The baby shower to end all baby showers

Kaia,

We had your 34 week appointment today (or I guess your -6 week appointment), these are getting so routine I think I could pretty much do them without the doctor. My blood pressure is good, your heart beat is good (it ramped up when you realized we were listening), and we're overall in good shape. You're still small, and even though I've lost my appetite entirely the doctor wants to make sure I keep shoveling the food in, so we'll see what I can do. They're not worried, but we'll see if we can check your size out again at the next ultrasound in 2 weeks. We didn't get much information on inducing, apparently that's a question for the High Risk Obgyn, so I'll ask them in 2 weeks when we see them. It sounds like it's something we'll schedule at our next appointment at either 39 or 40 weeks depending on what the high risk guys say. I'm not totally sure what happens if you decide to naturally make an early appearance, so we'll sort that out at the next appointment as well.

Now for the fun stuff...we had the world's greatest baby shower a couple of days ago. I cannot begin to tell you how lucky a kid you are. You have one extremely large, extremely complex, and extremely loving group of supporters in your corner. I hope you all know how much it meant/continues to mean to me to know that I have that much support and love in our lives, and I really appreciate all of the help with the baby gear. Besides being well outfitted, you are now one very geared up baby girl. Thank you all for coming out, and thank you to the planning/cleaning/organizing crew (Grandmom, Grammy, Aunt T, Aunt Angie, and Aunt Austen) as well as to your Popo who also put in a lot of behind the scenes work.

We didn't play any silly games, just ate some delicious and adorable food and enjoyed eachother's company. It was exactly what I wanted. There were a couple of good surprises that you'll see in your Nursery as soon as you get out here. Merry made some Truffula Trees and we collected Dr. Seuss books with personal messages from all the attendees for your Dr. Seuss themed room. You have quite the extensive book collection baby girl. Your great Grandma (BaBa) also made you a Raggedy Anne Doll, T and I both got the same present when we were born. You also got your first vintage Broncos shirt, can't wait for you to come to the games!

We also have a picture frame signed by everyone with notes to me/you to hang in your room.

It was so great to see everyone, I can't wait for you all to meet Kaia (and for Kaia to meet you). Thanks again to all of you for making it such a special and fantastic party.

39 days baby girl!!

PS:

We have a trillion pictures, but here are some of my favorites:

There are many more, feel free to check them out:

https://plus.google.com/photos/105540854075305581147/albums/5880464189306690321?authkey=CPvFoeX6x6qHUQ

Marker Ban

Baby girl,

There have been a lot of posts about you this week, and with a baby shower and another appointment coming quickly we'll have a few more in the next week, but this one I wanted to make sure I got documented.

We told your brothers about you. Noah was at first convinced I had just eaten too much, but when we assured him that wasn't the case he just wanted to know your name. Caleb was concerned with how much you were going to cry, we're still hoping the answer to that is not a lot, but we'll see how vocal you are once you get out here. We asked if they wanted a sister and they assured us they did, but they wanted to make sure you were a tan sister. This evolved into a discussion about having purple sisters or rainbow sisters and the possibility of coloring you to match these needs. Needless to say your brothers will not be allowed to have markers anywhere near you until you're old enough to defend yourself. Gotta love brothers.

Almost at the 34 week mark, 43 more days!!

The Giving Spirit

Kai,

This morning we had your Kiwanis Baby Shower. You'll make it to a few of these meetings once you get here, you don't know it yet, but you are going to be one very altruistic little girl. You are one extremely lucky kid, most people would be lucky to have even one of the many people we have in our corner, no matter what happens in your life you have a line of people waiting and willing to help you out. I want you to make a point of paying that forward.

With that said, our club held a baby shower this morning where you received a ton of great books, nice cards, and well wishes. We also got the following advice:

• "Don't buy too many set of clothes as the baby will outgrow them quickly"
• "Take your kids traveling - don't leave them home with grandparents. You and the kids both benefit form going to places educational and recreational."
• "Enjoy every moment, they will be moving out before you know it"
• "Lots of people will tell you to 'enjoy these years' while your baby is young and that is true, but when you are sleep-deprived and stressed out remember that 'this too shall pass'"
• "Spend time with your child even when she is an adult"
• "Everyone in the family eat at the same time everyday"
• "The best gift you can give your child is the knowledge and feeling that she is loved unconditionally"
• "Take time to be pampered. Get a pedi and a mani when a loved one care for your new beautiful baby"
• "2 AM Feeding is business! Change diaper using cold wipes, feed, and then back to bed."
• "Michelangelo 'I saw the angel in the marble & carved until I set it free' Your child is her own person - help her become who she was meant to be. Read aloud every day. A child needs to hear 1,000 books before Kindergarten to be a successful reader."
• "Bribery works!!"
• "Take some time for yourself"
• "Discourage a career in accounting"
• "Be a parent first - as much as I hated it between the ages of 15-21, that's when I learned the most important lessons (And once I left for college, we got to be friends - finally!)"
• "Use all your resources to make time for Kelly too"
• "Enjoy each stage!"

I will do my best to follow those baby girl, you gotta learn early that it's good to take advice from people who've already been there. Having to make all your own mistakes is silly (trust me, you'll make plenty anyway).

Thank you all so much for your support, generosity, advice and books. I can't wait for Kaia to meet you all, she's lucky to have so many fantastic role models.

Mothers Day

Kaia,

Yesterday was my first semi-official Mother's Day thanks to you. I'm more excited for the ones you'll be around for, but it was still fun to add an extra holiday to the calendar. Your Uncle Dobby (you better make sure that was sticks, it was a great mis-speak by him that we're hoping he'll never live down) and Krystina and Mykiah sent us these beautiful flowers:

 

We also got some super sweet cards and sweet tarts from your Grandmom and your Dad. That and a lot of well wishes from Popo, Grammy, etc. Popo even went as far as to predict your future basketball skills (you're destined to be a point guard baby). Thanks to all of you for making it such a sweet first Mother's Day!

 

Overall, a very sweet and unexpected Mother's Day. We have less than 7 weeks to go until you get here and I have an ever growing list of things that need to get done before you do. You continue to stay on the move, I think you're just trying to make a point of how little space you have because it appears that you're just trying to stretch out. I will get this on video at some point, but in typical Kaia fashion you don't perform if you know you're being watched.

 

We did a little bit of garage sale-ing this weekend, got you some gear for Aun T's house. Mostly we need to wait until the baby shower to figure out what gaps we've got to fill in the baby gear department. As best I can tell you will be one constantly vibrating child..it appears everything but the diapers have some sort of vibration built in. We also went up to celebrate your Cousin Dylan's birthday, you've got your work cut out for you kid, you have some tough cousins.

 

You're not really into eating much of anything at the moment, you've turned very anti-limeade which was a very brief craving of yours, and otherwise I don't really feel like eating much of anything. Don't worry, I'm still making sure we're eating enough, and since nothing sounds good it's pretty easy to choose things that are good for you since it's all the same to me. You're still anti-diet coke, but for some reason having one sit near by me seems to help with the increasing exhaustion. We're getting our caffeine through osmosis apparently. Probably best for you.

 

We have one more week til the baby shower and then I probably should start making progress on the to do list. 47 more days baby girl!!

Acrobaby

Kaia,

I am not entirely sure what you're doing in there, but from the feel of it you're completely spazzing out. I thought you might kick a bit and I'd feel a little bump here and there, but you are either hitting me with every limb you've got or doing perpetual somersaults. You do not appear to be the lethargic type.

With that said, in typical Watson fashion, you do not appear to like being told what to do. You are in constant movement unless someone else wants to feel you, in which case you cease all movements immediately. We've tricked you a few times..T's had to sneak up and replace my hands without us saying a word, and then you continue on your spaztic way. My stomach is in constant motion though, so I can prove I'm not making it up, even if you are refusing to perform on command.

You wardrobe continues to grow, you better be as small as they claim you'll be, otherwise you're going to be changing outfits at least 3 times a day. We're sticking to garage sales at the moment so at least it's not costing a fortune.

We had a 32 week check up today, as usual you seem alert and healthy. It appears you may have flipped into the right position, though given how often you're moving I don't expect that to stick for long. We talked some logistics of the big day (a topic I'm mostly trying to avoid thinking about...minus the you being here part of course). Nothing super noteworthy, just a basic overview of what happens when. We'll probably still be inducing, but they said we can talk more about that at the next appointment in 2 weeks. They did give me a TDAP booster and encouraged anyone else in close contact with you to do the same, so this is the announcement to all of you reading this...get your TDAP booster!

You're not craving much different, you seem to like cold food (smoothies and salads) more than anything. We've been doing weekly water aerobic classes with your grandmom (her name changes all the time, you may need to lay down the law when you get here)...they seem to put you to sleep which is nice.

8 more weeks baby girl, and they'll be full of baby showers and nursery building so I'm sure they'll fly by.