Monday, December 22, 2008

Gingerbread House

Kevin and I visited Ganny and Gampy Melvin's this past weekend. We went shopping, cooked and made a gingerbread house. I'm glad that we had our first try without kids. It wasn't as easy as I thought, but we had fun!


Before
During (Mom and Me)

Kevin helped too, but he decided to take a break.

After


Harley and Gampy decided to watch TV and take a little nap.

Bailey supervised and ate anything that fell on the floor. He made clean-up easy. Thanks Bailey!




Thursday, December 18, 2008

Boy or Girl?

Yes, we are planning to find out the sex of our baby. Our next appointment is January 7th and this will be a check up, no ultrasound :( I will be meeting the other doctor in the practice so that when time to delivery, I will be familiar with both. Although, I'll be a little bummed if my doctor isn't able to deliver. Kevin and I just love him. So, the way our appointments are falling, it looks like it will be the 1st or 2nd week in February before we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Either way, we feel very special and lucky. We've waited for four years, I guess another month or so won't hurt. I do hope that the baby cooperates during the ultrasound. So far the two that I've had, the baby moves around quite a bit. We'll see and of course will post as soon as we find out.

The other popular question has been, what will you name the baby? If we have a boy, he will be named Mason Christopher Kranz. If we have a girl, she will be named Stella Elizabeth Kranz or Carley Elizabeth Kranz. We haven't quite settled on the girl's name.

The significance of the names are family related. Kevin's middle name is Christopher and we both just like Mason. As for the girl, Elizabeth is my first name and we like Stella. Carley will be short for my Grandma Davis' name. Her name was Carleen and I thought Carley was more up to date and a great way to remember my Grandma. She was very special to me.

If you would like to vote on the girl's name, please feel free to leave a comment. No comments about the movie of the man yelling STELLA!!!! We don't know what movie that is from, but we have heard that comment a million times. We still like the name. :)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Early Screening Update

Our appointment on Monday, December 8th went very well. The baby looked healthy with no signs of Down Syndrome. Of course we have to wait 10 days to find out the results of my blood work. The results will tell us if the baby has any other chromosome disorders. Our doctor was very happy with the growth of the baby and said that he/she was very active which was apparent in the ultrasound. The baby was moving from side to side as if it were trying to escape the wand on my belly. This ultrasound for Kevin and I was amazing. We saw the baby move his/her hands, feet, legs and mouth. At one point the little lips were moving in a sucking like motion. Boy, that really got me and of course I was hungry too! :)

We are so relieved, at this point, to know that the baby seems to be healthy, have all the fingers, toes, arms, legs and to be "normal", as the doctor said. So, in this case, no news is good news and we are just elated. Thank you God for our blessing!

Please enjoy the pictures below.






Monday, December 08, 2008

Christmas time is here!

Nana and Papa (Don and Phyllis) came to visit us this weekend. They were nice enough to bring the nursery furniture and help us set it up. We went shopping, ate lunch which also included ice cream, and came home to set up the furniture. We took the opportunity to have Papa take a couple of pictures in front of our Christmas tree. Bailey wanted to make sure that he was included too.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Feeling Better?....That is the question.

Many of you have been so kind as to ask, "Are you feeling better"? The answer is yes!!! YAY! I still have my moments of, I'm going to throw up at any minute :), but they are less frequent. Some mornings are still rough, especially when it's time to brush my teeth. I try to syke myself up for the moment or I'll watch TV during the process, sometimes it helps. The good news is I only have one more week and I'll be in my second trimester. Can you believe it? I can't either. Gosh! I've heard that the sickness pretty much goes away by then so I'm happy and looking forward to moving on to more exciting days.

I'm hoping to start focusing on decorating the nursery. Well, at least get started, since we have to wait another 6 weeks or so before we find out the sex of our baby. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful family. Amy, my sister-in-law, was nice enough to save her nursery furniture for us. THANKS AMY!! We are looking forward to seeing it in the room. At first, it will look very strange to us, but will become a reality. I'm sure Bailey will think that this is his new room LOL!! OR he may lift his leg and pee on everything. Just kidding....he wouldn't do that ;)

Thanks again to everyone for checking on me. I'm hoping to do a better job with updating posts more frequently. We will be posting an update on our appointment Monday, so check back on Tuesday, December 9th.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Next Appointment: Early Screen Ultrasound

Our next doctor appointment is on December 8th. We will be having our first trimester early screen ultrasound. Basically, through a combination of a blood test and 13 week ultrasound exam will estimate our chances of having a baby with Down syndrome and other disorders with extra chromosomes. The blood is taken from me and the ultrasound will measure the fluid filled space at the back of the baby's neck. There is a possibility that they may have to examine the baby's nasal bone as well. Unbelievable at all of the literature that Kevin and I were given when we visited the doctor. The bag of pamphlets, books, vitamins etc. is bigger than our baby. Good Lord! I hope that we can read everything before the baby arrives.

Speaking of arrive.... I updated our baby counter because the other one looked like an alien. This one of course is much cuter (because cute is important), BUT when I saw how many days we have left, I almost fell out of my chair. 214 DAYS!!!!! Are you sure?! Can we speed it up a little. Just kidding! Wow, June seems to be FOREVER away. I'm sure it will be here before we know it, right?

Move over Bailey, there's a baby on the way

OH BOY! We might be in trouble. This little guy is used to being an only child. What in the world are we going to do when the baby arrives?! He is such a good natured, loving dog (most of the time), but he is very spoiled and doesn't like anyone else to get attention unless he is involved too. I'm curious to know how he will react around the baby. So far, he seems to be more attached to me now more than ever. Kevin and I definitely think that he knows what's up. Now when he cuddles with me, he lays his head on my belly and seems very content. Kevin asked "Do you think he can hear the baby"? I don't know the answer, but I know that he knows or at least can smell that there is a baby in Mommy's belly. So far, Bailey has been very sweet with me. He sits in the bathroom (or right outside the door) with me in the mornings while I, well.....get sick (I'll spare you the details). After I'm finished, I always have to re-assure him that I'm ok. This may sound funny to you, but to us Bailey is human. We love Bailey and I hope that he is a good boy and loves the baby too.





Wednesday, November 12, 2008

First Prenatal Visit to OB/GYN

Today was our first prenatal visit to our OB/GYN and we were able to see the baby on ultrasound. It was an amazing experience to see and hear the heartbeat in a fetus the size of a peanut.











Saturday, October 11, 2008

"The Test"

Every little detail is so important to us that we want to keep a diary of events. Yesterday morning October 10th I took a pregnancy test. It was a first response early detection digital test. Very, very cool, that technology has come so far. Kevin is in the shower and I couldn't wait, so I continued with my test. With in 20 seconds, I see YES +.....OMG!!!! WE'RE PREGNANT! I'm running across the house to get Kevin. As soon as I look at him (holding the test), he's says "It says yes, doesn't it". Underneath my excitement, I say "YES". And of course, Kevin, not being able to handle a serious situation, says "Does it tell us how many are in there". I couldn't help but laugh and truthfully, I'm thinking the same thing. Keep in mind this is after taking a round of fertility drugs and twins running in the Kranz family, we weren't sure what we were in for at this point. We continue to get ready for work and continue with our day as if nothing significant had just happened. How in the world are we supposed to keep this news to ourselves when we have waited so long already?