty bad headaches off and on which is annoying because Tylenol does nothing to help and I can't take anything else, but other than that everything is good. I DID get sick for the first time a few weeks ago...but it wasn't normal morning sickness (which I haven't had at all). I actually just took my medicine (for thyroid which they started me on for the rest of the pregnancy and my vitamin) on an empty stomach, went to eat something a few minutes later, and needless to say, no more medicine on an empty tummy for me anytime soon. :) Around this point I was having some MAJOR sweet tooth cravings. Fruity candy please!!! :) But I tried to keep it under control. 16 wk doctors appointment went great. Dr. says everything is going well. We opted out of the blood testing for downs syndrome, etc. because my doctor assured me that we would be able to tell if that was a concern from the 20 wk ultrasound and because it most definitely doesn't change anything about whether we have the baby or not, I don't see the point. Apparently the blood test is USUALLY accurate but often reads positive when it shouldn't and I know I am the type to worry like crazy over things like that so we would prefer to avoid that possibility. :) 

PS - I am currently almost 20 weeks and will post after our 20 wk appointment this Thursday. But DON'T get too excited...YES we will be finding out the sex of the baby but we are keeping it a secret so there will be no giving it away. :) 

Welcome!

Hello friends! Chris and I thought that the easiest way to make sure that our family and friends that don't live close by can keep up with what's going on in my pregnancy and with our baby when he or she finally comes would be through a blog so here ya go! I have attached a post below that I put on my old blog when I was almost 12 weeks along. I DO have some new pics and info to add and I hope to do so soon. Welcome to the Kauffman Family Blog! :) 

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Okay so I know you can't really tell too much maybe, but I can. :) (and I'm not even poochin' it out in that pic).

Here is my question tho....How can my tummy be getting bigger and I STILL haven't gained any weight?? I guess they say that's normal but I just don't get it. Weird. 

Anyway, this is about 11 and 1/2 weeks along. Made it to 3 months! 

I went to the Dr. this last week cause of some weird pain I was having. They wanted to see if I had a bladder infection which it doesn't look like I do and I'm not really having any problems anymore so hopefully that was that. The cool thing was they did an unscheduled ultrasound just to be sure everything was ok with the baby and I got to see it move! That may not be a big deal to all of you who have seen that lots of times but I wasn't expecting it and it was so cool. I asked the tech. if she was doing that (haha) and she said no it was the baby. It did not apparently want its heart rate checked because it would turn away and face its back to us every time she tried to get it. Eventually, we got some cooperation tho and everything looked good. We have 2 arms and 2 legs, haha, so thats nice to know. :)  

6 more months...this takes forever. ;) It is nice to start noticing some changes though.