the shaker family

11.6.2016 | 38 Week Bumpdate

9:25:00 AM

i don't have much to add for this week. i don't think i even have a picture worth posting! but at my last appointment, i had gained 3 lbs, and am dilated to a 3, and 90% effaced! i could go into labor at any time at this point! but i'm not holding my breath, since i made it past my due date with bens haha. i told my doc i was getting a little ansy about her size - with benson, i was measuring right on track the entire time, and he was obviously huge. i know that right now i'm measuring right, and i haven't gained nearly as much as i did with bens, but there's really no accurate way to guess how she's doing size wise. so, he told me to come back early next week to get my membranes stripped, which will hopefully push things along. but if it doesn't, he scheduled me for an induction on the 14th, so just 4 days before my due date. but i feel a lot better just having an end date in site and knowing that i at least won't go over! i'm reaaaaaally hoping that i just go into labor on my own - for some reason that's just something i really want to experience at least once. but i don't have much control over that, so just trying to be patient over here!

i finally started painting the baby's dresser haha. i've got a few more coats of paint to go, but its looking good! i've been taking my time, letting coats dry pretty much a full 24 hours in between and sanding. i feel like painting furniture has always been such a pain, but i feel like this time it hasn't been bad. maybe because i am being kind of lazy about it and now trying to get it done super quick. which, really, i should be trying to hurry since we have no clue when she'll be here. oh well though. i'll post pictures of the dresser in its rightful place when its done.

mat has his first show on monday night with the new band, the deadbeat cousins. and i'm working my last shift until after baby monday morning. yeahhhh not looking forward to that at all haha. this is terrible, but i'm kind of hoping my schedule falls apart so i can at least go home early. i haven't worked for about 2 weeks, so things have gotten a little further away from me, bump wise. should be interesting haha. then sometime next week, probably tuesday morning, mat and i are taking bens out for his last hoorah as an only child. putting him to bed the other night i actually got really emotional, thinking about how things will never be the same :( we are so excited to be growing our family, but i'm going to miss giving benson all my attention! laying down with him when i put him to bed is one of my favorite things to do. singing songs, reading stories, just laying there as he points out my eyes, nose, arms, fingers, head... sweet little moments that i only get for so long. things are about to change a ton, and there is no way i can know how it will be, but i am hoping it will all fall into place and we will soon have a routine as a family of 4.

i guess i have a video i can share! its just of benson being crazy with my bump. apparently i wear this stripped dress a looooot haha.

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11.1.2016 | Halloween and a Locked Door

10:06:00 PM

happy november! it's officially baby girl's birth month. hoooooly cow haha. i'm so ready to not be pregnant, but i'm not sure i'm ready to be awake all night with a newborn. i know that once she's here and we come home, it'll be like she was here all along. but i'm having a very serious internal battle over how prepared i really am haha. well, no more than 17 days til we're a family of 4, whether we're ready or not!

okay, let's talk halloween. mat takes it very seriously, and i mean VERY seriously. since we've been together, i haven't gotten him to do a couples costume with me because he always finds the best solo costumes and can't resist haha. but since having benson, we've been able to find family costume ideas that are good enough! bens' first halloween we did frosted flakes - benson was dressed as tony the tiger, mat wore him in a baby carrier and had a giant frosted flakes box around him, and i just painted myself a milk mustache and wore a sign that said "got milk?" it was perfect. last year we did addams family, which was actually a lot of fun! i was wednesday, benson was pubert, and mat was cousin it.

this year was tricky because of my current pregnant state, but we ultimately decided on benson being han solo, mat being chewy, and i would dress the bump as bb8. a few days before halloween, mat was sent on a work trip and ended up missing his second favorite holiday! the worst. i returned my bb8 costume thinking that i could just wear mat's chewy costume and save us some dinero. baaaaad decision. apparently, mat's costume was meant for average to tall folks. i am neither haha. so the costume just looked dumb on me. on top of that, i woke up that morning with either food poisoning or a terrible bug that kept me down most of the day. seriously, i took 4 naps that day haha. so as trick or treating time got closer, i kept trying to tell myself to get up and get ready, but nothing was happening. i eventually sucked it up and got dressed in some stretchy pants. we ended up in kacey's neighborhood because its seriously amazing for trick or treating. benson was all dressed in his han solo get up, and was dang cute! he got tired so quickly, but refused to give up! i offered to carry his pumpkin bucket, or "punk" as he called it, a few times and if he agreed, he would grab it back seconds later, probably in fear that i would never give it back haha. after every house, he'd look up at me and say, "more?!" towards the end, benson got lucky and grandpa pushed him in his stroller to every door. as he'd come back to the sidewalk, he'd find me and yell, "mom! hiiiiii mom. candy?!" as he showed me his bucket haha. he had the best time and i'm so glad that i got myself out of the house instead of staying in.

in other news, benson has learned how to lock and unlock our doors. today, i went out front to toss a poopy diaper, and when i came back, our bottom lock was locked, and i could hear benson on the other side saying, "moooooooom. mooooooooom!" so i kept knocking and telling him to unlock the door, but he wouldn't haha. at one point, he pushed the curtains back super quick, rested his elbow on the window sill, and with a big smile yelled, "mom!" as he showed me the bag of pepperonis he had found and was now chowing down on hahaha. after a bit he disappeared, and i kept knocking and ringing the door bell (mat was passed out on the couch, go figure), and he came back to show me his greasy hands and to ask me to wipe his fingers. eventually mat woke up and unlocked the door (i was probably standing there for like 3 minutes tops) but i thought it was so funny that bens didn't understand me asking him to unlock the door, but was fully aware of where i was and kept coming to show me things or ask for help. little stink!

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10.28.16 | Week 37 Bumpdate

9:01:00 PM

3 weeks and counting! i had my appointment yesterday - still no weight gain! it's nuts, especially since i feel like my belly just keeps getting bigger haha. tested positive for group b strep, which i was positive for with benson as well, so i wasn't shocked or really worried. dr layton just reiterated that they want to get at least 2 hours of antibiotics (ideally 4 hours) in my system before i deliver, but if i progress and deliver before that time frame, they will just keep the baby an extra day to monitor them for any signs of infection. i'd been pretty crampy with braxton hicks up the wazoo, and i was pretty sure i was starting to see bits and pieces of my mucous plug coming out, so they did a pelvic exam. i am already 2.5 cm dilated and 75% effaced! holy canoli haha. i know i started to progress around 36 weeks with benson, but i'm pretty sure i was not that progressed that early. but, i will say that its nice to know that these annoying cramps and contractions are actually making a difference! finally being at the weekly ob visits is making this last month go by quick. still need to finish baby girl's room - after searching incessantly for a dresser, i've decided to stick to my original plan and just paint the dresser that's been sitting in our garage. so tomorrow i will go to home depot and pick up supplies, and hopefully muster up the energy i need to knock out that project!

^here's a shot of my two babies :) benson has been extra cuddly and i seriously love it.

this week we made it to the fall festival at vertuccio farms. despite the 90 degree heat (seriously arizona, what the heck?!) it was a lot of fun! benson had a blast, especially since mat was there to run around with him, and we ran into a couple friends, which is always a pleasant surprise haha. we took benson to mother nature's farm fall festival last year, and he had fun, but wasn't super into all the activities. these types of things are so much more fun when your kid seriously has the time of their life doing the smallest things.

^probably our last legit picture as a family of 3.5!

^^this kid would stand up as quick as he could after sliding down, and start sprinting back to the stairs haha. he looooved that slide!

^exhausted on the train! our final activity before calling it quits and grabbing lunch.

benson has been working on perfecting his animal sounds, and it always blows my mind what animals he actually recognizes and remembers. i swear, he'll pull out an animal sound that i tried to teach him like a year ago, and he suddenly remembers it and understands which animal it comes from. our current favorite - benson's version of a chicken, haha!

my doctor talked to me about inducing me a week-ish early at my last appointment, but we didn't talk about it at this appointment. i'm still measuring where i should be, no sudden weight gain, my blood sugar numbers have been in check, and since i'm already in the process of dilating and effacing, i think we are playing it by ear. if this baby decided to come early, i'd be ecstatic! haha i just need her to wait until at least tuesday (mat is out of town until late monday night, so i'm trying to lay low until then).

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10.23.16 | 36 Week Bumpdate

4:51:00 PM

well, i am officially in the last month of this pregnancy. holy crap! its honestly flown by, and i am feeling so unprepared. we had chair rail around our entire house when we bought it, and got most of it removed except for the baby room, because mat insisted, "it makes it feel more like a nursery!" i disagreed, but was just kind of like "whatever." he finally admitted he was wrong (bam!) and we got the chair rail removed, and got the room painted just plain white, or "swiss coffee" if we're going to get technical. I finally feel like I can start putting the room together, now that it's not gray/lavender haha. unfortunately, i still haven't done much. i got a dresser off craig's list that i've been meaning to paint, but decided that the room is too small, and also, i'm short, so i need a shorter dresser so i can put the changing pad on top of it haha. so i decided on one i like from ikea. in true kaelin fashion, i can't get myself to commit to purchasing it until i mull over it for a week. but i got a basket from home goods, i've picked out a woven wall hanging from target, and a couple succulent planters from amazon that i'll be using in there! thank goodness i've got some kind of direction.

as far as the actual pregnancy is going, its been good this last week! doing better as far as eating/testing goes, but still not perfect. i've been feeling pretty good, pain/discomfort wise, except for the sporadic shot of "lightening crotch" and crampy contractions that come and go. my back has been good though, and i only waddle when its been a long day! she's still moving around a ton, rolling over in bed is becoming more of an event than i care to admit, but i know the end is in (close!) sight, so i can't complain.

i've gotten some intense headaches, and earlier this week it was literally constant for 3 days straight, no matter what i did. tylenol, cold compress, caffeine, nothing helped. so i called my doc one morning and left a message. by the time they called me back, the headache had actually subsided, but they said that if it comes back and its bad, to go into ob triage and get checked out. i know they are concerned about pre-eclampsia, which i read up on a ton during my last pregnancy, so i have been looking for signs of that. my blood pressure has been up and down at each visit, which is weird but its not consistently high so thats a good thing. since that last 3 day headache, i've only gotten short episodes of the headache, so i haven't gone into triage yet.

at my last appointment, i asked my doc if there's any standard protocol with GD patients as far as induction. i know that placental failure is a concern, but i wasn't sure if that was if the GD is uncontrolled, or controlled with medication, or what. my due date is 11/18/16, which is a friday. my doctor basically said that he suggests i get induced on or around 11/14/16, which is the monday before. if he's on call that weekend (11/11-11/13/16), he said he'd even do it then. so, that gives us about 3 weeks until d-day! hoooooooly crap. it's coming up quick!

i had my baby shower yesterday, which was equal parts fun and exhausting haha. i gave myself a free pass as far as eating goes, because no one can resist my mom's filipino cooking! she's got very generous friends, some that i've never met before, and they are always so excited for new babies. after everything was done though, i just wanted to sleep haha. but i felt weird leaving my own party, so i stayed til everyone left, and then helped my mom clean up so she wasn't stuck doing it on her own. pilar is the ultimate party planner!

one of my mom's friends insisted on taking a couple solo shots of me at the party, haha. she said, "i didn't take any pictures when i was pregnant with my kids, and now i regret it. so make sure you take some, just for memories!" so, i took her advice, and got a couple in my sunday best while mat and benson napped. i have a complex about having solo shots taken of me, so i won't say how many boxes i stacked, or how long it took to figure out how to balance it all on the crib corner, or how many embarassing shots i took, haha, but for memory's sake, this is what i got!