Alexia Maryn Kristensen is here!!!

I apologize for the delayed blog post, but life got pretty busy as we welcomed our baby girl into the world on Wednesday, July 11th at 2:04 pm!!! She weighed in at 7 lbs 2.2 oz and measured 20 inches. She is absolutely perfect!! We've spent the last week at home just loving our little Lexi.

We arrived at the hospital on Tuesday around 2 pm to begin the induction. It was a slow going process as contractions didn't start in earnest until around midnight. I made it to 6 am before asking for an epidural, and it turns out I was 10 cm by the time I got the epidural at 9 am (apparently the anesthesiologist technicians are in high demand on a labor and delivery floor). The doctor let me sleep for a few hours after getting the epidural before we began pushing. And after 2.5 hours of pushing we were holding our perfect little girl!

Sorry for the short post, but I'm anxious to hold my little girl again!! Stay tuned, more pictures to come soon!

Week 38 and sneak peak at the nursery!

Hello all! We have reached week 38 here, in the Casa de Kristensen. Hopefully only 2 more weeks at the most! At our appointment on Friday I was disappointed to find out that I wasn't dilated, but softened at least. I realize that doesn't mean anything and you can be 0 cm one day and have your baby the next, but it would have been nice to know there is some progress going on! She has certainly dropped lower, as I have to go to the bathroom all the time. We have another perinatal appointment on Monday so we will see how big is. Hopefully not too big!

THE LAST BUMP SHOT - Week 38

Week 34 compared to week 38. Bigger and lower!

And now on to the nursery sneak peak. There is a surprise hidden in one of the pictures. Who is going to be the first to see it?

Dresser/changing table

Crib

Recliner and handmade bookcase

Closet organizer

Baby stuff and lots of diapers!

Better view of the bookcase. It was made to match the crib and dresser, right down to the wainscoting backing that matches the sides of the dresser! Very happy I came up with the idea for the angled sides!

Daddy and Grandpa building the bookcase!

Nothing much else going on here. Just waiting. Poor big sister Buttercup had to have a broken lower canine pulled this past week. So all the chew bones have been put away to avoid her opening up her stitches. Oddly enough neither dog has noticed that yet.

Illinois Baby Shower

In the last couple of weeks we've attended our baby basics, childbirth preparation, and breastfeeding classes. Can't learn too much! We are now seeing the OB every week. At our appointment this week we had a quick ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels and the doctor's response on seeing Baby K's position was, "Wow, she's really down there!". She didn't say exactly how far down she was, but I've been under the impression that "station" determination is made during a vaginal exam, which our doctor doesn't start until week 38 unless we ask her to do it sooner. But I think I'll wait for that fun adventure. I know she's getting farther down there, because I have to pee ALL THE TIME now. And I finally caved and got a maternity support belt because I just couldn't stand to be upright for any length of time. My back was just killing me, and it always went away if I laid down, so I suspected it was just my ligaments reaching the end of the rope (literally). The belt has really helped a lot! I still have to lay down each afternoon, but that's more from exhaustion than pain.

Anyway here are some pictures from our Illinois shower!

Me and my Mother-in-law, Dawn

Me, Aunt Anita, and Dawn

Me, Grandma Gerda, and my niece, Maeve

Me and Grandma Gerda

The nieces, Maeve and Claire, enjoying some cake!

My sister-in-law, Kristen and her little girl, Maeve

Claire is more concerned with getting her picture taken than watching present opening

Liz and her girls, Johanna and Adelyn, made the long drive down from Lansing, MI for our shower. So glad they could make it!

Lots of delicious pastries and cake. Just torture for a sweet-loving gestational diabetic!

Food, food, and more food!

Our NM neighbors threw us a shower as well! We really did pick a great neighborhood! Lauryn's mom made an adorable hippo hat to match Baby K's pettiskirt!

Susan, Lauryn, Daxton, David, and Christi. (Maddie and Matea are around somewhere)

At the time of posting we are just 1 day away from FULL TERM!!

Week 34 and a finished quilt!!

We are finally closing in on the end. Only 2 to 7 weeks left to go! (At the time I write this, we are currently 35 weeks). We are both getting very anxious to meet our little girl! And we have finally settled on a middle name! Ryan is starting to get a little nervous that we won't be ready when "it's time". But for some reason, I am very ok with our current level of preparedness. If I don't happen to get my Ipod loaded before labor starts, oh well. I'll just have to amuse myself by playing Plants vs. Zombies and Zombie Farm.

We've spent a lot of time the past few weeks getting the nursery all put together. The crib and dresser are all assembled, everything has been opened, washed, and put away. And Ryan and his father built an awesome bookcase to match the crib and dresser, incorporating my design elements with minimal grumblings. I'll post pictures of that project after it's painted and stained.

Daddy working on assembling the crib

Mommy and Daddy-to-be with the finished crib!

Last weekend Lauryn did her last baby bump shot, little Brighton will be here any day now! I'm jealous! And I managed to get her quilt finished in time!

At our Perinatal appointment last week, Doctor Hurley said "I'll see you back in 4 weeks, if you're still pregnant". I must admit that got my hopes up, but even though Baby K has dropped just a little (I can breathe a little easier, but now I have to pee all the time again), I'm sure we still have several weeks to go! At that appointment Baby K measured at 5 lbs 13 oz (76th percentile). And if she continues to gain a 1/2 lb per week...well, let's just hope that she comes a little early! And we start our every week obstetrician appointments this week too!

Baby bump at 34 weeks

Week 34 compared to week 30

I managed to finish Baby K's quilt too!! I am really happy with how it turned out. It is a great addition to the nursery, and hopefully she will enjoy her tummy time all that much more with such a cute quilt to stare at! I think after Baby K is born I am going to get her name and birth date embroidered in the border.

Close ups and full shots of the quilt. And someone has already tried to lay claim on it!

Almost done, I swear. Just a few more details of the nursery. After we get the bookcase in the room and move out the pack and play, I will post some photos of the whole room.

A super cool baby book I found!!

There really are gremlins under her bed....

Ok, I'm done now. But there will be another post coming very soon with pictures from our Illinois shower!

30 Weeks

We start our every 2 weeks OB visits now. At my appointment last week I had only gained 2 lbs, but the baby is still measuring ahead in size. I am finding the diet changes necessary to manage the glucose intolerance very, very frustrating. And my weight gain has pretty much slowed to a stop since I made those changes. Our doctor didn't seem worried though. She said many women slow down their weight gain now, just because there is so little room left and you can't physically fit in a full meal anymore.

But then I went to the Perinatal Specialist again today for a recheck ultrasound and to meet with the diabetic counselor again. The counselor and the doctor both agreed I need to be eating more. I am supposed to up my carb intake to 45 g at lunch and dinner and see how my blood glucose responds. If I can't make the 45 g work I will have to go on medication (glyburide). So tonight for dinner I had a big bowl of whole grain pasta with olive oil and a small grilled chicken salad. After going for a 20 minute walk my blood glucose tested at 89 mg/dl. I am shooting for under 130 mg/dl, so I was pretty happy. My failures before could usually be attributed to white bread (like on my beloved double cheeseburger), french fries, or ketchup. So I am going to try adding more whole grains and avoid all the white starchy stuff. Hopefully I can find some happy medium!

The ultrasound went very well. Still no sign of the fluid in the lungs. The baby measured 9 days ahead in growth. The doctor isn't concerned about the baby's size as long as I can keep my blood glucose in check.

30 week ultrasound. Sucking her thumb, again!

I also did some updated baby bump pictures a few days ago. I don't have many more of these left, maybe only 1 or 2!! If I go to 40 weeks, I am going to be HUGE!

Week 30 Bump

Week 26 compared to week 30

I've also been busy working on thank you cards for the baby showers. They'll be out soon, I promise!

Third Trimester and The Big Gender Reveal!!

Lots to report in this post. Where to start?? I guess I'll go chronologically. During week 25 we had another doctors appointment. I had gained 7 lbs during the month (oops), there was sugar in my urine, and my uterus was 1 cm higher than it should be. Like I haven't had enough scares during this pregnancy. The doctor wasn't concerned about the weight gain or the uterine growth (which she claims is still normal). Due to the sugar in the urine I was sent for the 1 hour glucose test, which I then failed. So I was sent for the super fun 3 hour glucose tolerance test. The 50g orange drink for the one hour test was bad. The 100 g fruit punch drink for the 3 hour test was just plain evil. Yuck, yuck, yuck! I was dreading the result call because I wanted so desperately to enjoy my baby shower cake made by our good friend Maria! It turns out I don't have gestational diabetes, I am just glucose intolerant (only the 3 hour post value was out of range). I've met with a diabetes educator and have started blood glucose monitoring and modified my diet to make sure it doesn't progress into gestational diabetes. I've only had one value too high since I started testing and I think that was either a false reading (the test strip had an air bubble) or I just ate too big a portion of mac and cheese that night. Testing has been pretty easy so far. Portioning my carbohydrates isn't so easy. But at least I can still have peanut butter!

During week 26 we had a recheck ultrasound. The baby's lungs still look great. No sign of the fluid returning or compression from where it was originally. While I was thrilled to hear that news, I got an even bigger surprise because Ryan's nosiness got him in trouble! The technician was going to the computer to calculate the baby's size since my uterus was a little higher than normal. At that time the baby was 2 lbs 6 oz, which is in the 73rd percentile. The tech assured us this is still normal and isn't a cause for concern yet. Ryan got nosy about the computer program she was using and while he was trying to peak at the computer screen, the tech opened our chart right in front of him and he saw the baby's
 gender!! Not wanting to hurt the tech's feelings and knowing he couldn't have such a big clue and not let me know, he told me we could find out the baby's gender if I wanted. I, of course, said yes!! But you'll have to wait to see the video below for that answer...

So off we headed to NY for our 1st baby shower knowing two things - 1.) I had to take it easy on Maria's delicious cake and 2.) our baby's gender. We planned two special reveals for our NY peeps. For my family and a few close friends I ordered half moons with the appropriate colored frosting. I made sure to tell them all that we had found out the baby's gender, but they would have to wait until later that week to find out what it was. The video below is them opening the box of halfmoons. I love their expressions!! We planned another reveal for the baby shower as well. Maria dyed the cake batter the appropriate color and we made a big spectacle out of cutting the first piece of cake. Great surprises all around! I'm glad we found out just before the NY shower trip, so I could tell everyone in person!!

It was really great seeing all our NY family and friends!! I'm so glad so many of our Albany friends were able to make the trip to Ilion for our shower! And thank you Jackie, Mary and Mom for throwing such a wonderful shower! And thank you to Laura, Kim and Andrea for helping out with favors and set up! It was great getting to hang with my girls again! Below are some pictures from our shower. Enjoy!

My favorite still image of the big reveal!

Mommy and Daddy to be with the delicious pink half moons!

Super cute baby sock bouquet

Our baby shower cake made by Maria McCall! The turtle layer is white chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, the bottom layer is white chocolate cake with white chocolate frosting and raspberry filling. MY FAVORITE!!

Winner of the Play Dough Baby Making Challenge - Kelly and Sianna!

Baby blanket made by Mee-maw (Gramma Patti P)

Super cute custom made ugly doll receiving blankets made by Maria McCall!

Lauryn and I have also done updated baby bump pictures since the last post. My belly will need its own zip code soon! I'm really not sure how 3 more months of growth is supposed to fit in there. Everything seems very cramped as it is!

Week 26 baby bump

Week 22 compared to week 26 (and the pink shirt was a girl hint)

My pregnancy buddy, Lauryn. For comparison, she is having a boy and has a perfect basketball belly. My belly goes from my hips to my chest!

Ryan and I head to Illinois next weekend for the baby shower his family is throwing for us. Baby Girl K is going to be one spoiled tot! I promise to be better at posting so they aren't this long in the future!  We start our every 2 week prenatal appointments in May!

Baby K's Quilt

I've finally picked a quilt pattern for Baby K! I had originally found a quilt that had large-ish machine appliqued turtles. But I really don't think I have the time to teach myself machine applique to the point that I would be brave enough to do it on an actual quilt. So I found a really cute pattern that utilizes a larger scale print and simple piecing.

Quilt Pattern

Naturally I headed to my favorite ABQ quilt shop, Southwest Decoratives, to pick out the fabrics! Since we do not know the baby's gender I tried to go with a neutral green theme. But it ended up being more green and blue. Oh well. It will be super cute regardless! The print in the upper left corner that looks like plain white is actually cream colored with white dragonflies. You can see it better in the second picture.

Fabrics for Baby K's quilt

Close up of fabric from upper left had corner. It's dragonflies!!

I finished cutting all the pieces today. Tomorrow I hope to start the piecing. I have quite a few half square triangles to make from the blue sunflowery and dragonfly prints. After that it's just piecing the squares, which should go pretty quickly!

I am tempted to have it long arm quilted at the quilt shop. For some reason I can't get the tension adjusted properly for free motion quilting. My machine can handle straight line quilting, but that is kinda boring. I think it just depends on how quickly I finish it, as the shop has a 4-6 week wait for long arm quilting.

I am also making this same pattern for our neighbor who is having a little boy! She has decided on a monkey themed quilt! It will also be super cute!!

Nothing new to report in baby related news. This little girl or guy is kicking up a storm! We have a regular doctors appointment and a perinatal ultrasound before we head to NY for the baby shower. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone in April!