Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Since we are grounded from going anywhere we are going to make Thanksgiving dinner here for the two of us plus Mike Krier. Bruce has certain requests for his turkey day meal that must be carried out, even though we aren't in Claflin this year. My family doesn't typically get together for Thanksgiving but there is always a lot of phone calls to keep us connected. Mom, Rox, and Jill, I will warn you that when you make your yearly "Black Friday Shopping- wish you were here" call at 7:30am....I won't answer it again this year either :) Have fun on your shopping trip, I am sure you will enjoy it much more without a tired, crabby, b*$U& joining you.

We had more appointments for Little O today. It was a good visit but today's appt made it all come together and both Bruce and I realized that in 4 weeks or less....God is going to actually allow us to be parents!!! Whoa. My blood sugars have been low (almost too low) for the last couple of weeks so they took me off the meds, however, my numbers are up a little today so we may need to go back on the meds but change the dosage. Little O scored a 10/10 as usual on testing today. Let's hope he/she does this well with school work... Dr. Smith said that she typically will induce labor at week 39 with her diabetic patients so it looks like we will have an addition before Christmas....Although Dr. Smith is very conservative, I am not sure so she really wants to work on Christmas so inducing 1 week early will help her vacation plans too :) We are at weekly and more invasive evaluations now (you really don't want the details). While Dr. Smith did say that inducing me is the most likely option, she is not so sure we will not go early on our own as I am completely Effaced now and dialated to a "tight 1". We do have everything ready to go except getting the car seat in the car and check to make sure we have it in correctly. After that we are ready for Little O. Now it is just the mad dash to get everything around the house that we want to get done before he/she arrives.

Have a very Safe and Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We are of course VERY thankful that we have the joy of a little baby on the way and wonderful friends and family!

Mom & Dad Kehrt

Mom Kehrt has been planning on a trip for quite some time and this weekend was it. We got a surprise from Mother Nature and it rained/snowed in Iowa so Dad Kehrt was able to come too. Mom and I spent Saturday morning shopping for Little O. There is some must haves that we still need before he/she gets here and Bruce, although very excited about the baby's arrival, is not so excited to shop for him/her. It was good to have Mom here to shop for these last must haves. We had a great time and picked up all of the stuff we will need. We met Dad, Bruce, Mike Wondra, and Mike Krier at Buffalo Wild Wings for some lunch and football. We did have to move the party downtown as we wanted to show Mom & Dad the Power & Light district. We made it only as far as the Flying Saucer... which is Bruce's new favorite bar. It has over 200 beers... not your average Bud Light/Miller Lite variety. We were joined by several more of our friends and to our surprise, Troy and Robin dropped in while celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. They all had a great time trying all the different kinds of beer. I can't say I had quite as much fun as they all did but I did enjoy the time spent with Mom & Dad and friends.

Little O is doing good. Mom and Dad were excited to see that I actually look pregnant now... from the front and side anyway :) Here are some updated pictures of us and little O. No, worries Noel-- the belly pictures are not that bad.... I think you can handle these :) :)

32 weeks

We are 32 weeks along and doing well. I thought I would post another update since we are now into our two week appointments with Dr. Smith. I have been doing very well on my diet and I must say that it really sucks...this is no fun. I have done everything to the letter and still my morning fasting numbers are high. The result is medication. The perinatologist said my numbers look really good during the day so I am doing everything I absolutely can and my body still can't keep my fasting levels down at night. No insulin shots, so I can live with that. But when he started going through my diet, I fully admitted that for my nightime snack I do include a sugar free ice cream bar... he scolded me for that because it has no nutritional value. I must say, it takes a lot of guts to sit across from a 7 month pregnant woman, whom you have put on a diet which consists of absolutely nothing fun and then scold her for partaking in a sugar free ice cream bar. For the record...sugar free ice cream bars aren't that good but are the one free treat that I look forward to. Dr. Smith now has us going in weekly for non-stress tests and sonograms to make sure little O grows appropriately. This is a change since they put me on medication. I told the receptionist that I was going to get a tent and camp out since I will be in their office so much for the next 8 weeks.

Bruce and I have both been busy at work lately. I am learning a lot in my new position and things are starting to come together. I have been putting in some longer hours but I can see as I get into a groove those should decrease a little bit....maybe. Bruce was in Atlanta for training all last week and his traveling has decreased a little too which is nice. His project here at home has been the master shower. He and Mike have been working on it quite a bit lately and with Mike's help it looks really good. Bruce's home improvement skills are much better than he believes they are. His confidence is building the more he does. He is at the tiling stage and it looks pretty good! Here are some pictures of the boys working...They call it work but for some reason, a few beer cans usually end up on the bathroom vanity at the end of the day too. I suppose they deserve it :)

Taking after Dad

It feels like all we have done all week is baby appointments. Tuesday I had my first Perinatal appointment for my GD (gestational Diabetes). The doctor told me that my levels look really good and he can tell by looking at them that I am abiding by my diet very well. I don't have to take any medications or insulin if this keeps up. He even let me reduce the number of times I test my blood from 7 to 4!!! For anyone that has to test their blood regularly...that is AWESOME!! Some jerk at work filled the candy bowl yesterday with mini Snickers bars...which was just plain mean!

We met with the physicians of the pediatrician group that we have choosen as Little O's doctor. We are really comfortable with all of the doctors in the group. We had to do this before we met with the hospital to pre-register. This was a meeting to get everything in order so all we need to do on the big day is walk into the hospital and tell them we are ready for Little O to join us on the outside! Let's just say the pre-registration nurse is excited about her job. After the 45 minute meeting, Bruce and I were worn out and assumed that she must have forgotten to take her ADHD medication.

We met with Dr. Smith today for another appointment and sonogram to check Little O's size. Dr. Smith wants to make sure that the GD does not make the baby grow to big. Little O is in the 51st percentile which is right where he/she needs to be. They estimated him/her to be about 3.3 pounds right now ... they check that by doing circumference checks on the sonogram. The heart rate is steady at 147 beats per minute. Since I was 4 pounds 9 oz when I was born and the baby is already estimated at 3.3, she said that Little O is taking after Daddy when it comes to size but not too big. Hopefully, Little O does Mommy a favor and doesn't let those broad shoulders get too big.... Have you seen Bruce's shoulders?!?!? I love them on Bruce but my one fear of labor and delivery is delivering those!

29 Weeks along & Baby Shower!!!

This weekend has been a lot of fun! My KC friends held a baby shower for me this weekend and we had our friends Justin, Sara, & their daughter Claire in town for the event. The shower was fun. We received a lot of things we are going to need for Little O's arrival. Thank you for everyone that attended and of course for the hostesses for the work they did to put the shower on. Since I am not a "game player" when it comes to showers, the hostesses did a fun craft project instead. The guests made Little O personalized onsies with fabric paints their own creativity. It was a fun project and Little O now has some pretty cool onsies to wear!!

Justin & Sara's daughter, Claire is 18 months old. She is mobile now so it was a great opportunity for Bruce and I to see what we need to get rid of or at least put out of hands of small children... we actually did pretty good... or Claire kept occupied with enough other stuff that she didn't notice. We spent Saturday night with them and our friend Stacey Wray, catching up and enjoying the wonderful weather. James, Janna, & Kaden stopped by with a gift of necessities for Little O and we got to spend some time with them as well. It is always great to see our out of town friends when we get the chance.

Little O is doing well. His/her kicking/punching is much more defined in the last couple of weeks. Since we are in our 3rd trimester, Dr Smith told us to start counting fetal movements. She wants 10 kicks in 8 hours... Bruce and I looked at her and laughed...we can get that in 5 minutes on most evenings! I saw the dietitian this week for my Gestational Diabetes and starting my blood sugar monitoring and strict diet. This is not your typical diet--it is geared around the when and how much aspect of eating carbohydrates/sugars. The kinds food I can eat is based on the food guide pyramid-- which in my opinion is the best way to "diet". The diet and monitoring is really one of the hardest things I have ever done...it is a lot of discipline and a whole lot of meal planning. We see the parinatologist this week to find out how Little O is progressing and make sure that everything is still going well. We are doing everything we should, so we hope Little O is doing just fine... more precautionary than anything else.



I tried to do a better job of taking pictures this weekend...for those of you that keep telling me to post more pictures...this is the best I can do so get used to it :)

Its been a while

It has been a while since we last posted. The fact is we have been pretty boring. We have been staying close to home doing a lot of chores around the house. Bruce has been working in the back yard and we are re-doing our master bathroom shower. Bob Villa/Bruce has been learning a lot lately!!! Last weekend Bruce's parents were in town for the NASCAR race. It was good to spend time with them and we enjoyed their company. This weekend we are going to our niece Maggie's cross country meet. We also intend to get in some good football watching as well :)

We had another Dr's appointment today. We are in our 3rd trimester so we go every two weeks from here on out. Crazy that we are getting this close!!! Little O is doing great, he/she has the kicking thing down to a science. She/he generally gets really active around 8-9pm. His/her heartbeat was at 154 today so right on target. I have been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, so that is not great news for me and my love of pasta. This will require more doctors appointments, tests, and monitoring by a dietitian. Dr. Smith will also now be checking little O's size. One of her main concerns for the baby is that there is a greater chance of Little O getting too big now... who would have thought we would have to worry about my kid getting too big??? Other than, baby should be just fine as long as I monitor it well and listen to the doctors orders. We have a strong family history of diabetes on both sides of my family but with all luck this is limited to pregnancy only and it will go away after the baby is born.

Have a great week everyone! I will try to get some pictures posted soon! I could post pictures of us laying on the couch watching TV but who really cares to see that.

1 year anniversary!!!

We made it to one year!! Our anniversary as all of you probably know was Monday September 8th. We celebrated the day with dinner a Lidia's italian restaurant. It was a great meal. Bruce even surprised me with flowers, which were dual purpose for my birthday too!!! A year ago I had invisioned us at dinner and then coming home to further celebrate with a bottle of wine from our wedding day. Since we both had to work the next day AND little O isn't old enough to drink yet :) Bruce had a glass with his dinner and I celebrated with a Sprite! Oh how a year changes things :) We had a wonderful anniversary and are still as happy today as we were then. although our celebratory activities have changed dramatically in the last 6 months :) :)

We had another appointment this week. Little O is measuring exactly on where he/she needs to be. We saw Cindy the nurse practitioner at this appointment. We really like her because she is very laid back and we can depend on her to answer all of our questions honestly. She does not hold back in anyway. We get to see Dr. Smith again at next month's appointment. We are very fortunate to have a doctor and nurse practitioner that we really like. Cindy said that Little O is progressing perfectly! That is always a relief. I was given another 4 weeks of travel because everything is going so well. However, in 4 weeks, we are done going anywhere for a while. These appointments are pretty quick, so there is more waiting around then there is appointment. We have been making a lot of meetings lately for daycare interviews, pediatrician interviews, and birth preparation classes. It is getting exciting the closer we get to Little O's arrival!!

If feels like we have been busy the last couple of weeks but we haven't been up to much. Both Bruce and I have been busy at work. Bruce is traveling a little bit here and there but home much more than he used to be. Which is really nice! I have been busy at work as well. I was promoted to a Claims Manager as of September 1st, which means I will no longer be adjusting work comp claims but instead will be the manager of a team of adjusters. I am officially and unofficially in my new position. My title has changed but they have not found a replacement for my adjuster duties. So in the meantime, I and doing 100% of my adjusting duties and everyday I seem to get more team manager duties... hopefully we will find a replacement soon and I can get onto my management duties. One of my first events as a manager is to attend our Team Manager meetings in Las Vegas September 15-17th. So it is a good thing I was given 4 more weeks of travel :)

There is not a lot to report after that. We are going to Claflin to a wedding this weekend for one of Bruce's friends. This will also give us one more chance to get there and spend time at Bruce's parent's home before little O gets here.