We're getting close!

Well right now it is 7:53 in the morning. I have not been out of bed and up this early since Jon had surgery. Jon got up for PT at 5:20 and I usually wake up with him but lay in bed just to say bye and I love you. Not this morning. His alarm went off and I was more awake than he. So once he left I tried to fall asleep for about 15 minutes and then gave up and came downstairs to do my prego yoga.

I cannot believe my due date is just one week away! Where has the time gone? Thinking about how fast these last 10 months have gone by makes me very hopeful that Jon's upcoming deployment will seem to go by just as fast.

We got our maternity pictures taken and Angela did an amazing job. You can see them in my photos on Facebook or just wait until I post them here. Jonathan wasn't very into the idea at first but in the end he really enjoyed taking them. I think this is going to be something to treasure for sure.

So the big question lately has been "How are you feeling?"

I am feeling alright mostly. I wake up about every hour now throughout the night but I suppose that is just God preparing me for when baby is actually here. Exercise is definitely more challenging as I am out of breath quite fast these days but we still try to get out and walk at least once a week. I have been the queen of naps and I don't foresee today being any different (especially with being up so early this morning). A week ago my nurse did a cervix exam and she said that I was 1 cm dilated and about 50% effaced. I have another appointment today but I'm not sure if they will check again or not.

Any day now though! Can you believe it??

Oh baby baby!

YIKES! Can you believe it?! We are already at week 37. I am amazed. People keep asking if I am ready for this thing to be out yet and right now no. I am not yet at the horribly uncomfortable stage yet. Getting there slowly but still enjoying being pregnant. The nursery is 100% complete with everything set up and not just the paint. My belly is gigantic in my opinion and still growing (which is good of course) AND most importantly baby is head down. Only a few more weeks to go and our little prince/princess will be here. I am so blessed to have the amazing support system I do here. Next weekend we are getting some maternity pictures done and I am super excited for those too. I'll be able to post some here once they are ready. For now, just pictures of this growing child.

Weeks 36 and 37 respectively

Our monkey decided to sit completely on my right side one night.

A look back at Easter

BUNNY CAKE

Here are all my supplies to make my bunny cake. Rich and creamy vanilla frosting, red food coloring, blue food coloring (start with little drops and add as needed to get the pink and blue), twizzlers, cake decorating gel, and a spatula. *Normally there would be coconut with green food coloring around as grass but Jon does not like coconut so i left it out.

Bake two same sized round cakes.

I put one round cake on top of the other and used a fork to create an outline for the bow. I then moved it to the other side and did the same thing and then used a knife to cut the bow. The left over parts are used for the ears

All my pieces

I poked holes like I did before to know where to cut the ears

I put the pieces where they belonged so I knew how they would lay on the plate

I frosted the entire cake with white first and then used the pink to fill in the ears

The final product

UPDATE!!!

Well I finally went through and cleared up the camera a bit. We have been busy painting baby's room and organizing things from showers and then now getting Jon ready to head to Ft. Polk for some training.

Tomorrow I will post more pictures from the past but tonight here are the progress pictures of our little Monkey's room:

So here are the blank white walls with all baby's stuff in the middle of the room.

This is what we decided to use for the main colors. The base coat is the same color as the rest of the house kind of a creamy tan. I think the official name was toasted cashew. We then went and got some dark brown to make a 5 inch boarder all the way across the walls.

The paint tape didn't do the BEST job with making a straight edge so I went back and put my perfectionism to a good use and straightened out the edges of the boarder.

Below are the colors we chose for the inside of the boarder

I created an outline on paper before actually painting and then put up stencils and wrote with pencil to trace over.

Then finally the finished product as far as paint goes.

Baby time!!

Yesterday we had our official ultrasound. There are no gender showing pictures because I didn't want to know so I get to be surprised here in about 4 months. (I think it will be exciting not knowing!) Anyway here are the pictures from the ultrasound that we got to bring home. Enjoy!

Baby's legs are crossed. You can see the tops of our baby's knees.



Here's our baby's hand flat. You can see the thumb really clearly.

On the right you can see both nostrils.





Front views of baby's face



















Baby's whole body

Camping

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For memorial day weekend we went camping at milford lake. What a fun time. Jon and I stayed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. It was quite the learning experience for us being that it was the first time for us being the ones leading everything. (We've always gone with our families) We went with two other families that stayed overnight for two nights and one other family that stayed one night. During the day we had lots of visitors which made it a great time for the ladies.



The sunsets here in Kansas are beautiful and being out on the lake just emphasized how amazing of an artist God is.


Crystal and Nastassja in the shade.


During the days the guys would go out and fish while the wives stayed back at the site in the shade. Most of the guys got horrible sun burns. I think of them all Jon's was the worst. He has been blistering for a couple days now. We were lucky to pack up when we did because it started raining and thundering on Sunday. I went to church to great and Jon stayed back and packed up. For a first time camping experience together it was quite a success




Ryan, Audrey, and Rylie

Hottest day of my life!

Alright everyone. The time has come and I finally have some pictures. But first for a little story.

So this past weekend was Memorial Day weekend and we decided to do a group camping trip. It turned out to be a beautiful weekend by the lake with some great friends. BUT right before we left we discovered that our Air conditioning is not working. There was nothing we could really do because as I said we were leaving to go camping. Anyway the guy has been here for a few hours running back and forth to get parts to fix this thing but to no avail. So we are sitting here miserable thank goodness it is only in the high 80's outside. I am really hoping this thing gets fixed tonight so that I can actually get some work done around the house tomorrow.


Now for a baby and life update.
I can finally feel baby moving (at least I think so). What a strange feeling to know there is a little baby in there moving around. Tomorrow, Wednesday the 2nd is our only 'official ultrasound' which means we get to see the little guy/girl. We are still on opposite sides of the fence on finding out or not but for now we are going to wait. There are CRAZY rules for me to follow tomorrow though. 1) empty bladder at 11:30 2) drink 1 liter of water between 11:30 and 12:30 3) nothing else to eat or drink after 12:30 and no using the bathroom. Not looking forward to that. But it must be done. They won't even see me if my bladder isn't full. It is amazing to think that I am already past the half-way point but good to know at the same time.




This picture was taken at about 16 weeks.
Not much of a bump yet




I have decided to take all my main belly shots in the same dress. 5 months and belly bearing :) Still a little hard to see though.



I fly home in a week and absolutely cannot wait!!! Jon is on night duty until the 10th which will be nice because we will have days together. His section is out in the field for the next couple of weeks and deployment talk has started again although nothing is ever for sure until there are orders in hand. We are just praying that Jon gets a little bit of time with our new baby before having to be gone for a year.

Other than that and this awful heat in our house things are going great for us out here in Kansas. We love and miss you all.

pics coming soon

I have been promising people for a while now that I would put up pictures of the belly. (Not that there is really much of a belly yet) Well in the past 3 weeks we have painted pretty much the whole house in Junction City, moved everything in, cleaned wonderfully at the Ogden house, and did the final walk through there. Needless to say I've not had a whole lot of time to write on here. So for a quick little update until I find the box the camera is in here you go:

*we love our new home. It is so much nicer than the Ogden house and just closer to everything (work, church, wal-mart)

*I had my first Centering Pregnancy appointment and LOVED it! The doctor part was done by the nurse and baby's heart tones were at 152... lower than 170= boy is what one friend told me.

*I make the ultra-sound appointment this week and we are still going back and forth and whether we are going to find out. We have the complete opposite opinion when it comes to finding out the gender or not. I want to wait on the first and find out on the rest, Jon wants to find out on the first and doesn't care about the rest. I figure we have about 3 weeks to come up with a solid decision on what's going to happen at the appointment.

*I came down with a cold over the weekend. :( not so fun but I also go to shoot my first gun. I went to this women on target thing and it was way more fun than I thought it would be. I shot rifle, shotgun, 357 magnum with 38 specials, a .40 semi-auto hand gun, bow and arrow, and muzzle loaders. What a fun day.

Alright that should hold you over until I am unpacked and can put up pics.

Will this pain ever end?

Well week 15 is here and I feel like I am dying. Ok not really but I was almost in tears today. My lower back/lumbar/pelvic area hates me. It is out to get me and that is one thing for sure. Some days it takes a break from the torment but on days like today I really wonder what I did to create such bad feelings between me and my back. The pain shoots from one side of my bum to the other with no warning. Walking becomes difficult and getting up from a sitting position is crazy painful. This is part of pregnancy I had not planned on.

On the plus side I got some stretching tips from a chiropractor friend of our pastor that I can do on my own and that Jon can help with. It's amazing what counter pressure can do to alleviate the pain. I checked out his (the chiropractors) website today for some added tips and found this really interesting link: http://trinitychiro.com/media/Gods_view_of_Childbirth.pdf

Week 12

Our baby looks like a baby! I had my second appointment on Monday and it went great. The OB was so nice and even though it was an exam appointment (not so fun) she did not make it uncomfortable at all. After the exam she got the doppler out to listen to the heartbeat but couldn't really find it so she got out the utlrasound machine. I got to see our little one and wow was he/she moving. Before I could even see the screen my ob said "no wonder I couldn't get it with the doppler" Hands were waving and feet were kicking. Of course only being 12 weeks I couldn't feel it which is probably good with how much our kiddo was moving. After a couple seconds the little baby calmed down and we were able to get a pretty good picture.

I was excited to see the growth in only 3 weeks. What a miracle. God is so good to create us perfectly in the womb. I have always loved spring and watching 'new life' begin to grow but it is even cooler knowing that God had this little one planned out perfectly before I had even met Jon. So awesome! Anyway once the baby calmed down a bit we went back to the doppler and were able to get a good reading of the heart rate: 170's. I have some friends saying 'oh that means it's a girl' but I've still got no inclination either way.

It is good to know that everything is looking good and that the baby is healthy so far. I probably won't get another ultrasound until week 24 or so, and we still haven't decided to find out the gender or not. Either way I am looking forward to the enormous changes that will happen from now to then.

I still don't have much of a tummy so not me pictures yet. I'll post some next month probably.

Strep B

I received a call from my OB yesterday informing me that I have Strep B. No it's not strep throat but it is a bacteria. So here is just a little bit of the information I was able to find on the internet.

Causes

By Mayo Clinic staff

Many healthy people carry group B strep bacteria in their bodies. Group B strep bacteria aren't sexually transmitted, and they're not spread through food or water. You may carry group B strep in your body for just a short period of time, they may come and go, or you may always have them.

Some individuals, such as older adults and those with chronic health conditions, can develop a more serious infection from group B strep. However, the reason this occurs in some people but not others isn't known.

Group B strep can also spread to a baby during a vaginal delivery if the baby is exposed to — or swallows — fluids containing group B strep.

From the AMERICAN PREGNANCY ASSOCIATION

Group B streptococcus (GBS) is a type of bacterial infection that can be found in a pregnant woman’s vagina or rectum. This bacteria is normally found in the vagina and/or lower intestine of 15% to 40% of all healthy, adult women.

Those women who test positive for GBS are said to be colonized. A mother can pass GBS to her baby during delivery. GBS is responsible for affecting about 1 in every 2,000 babies in the United States. Not every baby who is born to a mother who tests positive for GBS will become ill.

What if I test positive for Group B Strep infection?

If you test positive for GBS this simply means that you are a carrier. Not every baby who is born to a mother who tests positive for GBS will become ill. Approximately one of every 100 to 200 babies whose mothers carry GBS will develop signs and symptoms of GBS disease. There are, however, symptoms that may indicate that you are at a higher risk of delivering a baby with GBS. These symptoms include:

• Labor or rupture of membrane before 37 weeks
• Rupture of membrane 18 hours or more before delivery
• Fever during labor
• A urinary tract infection as a result of GBS during your pregnancy
• A previous baby with GBS disease

In this case your physician will want to use antibiotics for prevention and protection.

According to the CDC, if you have tested positive and are not in the high risk category, then your chances of delivering a baby with GBS are:

• 1 in 200 if antibiotics are not given
• 1 in 4000 if antibiotics are given

Baby Quick

Well as most of you know Jon and I are expecting the first addition to our Quick family. We found out about a month ago and had our first appointment today. I am 9 weeks exactly and doing well.

I have had nausea here and there but no vomiting. I keep telling God that nausea I can handle and so far I think he thinks so too. I am very tired and hungry about every 2 hours or so but other than that no real crazy pregnancy stories yet.

We have started talking about names but have no conclusions or ideas even and are debating on whether or not to find out the gender. Jonathan wants to know really bad and I really want to wait. Luckily we have several weeks before a firm decision has to be made.

Today's appointment was pretty basic. We met with an OB nurse and she pretty much just went over our medical histories and gave us some basic information about what Riley has to offer for pregnant women. I am really excited because they do something called group prenatal care and it's where 8-10 women due around the same time get together and meet with a midwife, do mom and baby check-ups, have individual time with our health care providers, and the coolest part for me is that at the end there is a reunion where we all get together once our babies are born. I am going to learn more about it at my next appointment which is on March 29th.




We weren't sure if we were going to get to see the baby or hear the heartbeat today so we asked towards the end of the appointment. The nurse was very nice and took us back to the room where we got to see, that's right SEE, the heartbeat. What a good feeling to know our little one is beating away inside me. :)

SO here is our little one. Just the size of a peanut or a green olive. It is hard to believe that he/she is only about an inch but it is such a blessing to know our baby is doing well.