The Zoo

So this last weekend Brett and I took a trip to the zoo. For those of you who haven't been there, the North Carolina Zoo is HUGE. It's like two Zoo's in one. They have a South America section and a North America. This Zoo is also filled with tons of hills. Brett and I decided to go just the two of us. Which helped us to get though it all a lot faster. That being said it still took us 4 hours. Being as far along as I am, and it being in the 80's Some of the hills were a little much towards the end. So Brett so kindly would put his arms around me and give me a little push. Other wise it may have taken us 5 hours. But it was time well spent. It was nice to get out and do something different. Plus Brett at the Zoo is like going with a kid for the first time. He just gets so excited about everything, that you can't help but be excited yourself. (I love my husbands excitement for nature, America and Family. He really is an amazing person.) But that night I had my first swollen feet. So I had to put my feet up all night when I slept. Thank goodness they were gone the next day. I am trying my best to not get swollen this pregnancy. Which with the heat and humidity It feels like a loss cause.

7 and a half months pregnant, 30 weeks

So I am about 7 and a half months pregnant. But in the last week I have had 2 friends have babies and a sister in law. Along with being really uncomfortable, I am very anxious for Kaiya to get here. I know she isn't ready yet. So I can only hope time goes by fast. I don't know if I have mentioned yet that as of now I will have to have a C section. I have a placenta Previa that they thought would fix itself. At my last Ultra sound ( 28 weeks) they said it was still there. I have another Ultra sound at 33 weeks to see if it has moved or not. If it hasn't then they will schedule me for a C section anywhere between 34 weeks and 38. When they told me I took it a lot harder then I thought I would. I kept crying through out the day. I am sure the pregnant hormones didn't help. Since then I am trying to look for the positive in it. Like I will get to meet my little girl sooner. I also won't have to go through the pain of Contractions and Delivery. But the thought of being cut open on the table, while I am still awake does scare me. Also I hear the recovery time is longer. Thank goodness I have such a supportive husband. Brett is so good to take care of me. I know with working full time and going to school full time it wares on him. Even though he is tired and probably sore himself, he is always good to listen to me complain. I also can't help but love that he is a massage therapist. But I think we are both just ready for her to get here. Anyways, I guess if I have made it 30 weeks I can make it 7 to 10 more.

Ultra Sound

So we got to see our sweet little Kaiya again. Yesterday we had another Ultra sound to check on my placenta. For those of you who don't know I have a partial placenta previa, which means the placenta is partially covering my Cervix. Just to get that part out of the way, they said it doesn't look like it has gotten any better and as of now I will have to have a C- Section, :(. I guess it does have it's ups and downs. I am not looking forwarded to the recovery time. But it will be nice to see our little girl a few weeks sooner then planned. Now on to the fun stuff, Kaiya is very healthy. The Dr said she has a very strong heart beat and is already in a good birthing position ( if that dang placenta could just get out of her way). She seems to really like to be cuddled up. Last time and this time she has her hands at her face and is all snuggled with her head smashed into something. Last time into my back this time into the placenta. You would think she is using it as a pillow. We were able to get an okay head shot. Nothing to clear. Brett can't tell what's what in it. But I get an idea. Anyways, She is healthy and happy and we already love her more then words can say!!

Easter

we had a really nice Easter weekend. We went to Brett's Parents house for the weekend. Brett and his friend Jason took me out fishing. I didn't catch anything :( But I still enjoyed just being out in nature. Then later that night we Colored Eggs. Which I think Brett enjoyed more the the grandkids haha. Sunday we went to church and then came back to a good old BBQ. YUMMY. Brett did a very good job at the grill. Most of all it was nice to just go some where and relax. I even got to use my Mother in Laws Big Jetted Tub. Thank you again. It felt so good to just soak for awhile.

Stories of a Pregnant Women.

6 months pregnant

Kaiya and her Kicking

Well our little Monkey ( as Brett likes to call her) has started to be quite the little kicker. For awhile there she was kinda shy about here kicking. She only did it when It was just me and her and nobody was around. Or she would stop as soon as Brett put his hand on my belly. Well one morning when Brett and I had first woken up he reached over and put his hand on my belly and Kaiya gave him a big kick. I think it made his day. Since then she isn't to shy. I had a dr appointment yesterday and she wasn't doing much kicking at all, but as soon as she put the Doppler on my belly Kaiya gave it a big hard kick. I think it even took the dr by surprise. Her next funny timing on kicking leads me into my next story.

I BURNT MY BELLY

Yes that is right I burnt my big fat pregnant belly. I was making pasta last night and as I was trying to poor the boiling water in to the strainer it started to poor out on my belly. I guess I wasn't holding it right. Either way it hurt so bad. So I got some ice and wrapped it up in a paper towel and went and laid down to try to cool it off. Well I guess from hot to cold Kaiya wasn't to happy with it. She kept kicking where I had the ice. But whither she liked it or not, I kept the ice on. It just hurt to bad with out it. Now I have two lovely burn marks on my already not so lovely pregnant belly.

Hail or Hell

Let me first say how I don't think I am in my right mind lately. Brett will be telling me something and I just don't get it. He seems to be getting so frustrated because to him he feels it should be so obvious. So a couple weeks ago my friend asked me to teach her primary class at church which is the 7 year olds. Our lesson was on prayer. Well I was going through things we could pray that we are thankful. One of the girls in the class turned to me and said well you would say that we are thankful for hell. Well I don't know why it wasn't obvious to me that she said Hell. I thought she said Hail, as in the weather. Maybe it was the good old souther accent but either way I took it wrong. I then proceeded to tell the girls why we should be thankful for HAIL. That I knew it could seem kinda scary but that it was really fun. I don't know what else was said, but I do know I made a pretty good case on why HAIL was so great. Until I noticed I had about 5 very confused faces looking back at me. At this time I realized what I had done. Hoping it wasn't too late I tried to explain to them that I thought they said Hail not Hell, and that Hell is bad not fun. Well if It could be worse of course the bishops daughter is in the class. So I decided to go and turn my self in to him about what I had done. I recommended their next family home evening be on how Hell is so great after all.

Well Dates to look forward to this next month are

April 4th & 5th We finally get to move to a bigger apartment ( YAY)
April 16th Brett's Birthday and we get another Ultra Sound that morning of Kaiya
April 19th My First Baby Shower
April 26th Brett's Family Baby Shower :)

Hopefully all of this will make this next month just fly by.

Half way

Today I am 20 weeks, Half way There YAY!!!. I can feel little Kaiya moving a lot more now too. Poor Brett is still being patient for his turn. So the other night at about 4 in the morning we had a huge thunderstorm. It woke up Simon where he spent the rest of the morning running back and forth between Brett and I. But what I thought was really funny was that it woke up Kaiya. Either our little girl loves thunder storms or she hates them. Either way she wiggled the next 3 hours straight of the storm. Another funny moment with Kaiya was at church. I usually don't feel Kaiya much except at night. Well at Church I was holding a friends baby and out of no where Kaiya just started kicking like crazy. So I gave the baby to Brett and Kaiya stopped right away. I guess we have a jealous girl.

Simon.. The hunter

Let me first start by explaining. When I got Simon he was about 6 weeks old and he is a beagle. Which are suppose to be hunting dogs. Well for the first year Simon spent most of his time running from ducks in the park, cats, or really anything that moved besides dogs. Then he started doing this thing where when he saw another dog coming he lays down and waits for them to get close then leaps out at them. Well yesterday Brett and I took Simon to the park. Quick side note, The park was gorgeous ( I wish I would have taken my camera). You could see huge fish in the pond, and turtles sun bathing on the center island. Well, back to Simon, he saw this big duck and took off running for it. Brett had to pull him back just in time to keep him from leaping in the pond. It was to long later that Simon started freaking out. He had caught the scent of a squirrel and Brett had to hang on for dear life. Brett was howling and screeching so loud that it sounded like he was being hurt he was so excited. People stopped to watch as Simon was running in and out of bushes trying to catch his Squirrel. Needless to say I think we all enjoyed our time at the park. Oh and no animals were hard ;)

Daddy's little Princess

So now that we can buy stuff for Kaiya, Brett and I have had many conversations back and forth on what we want for her. I said I didn't want a ton of Winnie the Pooh, which he came back with not a lot of seaseme street. Stuff like that. So I said one day I didn't want to have a bunch of little princess stuff. That I didn't want her to grow up being spoiled thinking she was a princess and could have whatever she wanted. Well Brett quickly informed me that Kaiya would be Daddy's little princess and indeed would be wearing Princess gear. Whats funny is that this is the same guy who turned to me after hearing she was going to be a girl and said, " easy on the pink". But who am I to take away Daddy's princess. Then Brett informed me that if Kaiya was a princess that meant he got to be the King. So I starting to wonder the real reason behind it. Either way Brett wanted to get our little one a dress for valentines day. I think if Brett had his choice he would have left with every dress there. Our princess has already received her tiara and she isn't even born.

It's A Girl!!!

Well after a long night of not being able to sleep we finally went to my appointment this morning. After taking a few measurements we found out It's a Girl. We decided to name her Kianne Elizabeth Shurtleff. But were gonna call her Kiaya. Watching our little one squirm was such a beautiful, peaceful experience I wish I could have that feeling every day. I just feel so blessed to have Kiaya in our life. Brett was so cute too. He asked the Dr. if he could video the Ultrasound screen so we could watch little Kiaya later. She sad okay. Kiaya was a little shy. She liked to hide her head in my back as you can see on the video. But sure wasn't shy about kicking Mommy over and over again. Man I already love that little girl so much.

BABY TALK

Well Brett and I went to my Check up on January 2ND. I had been stressing tons that something was wrong with the baby. After over an hour of back ground questions, peeing in cups, and tons of blood test, we finally got to meet with the Doctor. She came in asked me how I had been feeling and said everything seemed good. I thought she was done, and I was thinking wait you can't just look at me and know my baby is okay. I have never wanted a check up more in my life ha ha. So I asked her if we got to hear or see the baby or anything, I think she could tell I was a little worried she just laughed and said yes she was going to get the Doppler to listen to the baby's heart. It took her a minute to find it (adding more worry to the fire), but there it was. I looked over at Brett and the look on his face is one I will cherish forever. He already looked like such a proud father. The heart beat kept being interrupted by our kicking baby. Even the Dr seemed to get a kick out of how active our baby was.

We got set up for our next appointment February 5Th. When we will get our second Ultra Sound, and YES!! finally get to find out what we are having. We can't wait. I think then when we finally get to give our baby a name and start planning and buying stuff it will bring more life to it all.

I still get sick, but thank goodness it isn't all day. Its just after eating random foods or who knows what causes it ha ha, Cause if I did I would fix it. But needless to say it is finally getting better which does give me hope. Tomorrow I will be 15 weeks pregnant. So now that I am in my 2ND trimester I hear it will all start getting better.

Been awhile..

I just realized it has been a while since I have been on here. Well, Christmas went really good. I really wanted to get Brett and I's Christmas stocking done before Christmas. luckily I finished up 4 days before. It was so fun to have them. Brett and I both have a hard time with waiting to give each other presents. That we ended up doing Christmas a few days a head of time. Saving the stockings for Christmas. Well we ended up doing those Christmas eve eve. We justified it will the fact that we weren't going to actually be at our place for Christmas. Next year we will just have to be patient and wait.

We went to Brett's parents house. Then went to South Carolina to see my brother Travis and his wife Kristen, along with my two beautiful nieces. It was fun to see them. Then went back to Brett's parents to spend a good time visiting with the family, before heading back home to get back to work. Speaking of work, I lost my job. My boss had to close down one of his stores so to make a LONG story short, I got two weeks pay and looking for something else.

New years eve was tons of fun. We got invited to a couple from churches house to play games and eat. I made homemade salsa, and off we went. They have this game for the XBOX 360 that was a battle of the bands. They have tons of different instruments and you would try to play the notes that were on the screen and not get booed off the stage. Well Brett overly enjoyed himself and nobody could get him off the drums. I he only stopped long enough to kiss me happy new year. But it was a very good night and we joined spending it with such fun people.

Brett started back at school and found out he made the honor roll last semester, YAY!! I am so proud of him. His teacher his so supportive of him. He says he will make sure he gets plenty of time off to take care of me and make it to our Dr appointments. He also had a bunch of tools that were going to be thrown out that he is going to fix up and give to Brett. Brett has such a busy schedule and takes on so much for our little family. From the time he goes to school at 8 in the morning he goes until he gets off work at 10 at night. I am so grateful to have such a loving supportive husband. He does all of this while putting up with his pregnant, emotional, stress filled wife. He truly is amazing. Speaking of, he just walked in the door from school with a rose. Wow I am a lucky girl. :)

Sunday Walk

After a long busy week, we decided we needed some family time. Poor Simon had been kept in the house all week. So we decided to take an afternoon walk on the beach. It was crazy to have the sand cold on our feet, what a change. It was a little big chilly out, I think in the 60's. But that didn't stop us, or the surfers. It was crazy to see how many people were still out enjoying the beach and the water. It was a little bit foggy, but a very beautiful day. Reminded me of the northern California beaches. Simon, you would think was in doggy heaven. He kept trying to run up sand hills, and would run toward the waves but as soon as they came would take off running away. He is very scared of water. It was nice to have our little family time. But it made it just that much harder to start this next week. Thank goodness the holidays are coming up. YAY