Before we became FOUR

                                           Time to catch up, better late than never!!

 I decided to get some last pictures as a family of three before Kendall arrives.

It was a warm beautiful day at the Dallas Arboretum.

My  first "Baby K"

Age 4 has always been my favorite age for kiddos.

All grown up but still a baby.

pictures courtesy of  CNC Moments photography

PINK or BLUE??!!!!

Monday we had our full anatomy scan for the baby. Everything checked out great, growing as he/she should be. In fact there is a lot of growing going on because we are measuring 5 days ahead! I'm not surprised though because K had always measured ahead. Our doctor was also able find out the sex of the baby. We had her put the results in an envelope and seal them up. After the appointment I immediately took the envelope to my older sister so he could start working on the reveal.

We had originally planned to have all our family come over on Friday for dinner and reveal the gender but I couldn't wait. I called my sisters and told them to meet up at my parents house that night.

K and his cousin Nolan were so excited about our little party. Surprisingly both of them were saying/wanting a girl.

My older sister Maria was the only person to know the results ahead of time. She put colored confetti in a black balloon so that K could pop it and reveal the gender. Kemper was more than happy with the job he was assigned. He had his toothpick ready to pop that balloon.

Ready.

Set.

POP  !!

It's a GIRL!!!!!!

I absolutely love the look on their faces. They couldn't believe the confetti was PINK! just what they wanted.

So excited!! I'd had a feeling It was going to be a girl, but I still can't believe it is! I've gotten so use to being a boy momma so all this pink seems so unfamiliar!
My husbands response: " So I guess I have to pay for a wedding now?" typical guy fashion;)

My mom had to call her mom immediately. Apparently this past summer my grandmother had told her to expect a granddaughter soon. Guess she was right!!!
 My sweet Nephew Nolan wanted to save some of the confetti. He wants a sibling so bad. His teacher even mentioned that he was telling people that he was going to be a big brother. After the reveal was over we heard him say "Kemper, our sister is gonna love us." Bless his heart!! I told my sister that she needs to get on the ball!!

The potty shot as proof! ;)

This is my 12 week sonogram. I showed it to my girlfriend Katie and she immediately guessed it was a girl because the "nub" was parallel to the spine based on the "nub theory"   Guess she was right too!

All signs pointed to girl but yet it was still a surprise in the end.
We can't wait to meet her!!!!

Bringing Home Baby

Definitely way harder than I imagined. I had no idea that a person could survive only sleeping a max of three hours at a time.(I don't think we even got that!) I was very sore from the labor and delivery process. I kinda had to be "put back together" if you know what I mean, so getting around was very difficult. My milk took forever to come in and Kemper was having latching on problems and becoming Jaundice, so we have had to see a lactation specialist a couple of times. My hormones were in crazy gear and I was very tearful, but my wonderful husband has helped me through it all and continues to do so. Also when we were in the hospital we received some unexpected disappointing news, Baby Kemper has failed all his hearing screens. These "screens" are a pass fail test done to all the children in Texas because hearing loss is the number one birth defect, so now the state of Texas has required the test be done on all newborns. Granted this test does not prove or say that Kemper is deaf or has some sort of hearing problem ,but we must do further testing and see ENT and Audiologists to to rule it out. We have been told not to worry that it could be that little Kemper still has fluid in his ears and may take awhile to dry out. So now all we can to is pray and wait and remember that no matter what happens he is the most PERFECT WONDERFUL baby boy to us!

Let the nesting begin!!

28 weeks

I have hit the 28 week mark and now I am ready to start cleaning and getting things ready for baby Kemper. A friend of mine helped me with my baby registry last weekend (Thanks Jenara!!)It's crazy how much stuff you need for such a tiny little thing! I've always known babies were expensive, but this baby business is out of control, just take one trip to Babies R Us and you will see what I mean.

I have totally fallen in love with Restoration Hardware Baby and Child. (http://www.rhbabyandchild.com/rhbc/index.jsp) They have such beautiful ideas for little boys and girls rooms. I found Kemper's crib bedding here and luckily for me it was on sale. RH tends to be a little on the expensive side, so I have been using them as inspiration and attempting to make some of the items I see myself. Here are the letters I painted to go above Kemper's crib.


My letters $3 each letter


Restoration Hardware $16 each letter


Some more letters I made for my friend Olivia due Feb. 4th

Making room for Baby K

Here is the bedding that I have picked out for baby Kemper's room. I plan on accenting his room with airplanes, since on an airplane is where mommy and daddy met. I think it is very simple bedding not too baby or too grown up looking, just very calm and peaceful. His crib will also be a dark wood stain as pictured, but a different style. I just haven't exactly decided on the crib that I want, decisions decisions!!

Heartburn & Hair!!??

It is 2:45 am and I am up with the worst case of heartburn and I think I may die, no really I might, it's that bad! I have already taken Zantac, some tums and a glass of milk. Nothing seems to help so I am frantically searching the internet for a remedy, but instead I find articles about how women with frequent heartburn during pregnancy have hairy babies. Great! Please just let it be on his head!
Pregnant Mothers with Heartburn Can Expect Babies with Lots of Hair
New Study Shows Old Wives' Tale to Be TrueBy Frogdoc, published Jul 18, 2007
There are many wives tales associated with pregnancy. Most of these deal with gender-prediction and include such clues as the baby's heartrate, whether the mother is carrying the baby high or low, where the mother is carrying extra weight. One wives' tale deals with how much hair your baby will have: If you struggle with heartburn during pregnancy, your baby will have a lot of hair. This belief, like many others, has been chalked up to myth although some mothers swear it is true.

It turns out that these mothers may be right after all. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have released a study in the journal Birth showing that a correlation between heartburn and the hairiness of a newborn actually exists.

The research was conducted by Kathleen Costigan, a registered nurse in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at John Hopkins, and colleagues. The study followed 64 women throughout pregnancy. These women were asked to rank the severity of their heartburn symptoms. When their babies were born, two independent observers rated the thickness of the newborn hair using photographs taken after birth.

Seventy-eight percent of the pregnant women reported some level of heartburn, and were able to participate in the study. Of the 28 women who reported moderate to severe heartburn during pregnancy, 82% gave birth to babies with above average hair thickness. Of the 12 women who reported no heartburn symptoms at all, 83% gave birth to babies with very little or no hair.

Costigan writes "Contrary to expectations, it appears that an association between heartburn severity during pregnancy and newborn hair does exist." She adds, "We've heard this claim hundreds of times, and I've always told people it's nonsense. Since the study came out, I've had to eat a lot of crow."

While investigating this myth, I personally ran across a number of websites that are going to have to do the same.

It's a boy!!

I was right! We are having a little boy! Kemper James II is on his way!! He weighs a little over 1 pound right now and everything looks like it is growing just right. My due date was originally April 22nd, then bumped up to the 16th, now they say it looks like it will be around April 13th! Either our dates were off or were are going to have a BIG boy! Kemper weighed 10 lbs 2oz when he was born and I weighed 5 lbs 12oz, so I think baby K will weigh around 7lbs 7oz, which I think will be a perfect size. Place your bets!!

Pink or Blue??

Baby "K" is now 20 weeks old and the size of a small cantaloupe! My next Dr's appointment is on December 12th and that is when we get to find out if baby "K" is a boy or girl. Kemper would like a boy so he can have a golf partner and someone to watch football 24/7 with him. I don't mind either way, Although I do have a feeling that it is a boy. I guess we will just have to wait and see!!