Nursery is Complete - Month 9

week 37

The Nursery is Done!

Karl and I are so excited to have the nursery done. We totally love it. Sure, things got moved around some from what we had first thought to fit the crib, but the room is still really cool to us. I walked upstairs the other day and saw Karl sitting in the new glider looking around the nursery. He just smiled at me. I didn't really need to ask what he was thinking because I could tell by the look on his face.

Baby Koester's nursery is complete...just need him/her in it:)

Life is about to change majorly for us, but in a really good way. And before we know it, there's going to be an actual body filling the room. I can't quite wrap my mind around it all yet. Sometimes I wake up forgetting I'm pregnant and then soon realize I'm just a few short weeks away from having a baby. The house now is so quiet and soon it's going to be filled with shrieks and crying spells.

I'll be changing our little baby over here... a lot...

And sometimes I'll go for a walk and see all the little kids running around in the neighborhood and get really excited to play with our baby soon. How fun to go on walks and just enjoy being a little family. Or I think about family get-togethers and how fun they'll be. Our baby is going to be so loved by so many people.

So excited to read all these books to our little bundle of joy

Yes, a huge part of me is still scared because I don't know what to expect and I know change is coming. Change is always scary. But I can't say there was a change that happened I didn't grow from or look back on and think, that totally ruined my life. It just takes time to adjust and I need to remember to give time....time. Because this baby is going to such a great addition - I know it!

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Chicken and Lemon-Broccoli Alfredo

Quick chicken recipe with flavor

Chicken and Lemon-Broccoli Alfredo
serves 4
recipe found in Better Homes and Garden

Tasty chicken!

4 small skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Salt and pepper

8 ounces mushrooms, halved

1 tablespoon olive or cooking oil

1 lemon

3 cups fresh broccoli florets

1 10 ounce container refrigerated light Alfredo pasta sauce

I also added in zucchini

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. In large skillet brown chicken and mushrooms 4 minutes in hot oil, turning chicken halfway through.

2. Meanwhile, shred 2 teaspoons lemon peel; set aside. Slice lemon. Add broccoli and lemon slices to skillet. Cover; cook 8 minutes or until chicken is done (170 degrees).

3. Place chicken and vegetables on plates. Add Alfredo sauce to skillet; heat through. Serve with chicken. Add lemon peel and pepper. Makes 4 servings.

Karl's reaction: "Ohhh, this is good. What's in this? I like the alfredo sauce a lot."

My take: Too easy not to make again! Very good! 

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Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Perfect recipe for St. Patty's Day (or a Sunday dinner)

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
serves 8
recipe found on All Recipes.com

Awesome dinner!

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick pieces

10 baby red potatoes, quartered

1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups water (I used 2 cups of water and 2 cups of beef broth)

1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet

6 ounces beer

chopped up garlic

1/2 head cabbage, coarsely chopped (I put this in for only 20 minutes at the end!

1. Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker, pour in the water, and place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Pour the beer over the brisket. Sprinkle on the spices from the packet, cover, and set the cooker on High. (I did 6 hours on high and that was good enough!)

2. Cook the brisket for about 8 hours. An hour before serving, stir in the cabbage and cook for 1 more hour.               

Cooking it up in the crock pot

Karl's reaction: "Could have used more carrots but the corn beef IS AWESOME. Okay...and maybe add some mushrooms."

My take: Holy tasty. A little on the salty side for me, but really good. The meat was incredibly tender.

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My Husband, The Super Star - Karl Koester

My husband, Karl Koester in Shakopee Valley News

I've always admired my husband's career choice of becoming a prosthetic practitioner. I thought it was pretty cool. I first met him when he was an analytical chemist and could tell he was in the wrong profession. He needed to be around people - making them laugh - and using his hands more building things, versus being buried in a back room, staring at a bunch of bunsen burners and test tubes to see if certain soil samples were OK for businesses to build on.

My sweetheart, Karl, makes front page news!! What a stud!

We started dating while working together (trying hard to keep it under wraps as much as we could but I don't think our faces could hide it) and soon Karl was off to California for six whole months making his dreams come true. He first finished four years of undergrad at the University of Minnesota with a Biology degree and then went on to Century College to get the technical side of building artificial legs and arms under his belt for a year and a half. He then decided he wanted to be a full-on practitioner and needed to head out to a bigger, more specific college for that.

Being apart was hard, but any weekend and every chance I could get, I was off flying to see him. Really I just couldn't wait to eat at Soup Plantation (just kidding)!!! California wasn't a bad place to visit in the winter and we sure had a blast during the weekends.

I knew Karl would become successful in this profession - I had no doubts. I knew he'd draw people in with his contagious laugh and lovable personality. And I knew he was smart enough to draw the attention of someone in the Twin Cities in the prosthetic field because of his background and his desire to make this dream become a reality.

I get home last night and what do I see? My adorable husband on the front page of the Shakopee Valley News!!! That's twice he's made front page news in the past year. And I married him! Wow. I'm one lucky girl and just had to brag! After all, I'm his biggest fan:) Gooo Karl!

Here's the full article in the Shakopee Valley News! http://www.shakopeenews.com/news/cool-jobs-the-perfect-fit/article_d80696a3-aa4d-5a2e-aa02-5ed443d91f03.html

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Nine Month Update - Month 9

36 weeks

Your baby is gaining about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy hair that covered her body, as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Next week, your baby will be considered full-term. Most likely she's in a head-down position, but if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an external cephalic version, where she'll try to turn your baby by manipulating her from the outside of your belly. (www.babycenter.com)

I feel like time is going at a warp speed, so I thought I'd take a moment and write all that's been going with me, my body and other stuff - since baby could come at anytime. However, we really want to get through this week without any issues because once 37 weeks hits then baby will be considered a full-term baby! Yay!

What's happening?

Nursery is done
This was so fun to do! I'm going to put up a separate post on this with lots of pictures but the nursery is finally done. Clothes, toys and blankets have all been washed in Dreft. Everything has been set up (seriously how many cardboard boxes can we fit in our recycling bin) and is in place and ready to go. We are ready for you Baby Koester!!

Fun little nursery

Life insurance
Karl and I looked into getting more life insurance as most soon-to-be new parents would do, which means we had to get all those fun blood tests (again). Karl's came back with elevated cholesterol and mine came back with elevated bilirubin. I thought only babies got that (jaundice). So of course I ran to the mirror. I wasn't seeing any orange coloring in my skin or eyes. So I'm not sure what that's about. Glad we have our doctor appointment tomorrow and I can ask if I should be worried. I'm not drinking alcohol so I don't know how my liver could be overworked...

The leg cramps keep getting crazier and more intense

I picked up a bottle of cal/mag from the gym hoping this would help with the leg cramps I've been getting in the middle of the night. I've been on them for about a week and have been taking them in the morning and at night. They did help when I wasn't pregnant and playing sand volleyball - the foot cramps stopped. Well, last night I had another round of brutal, throw-me-to-the-ground charlie horses, but this time in BOTH shins. Yowsers! They were so bad and painful I couldn't even get my brain to tell my feet to move. And it's hard to maneuver around with a big ol' belly and a bladder ready to burst, so I crawled to the sink and drank three glasses of water. I don't know why I did that. I think it's because I couldn't stretch or move and I thought water would help me think? To my surprise in a matter of minutes, my cramps just disappeared. It was the weirdest thing. So to me that means I'm dehydrated. Nuts since I've been drinking close to 90 ounces of water a day. However, I work out and sweat... and have a baby inside me.

Tailbone pain
Holy ouch! I'm sure it's the weight gain and sitting all day at work, but man does my tailbone HURT! I need to replace my chair with a fitness ball. Just a few more weeks... I can do this!

Pregnancy Pics
We had our friends Sam and Shannon come over and take some belly pics on Sunday. I'm excited to see how these turn out.

Celebrating Karl's bday
Friday was Karl's birthday and we went on a little fun date to Woolley's at Embassy Suites (where our wedding was). The food is always fantastic and they're always so good to us! Karl even got his own cake! It was fun just the two of us hanging out and enjoying a night out together. We don't do this very often. We honestly don't go to movies or get all crazy downtown. We just love staying in and being with each other. We had his parents and sister over on Sunday for burgers and they checked out the nursery. Then we walked across the street to try out the new yogurt bar, Cherry Berry. I can see this being verrrry dangerous for me.

Baby Movements
I was lying down in bed and looked down at my stomach as Karl was coming up the stairs. "Come quick!" I yelled.

He immediately raced up and looked down at my stomach. "Oh my God! It's like an alien is inside you."

Not the best picture but baby will shift his/her entire body from right to left

The baby had completely shifted to the right side of my stomach and we could see the entire outline of the baby's back and rump. He/she looked so tiny! The left side of my stomach was flat like I used to remember. From that point on, the baby has been shifting his/her entire body from the right to the left and I've been trying to capture it the best I can.

We just can't get over how we can feel this baby's feet and elbow move across my entire stomach. It's the craziest thing. Karl keeps trying to grab at his/her feet!

Weekly doctor appointments
Now is the time we'll be really bonding with our doctor. Good thing we like him so much. Our appointments have moved from every other week to every week! Tomorrow I'll get swiped with a swab for Group B Streptococcus and the doctor is going to see if I'm dilated at all. I'm thinking I won't be. I thought I'd go early, but now I'm starting to think I'm either going to be on time or be late. Or maybe that's just my brain not being ready to accept I'm going to be a mom. I'm sure Jessica Simpson and I will have babies who share birthdays and we'll become BFFs or something. It'll be awesome.

Ready to go
I've feverishly been writing lists of things I need to get done before baby arrives, not just at home but at work. I'm sure my boss thinks I'm crazy. I just like to be prepared and don't want to leave anyone hanging. I honestly can say, I think we're almost ready. Like I even have made up return address labels (with ultrasound pics of baby Koester) and labels for the baby announcement cards and set up an email template so Karl can notify everyone that baby has arrived! All that's left is to get both car seat bases installed in our cars correctly. I was going to do that and take it into the police station by work just to make sure I did it right. Sure, there are little things that still need to be done, but nothing that I'm too worried about.

Pregnancy is an adventure
Kind of getting sick of hearing all these stories about how painful and dreadful labor is. Or how I have no clue what the definition of sleep deprived is. Some guy told me last night that I can talk to him about that when I go two weeks with getting four hours total of sleep. On my drive into work this morning I decided I'm done worrying. I'm done freaking myself out or being fearful of everything. Karl and I are going into this together (wouldn't want to go in it with anyone else) - and I want to make the best of it. I want to be able to laugh about it, and enjoy even the hard parts. This is only going to happen ONCE. Me, Karl and baby. Not saying we're only having one kid, but we're going to only experience this first time stuff once. Why not make the best of it and enjoy the ride? I'm sure we'll have some great stories come out of the experience. And thank God for this blog because it's going to help me get through it all!

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Another Baby Book Highly Recommended - Month 9

35 weeks
Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete – he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight. (www.babycenter.com)

I just purchased another book on Amazon - they are getting rich off of me these past nine months. I've heard so many great things about The Happiest Baby on the Block and figured I might as well dive in. There's a DVD for the book too, but I thought I'll just stick to the book because then I can always go back. And I can read at my own pace.

One of my greatest fears is having a baby who will cry a lot and keep us up at all hours of the night. The author of The Happiest Baby studied a bunch of tribes in Africa and saw how quickly they could calm a crying baby and decided to research this for many years. And then wrote a book.

He came up with the 5 S's System:

Swaddling: Tight swaddling provides the continuous touching and support your baby is used to experiencing within the womb.

Side/stomach position: The infant is placed on their left side to assist in digestion, or on their stomach to provide reassuring support. “But never use the stomach position for putting your baby to sleep,” cautions Karp. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is linked to stomach-down sleep positions. When a baby is in a stomach down position do not leave them even for a moment.

Shushing sounds: These imitate the continual whooshing sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb.

Swinging: Newborns are used to the swinging motions within their mother’s womb, so entering the gravity driven world of the outside is like a sailor adapting to land after nine months at sea. “It’s disorienting and unnatural,” says Karp. Rocking, car rides, and other swinging movements all can help. Thank God someone amazing bought me the Fisher Price Rock and Play Swing!!! :)

Sucking: “Sucking has its effects deep within the nervous system,” notes Karp, “and triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within the brain.”

I'll let you know if these work:) For now, I'll just continue to pray that everything goes well and read as much as I can.

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A Month to Go - Childbirth Preparation Class - Month 9

week 35

Holy cats!! Let the countdown begin. Karl's birthday is this week and we said once we hit that, we'd have ONE whole month left. That's like four weeks until Baby Koester's arrival. YIKES!!!

I'm just starting to feel the baby drop!

My belly is for sure getting bigger (as you can see). I noticed the heaviness last night too. It's much harder to move around, but I am thankful I do get to move around. I still feel good. Karl and I have enjoyed feeling Baby Koester's feet and butt move along my stomach. We try to reach and grab them. It's the craziest feeling ever on the inside and from the outside feeling in!

Friday night and Saturday (all day...and yes, on a 65 degree day)  Karl and I took a Childbirth preparation (Weekend Express) class at St. Francis. I'm really glad we took this class. Yes, we had to watch some more videos (yes, I cried again - I can't help it...all that work and then poof, baby is out. Such a miracle beyond words.). It was nice to see three different stories of women - all who were "planners" and not one baby plan worked out the way they had hoped. It reminded me to keep an open mind through this whole adventure and know that I can't predict anything. Every birthing story is different but I did pick up a lot of tools that will help me.

What I loved about the class was a pediatrician was brought in to share a lot of insight into those first two years of childhood. It was nice to ask questions and have him provide us with a ton of info. Like I wanted to know just in case we have a boy, how to care for our peanut's little "peanut" once it's circumcised. And Karl had questions about temperatures and when to bring baby in. And we learned all about day care snot nose...it'll be continuous for two years. Nice.

The second thing I loved was a Speech Language Pathologist came in (feeling really lucky right now that my sister-in-law is one) and talked about the importance of Tummy Time. Seems with all the toys out there these days, parents are more willing to lie their kids down and leave them on their backs all hours of the day, which creates muscle and skull issues and lots of development issues. It was crazy to see the difference between a child who received no tummy time and one who did from the time they were born to 6 months. Their heads were even shaped differently! We for sure will be doing lots of tummy time.

We also were able to tour the birthing center, which we both loved! I can't believe I'm going to be staying in a hospital...overnight too. Maybe longer. I don't really know what that's like, but the rooms look somewhat comfortable. We met a couple in our class who are expecting twins on the same day we are...and also have our doctor! Guess we'll be fighting for attention if we both are on schedule.

Karl checking out the room

We also had to watch a video on Shaken Baby Syndrome which broke my heart into a million pieces. I couldn't help but think of my BFF whose son was shaken at 6 months. The man in the video lost his son because of it, and I kept thinking over and over and over, My BFF is so lucky her son survived. But it still SUCKS. Why, oh, why did this have to happen?????

All and all I'm feeling a little more prepared with things and can't believe baby's arrival is almost here! Don't forget to place your guesses for Baby Koester's gender and when he/she will arrive into this world on Baby Hunch! No password needed!

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