36 week bonus pictures - Happy Valentine's Day!

Kalia talking to me while crawling around in the morning.  I apologize to any friends and family that have had the pleasure of holding phone conversations with me anytime before 6 p.m. over the past few weeks.  Kalia's favorite thing to do when she's happy is let everyone know by saying "AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!".  Her Daddy and her go back and forth doing that to each other when he gets home from work!

I tried to have Kalia pose with her cute Valentine's Day outfit pre Valentine's Day.  She was, of course, very vocal about it!  And so freaking cute!!!!  This little girl is definitely excited bout life.

Then I had Chris help me and tried to get her to smile and sit on her cute pink table...I eventually got the picture I was going for!

"You're kidding Mommy, right?  You want me to sit here all pretty and just smile??  I don't think so!"

"Ohhh...you brought Daddy too...okay, he's funny!!"

Going for a jog!

Kalia's two favorite things in to do in the kitchen...play in the dishwasher and the fridge.  For this picture, imagine a Tarzan yell while she's rattling the rack back and forth...

 Outside fun time when the cold front came through.

Being goofy with Daddy.  She doesn't really scare easily...which is good and bad.  Good because she's a ton of fun...bad because she's not afraid, at all, of hurting herself!  And yes, I know she looks silly with her socks and diaper on.  She can't eat with clothes on at all anymore, we got tired of ruining outfits!

Getting ready to head to closing with Mommy and Daddy!!  We were so excited (because that meant Mommy got to quit her job...woo hoo!).  She did so so good at closing, the closing agent kept saying what a good baby she was!  She's a pretty good little self - player these days.

Oh, and check out how cute her little Gator shoes are on!  Thanks Mayda!

Trying to convince me that she really needs to put on some cuter clothes than just her white onesie during her photo shoot!

Being mischievous ... or just being Kalia!

Trying to get to her books (and succeeding) during our photo shoot.  She is one determined little gal!

Valentine's Day Pictures in Olive Garden's parking lot!  :-)

You'll see a lot more of her cute Valentine's Day outfit in the coming weeks too - I don't plan on taking it off of her!

Happy 36 week Birthday Kalia!

This week, Kalia :

• woke up with a runny nose on Wednesday that didn't go away all week long, so she didn't get to go play with friends at all this week!
• added la la la to her babbling.
• sticks out her tongue.
• decided her magic window was for the birds.  Even when we do make it, she doesn't fall asleep shortly after anymore.  Booo!!!  It's actually really only bad when she takes a late afternoon nap and wakes up at 4.  I think when that happens, we need to push her bedtime back to 630 or 7.  She's been a jumping bean when we're trying to get her ready for bed, so she doesn't calm down at all!
• thinks rolling over immediately after getting her diaper taken off is the funnest game in the entire world.  She'll then start crawling over to her diaper genie and play with that.  If you try to roll her back over, she immediately flips herself back over and puts that naked little butt in the air.  Cute...until we get peed on...then it won't be so cute!
• likes to beat on things, like a drum.  And yells while doing so.  Maybe she's going to be a rock star...
• started pointing at things.
• talks talks talks.
• yells, yells, yells (good and bad).
• slept a bit better this week.  Most nights she only woke up once, around 12 or 1.  Some nights she woke up twice, around 1030 or 11 and then again at 4.
• hated ground up turkey.  We actually threw it out (we mixed it with potatoes and broccoli and then apples to sweeten it up) because she refused to eat it at all.  I thought it was disgusting too, so I didn't blame her!
• can eat blueberries.  It was carrots that made her go so much!
• celebrated her first Valentine's Day!  Mommy had a rough day though and couldn't get things together, so we were supposed to meet Daddy at Olive Garden at 4 or 430 (with the rest of the senior citizens in our county), and instead Daddy had to come home to put the car seat together (he had taken it apart to wash it, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get it back together right).  By the time we got to Olive Garden, it was 530 with a 45 minute wait, so we took some pictures with Kalia in the parking lot and headed back home to feed her and put her to bed.  She's a fan of the chicken, broccoli, pear mixture that I made her for V-day!
• knows what come here and look mean.  When I say look she looks at me to see what I'm pointing to or looking at, and she comes when I say come.  She probably figured that one out from Kodi...yep, more dog commands, oops!
• celebrated her first Valentine's Day!!  We were supposed to meet Daddy at Olive Garden between 4-430 to eat dinner with the rest of the senior citizens of Pinellas County, but I had a rough day working and couldn't figure out how to get Kalia's car seat put together (Chris had taken it apart to clean it), so Chris had to come home and put the car seat together first.  By the time we got to Olive Garden it was 530 and there was a 45 minute wait, so we took some pictures of Kalia in her adorable outfit (thanks Granny!) and went home, fed her, and put her to bed.  We tried!

More impossible pictures!!!  One day she'll learn stay!

Week 36 checkup , Peditrician

Monday afternoon we had our weekly checkup.  As usual, he hooked me up to the heart monitor and the contraction monitor.  For the first time, I actually had two contractions while I was hooked up...about 15 minutes apart or so, so labor isn't in my immediate future.  He checked to see if I had dilated any, and I hadn't.   Booo!!

Really, it's good...she needs to cook till at least next week, and then she can come on out!!  He's doing an ultra sound again at next weeks appointment because I'm still measuring a week large.  He just wants to check her size, the fluids surrounding her, and her position again.  He wants her to wait till at least 38 weeks to come out...sigh.

Chris has made it a game to entertain me while I'm laying on the bed hooked up to the monitors.  He tried to check and see if I was still measuring large, and instead of measuring in cm, he measured in inches.  Your stomach from pelvic to ribs should measure how many weeks along you are.  Chris's measurement went from my pelvic all the way to my forehead.  Goofy Chris.  According to Dr. Hart's measurements, I'm measuring quite small :-).

Yesterday we met with / interviews a Pediatrician for Kalia.  We liked everything about the practice, so we've decided to go ahead and choose them.  It's an office of 7 physicians, but we get to pick who we see for regular appointments.  It's a relief to have this crossed off the to-do list!!

Last night Chris got onto me for not having my hospital bag packed.  I called Janelle to get a list of things to bring with me, and that's about as far as I got!  Oops!  Guess that's what I need to work on tonight!

This blog makes me laugh.  I look back through pictures of how big I thought I was.  Hahaha.  I'm a hippo now, I was tiny then!!!  It's almost done though...I can do it!!!  T minus 26 days!!!!!!!!!

9 months!!! FINALLY!!!

So saying that pregnancy only lasts 9 months is sort of a trick.  It's really more like 10 months if you go full term, since week 36 is officially the start of your 9th month.  I think they do it this way though because by the time you reach the 9th month of your pregnancy, you're just over it.  I'm so ready for Kalia to be here, to hold her in my arms...I'm ready for the challenges that we'll face, and the payoffs that will undoubtedly be worth it as the years go on.

I'm ready to see my feet again, to not have to pee every 5 minutes, to not be constantly thirsty, to not be constantly hungry but not really want anything.  I'm ready to be able to breathe like a freaking normal person, sit up on my own, sleep on my back or my stomach, run, play volleyball, not walk with a hand in front of my belly when I'm out in public because people don't realize that I'm pregnant from behind and then speed up to cut me off because I'm taking too long to walk and run into my belly...

I'm ready to not be an oven anymore.  I'm ready to be semi independent again, to remember what the heck I was talking about 30 seconds ago, to be able to focus on any one thing for longer than 1 minute without absent mindedly wandering somewhere else.  I'm ready to not have to do the dreaded long walk down to the scale to see how much MORE weight I gained this week.  I might never step on a scale again.  I'm ready to not have to pee in a tiny little cup that there's no way I can see over this ginormous belly and then having to spend 5 minutes 'cleaning up' after I'm done on my weekly doctors appointments.  Losing your feet is somewhat bad, losing your nether regions...argh.

I'm ready to pave our path for how we're going to raise Kalia and how we're going to be as a family of four (yes, Kodi counts...he was our trial run!!), I'm ready to figure out what works for us and do this whole baby raising thing the Kara and Chris way :-).  I'm ready to see Chris hold our baby girl in his arms, instantly fall in love, and fall that much more in love with him because of how great of a Daddy he's going to be.  I'm ready for the ups and downs and joys and tribulations and everything else that comes with parenthood...I'm ready for it all!!

I do think it took me 9 months to get to the point where I felt ready to bring Kalia into this world...but I'm here now, so she can come now.  Well, she can come when she's healthy and she's ready...because I think this is how parenthood starts...I don't get to do things on just my terms and when I'm ready anymore...she gets a say now too!  But Kalia, if you could be ready sooner than later, I'd really appreciate it!!!

I had Chris snap a few pics on Saturday night so you guys could see the ever-growing monstrosity of my belly. 

And...the infamous belly shots that I really do not love so much, but until I get stretch marks that makes the thing hideous, you can see it.  When they stop showing up, don't ask why, k?!  :-)  Taking these pictures are honestly not all that much fun anymore.  I feel like a hippo, but Chris does really good at making me laugh and having fun with it...so...here's the outcome of our goofy full belly shots photo shoot...

I look like I'm about to fall over backwards here.  Which is what I feel like 99% of the time.  I think I should get some sort of medal for being able to walk without falling forwards, even if that means I lean back a ridiculous amount.

Um...yeah...do you see how big this thing is getting?!

It's shocking.

And...of course I'd be the one with a drunk looking line of pregnancy.  I have no idea why it's not straight, but it's the most crooked thing, and I've never seen one quite like it.

Close up...

 

Like I said before, no stretch marks just yet...but I'm sure they're a coming.  Those other lines on my belly are from leaning against things or laying down.  My belly is so out there that everything leaves lines, and then they disappear.  I do keep my belly constantly oiled up though.  I'm ready for that part to be over too :-).

Oh, and on Sunday, we did the fun, joyous task of shopping for maternity bras.  We were really out getting the last remaining items on Kalia's registry at Target, which is why Chris was there.  But I think I needed him there for moral support too.  Holy hideousness.  Those things have got to be the worst looking things in the entire world.  Not only were 99% of them not comfortable, 100% off them were the ugliest things I'd ever seen.  Oh, and 95% of them made me look like I had a chest that looks like those you see in old women cartoon jokes.  Straight down south.  Like the bra was making things worse than they already are.  No support...just pushing everything further down.  I mean, if you're going to make the most hideous looking thing in the entire world, could you at least make it supportive so its functional?!

That's okay though...I'll be so thrilled when she gets here and I can start functioning somewhat normal again that those hideous milking contraptions won't even bother me.

I'm starting the official day count down...28 days till my due date!!!  Kalia, you're more than welcome to come waaay before then though!!!