Kaylie's 1st Birthday!

So we've put it off for awhile and had some delays in pictures, but we finally ordered Kaylie's 1st Birthday Invitations and it's bittersweet for me. This year has been a complete rollercoaster for us, but we can't imagine our lives without this little one. More to come as we approach her Birthday, but for now, here's the invitation we just ordered:

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Thanks, Pinterest

A few weeks ago, I discovered Pinterest, a website where people "pin" things they like, and has great ideas for the house, baby, parties, etc. It also has some phenomenal recipes. I have tried a few of these recipes so far, but yesterday I tried two that have been my greatest successes so far, baked spinach dip mini bread bowls and cinnamon roll cake:

In addition to some good food yesterday, the NFL season finally kicked off! For once, our Bengals actually pulled through...amazing, I know. So it was a nice, relaxing day around the house with the hubs and Kaylie. Kaylie is still struggling with teething I think, it's hard to say at this point. She has now decided to be particular about food and I haven't quite figured out what to do with that yet. She once would eat anytime and anywhere and we've quickly gone to being incredibly particular, especially with meat. Good news is that she's gotten out of her weight gain dip and is at 16lbs 5oz as of Thursday.

We're looking forward to tomorrow when we'll get Kaylie's professional pics and then we can work on ordering her 1st Birthday invitations, which I'm completely dreading.

Teething Schmeething

It's finally happening...the great tooth eruption of 2011 in the Pierce household. Kaylie is cutting her 1st tooth and we are having an AWESOME time! I'm exaggerating a little bit, she really hasn't been terrible, just a lot fussier than I'm used to. Kaylie has never been a very fussy baby so anything more than that is a lot in our house. We're making it through though, slowly but surely! I discovered yesterday that freezing a banana was a big hit with her, especially after Nana and Pa took her to swing at the park! Maybe today we'll bust out her little pool :)

Over the weekend we had professional pics done. She did great for about 15-20 minutes but went downhill pretty quickly. We got some decent shots I think. Our photographer put up a sneak peek, you can check it out on my Facebook page, but here is my favorite so far! We'll get the rest in 2-3 weeks.

It's also been momentous because she is now letting us go out to eat without her eating whenever we do! So far it's only been 2 times, but that's better than we've been doing. We met up with some friends last night at Jason's Deli, it's always good to get together with them!

Otherwise, we've completed week 2 of our couch 2 5k and it's getting a bit easier as we progress, but I've still got a long way to go!

10 Months Already?

When I was pregnant of course I had everyone telling me, "don't blink, they grow up so fast," and of course I thought oh no, between the diaper changes, crying, breastfeeding, trying to figure out everything, the 1st year was definitely going to drag. Now I'm one of those people who warns the pregnant women about time flying. I can NOT believe my baby is 10 months old today and I am absolutely dreading her turning 1 in just a short couple of months so I'm trying to savor every little bit of time with her right now. I could really live without the current teething situation, but otherwise she is in such a fun stage.

Kaylie has gone from a very fragile baby in the NICU to being a constant mover and shaker, albeit a small one for her size (we love her that way though). She's discovered that rolling is the best way to get places and scooting is only necessary if she's just out of reach. Dada is her favorite thing to say and Dada is definitely one of her favorite people, the smile on her face when Stephen comes home from work is absolutely priceless and I know it makes a long day at work disappear for him as well. She's also just now working on busting her 1st tooth through so it's been a rough week, but we're getting there! Something new is always on the horizon for her, a couple of new things popped up this week too.

Our dog Riley is a 3 year old lab/retriever mix, with some deer and idiot thrown in there. He's a gentle giant and when we got pregnant with Kaylie we thought he would make a great companion for a little one. Sadie, our 5 year old border collie mix is very sweet and gentle but is jealous. We knew she'd be good with kids, but not best buds like Riley would be. Until this week though, Riley only wanted to do with Kaylie on his own terms, he was always gentle with her but really had no interest. However, I've found them several times this week hanging out (proof below). He's still a little jumpy when she tugs on his hair, but I am too! I can't wait to see how this relationship plays out, but I hope he always makes her feel safe and keeps her entertained for hours like he does for us.

This week has also brought on the discovery of the door stops, I don't have the video saved on my computer but you can check it on youtube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcxMp_txJXw.

I think that's it for now, Stephen and I are going on a much needed date night this evening. Nothing major planned, an early dinner at Rosie's, maybe a walk around Bridge Street and we'll see what else we can come up with. On Sunday we're getting professional pictures done and we're so excited, hopefully we don't get rained out!

New Goals + New Recipes

Last week began my journey to working out and gaining some self-esteem. I lost all of my baby weight within 2 weeks of having Kaylie and between breastfeeding and chasing Kaylie, have kept it off...until the breastfeeding stopped happening as often with the onset of solid foods into her diet. Food is a constant battle for me, I'm extremely picky and it's hard for me to try things outside of my comfort zone. Ask Stephen and he'll tell you that I've gotten a lot better, but it's just not where I'd like to be. So, I'm trying some new recipes (some healthy, some not) to try to expand that (see pic below) but I'm also trying the Couch 2 5k Program to try and start running to try and get back in shape.

On Saturday I made cinnamon roll pancakes and they were unbelievable, let me know if you want the recipe. Last night I made lemon yogurt cake, and it's pretty delicious as well! Here is the lemon yogurt cake:

Last Tuesday my running program started, it's basically 3 days a week for 8 weeks to get you from not running at all (definitely have never been a runner, but I'd love to be), to running a 5k at the end of that 8 weeks. Today wraps up day 3 of week 1 and it's gone well so far. Stephen & I actually ran after Kaylie went to bed for day 2 outdoors and that was a really nice alternative to doing it alone on a treadmill.

I'm hoping it sticks this time and I can lose some weight, I'm trying to be the best mama for Kaylie and whatever babies may come in the future (no, not pregnant). Wish me luck ;)

Oops...It's Been Awhile

So the last time I posted, it was 10/12/10...AKA, exactly 1 week before the best thing in our lives happened to us. Here's a quick run down of bringing Kaylie Elizabeth into the world...

On 10/18, I started nesting like crazy, tearing Kaylie's room apart, doing laundry, etc. I joked to Stephen that night that when women start nesting like crazy it usually means they're going into labor. I hadn't been feeling Kaylie move as much as usual, even though she wasn't a big mover in the 1st place. In fact, I had Stephen hold a toilet paper roll to my stomach, I'd read somewhere that you can hear the heartbeat if you do that. Didn't happen for us, so I went to bed and woke up in full on panic mode. I was only at 35 weeks so it was still fairly early for Kaylie to arrive, I thought it was just hormones but wanted to be sure. Around 8:00am, I called the Dr and he had me come in to check on things. My Dad was at Lowes and met me there. I got in, the heartbeat was fantastic but went to ultrasound to be sure...low and behold, she wasn't moving, but everything else looked great. I'll never forget Dr. Rushing telling me, well sweetheart you've just bought yourself a ticket to labor and delivery. Then since I had stopped breathing he told me it was just to do a stress test and see what was going on on the monitors.

I stop for gas on the way, call Stephen to meet me there and tell Dad to go home...this isn't going to be a big deal. Arrive at the hospital, get hooked up to monitors. The nurse comes in and says, um, are you in pain? I hadn't been at all and she looked at the chart and I had been having contractions. This is when I started to panic, she called the Dr and he wanted to try to stop contractions, but my heart rate was too high, so she checked my dialation...almost at 5cm already. Problem was, Kaylie was coming butt 1st. So I was scheduled for a c-section and reassured that Kaylie would be fine, but she'd have to go to NICU since she was 5 weeks early and we were prepared to have her there for a week or so. Within the next 2 hours I was rolled down and this little miracle was born at a tiny 5lbs 3oz and taken to the NICU for observation.

Fast forward 9 1/2 months and lots has happened!! Stephen got his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, plus started his PhD. We've sold our new house and moved into a bigger one right around the corner from my parents, and Stephen's parents are in the process of moving here as well! Not to mention Kaylie is just over 15 lbs now and close to walking. She's made us so happy and we are in awe of how far she has come and how happy she makes everyone around her everyday.

Baby Shower + Appointment Update!

This past Saturday, my mom, my friend Esther, and my sister-in-law Mary, all threw me a really great baby shower. We got some great stuff! Stephen & I also went out on Sunday to pick up a bunch of other things that we're going to need, so we're almost there! Now it's time to get down to doing baby laundry, cleaning bottles, packing for the hospital, etc. Thanks to everyone that came out for the shower, we loved everything! :) I've posted some pictures below.

I also had an appointment yesterday to check on Kaylie, she's doing great! We've got just under 6 weeks to go (hopefully 5 if we're lucky, according to the Dr.)! I have another appointment on 10/26 then I'll start going every week after that until we have her. We're getting really anxious for her to arrive, but I'm feeling pretty good I think, just some more aches and pains than usual, but that's all temporary!