Our almost free staycation/baby moon

If anyone has ready pregnancy books/blogs you might have come across the term "babymoon" essentially its a vacation before the munchkin makes their debut... Last summer we house sat/dog sat for our friends down the street and they in turn gave us a night stay at the beautiful Grove Hotel in downtown! (We watched their dogs almost every other weekend all summer). It was super nice of them and we wanted to save our "night out" for sometime special so we put the gift certificate away and almost forgot about it. A few times we thought about calling in our reservation but we never did. Well when we came across it a few weeks ago we noticed that it expired in February! That is just right around the corner and the lil man will be here then too... so Aaron called in our reservation last minute and they had a room available! We packed our bags and headed out for a night on the town! (not surprisingly we forgot the camera at home- it is safely packed in the "hospital bag" so some of the images I stole from the Grove Hotel website) :)

This looks just like the room we stayed in... Our view was of the roof top and part of downtown :)

I have always loved the "river" they put on the front of the building- it is so beautiful , especially at night

Our night started off with a quick visit to the maternity ward to visit our friends and their new baby girl (she is baby four for them... the other three are boys). The nurses looked at us kinda funny as we came walking down the hall... we assured them that we were just visiting a friend but we would be back in a few weeks. We enjoyed holding the baby, visiting with our friends and getting the "scoop" on all the things we should know- like what not to order from food service, don't wait too long at home or you wont get to the hospital in time to get the drugs, what to expect during our stay and so on. After the hospital visit we were off to dinner at Red Lobster (So. Very. Yummy!! and FREE because we had a gift card from Christmas!) Then a little shopping at the mall (the "belly" is growing out of the shirts I have, I hate to spend money when I will only wear them for a few weeks but it was becoming a problem). After shopping we headed back to the hotel because this mommy was very sleepy. Aaron enjoyed the sauna and hot tub while I hung out pool side in my sweats playing on the ipad. We then headed back up to our room and crawled in bed (so exciting aren't we?) I was dozing in and out and flipping channels on the TV (way exciting for us because we don't have TV at our house). We came across an episode of Friends, some older movies, and the Saturday night British comedies- (I used to watch them with my dad) The Red Green Show was our favorite so I made Aaron watch part of it :) "the handy man's secret weapon... duct tape"

The next morning we ordered room service for breakfast, slept in a little, packed up our little suit case and headed to pick up Jack from my moms. When we got there mom's chocolate lab was sound asleep- she didn't even hear us come in! We went to Jacks crate and he was zonked out too! They must have stayed up late partying! (I later asked my mom about this because Jack came home and slept most of the day- apparently they all stayed up until about 1 am and she let Jack sleep in her bed! No wonder he was still tired!)

So that was our little stay-cation/baby moon. :) It is still hard to believe that in just a few short weeks our lives will be changed forever! We are so excited but it still isn't feeling "real" quite yet... I don't think it will truly sink in until we have been home from the hospital for a week. Oh- here is a belly shot from today (just about 37 weeks)...

Growing and growing!

Well apparently I really stink at keeping our blog updated! Somehow the last 10 weeks have flown by! We have been busy with work and Aaron finishing another semester at CWI (He did great this semester! Best grades he has ever had!) and of course we have been busy getting ready to add a little boy to our home.

A few weeks ago one of our friends came to visit from Pocatello and take some family/maternity photos. It was fun to have her stay with us and to see the pictures when she finished touching them up a bit. :)

We also had the lil' mans baby shower hosted by Aunt Lara. She did an excellent job planning some fun games (like guess the baby food- ick!) It was so fun to have people over and visit and of course eat yummy food! Since it is December we had a hot cocoa bar and muffins and fruit.



all of the fun gifts and swag from our very generous friends and family




Cleo checking out the fun toys after all the strangers left




My "halloween costume" for work- its a t-shirt that says "Pumpkin Smuggler" over my bump

 We are just about ready for the lil man to get here... I really can't complain too much about being pregnant. It is so fun to sit back and watch my belly wiggle and jiggle- especially when we are supposed to be paying attention at church :). I already feel like I know his little quirks and tricks- like if I sit at the table or desk too long he stretches out top to bottom pushing more room for himself. Whenever I start to worry about things it is like he knows and he will wiggle and I can't help but smile at our little miracle baby.

Thanks to my wonderful doctors and being super diligent in managing my diabetes he seems to be growing and progressing with out problems. A few weeks ago we had a little adventure and spent part of an evening in labor and delivery being monitored with contractions. After some medication and telling the lil man that he would get more birthday presents if he waited until February we were sent home. I have been taking it a little more easy and resting more and haven't had any problems since. However, I have seemed to develop a lovely pregnancy related rash called "PUPPPS" apparently about 1 in 500 pregnant women get to enjoy this, and you are more likely to develop the rash if it is your first pregnancy and if you are carrying a boy- that's me! So I pretty much have a super itchy rash all over my belly, legs and chest and the only thing that will make it go away is having the baby. To treat it I can take a small dose of benadryl (which is great at night to help me sleep- not so great during the day when I need to be awake), using lotion to keep my skin from drying out, and oatmeal baths (which are quite an adventure at this stage of pregnancy and really haven't helped too much). So we are getting even a little more antsy for this guy to pick his birthday. :) I have a feeling I will actually sleep more after he is born... is that possible? Just a few more weeks and then our lives will be changed forever!

P.S. Somehow I have also neglected taking pictures the past few weeks... so I will work on catching those up soon too! :)

Projects!

This weekend was project central at our house! (My poor husband must think I have lost my mind...) We knew that we wanted to paint the nursery because it hasn't been painted since we moved in and there were a ton of little "pin" holes in the walls and we have no idea what paint color our walls are so we haven't been able to patch them- needless to say it has been making me nuts since I noticed them shortly after moving in. So we finally decided on some colors- a bright/light blue and grey! (Very daring for us monochromatic types). When we first started with the grey I was really nervous that it was more purple than grey and everything would be ruined, a little sleep and some daylight thankfully proved me wrong and we have a beautiful brownish grey pair of walls! The blue was the perfect shade with the grey and everything came together nicely! We even found a cute car town rug on craigslist that is grey/blue (because what little boys room is complete without a car mat to play on??)

one grey wall and one blue wall all done!

 While we were waiting for paint to dry Aaron got to work repainting all of the shiny gold things in the house- i.e. door knobs and the fireplace! Thanks to some smart ladies on Pinterest who posted how to use spray paint to spruce up just about anything!! We only spent about $10 for the paint to cover about 15 door knobs! Major savings if you ask us (just don't look too closely we are not professionals but they look pretty good!) :)

 Tah-dah! The finished room! It looks so cute!

Now we just need the lil man to come and enjoy it! (Just not too early).

22 Weeks- headed to church

Aaron got a Red Lobster gift card at work a week or so ago and we decided after a long day of painting and cleaning and projects we would clean up and head out for dinner! We snagged this shot on the way out the door- I told Aaron that I was feeling "lop-sidded" all night and maybe the lil guy was sitting crooked? Things are still going well, aside from a few headaches and increasingly crazy blood sugars but I really can't complain!

Pictures

Ok, so I heard that the little video clips are a pain for viewing our little guy. So with the help of my mom we got the ultrasound pictures scanned! Here you go!

 His little face

Looking right at us!

10 toes

two very wiggly legs!

OH BOY!

Today was the big day! We had our 22 week ultrasound and got to see our little guy for about 40 min.! It was fun to watch him swallow and wiggle and play. We can't wait to hold and snuggle him in February! So far things look good (today was just the u/s we meet with the OB on Friday to actually "discuss" everything). Our little guy is quite the wiggle worm- he kinda kicked at the ultra sound wand toward the end, I guess he was tired of us invading his space and interrupting his nap.

These are a few of the images from today- they came as little 2-3 second video clips for some reason so hopefully you can enjoy them. (This weekend I will scan in the pics they printed out for us, they should be easier to see).

 

You can watch him kick toward the right!

Feet (look toward the upper Right- his little toes are closer together and heels apart)

Profile

Face -looking right at us (he has a pretty cute little nose!)

Nice strong heartbeat!

Right arm- you can see all his little bones!

We are excited to get a few things done now that we know he is a he! A few weeks ago one of my Grandma's asked why we wanted to find out boy/girl and Aaron just looked at her then pointed to me and asked her "have you met my wife?" We all laughed and I couldn't help but giggle about how much "planning" I had already done and how much there is still to do! ;)

Hope you enjoyed our pictures! 

Love, 

Aaron, Kira, and baby boy

BUMP!

Well, when I found out I was pregnant I told myself I would take a picture of my growing belly each week... do you have any idea how hard it is to take a decent picture of yourself by yourself?? (With Aaron's work and school schedule we only see each other on the weekends and when I am up to go potty at midnight- 2am when he is just getting home) We have managed to snag a few pics the past few weeks and hopefully I will remember to keep taking pics! So here you go... just thought I would share a few of the recent ones with you :)

 (Notice the Blue and Orange? It was game day! Go BRONCOS!!)

(and of course we are all set for next football season... we can't live in bronconation and not have proper bronco attire for the entire family)

I have been feeling pretty good the past few weeks aside from a migraine headache at 2 am that landed us in labor and delivery for observation and medication (nothing was really wrong they just wanted to observe me since I haven't had a migraine before). The baby didn't seem to mind, I could feel the little wiggle worm and the nurse found a nice strong heart beat. Hopefully that is our last trip to the L&D until February! :)

Miracles and Blessings

After being approved and on the adoption waiting list for about four months we have been blessed with a miracle! We are PREGNANT!! (I hate cliché’s but so far I have managed to be a “june bride” and get pregnant after being approved for adoption!)

The positive test was the same morning as my huge RMA exam, I hadn’t felt well for the two weeks leading up to the exam and just thought it was nerves and stress. When things didn’t get any better I kept having the thought that I was pregnant… so off to Walmart I went and came home with a three pack of tests. Yup, I used all three J just trying to be thorough.

We began with cautious optimism and made the OBGYN appt for a few weeks later (apparently there are a lot of pregnant ladies in the treasure valley this summer it was hard to get an appt). We prayed and prayed that our little miracle would have a heart beat and be healthy. The first ultrasound was such an amazing day! We saw a glorious heart beat and a little “gummy bear” that wiggled and moved! We were so relieved and still a little worried.

The weeks have ticked by and I have tried my best to enjoy being pregnant and remind myself on the days I don’t feel so great that I prayed for this J My diabetes hasn’t given me much trouble, I am so blessed with amazing technology and physicians who have been available to help trouble shoot some tricky things. There haven’t been any major complications or reasons to be concerned.

Each day that goes by we are getting a little more excited, but there is still that nasty “what if” and “maybe” monster lurking in the shadows… we are anxious for the next ultra sound appt to know that everything is going well and to see our little miracle baby!

Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers and until February, keep watching for more baby belly news from the Fullers!