7 Weeks

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby. I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face. I hope you forgive me! :)

Here is the 7 week belly pic - September 4, 2013

Again this week, I looked at her belly and didn't think there was much growth.  Don't get me wrong, it still looks WAY bigger than I feel like it should be at 7 weeks, but it didn't seem bigger than last week. Even when I put the side-by-side, I didn't see a huge change.  When I sent it to my sister she thought it looked "fuller" - I guess I can go with that.

The baby is the size of a blueberry this week :)

As I'm writing this, it's September 8th and tomorrow we get to go to St. Louis to see the baby or babies heartbeats.  I just cannot contain myself.  It has been SO difficult to not tell people where we're going and even more difficult to not know if we're having one baby or multiple babies.  We are over the moon to be given the opportunity to be parents in the first place, we prayed for one baby - we are BLESSED to be expecting one baby.  But the thought of TWO babies - that just makes my heart beat faster.  Both excited and nervous beating to be honest.  The thought of more than two babies terrifies me - so we're not going to talk about that anymore right now.  :)

Among the things I'm most excited for after tomorrow's (September 9) appointment would be calling family who doesn't already know and FINALLY being able to press "Publish" on all of these posts I've been hoarding for weeks so I can keep all of you updated.  In addition, I'm excited to finally be able to stop lying to people's faces when they ask me for updates.  I thought that part would get easier, but it hasn't.

Thanks for all of your prayers, friends!

6 Weeks

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby. I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face. I hope you forgive me! :)

Here is the 6 week belly pic - August 28, 2013

I didn't feel like there was a very big difference when I first looked, but upon creating the side-by-side, I think it grew!

We both cracked up at this side-by-side because she's wearing almost the same thing.  Poor Kanga!  She's also not feeling very well.  Like, not feeling well at all.  Nauseous all the time, sleepy - just icky.  The good news is that means rising hormones - the bad news is that between being a mommy, a wife and a teacher - she doesn't really have much energy.

The baby is the size of a lentil:

Also this week, on Labor Day weekend, Julie sent me this picture randomly:

The text said: "Babys K at the mall" - I just LOVE the fact that she thinks of sending me pictures like this.  Seeing that belly grow makes it seem a little more real to me. {August 31}

Only a couple of weeks until we get to see a heartbeat!

5 Weeks

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby. I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face. I hope you forgive me! :)

Here is the 5 week belly pic - August 21, 2013

If you're thinking to yourself, wow - that looks like it's grown a lot...lemme just tell you, you're not alone.  I about had a heart attack when I saw that.  In fact, I texted her back and said "What in the world is going on in there?!?!"  Thankfully she's perfectly confident in herself because perhaps that might've been offensive to some - but she knows I love her!  :)

Here's a comparison between last week and this week:

Keep growing baby!  :)

It's the size of a sesame seed this week -

Keep Praying, Friends!

4 Weeks :)

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby. I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face. I hope you forgive me! :)

Back today with yet another "pregnant person" thing I had mourned that I would never get to participate in.  God's sense of humor never fails to amaze me.  :)

Here is the 4 week belly pic - August 14, 2013

Could she be any more adorable?  Nope, prolly not.  Bless her heart, when she texted me this picture, she said two things: 1. don't be alarmed by the size of my belly already and 2. I won't be offended if you cut my head off when you post this to your blog.  Haha!  Nope, not posting headless pregnant women on the blog - your adorable face is gonna be on this blog every single week - and all my readers are going to love it!  :)

The baby is the size of a poppy seed.

Now that is unbelievable.  A poppy seed.  How does that grow into a baby?  It's a miracle for sure.

Happy Day!

Baby K is on the Way - Part 2

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby. I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face. I hope you forgive me! :)

I have to be honest in saying that I think I have spent the past few days in complete shock.  Julie kept asking if I was excited - and of course I am - but there is still a really huge part of me that doubts that this is real.  Perhaps it's all the failed attempts we've had, or maybe it's just that I'm a bit skeptical to begin with - I don't know - but I just haven't allowed my heart to truly believe this is for real.

Bless Julie's heart, she has been worried about me I think...of course, she doesn't need to be - but I think her compassionate heart totally understands that I just can't quite wrap my head around this.  She went into her doctor's office to beg for an ultrasound, but they told her it was too soon.  She did take one of their pregnancy tests - that came back positive as well.  :)

With each piece of confirmation, my heart allows a small piece to believe this might be for real.  :)  

Today (August 14th) was my first day with kids at school, but was also Julie's blood work for the official confirmation.  As I was sitting at practice with my high school kids, Julie called with the results.  Her HCG was 283 - they told her not to rule out twins.  My heart skipped a few beats, but I am just SO excited!  

I will be back tomorrow with a little week-by-week belly pic update to get us all updated. 

Lots of Love -

Baby K is on the Way - part 1

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby.  I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face.  I hope you forgive me!  :)

On August 11, 2013 at 4:14 AM, I received this picture in a text message:

Along with another text that said, "In case you were wondering, you're going to be a mom!"

Let's all just take a moment to have a collective amount of tears of joy, shall we?!

To be honest, in that moment, I'm not sure the weight of that text or that picture really hit me.  Sometimes I'm not sure it still has.  This entire experience has been so surreal - and this phase is certainly no exception.

Before we go any further, I feel like I should explain the Baby K part of the title.  Before Kevin and I were even engaged, we started talking about baby names.  With all 3 of us having names starting with a K (Kevin, Katie, & Kaitlyn) - we quickly decided (by we, I really mean I) that our children would need to hop on the K train.  So, our baby has been known as Baby K - until we know the gender, then we will call it by it's name.  :)

Anyway, back to the real point -

I had asked Julie to only text me, because I wanted to be able to tell Kevin myself - so I *tried* to go back to sleep for a few hours (yep, didn't happen), showered, and scribbled this little note to him:

He works until 2:00 AM on Saturday nights (DJing at a bar), so I knew this 8 AM wake up wouldn't be high on his list of preferences, but I simply couldn't wait any longer.  I handed him a blank envelope and he groggily opened it.  The look on his face as those words in the card registered to him is something I will never forget.  This is an experience I think both of us thought we would never get to experience together - we assumed we would be getting a call from our attorney when our baby was born or we were chosen.  Not exactly storybook, to say the least.  Thank you, Heavenly Father for knowing what we needed, even before we knew it.  After a quick hug and kiss, I was off to work for the day.

How I made it through the morning without telling anyone, I will never know.  But I did.  As we broke for lunch, I quick texted Kevin and told him to meet us at the restaurant.  I wanted my closest family to know ASAP since they already knew the dates of the procedure - they knew we would be finding out soon anyway.  So he showed up at the restaurant and as he kissed my mom, he said, "Hey Barb, I wanted you to see what I got this morning."  Confused, she opened the card, read it, re-read it and then burst into the most joyous sobbing I have ever witnessed.  As the card was passed around the table, I remember thinking to myself take it all it, this is what you've been waiting for - these people have loved you through the valley and here we are on the mountain tops.  With tears in the eyes of every person at that table, I'm not sure I've ever felt my heart more full.

I decided at lunch that I had to go see my dad.  I knew I couldn't do anything else until he knew and I knew I couldn't tell him any other way than face-to-face.  I made up a story about needing to drop something off and we went over to their house.  My dad is a man of few words and he doesn't show emotion very well - but when something really touches him, he gets a little choked up and his nostrils flare just a little.  I saw it.  And that chokes me up.  He's such an amazing Opa and I am so honored that I get to make him an Opa again.  God is so amazing.

As I went to bed that night, I just kept looking at that picture.  Those two pink lines.  Trying to let it all sink in and reminding myself that, indeed, this was really happening.

I will be back tomorrow with another Baby K is on the Way on as the reality begins to sink in.  But, before I go - I just want to say THANK YOU.  Thank you for supporting us.  Thank you for your interest in our story.  Thanks for reading each day.  Most of all, thank you for praying for us.  The power of prayer is a remarkable thing and this baby will always know the story of their "blog family"  :)

Lots of Love -

a LITTLE weekend recap...

I'm sorry for my silence lately, friends.  I have to admit, it makes my heart warm when I hear someone tell me they've missed my daily check in's.  Quite honestly, I've missed my LITTLE daily check in's too!  The simple fact that people even read this LITTLE blog of mine is still so crazy to me.  

Back to my silence.  I'm sorry about that...between school starting, Platinum back in regular season practices/games, and just day-to-day life - I just needed to carve out a LITTLE time to sit down and blog.  There has been one other LITTLE reason I haven't had much blog-time...I am so excited to be able to FINALLY have a LITTLE something to talk about around here!!

Spent Friday night with my mom, sister, Maicey, Jenny & Emma eating dinner and then shopping for a LITTLE someone:

Spent Saturday afternoon cheerin' for my Hawkeye's!  Next year there will be another LITTLE fan in our house...

And spent Saturday night at the Above the Barre Retreat with our competition kiddos.  This has become a long standing and VERY popular tradition almost since the studio opened.  At the Retreat, we were able to spill our LITTLE secret - in the form of this:

Not to worry, I will be back tomorrow {and everyday this week} with LOTS more details.

In the meantime, HAPPY SUNDAY, friends!  Thanks for caring about our {growing} family.

Lots of Love,