fun in the beans

Ashlyn has enjoyed playing in the bean right outside our house. I lost count of how many times went back and forth marching through the rows.

Climbing on the dirt pile in the backyard. Ta-da!

helping daddy

Somebody sure does love to help daddy!
 

house update

Shingles are DONE! It looks so nice! Electricians will be finished on Monday, Tuesday insulation guys will spray foam the addition and do retro foam on the old part of the house. Windows are also scheduled to be installed by the end of the week! They are also tearing out the big wall between the addition and the kitchen area next week. Big changes, can't wait!

 

wall with patio door will be gone!



Baby name ideas

I thought I'd share some of the names that Ashlyn wants to name the baby. Her favorite for a long time has been Ashlyn. Most of her babies are named Ashlyn so why shouldn't this baby be Ashlyn too!?  The next name she came up with was Orange Opossum. I have no clue where that came from but she's said it a few times so it must mean something.  A couple days ago I asked her what we should name baby and she said Apricot. Granted, we do have dried apricots for snacks sometimes and that is one of Strawberry Shortcake's friends' name.  The only distinctly boy name she has is Gauge, just like our dog Gauge, she also names anything 'boy' Gauge  :)

So the list looks like this:
Ashlyn
Orange Opossum
Apricot
Gauge

Let hope we don't have to pick from her list!

... You didn't think we were really going to share our real name list did you?? You're just going to have to wait until late November when Baby L makes its debut!

house update!

We've made some big progress in the last week. Rafters and walls are up and the tar paper is on the roof so we are waterproof! I think shingling will start next week if it stays dry or they will be working on some of the inside remodeling if it is wet out. Totally excited for all the changes, not so excited about moving all of our living room and bedroom furniture somewhere... the next month will be interesting!

 

McDonald's

All of this rainy weather sent us in search of a dry place for a play date with our friend Vivian on Thursday. McDonald's play place was perfect! It took the girls about an hour to get the courage to go down the slide but once they did they went down over and over and over for about another hour. Ashlyn was so proud of herself, she yelled "I did it!" when she went down the first couple times, it was so cute.

park

We went to the park last Sunday. It was beautiful out!



Singing on the big rock

A little scare....

Just as I talk about how great everything is going with this pregnancy, things got a little scary on Sunday night. I've had Braxton Hicks contractions here and there just like any normal pregnancy but Sunday night they started coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting for 60-90 seconds and they were very strong. It felt like I had a bowling ball just under my skin. They were totally painless but were really uncomfortable since I was trying to lay down to go to bed. It started around 10:30pm, I drank a bunch of water thinking maybe I was a little dehydrated and laid of my left side like they tell you to. That didn't seem to work so I got up and googled preterm labor signs at 11pm. I only really had two of the six they listed (contractions and pressure). It said to drink water  and to lay on your left side for about an hour and see if they go away (like I already had). Well, they didn't go away so I called the doctor at midnight and he said I should come in to Labor & Delivery to be monitored. I told Joe to just stay home so we didn't have to wake Ashlyn up since I was sure they would probably just say I was over reacting and I would call him when I knew more. By the time I got checked in and hooked up to the monitors it was a little after 1:00am and baby's heart rate was good but my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and I was dilated to 1cm... not good. The nurse called the Dr and he ordered me to have IV fluids (it took two very painful tries to get the IV in, ouch!), a urine test and a shot of terbutaline all to help stop the contractions. The terbutaline makes you a little shaky and speeds your heart rate up. Thankfully it only lasts about an hour. He also had me tested for fetal fibronectin (fFN). Thankfully by the time the urine test and the fFN test came back (both negative) my contractions had stopped from the shot of terbutaline. The RN seemed impressed that I took to the drug so well and after talking with the Dr again they decided to send me home on a modified bed rest, no lifting heavy objects or Ashlyn until I could see my regular Dr later that day during office hours. So by the time I got home at 3:30am I was tired.

I was able to get in to see my Dr at 11:15am on Monday. We talked about what happened and he said he wasn't too worried about it since the fFN test was negative but thought he'd do an internal just to check for dilatation and effacement. That's when things got a little more serious. He said I was dilated at a generous 1cm and he thought I could be 50% effaced. Bad news. He said that a normal cervix is 30mm (3cm) long and he thought I felt like I was only half that. So he scheduled me to have my cervical length measured by ultrasound at the LCM clinic at 1:30pm. During that appointment they measured all kinds of things; baby's head, femur, amniotic fluid level, heart, etc... and of course cervical length. I had to go back to the Dr's office to get the results but my Dr was doing a c-section on another patient when I got there so his nurse told me that everything came back looking great! RELIEF! My cervical length was 35mm - which is GREAT! With all the tests that were done the Dr felt that it was just a fluke thing and didn't feel that I need to be put on any restrictions. Of course I'm supposed to call right away if anything starts happening again and I go back in a week to get checked to make sure nothing has changed but other than that I should just keep doing what I was doing and not worry about it. Talk about a HUGE relief. I'm still putting some restrictions on myself... resting more, not lifting heavy things and drinking lots of water. Hopefully the rest of the pregnancy will be uneventful!

Baby is measuring perfectly, within 1 day of my 11/28 due date. It weighs 2lbs 11oz (+/- 6oz)  and heartbeat was 123. I also got a new picture of Baby L, it was very active yesterday with lots of kicks. I think it wanted me to know that everything was okay :)

Profile, face up!

house update

Tomorrow they will start putting up the walls and rafters... exciting!

28 weeks - Third Trimester!

I'm 28 weeks today! Hard to believe that I'm in the final stretch of the third trimester already. Time is flying!  I'm still feeling GREAT which is just wonderful. So good that I almost forget that I've got this big belly until I try to bend over to pick something up or try squeeze through somewhere I don't fit anymore. Story time with Ashlyn is also getting more difficult but she doesn't seem to mind.  I went to the Lady Gaga concert with my friend Desirae' on Tuesday and the traffic cop said, "baby will be rockin' tonight!" I just had to laugh and say yep! Joe and I went to the Foo Fighters when I was 20 weeks pregnant with Ashlyn so each baby got to go to a concert before they were born :)  Another good thing is that I passed my gestational diabetes test a few weeks ago. I wasn't worried about it but it's good to know that I passed!

**From BabyCenter.com**
By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. Baby can blink its eyes, which now sport lashes. With its eyesight developing, it may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. Baby is also developing billions of neurons in its brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Matching Tattoos

Yep, we did it! Ashlyn and I got matching tattoo's at the State Fair last Sunday ;)



**Good thing they're only temporary!**

ER visit

Ashlyn cut her leg on a piece of rebar that is part of the construction on our house. She just walked by it and it cut her delicate skin right open. I had to take her to the ER in St Peter and they said it was a "Superficial Laceration" and could be fixed with glued 'stitches' that fall off naturally in about 10 days. Thank goodness it wasn't any worse!  She was a happy little camper by the time we got home; dancing and singing along with Dora before bed.

Polka Dancer

Ashlyn also has a love for Polka music.

Corn Days Parade

We went to the Corn Days parade in Sleepy Eye Saturday night and sat with some of the Kral cousins. Here are the kids waiting for the parade to start.
Ashlyn, Chloe, Morgan, Jared
Jeffrey and Landon

Backpack

She's got a thing for Dora lately.
The baby carrier is the closest thing we have to a backpack her size.

Twins game

We went to the Twins game on July 30th and sat in the Legends Club.
It was really nice. We're defiantly going back again!

House Update!

Our remodel/addition project officially got underway this week!  We are adding a new living room on to the north side of the house and making a formal entry way in the front. We are also going to add some closet space to our master bedroom. It's also time to get new windows shingles and siding since they are 30 years old and have worn out... GOODBYE yellow siding!!!  I can't wait for it all to be done... hopefully the inside will be complete before baby gets here :)  I'll keep you updated!

The Before:

Goodbye old rotten deck!

Two trees and the deck GONE!

Pouring the basement walls

She likes watching the guys work and climbing on all the dirt piles :)

Trampoline

Who knew an 1980's exercise trampoline would be so much fun?

Snack time

Ashlyn said her baby needed a snack the other day so I asked her what her baby wanted and she said Cheerios. So I gave her a bowl to share with her baby. She said baby liked it :)