Tickle Giggles

I could listen to this all day.

(He truly enjoys being tickled. I promise I am not torturing him.)

Caught Rolling Over

F i n a l l y  caught this crazy boy rolling over! I have a feeling he is going to be just as stubborn as his big sister (so we are in  BIG  trouble!)

He has been consistently rolling over for about a week now, and this makes any tummy time Mommy tries to give him nearly impossible!

Playtime Smiles

Because who doesn't love a happy baby?!

First Captured Smile

This boy. As long as his tummy is full, he is happy. And he eats  a l l  the time. He has been smiling more recently, but I can never catch a picture fast enough!

I finally won today :)

It's a Boy!

The word is FINALLY out!! Eslie is going to be a big sister in July! She is pretty excited about a little baby, we just have to now convince her that baby is a BROTHER rather than the SISTER she was is determined she is getting :)

20w 1d

The Name

Many people have asked us about our daughter's name, where we got it from, and how to pronounce it since it isn't a common one. We knew from the beginning that we didn't want to use a name that thousands of other people in the world had. We just like the names that are 'different' but obviously nothing TOO crazy like the name Axton or something :P (that's AJ's name if you didn't know!)

The name "Eslie" actually comes from my great-grandfather whose name was "Leslie". We more or less just took the "L" off the front, so it is pronounced as "Ess-Lee". We really liked the name when we came up with it, and little did we know the events that would unfold this past September, only two months before she was born, when my Great-Grandpa would pass away from his second stroke. It was then that a little more meaning was given to the name we had picked out for our little girl.

Her middle name is "Jai" and it is pronounced as exactly that. "Jay". When we were coming up with names, we were always putting middle names that started with the letter J with each name. We just really wanted that letter as the middle initial, especially since AJ's middle initial is 'J'. But being that "Jay" is a somewhat common name and not very 'girly', we simply decided to change the spelling to make it fit with "Eslie" a little better, and we came up with "Jai'.


There you have it: Eslie Jai :)

Eslie Jai: Birth Story

We quickly learned how stubborn our daughter was going to be when she decided to watch her due date go by and remain on the inside. After hitting that "40-week" mark, we had 2 appointments scheduled at the OB office. The first was just a routine appointment to see if I had progressed any farther than when I had been in a few days prior. Unfortunately that answer was a 'no' as I was still sitting at 2cm and 90% effaced. The second appointment was the fetal non-stress test to monitor baby's heart rate and movements to be sure she was not stressed in there since she was taking her precious time. Thankfully the results of that test were positive and baby girl was still doing well. We then had our induction scheduled for Friday, November 23rd at 7:30am when I would be 41 weeks pregnant.

That week went by quite slow. Thankfully though, AJ had already started his paternity leave that week, and I decided to start my maternity leave that week as well, so we had that last week to enjoy each other and the limited time we had left as just the two of us. We even spent Thanksgiving day as just us and made ourselves a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings. It was simply delicious :)

We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 Friday morning for our induction. After getting all the paperwork signed and filled out, I was hooked up to the IV and the Pitocin was running by 8:00. The first few hours went pretty slow as we just sat around as my contractions became stronger and more regular. Around 11:00 my water broke (which was okay with me since we were still waiting for the doctor to come break it for me!) After that happened, things started to pick up quite a bit. I was dilated to about a 4, and decided to go ahead and get the epidural after not being satisfied with the IV pain meds. After getting the epidural I felt wonderful and was able to relax a little more. By 5:00 I was at a 9, and then I stayed there for almost 5 hours even with the different position changes. By the time I was 'complete' at 10:00pm I wasn't allowed to push yet because the doctor was in surgery, and because baby was at a 2+ station, they didn't think it would take too long once I started pushing. After waiting an hour (11:00pm) I was given the okay to push. I then proceeded to push with every contraction for 2 hours. But baby was 'sunny-side-up' and trying to come out face-first, so she wasn't getting anywhere too quickly. And by 1:00am I was completely exhausted and the doctor gave us 2 options: keep pushing not knowing how long it could take, or just opt for the c-section seeing how exhausted I was. And as much as a c-section was the absolute last thing I wanted to have to do, I knew I didn't have the strength left in me to keep trying, so I broke down and accepted the offer.

The time surrounding the c-section isn't completely clear to me as I was beyond exhausted and then suddenly full of different pain meds at the same time. I do know that it wasn't the most pleasant experience as I could feel everything they were doing, and even though I told the anesthesiologist this, he claimed I was merely feeling 'sensations.' But last I knew, the pain of being cut open wasn't one of them!

Eslie Jai Krueger was born at 1:39am on November 24 and she weighed 8lb 10oz and was 20.75in long.

Once she was out, I could only hear her crying, I couldn't see her. Finally a nurse brought her over to me for about 5 seconds to show her to me and then she was gone again. And then AJ brought her over to me again a bit later and the first thing he said was "she has hair!" (we were both determined that she would be bald as we both were.) But then she was gone again as she needed to go to the NICU since I had a fever during labor, so they wanted to make sure she didn't have an infection.

I didn't sleep well at all that night as I had to be checked on every 15 minutes for the first 2 hours following surgery and then every 30 minutes after that, and because AJ wasn't there, as he was in the NICU with Eslie. He came back in around 3:00am and brought my mom and step-dad in at 3:30 who had been waiting in the waiting room. They decided they were going to go home and come back the next morning to see her since I hadn't been able to see her yet.

I FINALLY got to go up and see and hold our baby girl the next day around 10:00am. I was a little frustrated with my nurse when she told me that I needed to get up out of bed, eat breakfast, and walk around a little before going up to see her as I was awake and wanting to go see her around 8:00. I was not happy about this as I felt like I hadn't even had a baby since I hadn't had anything to do with her yet. But she wanted to make sure I didn't get sick while up there, so it was only out of good intention to be sure that I was feeling okay.

It was literally one of the longest days of my life waiting for this little lady to arrive, but she is absolutely perfect and I would do it all over again just for her :)

31 Weeks!

Can there really be less than 9 weeks left before baby Krueger will be here?!

Everything at baby appointments continues to go and measure how it should, so we are very blessed to have had such an easy pregnancy with this little one so far. At our last appointment at 30 weeks, 3 days, baby's heart rate was 154. The nurse did have a little trouble counting her heart rate though because baby girl had the hiccups so there were just a FEW extra sounds in there :)

Baby is VERY active, and her new favorite thing is to keep mommy up for hours at night with all her position changes, kicks, and punches. Needless to say, mommy is quite exhausted by the end of the day now, but at least we know she is healthy and growing! :)

These last few weeks are going to be very exciting (and FLY by!) as we make all the finishing touches on her room and get ready to meet this precious little girl and bring her home :)

A Krueger Shower

On September 8th, we had a baby shower thrown for baby Krueger by the Krueger family! Our family from Kansas City was able to come up for the weekend, and everyone was able to attend the shower but one (Nina). It was tons of fun, and of course the theme of the shower was FROGS :)

We had tacos with all the fixings for lunch, along with a few dipping sides as well. And for dessert, we had frog cake (not literally!) and cotton candy cupcakes. We also had blue punch with little froggies floating in it (like a little frog pond!) It was all simply delicious :)

We played a few games and then also opened the baby gifts. It was a ton of fun, and we are BEYOND blessed with the family we have. This little girl is already loved more than she'll ever know :)

28 Weeks!

Not too much longer until our little miracle will be here! Sometimes it feels like I've been pregnant forever, yet to sit and think that there are less than 12 weeks until baby's due date arrives, perhaps we haven't been waiting long enough! :P

At my 28 week check up everything went great! I had only gained 3 pounds since my appointment two weeks prior, so I was pretty close to being right on track with their suggested 1-pound-per-week. I've had minimal swelling in my legs and ankles (except when it's hot outside and I have to be on my feet!), and all my measurements were right on track. Baby's heart rate was 155 and she is still extremely active. We definitely don't have any issues tracking our kick-counts each day! :) Since it was my 28 week appointment I had to get my second Rhogam injection (since I have A-neg blood) and I also had to drink the glucose beverage to be tested for gestational diabetes, but thankfully my levels came back normal :)

We are so thankful for how few complications we have had with this pregnancy, and we feel incredibly blessed to be able to have this amazing experience. We are getting more and more excited to meet our precious daughter in the short weeks ahead! :)

Curtains & ABCs

This past weekend was spent working on getting the LAST room cleaned out and organized (our bedroom) before baby's arrival, which also meant there was extra time to work on more nursery projects! :)

Mom came up to go shopping with me on Saturday for more supplies so I can keep working on all the projects I have planned for baby's room, and then I was able to actually sit down and work on some of them on Sunday. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I did get things done I hadn't planned on either. Something about having a bunch of 'thank yous' to write out and promising my hubby that I would make some apple crisp :P

But here are TWO more projects in the nursery that are now FINISHED!

Curtains! They actually took WAY longer than they should have. I blame my laziness.

Alphabet wall decals. No, I didn't MAKE them like the majority of everything else in her room. But "F" was for frog, so it only added perfectly to the frog-madness :)

26 Weeks

I went in for our 26-week appointment and things are still going very well! I haven't had too much to complain about other than the occasional sore back and sore leg muscles when getting a lot done around home. But baby girl is very active, and she can also be a little stubborn and slightly obnoxious when she wants to be (traits from daddy I suppose!) She's definitely already got mommy under her control when it comes to sleeping or lying awake wishing I were sleeping. I just simply cannot ignore all the punches and kicks she's giving me! She also has this weird obsession of poking her fist into my belly button...repeatedly.

Weirdest.feeling.ever.

Baby's heart rate was strong at 153, which seems to be the range she's been sticking to at the past few appointments. And thankfully mommy didn't gain another TEN pounds this past month. The doctor was much happier with just six :) Oh, and we have officially graduated to having appointments every 2 weeks now (being that I'm Rh negative, so we have that extra appointment at 28 weeks!)

Time is going by much faster than we thought it would, thinking how we have about twelve and a half weeks to go until she's here! But we are more than excited to meet her, and it has been so much fun adding all the personal touches as we continue to get her room ready :)

26 weeks down on the farm

Name Letters

Time for another nursery projects update! Today's project: Name Letters. These will be hung on the wall above her crib.

MATERIALS:
wooden letters
paint (background color of choice)
scrapbook paper
scissors
modge podge

I actually found these wooden letters at Joann's Fabrics, and being they were a font I actually liked other than the usual boring ones most commonly found, I couldn't pass them up. Since baby's nursery is being decorated with mostly green with accents of pink and brown, I decided to paint these green before getting started as the sides of the letters will still be visible for the finished product. This way I could also find paper to coordinate and match with the green I used.

I found my scrapbook paper at Michael's and really liked how the colors seemed to all go well together considering the patters are all quite different from each other, but that was what I was hoping for!

I then traced the letters, face-down to the back side of the paper, and cut out the letters. Once the letters were all cut out of the paper, I was ready to use the modge podge to cover the wooden letters with the paper. I applied a thin layer of the modge podge to the front surface of the letter and then pressed the cut out paper to the letter. I then allowed them to completely dry before covering the paper and sides of the wooden letter with more modge podge to seal the paper and paint to the letter.

And the finished product! They turned out great and I absolutely love them! Of course being that we are keeping baby's name a secret, I won't hang them up until the very end. So for those of you that just got excited that her name was Eja, please refrain from getting anything personalized just yet :P

Oh, and I found these adorable little frogs to accent the letters as well :)

Update!

As mentioned in our previous post (here), we were awaiting the results from our follow-up ultrasound. We finally got our phone call yesterday, nearly a week later and after 2 phone calls to the clinic asking if the results were reviewed yet. We are more than thankful to say that baby's cyst is GONE and she is looking great! Such wonderful news, and we truly have an amazing God who hears our prayers and heals and protects His little children :) Thank you for all your prayers!

22/23 weeks

Our 22nd week of growing baby girl wasn't exactly one that we had expected. We received a phone call from the nurse explaining to us that at our last ultrasound (at 20 weeks) they had found a cyst on the baby's umbilical cord, so they wanted us to go in for a level 2 ultrasound to check things out in better detail so we could determine if further special care would be necessary for the remainder of the pregnancy. Our follow-up ultrasound was scheduled for the morning where baby would be 22 weeks, 4 days old. When we arrived at the clinic we were informed that we had actually been MIS-informed about why we were having a second ultrasound. The cysts that were found were not actually on baby's umbilical cord, but rather they were located in her brain--a great, and even more nerve-racking surprise to us! We still aren't sure how they mixed the two locations up, but either way we were already there and the follow-up ultrasound was still necessary. Brain cysts that do not go away during pregnancy usually point to chromosomal abnormalities such as Down's Syndrome, but when we received negative results back from testing for these abnormalities over a month prior, we were not too concerned that this was the case for her. But most cysts that are found during pregnancy dissolve and disappear before baby is born without any complications. We are still awaiting the results from this past Tuesday's ultrasound, but as the tech told us, we would not have left the clinic if they had seen something still there. We are also hopeful that if they cysts were still present in her brain, that they would have contacted us in a much quicker manner. We will definitely keep you updated once we know more, and your prayers would be greatly appreciated :)

On a more positive note, having another ultrasound meant getting to see our little girl again. It was crazy how much bigger she already was after 2 1/2 weeks, and she was all about putting on a show for us! She spent the majority of the time sucking her thumb with one hand and playing with the umbilical cord in the other. She was also poking herself in the eye at one point (taking after daddy I'm guessing!) and waving to us with each of her little fingers. Everything looked perfect and she even weighed in at 1 pound 3 ounces, so she's growing right on track! So here are a few more pictures of her to enjoy, as well as another growing-belly pic!

sucking her thumb!

her little foot!

her little nose & lips!

Results!!

And the announcement you've been waiting for: the Krueger's are having a GIRL!! :)

Everything checked out great at our ultrasound, and baby girl is measuring right on track (3 days ahead even!) Her heart rate was at 150 and she weighed just over 3/4 of a pound. She's a very active little girl, but she wasn't so sure about all the poking around Friday morning (especially at a time of day where mommy is usually just waking up!) Regardless, she decided to cooperate with us and give us some cute faces and show off her moves :) Getting to see her again (after 11 weeks!) and getting to watch her and see how much she's grown and how amazing she truly is makes us SO anxious for November to get here so we can finally have her in our arms :) We are beyond blessed with this little girl, and we cannot thank God enough for giving us this precious gift!

(sticking her little nose up in the air while yawning)

A Little Shopping

This past weekend we got a little shopping for baby Krueger done. No, it wasn't anything too crazy because we know better than that! But we did manage to get one of baby's 'bigger' items out of the way (hooray!)

Baby Krueger was given a gift from their Great Great Grandpa Plum to purchase a dresser, something he can always be remembered by as baby Krueger grows up. We hadn't really found anything at any of the stores we had looked at just yet, but it wasn't like we were in a big hurry either. We decided to go check out the Brass Armadillo and what they had, and we found one we both loved because it was exactly what we wanted! And it even just had a new, fresh coat of custom paint done! So here is baby Krueger's new dresser, and we can't wait to put together their little room :)

I also had $10 Kohl's cash to spend that was expiring Saturday, and because it's ten FREE dollars, it'd be a total waste to just not use it. So we decided to see what we could find for an outfit for baby that would be 'gender neutral' since we still had another week to go until our ultrasound. We looked at TONS of adorable little outfits, and settled on this cute little ducky 4-piece set. It was originally $26, but was on sale for 50% off that weekend, plus we had the Kohl's cash, so we ended up paying only $3 for it!! Definitely worth the $3 to have 2 different outfits :)

Daddy's Day & 18 weeks

This weekend was Father's day, and what a better way that to actually spend part of that special day with your dad. We were able to have lunch with my dad and even dinner with AJ's dad all on their special day. It was great to see them and spend time with them :)

I told AJ that I wanted to make sure we took a picture of me with my dad before we left, so here it is! My dad, me and baby Krueger at 18 weeks! And don't mind our squinty faces as we were looking into the sun :P

We had another baby appointment this morning, and baby Krueger is doing well! The heart rate was at a strong 152 bpm, and I even managed to gain 7 pounds since my last appointment! When the doctor was measuring my tummy today he looked at me and said "you are gonna get big with this one." Thank you for that, Doc.

Our next appointment is next Friday (June 29th) and that is for our anatomy ultrasound where we can find out if baby Krueger is a girl or boy as long as they are being cooperative of course! We are guessing BOY, but we'll see come next weekend! :)

We hope all you daddy's out there had a wonderful Father's Day this year! :)

Turnip

We've officially made it to the "17 week" mark! Baby Krueger is now about 5 inches long from the top of their little head to their little butt, and weighing in at around 5 ounces (about the size of a turnip). Baby is currently going through a rapid growth spurt where they are DOUBLING in size over just 4 weeks time, and I can definitely tell that things are getting bigger in there :P

One exciting thing that happened during my 15th week was getting to feel that amazing sensation of baby Krueger practicing all their acrobatic moves. At first it wasn't very consistent, but I now feel baby multiple times a day each day, especially in the morning, at bedtime, and also in the middle of the night. Baby has lots of energy!

I've still been feeling pretty well, thankfully. My biggest complaint would be that my allergies are still making me quite miserable, but other than that, I don't have much to complain about :)

Our next OB appointment is June 18th, and hopefully we will be able to get our anatomy ultrasound scheduled for sometime during the first week of July so we can see how much baby Krueger has grown (since seeing them last at only 9 weeks!) AND find out if there's a little girl or a little boy in there! Most friends and family are guessing "boy" (as are we) but we'll just have to wait and see :)

We are beyond thankful for this 'little' blessing God has given us, and we are so excited for what these next few weeks will bring. We cannot wait for November to get here so we can finally meet this little one and start our little family :)

The Moment You've Been Waiting For

Well, here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for. I can still remember being told by my friends in high school "we can't wait until you're pregnant because you'll actually gain some weight!" Gaining weight has definitely been true so far in this pregnancy, but only in the first 8-9 weeks of course! Since then, I've only gained about a pound, so I guess my body was just prepping for what was to come :P AND since I'm in the 'smaller' portion of society, baby has nowhere else to go but OUT.

With that, here is baby (inside momma) at 14 weeks, 3 days...BEFORE dinner even! :P