A Brand New Zamboni is Born!

The story of baby Kelynn:

Dear Kelynn Mae Zuverink,you were due for birth on May 11, 2012 and we were so excited! However, mommy's doctor was becoming concerned that mommy might be running out of room, and that you might be too big to make it out without some help. The doctor decided to measure you on May 1, and thank goodness he did! They found out that you were almost 9 pounds already, and that it was definitely time for you to meet the world! That day mommy and daddy found out that they would get to meet you in 3 short days, on Friday.

After mommy and daddy called all the grandparents, your uncles and aunt, we began to get ready for your arrival.

We left for the hospital on Thursday night to be prepped for the big day. On Friday, we got to spend lots of time hanging around, watching TV while we waited. Mommy didn't get to have any food or water, but she was so excited to meet you she didn't mind too much!

We waited and waited and waited alllllll day, and very late at night, we found out that we would have to have a special surgery to get your pretty little self, with your big ol' head, out of mommy's tummy.

About 45 minutes after that ( at 10:47pm, May 4), you were born!

You were kind of icky, but Daddy got to take lots of pictures while you were being cleaned up.

And while you were being measured! You were 20.5 Inches long and your sweet head was 15 inches around. 

Then, while mommy was still getting fixed up after surgery, daddy got to help you be weighed and get bathed. You weighed 8 pounds and 9 ounces, after all. You were so healthy!

 After you got all wrapped up, daddy got to take lots and LOTS of pictures. These are our favorite!

After that, we all got to go to bed for the night and get a few hours of sleep. Here are some fun pictures from the next day, as you got to know your family and the world around you.

First you got to cuddle lots and lots with your Daddy:

Your daddy loves you very much, can you tell?

Then you got to spend time with family and friends! 

You and Momsy

You and Pops

And you and some of our best friends and family!

Don't worry, your Momsy wouldn't let anyone pass you around. She did all of the transfers to make sure you were very safe!! And she loves to feed and burp you. You are the first grandchild, after all! 

The most fun, special time for us as a family has been the time we have gotten to spend with each other during quiet time. We spend it very productively. Mostly we cuddle with you and admire you while you sleep.  

Or, the more popular version: 

Honey, I think you got your pouty face from me. Your daddy is trying...

Some together time with mommy.

And my personal favorite - Late at night, Daddy gets up from a chair he's been sitting in to take you for a soothing walk around the hospital room... shhhh - he doesn't know he's got a tag-a-long.

We get to take lots more pictures this week as you meet more people and make it home for your first time. We love you baby girl! We have already spent so much time thanking God for the chance to parent you and help you turn into the beautiful woman that we know he will have you be. You are so precious to us, and we love every second we spend with you. 

Dallas Showers!!!

We have been so blessed with close family and friends who care about us enough to throw us baby showers! We got lots of goodies! Here are some of the highlights:

DALLAS SHOWER 1

Sweet Sweet Shower Hostesses, some of the most important girls in my life. 

Jamie, Brooke, Briana, Me, Tonya, Hailey (We missed Allison!!)

Me and my momma!

Don't worry mom, someday I'll be able to hug you like a normal person again. 

And sweet Rhianna came all the way from San Antonio!! 

Inside look at the shower! We got to play really fun games and eat deLISHous food. Seriously - only thing we forgot to get a picture of! It was so good. 

This is the present from my wonderful sweet family members, Danna, Dana, Devhra. Super awesome high chair. 

   

  

These are of me getting so excited about presents! 

Rhianna made these insanely cute outfits! 1 reversible dress, 2 pairs of bloomers, 2 pairs of shoes. SO CUTE!! 

FAMILY MINI-SHOWER AT UNCLE JEFF & AUNT SHERRY'S!! 

(Sadly we didn't get any pictures with the grown-ups, but the kids are always up for snap shots ;) 

Bethany, Ben, Endalk, Chloe, Katie, Gabby

Kiddos can't help themselves - they love to help open presents!! 

SOOO CUTE! 

Bottle keeper-colder-thingy! Going to be so useful! 

Chloe is super excited about life right now. But no matter - we got a first aide kit! And some awesome 12month onesies! 

Also, these didn't come from a shower, but I have to add them because they're so flippin cute! We got to pick out her first swimmy suit!! How cute!! 

And Dad wanted to wait until we got home to try on the matching hat. 

It's certainly been a fun couple of months!! 

ONE MONTH LEFT!!!

(Note Mr. Pheeny has been in several of the maternity pictures, despite my constant trying to run him off during our monthly photo shoot)

Pregnancy Highlights

Size of Baby: Over 6 pounds, 18 inches long

Weight Gain: Who really knows?!

Maternity Clothes: Same ol' - except that she finally dropped, so my maternity clothes are starting to look a lot cuter.  

Gender: She's a Lady! 

Movement: She's extremely active. Since she moved down in my torso, it's much harder to drive and sit up straight, but we're makin' it.

Sleep: Still sleeping great! Thankful for it every morning! 

Symptoms: I finally developed the pregnancy waddle, sadly. I try very hard to walk like a normal person every time I catch myself. Oh, and my feet look like they've been replaced with foot-shaped bags of pudding. 

What I miss: Being able to distinguish my ankles from my feet from my legs. And painting my own toenails. And seeing my cheekbones. And my upper thighs. 

Cravings: Still mostly dairy.

Best Moment This Month: My family came in town to spend some time with us and go to Kole's show at UNT, and it was really great to see them! We also had the DFW shower, which was SO fun (post to come).  OH - And getting to do the 3d sonogram! 

What I am looking forward to: Meeting my daughter (that is such a weird statement), getting to know her personality. Will she a sweet, shy, observant and wildly discerning person like Ben? Or immensely awesomely entertaining like me? The possibilities are endless. So thankful to God for who she is already! I'm betting that we don't make it to the 40 week picture, so here goes nothin'! 

Baby K: The Story of an Amazon Baby

Weighing in at a WHOPPING 6 pounds (supposed to be just under 5 right now)!! 

That's right, baby K is... rather large. But we're so thrilled! Big means hardy! 

We got to do the 3D sonogram, but she had her hand up by her face, so it's a little hard to tell what everything is - I tried to help with labels:

Heart rate is good - 144 bpm
Still a girl!

Doc says that there's no need to start worrying about if she'll be too big by due date, but we'll keep an eye on it. More updates in a couple of weeks (at the 36 week mark). 

32 Weeks!!!

Pregnancy Highlights

Size of Baby: 3.75 Pounds, 17 Inches long

Weight Gain: Still not looking at the scale when they weigh me. Not in trouble with the Doc yet, so it can' t be that bad! 

Maternity Clothes: I'm starting to miss my old non-maternity go-to's... but for now, I'm still very thankful for all the stretchy stuff I've borrowed from my very dear friends. 

Gender: She's a Lady! 

Movement: She's gotten so big that any movement she makes I can pretty much feel and see. She likes to spend most of her time right against the outside of my tummy. You can usually feel what is either a head or a rump right in the center below my rib cage. 

Sleep: Still sleeping great! Thankful for it every morning! 

Symptoms: Exhaustion has come back, and I'm still very awkward. Random things are painful. Like walking, and getting in the car, but I'm hanging in there, by the grace of God. Thankfully that's really all I'm experiencing. 

What I miss: I know this sounds silly given my post last month, but I miss my non-maternity clothes! And I desperately miss working out. 

Cravings: Milk

Best Moment This Week: Watching Ashlynn (Mark and Allison's sweet little girl) and seeing how great Ben is even with little babies. I knew he was brilliant with kids, but I didn't know he was such a natural with babies. It has taken some of the pressure off of the baby coming! 

What I am looking forward to: Seeing my family in a couple of weeks, and taking more classes at the hospital! Those darn things are so informative!! And of course - my Texas baby shower!! It's going to be so fun to get all the important women in my life into one room together. Very exciting.

28 Weeks (T- 12 Weeks and Counting!)

28 Week Picture

Pregnancy Highlights!!!

How Far Along: 28 Weeks

Size of baby: 15 Inches head to heel, 2 1/4 pounds

Weight gain: +20 at least - I stopped looking at the scale when they weigh me (That'll show 'em!)

Maternity Clothes: I'm beginning to wonder why I thought I needed an entire closet full of clothes before I got pregnant, since I've been surviving off of 2 pairs of jeans and about 6 shirts. I dig the comfy.

Gender: Es una chica!

Movement: So crazy - Now when she moves, you can see it from the outside! Freaks me out a little. Our favorite game is to put the remote on top of my stomach and watch it bounce around when she kicks it.  

Sleep: I tell you what - I'm sleeping like a rock. No idea how that's happening, but I'm going to enjoy every night of it until she comes.

Symptoms:  Finally starting to feel like a pregnant lady. My hip joints have been giving me a hard time. Doc said I had to stop working out before I agitated them so much I can't walk anymore. So no more working out for me! 

What I miss: Being able to walk into a room and not have all the women gaze at you with this "knowing" look. Yeah yeah, I know, I'm about the join the club. For now, I just want to order my cheeseburger, thanks. 

Cravings: Peanut butter.

Best Moment this week: Getting to know baby's sleep patterns and when she's most active. Since I can really feel and see everything now, it's much more obvious when she's playing around and when she's dozing.

What I am looking forward to: Seeing my mom and dad at the end of March. I miss my family!

MICHIGAN BABY SHOWERS!!!

I know it hasn't been four more weeks yet, but our showers were so fun and exciting that I just had to get some pictures up as soon as possible.
Ben and I were able to take one last plane trip up to Michigan before the baby comes. It was a great trip because not only did we get to have some baby showers and get some much-needed baby supplies, we also got to see all of the Zuverink/Looman families! That's something we haven't gotten to do in a couple of years, so it was definitely great to see everyone.

We landed in Chicago on Saturday at 9:30am, then drove around the lake to Grand Rapids with Ben's parents Ron & Jodi. For Texas folks, that is at least a 3 hour drive, with no snow. It was snowing. When we got to Grand Rapids, we went straight to the first shower (the Looman side of the family). We had so much fun!! Here are some pictures:

We can't wait for baby K to get big enough to wear this fun hat!

So stinkin' cute!!

Look at this beautiful blanket!!!

Look closely at this beautiful bouquet!! Is this not the most beautiful fun flower arrangment ever? You may want to sit down for this - some of the flowers are actually onesies!!! So cute! 

After all the wonderful food and fun presents (and watching little Caleb run around and entertain everyone), we headed over to the Zuverinks' side of the family and had a shower with them! Pictures:

We had so much family around, we got to catch up with all the little cousins too! Ben helped Jack figure out how to launch rockets really high!

Look at this beautiful cake!! You guys... it was like stupid good.

Here we are enjoying all the wonderful food that the family brought! I'm always impressed by the creative potluck food from the great white north. So delicious!! 

This is us all cracking up because cousin Christine is hi-larious.

All the Zuverinks gave us really sweet baby books! We read them to baby K already! She likes them. Obviously. Thanks to them, we have probably a dozen kiddo books already.

Look at us digging into the huge pile of presents!

The other side of the big circle - We had a very supportive audience. 

Grandma Zuverink gave us the coolest blanket! We think it'll be great for swaddling. 

HOORAY! We got the activity gym!!! 

And the Pack N Play!!! So excited to get it all set up!

After present time, the boys were very excited to get to play soccer again.

Siblings chattin' it up! 

My wonderful mother-in-law, very helpful cousin Becca and me! 

After all that activity and all the fun we had, we went home and just crashed. The next morning, Ben and I got everything out all together and sorted through everything. How overwhelming!!! 

Look at all of this!! Holy Moly!!

I'm in my pajamas and I'm surrounded!! 

Thanks to the Zuverink and Looman families, we had such a wonderful shower experience with our family! Special thanks to Mom-in-Law Jodi, F-I-L Ron, Kimmie, Grandma Looman, Aunt Shirley and Aunt Sheila, Aunt Gert, and everyone else who was so involved in helping put them together! They were both so beautiful and so fun. We love you guys!