Ultrasound Today - 30 weeks 5 days

Had a doctor's appointment and ultrasound today to measure mini-kuper. To everyone's surprise, I'm sure, we are not having a huge baby! She's weighing about 3 lbs. 10 oz. which is right on track so as of now I do not plan her arriving early into this world.

John and I tried to determine on the ultrasound which of us she looks like. I think she has his nose and my cheeks. On the 4D picture you can really tell how chubby her cheeks are. And we also got a picture that shows she has a ton of hair (according to the wivestale, it would explain all the heartburn).

She is head down so she's in good position for birth and was kicking away. We can't wait to meet her in 9+ more weeks!

I will take new belly pictures this weekend (31 weeks).

Bottom- arrow pointing toward full head of hair. Top- profile picture (nose and lips).

4D pictures of her face...look at those chubby cheeks!

Nursery is done!

I had a very productive weekend - finally got the nursery done, other than name letters and putting away whatever I get at my showers.

Nursery - Before:



















Nursery - After:

Baby Kuper's Coming Home Outfit(s) - A gift from Great Grandma Durham on our trip to Muscatine last month.

29 Week Pictures

As promised, here's pics from today - 29 weeks 2 days. Our Childbirth classes start Wednesday; I'll let you know how they go

Week 28

Finally... A reason for all the comments about how huge I am.

Had a doctor's appointment today, had lots of questions. One of which wondering if the size of John and I as babies will have any effect on the size of mini-kuper...or mega-kuper as some are now calling her. She said that if John and I were both 9 lb. babies (John was 9-3, I was 9-4) that there's a good chance that we would have a 9 lb. baby as well. She said that is why they measure the uterus at each appointment and if it measures large then she will do an ultrasound to get an idea of the baby's actual size.

After all that was said, I hopped up on the exam table and she took her measurements and my uterus measured 31 weeks (I was 28.5 at the exam) so they are going to do an ultrasound at my next appointment (August 27th) to see how big she is. It will be nice to see her again and see how much she's grown in 10 weeks...and make sure that she is still a SHE.

Depending on her size, we'll need to talk about options and make a decision from there (going early, c-section, etc.). I am on the 2 week plan for appointments now and then at 36 weeks I'll go every week. Needless to say, we are very committed to getting the nursery done soon and hope to get a lot of work done on in this weekend.

Names - It's been entertaining to let people guess names. My aunt, Kathe, has been the most creative - coming up with a new one every time she sends an e-mail. My mom continues to call her Walter - funny story for those of you who haven't heard it yet: My friend Beth was explaining to her 3 year old daughter that Kristin (friend) and I were both expecting babies and that's why they were giving away some of their stuff. Beth explained that Kristin was getting a boy but that I didn't know yet what I was having so Hannah predicted that I was having a girl named Walter. She was right about it being a girl, but I can't say that I am in love with the name Walter, especially for a girl. I later found out that she picked this name from one of her current favorite books: Walter the Farting Dog (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Walter-the-Farting-Dog/William-Kotzwinkle/e/9781583940532/?itm=1).

I will take some pictures on Friday (29 weeks) and post them soon.

Rough Week

As much as I enjoy being able to see and feel mini-kuper move...it's been a rough week for me. I keep getting rude comments about how big I am and wonder "what's wrong with people?" Were they brought up to act that way?? No manners? You don't see me going around saying "geez, looks like you've gained some weight". Of course, the raging hormones don't help either...

John's cousin gave us a crib so I went and picked it up last night. We're taking the crib I had bought on craigslist over to my parents house. Last night we celebrated my birthday and also farewell dinner for Grandma Durham (John's Grandma). Tonight, we'll be celebrating my birthday over at my parents house and tomorrow night I am going to Mineola for the Taco Run and will celebrate my actual birthday with John and some of my friends from work.

25 Weeks

wow...only 15 more weeks to go. it seems that ever since we hit the halfway point (20 weeks) that things seem to be going more and more quickly. We signed up for prepared childbirth and infant feeding classes which begin August 20th and will run for 6 weeks (one night a week). We have our daycare provider and pediatrician all lined up and I checked into Infant/Child CPR classes as well.

On Tuesday, I had an OB appointment which included a Gestational Diabetes test where I had to drink this glucola drink that tasted like flat orange pop with added sugar (actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be). Good news is that I passed the test! The doctor measured my belly and checked mini-kuper's heartbeat with the doppler (150 bpm)...and told me not to eat so many tums - 6 in 24 hours is the limit (oops!), but I found relief in learning that I could take Prilosec, Pepcid or Zantac to help relieve the heartburn. I go back in 4 more weeks for a checkup and then after that I will start going every 2 weeks.

John celebrated his 30th birthday this past weekend, man we're growing up! We also went camping with Linda and Mack at their cabin on Big Lake, Missouri - had a great time boating and just relaxing. John and Linda went on a giant raft - great big Mable - and got bucked off a few times which was quite entertaining being a spectator and all.

Thanks for participating in the polls on guessing Mini-Kuper's due date and weight...

Here's a couple pics at 25 weeks:

Pregnancy through Week 24

I have never blogged before so hopefully this works. I decided to start one so that everyone has a central place to go for Baby (mini) Kuper updates, guesses, etc... Here's what I can remember thus far about pregnancy up until now:

Weeks 21-24

My belly is getting huge and starting to feel very pregnant. Still have a ways to go... We bought a dresser and a changing table and set everything up in the nursery. Still deciding on whether or not to paint the walls. Need to paint the dresser for sure. Talked Grandma Pam into making a bedskirt as I couldn't bring myself to spend $70.00 on one I found on the internet. Bought a baby book and started filling it out. John's sister, (Aunt Kristi) started working on shower invites - hard to believe it's time to start thinking of those things already. At week 21 I started to notice her move ALL the time which is such a great and amazing feeling, makes all the days of being uncomfortable and sleepless nights all worth it. Here are some belly pics to show how much I'm growing:

16.5 weeks compared to 20.5 weeks

We also picked out a name last week which was a huge step for us. We decided to keep it a secret between John and I until she is born. Funny story though...here's how we picked a name: we each picked our top 5 names, then each of us got to knock 2 off the other person's list. The remaining 6 names were put into a hat and the first one drawn was Kennedy, which would make her initials KKK (very bad!). Since we were pretty set on a middle name already we decided to nix Kennedy and draw again. Hopefully our daughter appreciates this story when she gets older.

Week 20

Finally hit the halfway mark which was such a relief, a mini-milestone. At 20.5 weeks John and I went for the big ultrasound which lasted about 30 minutes. They checked out the brain, spinal cord, face, heart (lots of time spent looking at the heart), took a lot of measurements, etc. and they told us the big news - Mini-Kuper had girl parts! John and a few others bet it was a boy but everyone else was suspecting girl. It made it seem all the more real to know that "it" was now a "she". Here are some pictures from the ultrasound:

Weeks 12-19

were pretty uneventful. I started to get a little bit of energy back and felt less sick. My mom (Grandma Pam) bought quite a bit of baby clothes at garage sales and Grandma Linda (john's mom) bought a crib for all the babysitting she'll be doing. At 15 weeks exactly I felt Mini-Kuper kick for the first time - very cool, these little tiny kicks that almost felt like muscle twitches. At my doctor's appointments (14.5 weeks and 18.5 weeks) they pretty much just answer questions and measure your belly and listen to the heartbeat (160 bpm @ 14.5 weeks; 150 bpm @ 18.5 weeks). I also started getting some swelling in my hands and feet around 16 weeks.

Aunt Kristi and Uncle John were in town a couple times - Aunt Kristi enjoys talking to my belly and saying "y'all" a lot. =) Found out that my sister (Aunt Dena/Aunt Dean & Uncle Aaron) are expecting a baby in February 2009. My baby girl will still get to be the first & only grandchild for a few months at least. ;-)

Weeks 1-12 (well, really - weeks 4-12)

It was exciting to tell family about the baby news, but we were also very cautious about whether or not this little bean would stick. I had an ultrasound at 6.5 weeks - the baby literally looked like a jelly bean and had a heart rate of 178bpm. I had to have another ultrasound at 10.5 weeks because they couldn't find a heartbeat with the doppler machine. I was pretty sick, not with morning sickness but rather all-day sickness until about 11 weeks and then it finally started to get a little better. We bought a crib, stroller, and carseat off of craigslist. Here's an ultrasound pic from 10.5 weeks (heartbeat 173 bpm):

At about 11.5 weeks John and I went on a cruise as a last hoorah before the baby gets here. We had a great time both in San Diego as well as on the cruise and our ports of call: La Paz, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. Here's a few pics:

John - Senor Frogs - Mazatlan ~ Tiff - Cabo San Lucas

Tiff & John - Midway Aircraft Carrier - San Diego, CA