36 week update woohoo!

Your baby is now around 18½ inches long and nearly 6 pounds! Your baby continues to put on weight at about ½ pound each week. This layer of fat will help your baby regulate his body temperature after leaving your climate-controlled womb. In fact, your baby will be 15 percent fat at birth (and you ... well that's another story). Even in the womb, your baby can listen, feel, touch and see. The only thing separating him from living in the outside world is a little thing called the birth canal. His gums are firm with ridges that look somewhat like teeth, though his actual pearly whites won't start breaking through until he's between three months and a year old. Your baby has definite patterns of sleep and wakefulness—opening his eyes while awake and closing them while sleeping. Your baby will become alert and turn his head toward light and sound just as a newborn would—except when you put on that Celine Dion CD. Then the baby puts his hands up, turns away and gurgles, "Oh no you didn't!"

Only 19 days to go!!!

Dr Appt Update and crazy day!

Well we are now in the final stretch! I will be seeing Dr. Folkstad for weekly visits now. Yesterday was a bit crazy though. Nick had a seizure at the office in the morning (which he hasn't had in almost 4 and a half years now)! Of course I was a nervous wreck and went ahead and had him taken to the ER just to make sure all was good. During this whole adventure I had been trying to shrug off the fact that I had been crampy all day and feeling what I thought might be contractions. Anyway once Nick and I got to the hospital and I new he was ok I went on to my doctor's appt since I wasn't feeling well. Sure enough the doctor was running late, I didn't get in to see him until 4:30 and my appt was at 2:45. The doctor confirmed that yes I was having real contractions and that the cramping was my cervix effacing. I am currently 50% effaced and a finger tip dialated. Makayla is also head first and very very low! She is trying to make her grand entrance a little early. The doctor is not sure if I will make it but he is going ahead and scheduling the induction for August 13th just in case. At this point he says if I go into labor he will not stop it, so I guess Nick and I better be ready. Anyhow after a long wait at the doctors I headed back to the hospital to be with Nick. He was released from the ER after the doctor spoke with his nuerologist. He is hurting awfully bad (like being hit by a train) and is pretty much laid out but he is excited to think baby Kayla could be here very soon. So everyone is beggining to take bets on when I will go into labor, I say I will wait until the 13th and everyone else has other plans lol. We will see though only 3 weeks to go!

Baby shower #2

On Saturday July 19th we had our second and last baby shower hosted by my step-mom Rose. It began at 5:00pm with greetings and fun. Nick and I hadn't seen most of these people in over a year so we were delighted to spend time with them. Everyone socialized out back and we were all served dinner by my step sisters (Karen and Elizabeth) and there cousin (Jackie). Finally around about 8:30 we served the cake and wow what a cake it was, there was about 54 big slices. Anyhow around 9:30 Nick and I headed inside with all of the ladies (the other guys stayed outside to drink) to open gifts. It was so exciting we received over 700 diapers! Thank goodness, now we are set for a while. I will attach a picture below showing the mass amount of diapers we put away on Sunday. At around 10:00 we started playing some games that a good friend (Nancy Haye) put together. One of the was a big bowl filled with rice and mixed in was a bunch of different sized safety pins. The object was to feel around and take out whichever ones you could find in one minute while being blindfolded, the person with the most wins! So I got 9 safety pins which I thought was great but one of the ladies got 31!!! It definately put me to shame but at least I got more than Nick who got 4 lol. After that we did one last thing, we made Nick taste 12 jars of baby food. He has decided none of them are good except bannanna. Finally around 11:00pm Nick and I said our goodbyes and headed home, I'm just not a night person anymore because I was exhausted. Anyhow, everything went great and everyone had a blast. I will attach more pictures later once I get copies from my dad. I can't believe it's almost time for Makayla to say hello!

35 Weeks, wow how time has flown by!

Your baby's nearly here!
She doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds. Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.
Baby's nails are growing so long they may curl over the tips of his tiny fingers and toes before he sees a pair of clippers. She'll be in serious need of a mani-pedi once she's born (as will you).

~Everything is going well so far just starting to feel some discomfort other than that we are anxiously awaiting her arrival!

The Nursery!!!

Well we only have 28 days to go and the nursery is almost complete! Nick and I have been working on it for a while now and we are so pleased with how it turned out. I have attached pictures below and hope that everyone takes a peek. We now have everything done except we are in the process of replacing outlets, baseboards and putting up crown molding. Hopefully that will all be done in the next week or so. Other than that pictures are hung, toys are out, and curtains are up. Oh and by the way the curtains and my rocker were hand done by my mom and dear friend Vicki all I did was pick out the fabric! I do not have a picture of the rocker but I will take one tonight and add it to this. I hope everyone enjoys.

Amazing Baby Shower

This is so late, I have been bad with my weekly updates so here we go. On June 29th I had my baby shower and it went so perfect! We were surrounded by everyone we love and care about, had good food and good times, what more could I ask for. Nick and I owe a big Thank you to my mom, cousin Buffy and aunt Sherry. The shower began at around 1:00pm with food and greetings. Shortly there after started our activities! Half of the people made me scrapbook pages for me to put Makayla's pictures in and the other half made her onesies. What fun! I have all personalized things for her from everyone and that is so amazing. These are definatly things that I will save for her forever so she can see how much she was loved before even making her grand debute. As the women went through and did our crafts the boys (Nick, Ryan and Steven) went outside to enjoy a nice bottle. No really I mean a bottle see pictures below. Nick and I enjoyed everything so much and will be finishing out Thank you cards this week so I havn't forgotten you I promise.

P.S. A big Thank you to our wonderful photographer Cousin Brandi for the pictures. I can't wait to get them all developed.

34 Weeks only 4 weeks to go before induction!

Your baby's preparing for her arrival in just a few short weeks! By now, your baby weighs around 5 pounds and may be as long as 20 inches, head to toe. Her fat layers —which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. In the coming weeks her head will go down further behind the pubic bone. The pressure of the growing baby and your loosening pelvis will allow the baby to descend lower and lower in your pelvic region. Even if her head is engaged she can still easily turn on her axis. At one moment, she is lying with her back to the right, the next minute she turns to the left, which will feel like a huge movement - anyone could see this on the outside! You'll hear her heart on the right one minute and left the next.

~It is just about time for Makayla to be born, only 4 weeks to go! I can't tell you how excited I am but at the same time I am saddened thinking of her not being in my belly anymore. Time is flying by!
Cassie

Late update! 33 weeks

Got a night owl in there? Your baby continues to develop regular sleep-wake cycles now. When your baby slumbers, she'll close her eyes (they're pretty sensitive to light these days) and she may even start to dream. But when your baby's up and at 'em, be prepared for some powerful kicks. You might be feeling them in a new place now -- your ribcage (just below your breasts). And wow, can they be sharp sometimes! But on the bright side, these movements are probably a sign that your baby's head-down, perfectly poised for her big birthday entrance. All of the organs are now developed and some are functioning already just as they will after the birth. More and more subcutaneous fat is forming so your baby's wrinkles disappear slowly but surely. The skin becomes a rosy color and the fine downy hair that was on the skin is replaced with vernix caseosa. This "baby cream cheese" prevents the skin from drying out. The fine downy hair comes off and floats in the amniotic fluid. Because the baby takes small sips of amniotic fluid, he swallows these hairs which then tickle and stimulate his intestines, which helps in their function after birth. For the time being, your child must continue to grow. He is now 16 inches (41 cm) long and weighs 4 ½ pounds (2 kilos). For the next four weeks on he will gain up to a couple of ounces a day. Depending on the time of his birth he will become a seven-, eight-, nine- or ten-pounder. Little girls are a bit smaller and lighter and the oldest (first) children are generally lighter than the following children. That may be because of the tight abdominal muscles, the stretching of the uterus and the age of the mother. The more children a mother has, the more the abdomen will be able to stretch.


P.S. 4 and a half pounds yeah right! She weighed more than that a week and a half ago. We all must remember her daddy was 23 inches and almost 10 pounds!