David, Lisa, Kayla & Isaac

NEW PICTURES ADDED! (4/4)

Welcome to our world Isaac. Born 3/28 at 6:08pm, weighing 8 lbs and 19.5 inches long.

More pictures and videos can be found here.

Posted by David at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I was pregnant with Kayla, we had people guess the baby's due date, sex, height and weight. That was something I put in her baby book, so I'd love to have the same for baby #2. So... if you are up to it, please leave a comment to this post with your guesses (and make sure you leave your name!). If you'd prefer to email me your guess instead, that's fine too.

To help you make your guess:
My due date with this baby is April 8. The baby is measuring right on target. Heartbeats have typically been in the 140's and 150's.

For reference, Kayla was 6 days late, she was 8lbs 5oz, 20 inches long, I was measuring right on with her, and her heartbeat was typically in the 150's or 160's.

My pregnancies have been rather different, but of course they say that every pregnancy is different!

I look forward to hearing your guesses!

Posted by Lisa at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This year I entered a new decade and joined the 30's club! Unfortunately, I hit this milestone when I was 9 months pregnant!! But, I was treated to several surprises that made it such an amazing time!

The weekend before my birthday I was out running some errands while David was playing with Kayla and putting her down for a nap. As soon as I got home, David told me I needed to change because we were headed out! He had called our "babysitter" (our friend who we met through soccer and has watched Kayla for us several times) and asked her to watch Kayla and he had planned a date night behind my back! We went to the movie theater and saw The Blind Side, which is a movie that I'd wanted to see but did not think that I would get the chance to see before it was out of the theater. It was such a great story and of course I laughed and cried (thank-you pregnancy hormones!).

After the movie we headed to one of our favorite special occasion restaurants, The Bonefish Grill. We had a very yummy meal and enjoyed the leisurely pace and conversations that can be done when we are eating without a toddler with us! It was such a great evening and a relaxing time away. I was quite impressed that he was able to pull all of that off without me knowing anything. It is a lot of work to leave Kayla with someone during the dinner hour and bedtime because you have to explain how we do all of those things and prepare dinner and snacks, etc. He took care of all of that, I was really impressed!!

Then the next weekend, I had another surprise. David handed me an envelope, a lunchbox and a bag and headed out the door saying, "enjoy!" The letter said that I was headed to the spa and to relax and have fun! The lunchbox contained my favorite sub from Jimmy John's, a bunch of fruit that he had cut up for me, my favorite trail/snack mix that he bought for me, as well as a few other yummy treats! (Kayla, being the discreet child that she is was asking me, "Mommy, do you need your bag? Mommy, do you have chocolates in your lunchbox? Mommy, I like chocolates!") And the bag had a change of clothes and flip-flops, a book I’d just checked out of the library and my iPod. I headed to the spa where I was taken back to the changing area with lockers and given a luxurious robe and slippers. I was shortly taken back and had a pregnancy massage. It was extremely relaxing; I nearly fell asleep. Thankfully, I have not had the sore hips this pregnancy like I did with Kayla, so I did not need them to really work on any specific area. It was nice to have them work on all my muscles. After that, I headed to the sitting area where I ate some of my lunch before I headed off for a facial. This too was so incredibly relaxing. I felt so pampered! And it was nice that I didn't know any of the workers and didn't feel like I needed to have small-talk or anything. I was able to close my eyes and just enjoy! After that I went to the sitting area and had some snacks before I headed off to get my “margarita manicure and pedicure” (they used lime and salts and that package included the nail polish of your choosing too!). Those were both so nice and so relaxing and made me feel so special. I was there for about 4 hours, and my time was truly relaxing and pampering. Thank you mom and dad for funding this "retreat" and thank you David for planning and organizing and taking care of all the details. It was a wonderful way to spend my last day in my 20's!!

Posted by Lisa at 03:30 PM | Permalink

Well, I'm 36 weeks pregnant and reality is slowly setting in. I remember being pregnant with Kayla it was so difficult for me to possibly imagine what life would be like with a baby in our lives, in our house, keeping us up at night, keeping us busy during the day. Now I can't imagine what life will be like adding a baby to our busy life with a toddler! It is hard to imagine, but I think I'm mostly excited... and also extremely scared!

I'm entering into a realm where I'm completely unsure. As an only child, I have no idea what it's like to have or be a sibling. This is something new for Kayla, but it's new for me too. And I'm unsure as to how this will change things. Drastically, probably, and I'm ok with that. I'm actually really ready to dig into it and figure things out. But I know it will be a tough transition for all of us; for Kayla especially. And I am mourning the loss of spending all of my time and attention on just her. Now my attention will be divided. And in the beginning, babies are pretty demanding. How will Kayla react to this change? How will she react to the baby? How will I react to the change? I am hoping that having family in town will help with the transition. My mom and mom-in-law will each be here for about 2 weeks (or that's the plan anyway) and will be able to give Kayla lots of special attention, and allow me to concentrate on figuring out the baby.... and then also take the baby off my hands for awhile, so I can give 1-on-1 attention to Kayla. I'm not sure how it will all work out, but it is fun to think about.

I've been going shopping, getting things I'll need right away. We have a new outfit for both a boy and a girl to bring him/her home in. I have diapers, new nighttime nursing bras and lanolin cream. I have a new shirt for Kayla that says, "I love being a big sister!" or something like that. I bought a swing on craigslist for the baby (since the one we had for Kayla went up in flames, literally!!!). I bought a new diaper bag.... since the one we used last time got pretty destroyed over time, so I ended up throwing it out. I am also mourning the loss of just carrying around my small purse/diaper bag with minimal things for Kayla and I. I bought Dreft and have done a few loads of laundry to wash the car seat fabric, Boppy and Breast-Friend covers, swing seat, bassinette sheets and all my 0-3 month gender neutral clothes. I cleared out all of Kayla's clothes from the nursery and put them in her big girl room, making room for all of those clean clothes and have put them in the drawers. I dug out the binder with info from our Childbirth class and notes from "The Big Book of Birth" that I read last time. Browsing all that is on my to-do list. Also still on the to-do list, finalizing names for the baby! That was one of the hardest things with Kayla - we debated for so long on what our top names were.... and it looks like we again are undecided on our top name! We do have a top 5ish list for both girl and boy names, though. That's a start :)

Clearly I'm in the nesting stage of pregnancy. But it brings back my least favorite thing of pregnancy... waiting. I have a due date, April 8. But this baby can and will come whenever he/she is good and ready. It could be tomorrow or he/she could be 2 weeks late! It's so hard not to know! I really do hate that anticipation! I guess I wouldn't want to know everything exactly... there is some fun in the element of surprise. But, you know, if we could narrow the birth date down to like even 1 week, that'd be great! :) But since you can't, I truly need to give all trust and control up to God, and just be still. It's very hard for me. Very, very hard.

At my 36 week Dr apt, I found out that I am 1 cm dilated, 60% effaced, and the baby is at the -2 station. While this is no indication that I'll go early, in my labor with Kayla I had been in labor with contractions 3 mins apart for several hours before I was 1cm dilated, 90% effaced and she was at the -2 station. So, I'm chalking this up to "free progress" and am content with that! :)

Here's a belly shot of me at 34 weeks:

Posted by Lisa at 03:41 PM | Permalink

David and Kayla had some fun out in the snow and built a snowman family. It started out as the 3 of us, me being the rather pregnant one... but then Kayla INSISTED David make a brother for her. This is pretty funny, since she always insists that she is having a little sister. I think it has to do with reading all of the Bernstein Bears, where there is a little girl and little boy, and she wanted that. They have now completely melted, and that's ok with me, but Kayla enjoyed looking out at them daily while they lasted!!

Posted by Lisa at 03:36 PM | Permalink

Kayla and I made one last trip as just the two of us to visit my parents before baby #2 makes an entrance! Kayla has been in a really difficult stage the last week or two, really questioning authority, refusing to listen to any request, hitting, biting, kicking when getting changed, throwing tantrums, etc. I was really looking forward to this trip so that I could get a break from her! Getting there was quite exhausting, spending time in airports and then in planes, cooped up. Thankfully we just got an iTouch, so I was able to let her watch a movie on the long plane ride. But of course, you have to wait until after take-off to use it, and then have to turn it off when it's time to land. Add that to the fact that it was well past her nap time and you make for an exhausting afternoon! But we made it and that's all that matters! :) On that 2nd flight, as we were getting off the plane, the man who sat behind me tapped my shoulder and said, “You’re doing a great job with her. I know how tough and stubborn firstborn girls can be, and I just thought I’d tell you that you are doing a great job with her.” That made my day, especially since he was able to see and hear the many tantrums she threw and how I was handling them in a confined area!!

I was able to get a really nice break from Kayla. My mom took over all of Kayla's duties (diapers, putting her down for naps/bed, playing with her, disciplining, etc) and I was able to read a book, relax, meet up with some friends and just chill. Of course when I was around, I was reading books to her and playing with her, but overall I was really able to get a much needed break from her. Especially since she is going through a rough stage right now, it was much needed and appreciated! She was really testing things while in MA too... she was just a piece of work, throwing tantrums and being rough (physically) and such. I feel so bad that she acts like that.

While there I was able to attend my good friend Christen’s baby shower. It was so fun to be able to see her and her hubby there. I was able to catch up with her over coffee another day too. At the shower I also saw my good friend Katie, and had lunch with her another day. It’s always such a treat to be able to see friends and pick right back up where we left off, even after months of not seeing each other and rarely talking.

My dad also had a huge wrestling tournament (50 schools) that LCA was hosting, so he was gone quite a bit while this was going on. We took Kayla to watch some of it and she was extremely interested in everything that was going on!!

It was a really nice trip and I treasured being able to get some time to myself. Traveling there with 2 kids will definitely be a greater challenge than with just one, but I hope I’ll be up for it, because it is so nice to be in MA and see my parents and get together with friends and relax. Thankfully, Kayla seemed to pass that extremely challenging stage a few days after we got back from MA. I don’t know what exactly was going on, but I am very thankful that we seem to be on the other side of that particularly naughty stage!

Posted by Lisa at 03:21 PM | Permalink

Over Valentine's Day weekend we took a mini-getaway to Northern Michigan with our friends the Bell's and another couple from their church. We arrived there mid-afternoon on Friday and spent the evening relaxing and hanging out in the cabin. Saturday morning we all headed outside and did some sledding and played at the park.

After lunch we went on snow-mobiles around the lake. David rode with Kayla and we assumed she would like it, but of course you never know. We stopped part way through to check on her and how she was doing, and she had a huge smile on her face and told David she wanted to go faster!! So... yeah, no surprise our little dare-devil was having a great time. She and David went out again later on the snow-mobiles and played at the park again too. She LOVES swings so much and was really happy to be able to spend some time doing that!

There were 4 other kids, 3 that were quite a bit younger than her, and then one a few years older. She and the older one played together, chased each other and had a lot of fun together! It was cute. David and I spent a lot of time chasing after Kayla, making sure she didn't "help" the littler kids go up/down the stairs, or steal toys or whatnot. So it wasn't exactly relaxing! But it was a lot of fun. David and Kayla went out again Sunday morning and played on the playground and went sledding and again went out on the lake with the snow-mobiles. I haven't really been outside all that much this winter with Kayla. It's quite a bit of work to get her into all her snow gear, I couldn't even get my own boots on (David had to help!) and so it was a real treat for Kayla to be able to do all of this!

We had a really fun weekend away, doing things out of the norm. Thanks to Marcie and Dave for inviting us!!

Posted by Lisa at 03:06 PM | Permalink

With so much bitter cold weather deterring us from playing outside, there aren't a whole lot of fun things to do inside that help get rid of some energy! We got sick of mall play areas, and found that a local Gymnastics play has open gym time on the weekend. We went one Saturday night in Feb and Kayla absolutely LOVED it! We'd been to this place about a year ago, for a playgroup, so I knew that it would be right up her alley. And it was. She was definitely the youngest kid there; most of the kids were more like 8-12 years old. But she was not afraid at all, she just ran from place to place with a smile on her face! It was such a fun time for all of us, we will definitely be going back again soon!!

Posted by Lisa at 03:00 PM | Permalink