Bath Time!

Kyle's cord stump fell off a couple weeks ago so now he can take "real" baths instead of sponge baths. He would SCREAM during sponge baths because he was cold and naked. Now that he can soak in warm water, he actually enjoys them. Dare I say they even calm him?

Precious Moments

While Kyle's fussy (colic) issues can tire us out, they often bring us precious moments such as these:

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there-- especially my amazing mom! She's been a wonderful friend and teacher to me over the years and is now one fantastic grandma!

Dave and Kyle made my Mother's Day really special: Kyle gave us two 4-hr stints of sleep last night and saved up all his pennies and got me an iPad2! He must know how much web surfing I do while I nurse! Dave gave me a nice break this weekend to go out and run errands and did almost all the diaper changes today! :) It was really nice to get out of the house baby-free even if it was only for an hour and a half! We even got to enjoy a Mother's Day brunch today at Sweet Tomatoes!

I have the most amazing husband and son. How blessed we are to have a great family to celebrate this Mother's Day!

Kyle's First Easter!

He Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Kyle celebrated his first Easter with a very cute new outfit, a yummy lunch of chicken and potatos (ok, so he only got mommy's milk, but just as good right?), and a bunch of gifts from Grandma and Grandpa! We can't wait for him to understand the true meaning and blessing of this wonderful day!

Good Morning!

Kyle just wanted to say Good Morning to all his blog fans!

Welcome Kyle David!

Please give an official welcome to our son, Kyle David Shoemaker who entered this world on April 8, 2011 at 2:30 pm. Weighing 7 lbs 6 oz and measuring 20.5," he's a healthy and happy little baby boy!

Everyone is doing great and slowly adjusting to the lack of sleep that Kyle brings. He's a true blessing, extremely precious, and the love of our lives! We couldn't be happier to have him with us!

The girls are adjusting well with the new addition-- they are often the first to him when he cries. They are calm with him and love to sniff his little face. He doesn't seem to mind at all!

Kyle is growing very well. His 2 week check-up had him up 1 lb 5 oz from hospital discharge. He's at 8 lbs now and continues to eat like a champ. He sometimes even lets mom and dad sleep for four hour stretches at night!

We'd like to thank everyone for all their well wishes, gifts, prayers, and encouragement. As new parents, we truly appreciate it!

37 week update - I'm full term!

Well I'm officially full term! What a milestone! This means my official due date is just 3 weeks away.... however.... the doc doesn't believe there's any chance I'll make it that long.

I've progressed very nicely in the last week and am up to 3 cm dilated, 90% effaced and baby is sitting at nearly 0 station. This means his head is at the neutral position and any lower and he'll be poking out. :) She was pretty impressed that as a first time mom that I've made such great progress. I have my mom to thank for that as she, too, went early and fast.

When I asked how long I had, I got the canned "it's hard to say" response. But when Dave mentioned that we have a pool going at work, she immediately interrupted "well if that's the case, my money is on 4/4." That's right-- one week from today!

I'm definitely physically ready but am obviously still nervous about his arrival. We just can't wait to meet him! Hard to believe it's so close now!

Blankets!

This weekend my good friend Charity came over to help me finish up all the baby swaddling blankets (plus one fleece carseat blankie). It's a well known fact that I can't be trusted around sharp knives or scissors, so Charity graciously offered to do all my fabric cutting with her rotary tool.

While I did the sewing for all the swaddle flannel blankets, Charity prepped the fleece for cutting. Sequoia absolutely LOVES to play with Charity and just assumed that Charity had set up a new toy for her to integrate into her chase game. The result was pretty hilarious (albeit frustrating for Charity who had to eventually put Sequoia outside).

[I just love this dog!]

A quick update - 36 weeks

Just a quick update... whole family is sick (dogs included), so I need to get back to resting.

We are doing weekly doctor appointments now and we had our 36 week check-up today. They did the fun Strep B test (for which 25% of women are carriers-- results to come later this week) as well as checked my progress. Blood pressure was initially high (140+) but after they had me lie down for awhile, it went back down to mid 110s. Phew. Baby is doing great and I'm measuring right on track. AND, I'm progressing already. Currently almost 2 cm and 80% effaced and baby is at -1 station. Those who are recent moms or just have awesome memories will know what all that means. Basically we're shooting for 10 cm and 100% before baby can come out! Still no telling when he'll make his debut!

That's all for now...

Maternity Portraits by 211

Last week we had our maternity shoot with 211 Photography. It's the first of 5 sessions we'll do with him over the next year. There were so many great ones that it was hard to pick our favs! Here are a few samples:

Maternity Pictures by my amazing hubby!

My awesome hubby took me out to our neighborhood park this weekend to take a few maternity pictures. They say that 32-34 weeks is the best time and seeing as I'm days away from the 34 mark, it seemed like a good time!

Dave did a really nice job with our new lens. I thought they turned out pretty cute! Of course, Thumper makes every picture cute!

I think it's so neat that someday we'll be able to sit down with him and explain to him that he was inside mommy's belly.

It's amazing to see how much bigger I have gotten-- I've almost forgotten how small I was before I was pregnant. It's all for a good cause though right? :)

You can see more of the pictures on our Picasa site-- the link is off to the right under Bookmarks -or- you can just click on the Our Family picture on the right.

A New Toy?

Been awhile since I posted a "video of the week." Here's a cute one of Sequoia discovering one of Thumper's new toys (his bouncer):

Minor Scare

I've been lucky to this point in that I've had absolutely no signs of puffiness or swelling. Being 33 weeks, this is rather lucky I hear. After standing at a work meeting Weds for almost an hour (I got there late and surprisingly, no one offered me their seat), I had some sudden swelling. My shins were hurting like they did when I was a gymnast (shin splints) and my calves and ankles were seriously the size of grapefruits. I immediately elevated them and Dave massaged them. But after over 12 hours of elevation, the swelling still hadn't gone down a ton. I called the doctor the next day and they had me get my blood pressure checked. It had gone up to 126. This is considered normal for most, but with my pregnancy BPs typically falling in the low 110s, the doc wanted me to go on bed rest for the remainder of the day. [Their concern is preeclampsia]. I went home from work early and spent the rest of the day in bed. [Boring!]. Swelling went down quite a bit and seems to remain at a tolerable level when I've got my feet elevated. After running a few errands yesterday, the shin splints and swelling returned. So I'm to take it very easy until I go back to the doctor this coming Friday.

Ugh! Please pray that this is not the early signs of preeclampsia!

On a happier note, Thumper is doing great (even if mom is battling swelling, fatigue and sciatic nerve pain). He's still super active although his kicks and jabs are now more rolls and waves. Less room will do that I suppose. Here's a fun video of him:

Roadshow!

This is the 3rd year that MercyMe has hosted the Rock and Worship Roadshow in Colorado and we've attended all of them! This years featured some of our favorite bands: the Afters, Matt Maher, Jars of Clay, and MercyMe. Being 33 weeks pregnant wasn't going to stop us!

Colorado Springs has the closest Culvers to us and there happens to be one right next store to the World Arena, so naturally we had to go there for our pre-show dinner! It's my parents tradition to go there every Sunday (back in MN) and it was neat that we got to enjoy it "together" even if that meant via iPhone pictures 1000 miles away!

We really enjoyed the Afters and Matt Maher, but I had to leave the arena and do laps around the concourse during Thousand Foot Krutch (and probably should've during Lecrae too). They were just too loud and hard-core for this mom-to-be! Dave ended up walking out after a few songs when he could no longer make out a word they were saying from all the ringing in his ears. Perhaps we are just a bit too old for those types of bands?! Just so no one worries, I had a sweater and two coats draped over my tummy to muffle any possible high decibal sounds getting to baby (but this is a Christian concert we're talking about, not Metallica or anything). :)

MercyMe ended the night with an excellent set (as always!). They are great worship leaders. We had a great time even if we didn't make it home and to bed til after midnight. Ah, who needs to be on time for work on a Monday anyway?!

Baby Shower!

My friends Cat, Rachel, and Charity threw me such a perfect baby shower this past weekend. They took the rockets theme of our nursery and really ran with it! There were star and moon filled trays of delicious gourmet food, there were moon pies for dessert and cute little cupcakes that said "Beth is over the moon excited!"

Rebecca hand-made this cute bunny and rocket blankie!

Rachel made a really cute three layer diaper cake with a rocket on-top and Charity even hand-sewed fabric banners to go with all the streamers and balloons!

We played the "name game" where I scored a fantastic 1 out of 15 (I got my name right!). Cat won with over 7 correct I believe.

After opening a ton of gifts (all of my friends were overly generous and thoughtful for our little boy!), the ladies all made pages for a baby book for us. I really can't wait to see the final result! It was such a great idea and I will really appreciate only having to pop pictures in when time becomes a serious delicacy!

I had such a wonderful time and I'm so thankful to have such great friends!

How much farther?

Not going to lie, walking was much easier 8 months ago. Especially long distances. Our weather has been so nice (mid 60s and sunny) and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the girls out for a nice stroll.

We started at the dog park at Chatfield SP (the one by our house) and walked all the way to Aspen Grove along the Platte River. Dave had himself convinced (from the hundreds of times he's biked this route) that it was only 3/4 of a mile or so. That seemed like a good half way point for my bladder, so we committed to that.

Two miles later (and one very uncomfortable Beth!), we made it to the restrooms. Not only were there 100's of walkers, bikers, etc out today; we happened to run into our friends Sarah and Alex JUST as we made it to restrooms. Seconds later, Dave's running buddy (and my coworker), Chris showed up! What are the odds?

After chatting with them for awhile (a nice break!), we made the 2 mile trek back to our car. We made it just in time as the sun went down. It was a fun walk even though I may have over done it just a bit. Not many more of these left where I'm carrying and not pushing baby!