Mom brain is in full force

Wow. Sometimes I even amaze myself. My brain is no more. I heard this would happen, but I can't say I believed it really would. I have turned useless.

Three times now, THREE times, I have forgotten shoes. SHOES. Yeah, and it's winter. I could maybe excuse it if it was summer, but not winter. One time I was even in the car driving away. Completely ridiculous.

Kenny used to rely on me for important dates and events. Now, if it isn't written in the planner, I am not responsible nor does it even exist as far as I'm concerned.

This does not mean that when wanting to hang out with us, that Kenny should be your main contact. Bad idea. Keep me on speed dial for that one. As long as its written, it will happen.

1 month old!

Here are her one month photos. There is also a link to the right. She was a bit crankier this month. First she was hungry, then tired. Still got some good ones though!

Lacking in the post department

Dear Internet,

I know I haven't posted anything in about a month. As much as I have been enjoying my time as a new mom, there hasn't been too much going on. Nothing exciting enough to report. My days pretty much consist of:

1. Lennon eating

2. Lennon sleeping

3. Lennon crapping/peeing

And, repeat

Though, the holidays are here and company is coming! I am sure I will have more to share soon enough!

Regards,
Lauren

Lennon: Newborn

Carly, who took my preggo pictures, is doing a project with Lennon. We are going to have her pictures taken every month until she is a year old. These are the photos from this month.

I am going to have to find a different way to save the planet

I have learned that I hate cloth diapers. I love the thought of them, but actually using them sucks. When we were, Lennon would wake up every hour because she felt whatever masterpiece she created on her skin. It didn't even cross my mind that it was the diapers until one night we used disposable because all the diaper covers were dirty. She slept for hours at a time. Thinking maybe it was a fluke, we tried again the following night. Nope. The stupid-ass cloth diapers were keeping all of us awake. We were already on the fence with them, but this was a deal breaker. We have been using disposables ever since and they are so much better it's ridiculous. Blowouts have been reduced by 90% and sleep has been increased by a good 3-4 hours per night.

I still think that they are a great thing and some people really do love them. I think that they would work a lot better when she isn't so small and messy. We may go back to them. Probably not, but it's an option. I just want to keep an open mind not to upset Mother Earth. I tried, lady. I tried.

Labor story

I have to say that I have been extremely lucky with this pregnancy and delivery. Everything has gone well, and I feel so fortunate for that. I don't take one second of it for granted and there are truly no word to describe it.

First, I was scheduled in at 8:30am on Friday morning to be induced, so this all happened at the perfect time!

Kenny and I were watching tv on Thursday night, just hanging out. Around 9pm, I felt like my contractions were somewhat consistent. I have been having braxton hicks for months now, so they were nothing I really paid any attention to. They were about 15 minutes apart but still painless.

We headed to bed around 10:30 or so. I woke up at 2am and was unable to get back to sleep. They were still relatively painless, but just enough to keep me awake. At 4:15am, I woke Kenny up and said, "Hey. You don't need to get up or anything, but I just wanted to let you now that I am going to go downstairs and watch tv. My contractions are about 4 minutes apart and I can't really walk or talk during them." He then reminded me that that is our queue to head to the hospital. I totally spaced out on that part. I thought they needed to be a lot closer together. Thank goodness for Kenny!

We showed up to the hospital at 5am and they were surprised I made it at home that long with as strong as my contractions were. I was already 5cm as well. (Sidenote-Kenny and I had a discussion a couple of days earlier about how I could totally see myself staying home too long. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and don't like to waste people's time. I told him how I would hate to go to the hospital too early just to get sent back home. Well, it happened! Totally waited longer than I needed to.) They admitted me and I got an epidural not long after I got there. I LOVE those things. It was amazing and made my experience pain free. I am not even kidding. Totally painless. The Dr. came in at about 10am to break my water. I was progressing well, and only knew I was having contractions when I looked at the monitor that said I was. The moms visited as well as the Bingman's. Noon rolled around and they told me I could start to push-so with just Kenny and I in the room, that's exactly what I did. We chit-chatted and had fun conversations (about what song she would be born to. We had some music on and were taking bets with the nurse) in between contractions. That's why the pushing takes so long, which I never realized. Since you can only push during those, there is a lot of time (couple minutes) between to rest or chat ;) Lennon was born at 1:31pm, about 5 minutes after the Dr. came into the room.

We let our visitors come back in and visit for a bit and then Kenny went to the nursery with her for her bath and a few tests.

It was a great experience, and a pretty short labor overall. We are on day 3 of her life and it's been wonderful. We are adjusting well and I am so happy to have Kenny home with us for the first week. He has been amazing and I love our new family.

She's here! She's here!

Lennon Bernadette McKee was born on November 13th, at 1:31 pm. She weighed 7lbs 7 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

The link to the right has some pictures of her first few days. I will write more later, but just wanted to post a quick update to say that we are all doing well!

40 weeks

This is it! The last week of being pregnant! I honestly have no (real) complaints about being pregnant. It was pretty great, actually.

Exactly what can we make out of this?

Kenny had the day off today. We went out to lunch, did some errands, visited a friend, and I had a Dr. appt. The entire day, I was trying to convince Kenny to go to the grocery store with me. We have no food in the house and I figured we needed to stock up before L arrives. I honestly thought it would be a couple hundred dollar trip. Here is a picture of what we ended up with. Really? What the hell can we make with any of this?

Tortilla chips
Summer sausage

Butter

1 can of pumpkin

1 can of soup

String cheese

Potatoes

English muffins

OJ

Creamer

1 box of club crackers

2 lbs of ground meat

That's it.

Pathetic. We are totally screwed.

39 weeks

Sorry I am posting late. I took these last night as we were headed out the door. Went to see So You Think You Can Dance. It was fun! I honestly thought I was going to miss the show (when we bought the tickets) because I would be in the hospital. No such luck!

Come on, already

I have 10 more days until my due date, but as I have said a million times before, I am convinced that L is coming early. As I have also said, I am pretty sure it is more of a wish, but whatever. I have all these plans made between now and the 12th and I have been secretly hoping (until now) that I can't make any of it because I will be having a baby. Sofar, it is not going so well. Still pregnant. I do not do well with patience.

This may be a life lesson for me and I don't appreciate it. I would rather learn it some other time.

Spicy food with a side of castor oil, anyone? Think I will just go for a walk instead.

L's room

If you click on the link to the right, there are some pictures of L's room. My mom is refinishing a rocking chair for me and painting it bright pink. I figure that should be done around her 3rd birthday. No hurry, mom. You only offered to do it 6 months ago. Take your time.

38 weeks

Please excuse the pj's, but it's my first day off and I didn't feel like sprucing up for you all. Right. Because, I am off until February. Not sure if I've mentioned that.

WOO HOO

Today is my last day of work for 3 ½ months and what better way to start it off then to have Kenny try to sabotage me this morning? First, he turned my alarm off by accident. Then, while being super considerate, he took both car keys leaving me with no way to get to work. When he called to let me know what he had done, he was already 45 minutes away from home. Luckily, I was able to find rides to and from work.

No problem!

Doesn’t matter to me!

Don’t sweat it, Kenny!

It’s my last day! Did I mention that? LAST DAY.

Dipped cones are the devil

Dipped cones are my nemesis.

I would have to say (and Kenny would agree) that, for the most part, I have been pretty ok as far as mood swings go. The only other time I remember being completely ridiculous was here.

Well, to add to the dipped cone files…

We went to an Avs game this weekend. Kenny asked me if I wanted anything and I told him I would like a lemonade. He left to go buy some goodies and I left to go use the restroom. When I came back he was sitting there with two dipped cones and no lemonade. NO lemonade. I sat in my seat, took the ice cream, and said thank you. My eyes started to well up and my lip began quivering. I knew I was being completely irrational, but couldn’t stop the waterworks. I sat there silently waiting for it to pass and Kenny looked at me. He said he knew I loved those and so he thought it would be nice to get me one. Granted, it was very considerate, and any other time it would have been perfect, but not this night. All I wanted was a damn lemonade.

I ended up giving my ice cream to a kid in front of me and the lemonade guy walked by as though he knew he would be saving the night from disaster. Crisis averted. Narrowly.

37 weeks

When I compare last weeks pictures to this weeks, it looks like the kid has dropped a bit. Not a significance difference, but lower for sure. 3 weeks to go!

36 weeks

This week I feel bigger. I am still able to do everything, but L is making it just a bit more difficult. I had a dr. appt. today and was told that she weighs about 6lbs. 9 oz. right now......um.....so, she can come any day then as far as I am concerned! I know people who have had babies that weigh this much. Good Lord, how much more is she going to gain?

35 weeks

This is serious

Yesterday, the water pressure in the entire building where I work broke. Meaning, all the bathrooms were deemed useless. For hours. And hours. An email was sent out saying we could go to the building next door to use the restrooms there. For someone who has to pee every 3 minutes, this simply doesn’t work. It was like my hell. I even left to go home early for lunch just so I could use the restroom. By the time I got back to work, it was fixed. Oh man. It would have been a rough afternoon had they not repaired it.

Aaaaaaaaaand, we just got another email saying that it is broken again today. I am going home-this is an unfit working environment. Totally unacceptable.

We shall call her L

It’s not like I am posting L’s name everywhere for all to see. I get that. I don’t want it all over the internet, on Facebook, my blog, or Twitter. But, if asked, I will more than likely tell you. More than likely. Unless, I don’t really know you. Then I just say, we haven’t narrowed it down yet. I think this is completely different than the people who absolutely refuse to tell anyone the name of their unborn child. I think that if someone is going to do this, the name better be damn impressive.

I know someone that has done this recently. It’s more annoying than anything, because you know the name isn’t going to be great anyways. And, in this particular case? It totally wasn’t. It wasn’t unique, original, or different in any way. This person was super tight lipped about it too. I am not sure she even told her closest friends. And for what? A huge letdown when it was finally revealed?

At the same time, I also wish that people would keep their opinions about chosen names to themselves. Really? You mean to tell me that you don’t like the name we picked when you have named your son/daughter one of the top 10 names of 2007? What a surprise!

It’s so much better telling someone the name we have picked out when I can see their faces. People are horrible at hiding expressions. I have gotten a lot better with it, but at first I didn’t want to deal with the reactions. Why should I have to explain my choice? It’s not like we chose to name her Toboggan Snowflake McKee, or any other name including an inanimate object. So just remember, it could be worse.

34 weeks

This past week I had my baby shower, went to a dr. appt, and we bought a new-to-us car. I have organized the house (just need to clean, like, really clean), made lists of things that need to get done, and put in for my last day at work before my 3 1/2 month leave. My last day will be October 30th, and I could not be more thrilled! 6 more weeks, which is 42 more days...holy crap!

My baby shower

OMG! Presents!

This past Saturday was my baby shower. It was lovely and I am so grateful to have friends who took time out of their busy lives to host it for me! It was fun and I really got some great stuff. I think we are ready for L to arrive. Sunday, I washed, assembled, and removed tags from everything and put it all away. It’s all organized and ready to be used.

The link to the right has all the pictures from my shower.

One of the things Kenny is better at than me

FYI, if there is ever a bug in our house it is best if Kenny is there to take care of it. Spiders are the worst. Let me break it down for you.

How Kenny handles it:
1. Kill the spider
2. Throw the spider in the trash


How I handle it:
1. See the spider and then freeze in fear
2. Stare at it for another minute or so to make sure it isn’t going to move
3. If the spider is not going to make a crunching noise when I kill it, go to get one of Kenny’s shoes. The sheer size of his shoe alone almost guarantees that the spider will not be able to climb on the shoe and touch me
4. Stare at the spider some more to plot its demise
5. Oh my God. It looked at me. Back away from the spider
6. Throw the shoe at it in hopes the weight of the shoe will crush it
7. Argh! It looked at me again
8. Throw the shoe a second time because I missed
9. Look at it all crinkled on the ground
10. Put Kenny’s shoe on and step on it again, just to make sure it’s dead
11. Get approximately 1 entire roll of paper towels to pick it up and flush it. I can’t just throw it away, it could come back to life, climb out of the trash and touch me
12. The next 10 times I use that bathroom, I check the seat and bowl just to make sure it didn’t crawl back up the pipe and onto the seat to have its revenge. You never know if you killed a spider with scuba skills
13. Walk around the house for the next week, month, year will eyes peeled waiting for the next one and just hoping Kenny is home to take care of it

33 weeks

People have been asking me if Kenny has put on any sympathy weight. My answer to that is no way. He looks great! No extra pounds for him!

Non-pregnant pregnant pictures

Kenny and I had some non-pregnancy preggo pictures taken this past weekend. You can see ALL of them here! So, basically, they are just pictures where I happen to be pregnant. No tummy holding here!

32 weeks

8 more Thursdays until L is here! Yesterday I woke up sore, sat through work sore and came home feeling sore. I haven't felt achy for an entire day up until now and I hope it was short lived. It was draining! Today I am a little better, but still a tiny bit uncomfortable. With 8 (ish) more weeks to go, I hope this is not going to stick around from here on out.

This weekend, Kenny and I (and the girls) are going to have some pictures taken. A friend of mine is going to take some "non-cheesy" preggo pictures for us to hang up in L's room as well as a few other places. We are really looking forward to it. I have been wanting to do them for weeks now but wasn't allowed because I wasn't "big enough". She even asked if I wanted to push it back some more. No way!

31 weeks

This is my 31 weeks picture and my birthday all rolled into one!

(I feel like I looked bigger last week.)

Happy birthday to me!

It's my birthday today!

Latest ultrasound

Our cousin, Amanda, owns a business called Miracle in Motion and when we were out visiting she offered to do a 3D/4D ultrasound for us. I was not planning on getting one, but I am so happy that I did! I can't believe that she only weighs about 3 lbs right now and she's already got those chubby cheeks! We had the room filled with family and it was a really good time. If you want to see the rest of the pictures from my appointment, they are on the link to the right.

Vacation pictures will be posted soon as well. My home computer didn't download everything it was supposed to last night. Stupid computer.

Back to reality

Kenny and I are sitting in Chicago waiting for our flight back home. Since we have a 4 hour layover, I thought now a good time as any to recap on our trip. We had a really great time and are sad to be heading home already. Aside from the 3,427 mosquito bites that I have, we could not have asked for a better trip. We got to spend time with great family, that we just love, and just have a good time. Between the great company, delicious food,a million laughs, and the party, we couldn't have planned a better visit!

Oh. Well I guess I have one complaint. Aunt Patti should have raised a better son. One who isn't a big, fat cheater.

30 weeks

30 weeks, people. 10 more weeks (ish). I decided to switch it up and take a bare and clothed stomach picture. I'm so crazy!

Kenny and I are headed to Indiana tomorrow for Labor Day weekend to visit Aunt Patti and most of Kenny's family from his dad's side. She has a Labor Day party every year and it also happens to be a milestone birthday for her, so it's a double whammy! We will be back Monday evening.

Human sausage link

There goes another outfit option. I had on a really cute dress and leggings today and half way through the morning I could barely breathe and I am pretty sure the circulation to the lower half of my body was completely cut off. I could not get home fast enough during lunch to change out of it.

I feel so much better now! It’s a slap in the face when I think something still fits, and then I put it on. Or, just try to. I attempted to put a dress on and it was not even coming close to zipping shut.

Damn.

29 weeks

This week, I am back at home, in my very own bathroom, taking pictures of myself.

Open letter to L

Daughter o’ mine,

I am really looking forward to your arrival in a couple months, but feel as though we already need to have our first talk. I love you more than words can express, but I already have a problem with you.

Please stop messing with my bladder. It is not a drum, punching bag, or bean bag. I don’t appreciate the continuous pressure you are putting on it nor do I appreciate the jabs and pokes, which you figured out how to do yesterday. I was just sitting in the car, minding my own business, and all of a sudden it felt like someone was squishing my bladder like one of those stress balls. I have things to do, a life to lead, and when I constantly feel as though I need to have a bathroom within 20 feet of me, that is not good.

As I consider my self relatively earth-conscious and hope to raise you the same way, I don’t feel as though we are getting off to a good start. The amount of water I am wasting having to use the restroom 50 times a day is not appreciated. Not to mention the amount of toilet paper used.

Thanks so much my little (haven’t figured out what I will call you yet).

L

P.S. And while I have your attention, my ribs should not be used as your xylophone.

28 weeks

Do you want a picture a day late and dark and grainy or no picture at all? Beggars can't be choosers.

I was out and about until late last night and so I took this picture this morning in the bathroom at work.

What the...

While working today, I randomly thought of when we had a garage sale at Kenny's dad's house. We were cleaning the house and came across some boxes from Aunt Dorothy’s house. I guess when she passed away all the kids got the chance to pick out some things that they wanted to keep. They all had their own box. Most of them were filled with random knick-knacks and little keepsakes. Then, we got to Kris’. All I know is he was pretty little when she passed, but I’m not sure of his exact age. Anyways, we unwrapped the first thing. It was a porcelain unicorn figurine. The second? A unicorn. Moving on. Another unicorn. There was nothing else in that box except a million little mythical creatures. When unpacked, they filled up an entire table. We called him to see if he wanted us to send them out. He declined. We thought maybe we could give away a free unicorn with every purchase. Turns out, people didn’t want them. I think a little girl wound up buying most of them (because we made her) for like, a dollar.

The doctor is in

Last night, while watching tv, I mentioned a few aches pains I was experiencing to Kenny. He started explaining why they were happening and what was going on. Uh, thank you Dr. McKee. Turns out he has been reading our What to Expect When You're Expecting book a little more closely then I have. I read the weekly paragraphs and skim through the rest of the chapter, but Kenny is on it. I am so glad he is a wealth of information about pregnancy.

If anyone has any medical questions, feel free to contact my husband. Who knows what else he has rolling around in that head of his!

27 weeks

I am a little late in posting tonight because Kenny decided to "help" me with a project in L's room. His part took about 30 minutes. It took me 2 hours to fix it.

For L's room

I just ordered these for a great shop I found on Etsy. They are for L's room, and this makes the room soooooo close to complete!

At least my hair looks good

I found the link to the story I did for Fox 21.

26 weeks

The finger prick story aired tonight. Although short, I was in most of it. Kindof funny actually. Kenny was nowhere to be found. My mom said she heard his laugh off camera though! They decided to show the part about how I was totally convinced it was a boy. Nice.

25 weeks

Look Jeff! I'm wearing clothes!

Another wall done

I just ordered these letters from Pottery Barn Kids. I did not order these specific letters though, just incase you were wondering. I am very excited about how it's going to look! The wall that I am going to put them on is pretty big, so this will take up the entire area. I was worried about what I could put there, so I am very excited I found these!

Because I am concerned for your safety

A public service announcement of sorts

Never go see a movie with Kenny if there are any scary parts. Like, none what-so-ever. Even if the rest of the movie is puppies and rainbows with one jump-out scary scene, forget it. He is the easiest person to scare. He jumps out of his seat. On occasion, he has even hurt me by flailing his arms and smacking me with an elbow or other body part. I rarely get startled by the movie itself, but instead by Kenny’s ridiculous convulsions of fear.

Thank you

At least they are the same color

I have been at work 2 hours and just noticed my shoes...

24 weeks

I need a bib, please

New milestone. Yesterday I dropped some food and it landed on my stomach. Not the floor. Not my lap. My stomach. I was slightly traumatized by the whole thing, then I chuckled to myself. I have never had a problem with stuff landing on me. I've got a small rack and my stomach never stuck out. Well, the day is here.

And, why did I write this blog at this very second? I just saw something out of the corner of my eye. Apparently I just spilled some water on myself too. Right on the gut.

Ask me again in a couple months when I am ready to pop, but sofar, this being preggo thing is pretty great.

No, I'm not just fat

It's only come about in this past week or so. I have noticed people walking by me and looking down at my stomach. They never say a word. I know they are wondering if I am fat or pregnant. Up until now, I have been wearing looser shirts. I thought today, I would make it a bit more clear. The protruding bellybutton should help.

Off to work!

23 weeks

Kenny told me I need to apologize to Jeff and people at his work. I did not have this posted promptly on Thursday. I have a life, sorry.

Perfectly stated

Pacingthepanicroom.com is one of my favorite blogs. I think it's great. This past week he posted this. I completely agree and could not have said it better myself, so why try? It's a bit long, but worth the read.

22 weeks

Today, around 3:30pm, I felt her kick for the first time. I thought I was a horrible mother because I had not felt anything yet. Turns out I have an anterior placenta. I learned that at my appointment. All that means is that it goes baby then placenta instead of the other way around. If this is the case, people usually don't feel the baby kick until later because they have a big trampoline in their way. Phew. It also means that I won't see the baby move until later. Kindof a bummer, but those are the only downfalls. Other than that, all is well.

It totally ruined my day

Last week I almost cried over ice cream.

Kenny and I went to Dairy Queen. We were going through the drive through and when they handed Kenny my dipped cone, I almost broke down right there. Instead of the perfect cone I am used to with the swirly top and precise dip, I was handed a tilted, squished, messy disaster. The cone was dipped too far making the chocolate run down the sides of the cone. The ice cream was dripping out of the chocolate shell. It was horrible. Kenny asked if I wanted to get a new one, which I declined, but I was ready to ball. He never saw though. I was in the back seat and ate my monstrosity in silence.

Happy 4th

I was really not looking forward to the 4th this year (sorry guys!). We made plans to head down to Kris and Patrick’s house. Last time we hung out with Patrick on the 4th, I spent the night sitting in a truck while all the guys shot each other with bottle-rockets. Kenny has a scar on his shoulder to prove it. I don’t like being startled and I hate loud things, so fireworks are not on my list of favorites.

It ended up being a fun night-they had a party in their back pasture and set off fireworks for a good two hours. It’s completely different if I know they’re coming. We spent the night and then got to hang out at their parents pool on Sunday-not a bad weekend!

Sidenote: I think stomach touchers are like cats. Cats know exactly who doesn’t like them or who is allergic to them and they seem to want to hang out with only those people. These stomach touchers are coming out of the woodworks! You all told me, “Oh, no one touched my stomach while I was pregnant.” That is crap. I have had more random people, sometimes strangers, come up to me and do the rub.

21 weeks

This is the first week I noticed my stomach when wearing my clothes. I feel like it's been pretty well hidden until now. When I compare it to the other pictures, it doesn't look that much different, but in person, I think it is definitely bigger.

Yes, I am home alone, again.

Paper doll wall art

I just ordered this from Urban Outfitters and I am so excited to get it! I think it is adorable and will look great in baby L's new room!