Just a Slight Surprise....

To say it was a slight surprise would be me not being honest with you... I WE were totally shocked! Well shocked doesn't really cover it either but it will do for now, I am pretty sure you get the gist of it.

Anyway, today we had our final ultrasound, the one that checks for any abnormalities, such as a cleft lip, heart issues, stomach, bladder, spine, brain all that kind of stuff.  As you know we found out 3 or so weeks ago that we were going to bring a little guy into the world come December. We were totally thrilled a little girl and a little boy, the perfect pair and I we wouldn't have to worry about any more babies after that (basically we were finished having kids).

Lets step back a few weeks before we found out about our boy on the way.  I had been having dreams about a little girl making her appearance and I even had a little gut feeling that we were even having a girl.  But because so many people truly "felt" like we were having a boy I guess I began to believe the same.  Not to mention all of the differences between this pregnancy and my previous pregnancy with Hannah.

Fast forward to today, we get up and get ready and make our way to my OB doctor. We get there and wait for about 5 to 10 minutes, the ultrasound tech takes us back to her room and asked us what we felt like it was going to be....

Side note!!! We decided to not tell them because some doctor offices don't like you doing ultrasounds on the "side" for lack of better words. So when she tells its a boy we were going to act all surprised like we just found out!

I speak up because Kyle never really gave her his opinion but I said "I feel like its going to be a boy because everything has been opposite from my pregnancy with my daughter!"  She says okay well lets find out!

She puts the little wand on my belly and instantly pops up our little angel! It still amazes me that, that baby who only weighs 9 ounces and is the size of a sweet potato is in my belly!  My eyes are instantly glued to the screen. I try to make all the ooo's and ahhh's like you do when you see it for the first time since your 12 week appointment which even from 3 weeks ago (16 weeks pregnant)  the little one has grown so much! So most of the ooo's and ahhh's were real (most lol)


The tech continues inspecting the baby showing us its bladder, heart, spine, ribs, feet, brain, face all the sweet little details of its body.  When she moves down to where you would spot the "privates".  She has the wand thing on my belly and we or at least I see something and I was like "is it a boy?" She said "that is just its umbilical cord, don't mistake that for its genitals"  So she continued to look, and look, and look... She finally says, "well guys you are having a girl..." I said what or huh or repeat (shock had set in so I cant really remember what I said...) She said you are having a girl, there is nothing there that even looks like it would be a boy...

I then tell her while I was dying laughing that we needed to confess something and I proceed to tell her the entire story about us finding out about the boy! Her words were "well I don't know what that lady was looking at, because there is NOTHING there!" She then tells me that sometimes the people that work at those places are just certified and haven't been doing it long enough to really know what to look for, so on and so forth. 

  So yes Blog Family we will be welcoming a little girl come December!!! And because we had a boy name and a girl name picked out for this reason exactly, we are planning on calling her 

Alivia Marie Ledbetter!

Kyle and I walked in that office with a boy and shockingly left with a girl! We are more than thrilled because there were no issues that she saw and everything was right on the growth track! She was a little squirm-er and had fun stretching out and patting her little face with her hand!  To be completely honest I am still quite shocked. But I know how much I appreciated my sister over the years even though we got into some pretty ugly arguments we still ended up best friends at the end of the day, so I pray that Hannah and Aliva will be the best of friends (one day) because I know ALLLLLL about having a sister close to you in age (with all the sharing of the clothes, shoes, hair stuff, showers etc.!) But all those fights were totally worth it!

18 Weeks and 3 days...

How Far Along: 18 weeks & 3 days

Total Weight Gained: 5 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I wear some jeans that are maternity because they are more comfortable

but its not quite to that point yet... Don't get me wrong its very, very close...haha

Sleep:  Great nowadays, I sleep like rock and it is incredibly

difficult to wake up in the mornings!

Best Moment of the Week: 

My sister had her son last Saturday! And I get to see my little boy again via

ultrasound (we are going to check out his stomach, kidneys, heart, etc.)

Food Cravings: Italian, Italian, Italian, Italian....

Food Aversions: Meat (any kind of poultry (now) it makes me so queasy

AND Mexican (most of the time anyway, it makes me so bloated!)

Belly button/stretch marks: The only battle scars so far are from my lovely Hannah

(I wouldn't mind if that was how it stayed too) 

Belly button: Poor thing is pretty much an outie at this point...

Symptoms:  Spontaneous drops in my blood sugar (if I don't eat like 5 or 6 times a day)

My BP as of last Friday: 98/60

Movement: YES! Finally! It is usually only once or twice a day but it makes me smile and

catches me off guard every single time!

Gender: BOY!!!

Baby's Name: Johnathan Blake (he will be called Blake though) FYI

What I miss: Nothing at all!!  (Yet...)

Milestones: I am almost to the half way mark! I seriously cant believe it!

This pregnancy has flown by! It is sad I know but I cant seem to get

motivated to do ANYTHING, we've bought the baby bedding and

that sort of thing.  My MIL has bought Blake some cute, cute clothes

but me, his own momma cant get motivated to

spend any money right now (which is totally unusual!) :(

Funny moment(s): My brain has officially left the building for the next 4 months... Not that funny

in my opinion but the things I do because of it can be quite comical...

You can only imagine... lol

Happy Birthday Braylon Craig Kiser!!!

Ive missed out on a few days of posting, but I've missed out on sleep as well (hah!). I will update you briefly about these busy past few days....

It was 8 am when Lydia and Josh were finally admitted into the Birth Place at Gaston Memorial on Friday July 22.  She was 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced.  So I get over there after lunch and hang out helping her through her contractions as well as walking the halls and giving them some extra company.  We walked and walked and walked until about 3:30 that afternoon and she was finally dilated to 5 cm.  The doctor decided it was time to speed up this process, so he broke her water.  Shockingly the contractions actually slowed down so much that she looked more relaxed at 6 pm when the doctor came back to check on her that he decided that it was time to really get the proverbial ball rolling and to start the pitocin. About 40 minutes after the pitocin was started she began to feel the major side effects of it... (MAJOR CONSISTENT CONTRACTIONS).  She wised  up and decided to not try to fight through it and get an epidural... Smart choice girl!

The epidural relaxed her so much after that, that she actually went from 5 cm to 8 1/2 cm in a hour and a half! WOW! Lydia had less than 2 cm to go and she could start pushing.  We thought surely it would be within the next hour or so... She was 8 cm dilate at 9:30 pm on Friday, 22.  Well needless to say it took a long time foreverrrr! I mean seriously the doctor came and checked her several times and she had finally fully dilated by 3:55 am on July 23...

That's when things got a little crazy... Lydia started pushing at 4 a.m. and the doctor realized about 20 minutes into pushing that Sweet baby Braylon was Sunny side up (if any of you aren't familiar with that terminology it means that his face was up towards the sky when it should be facing the floor) This is a much, much harder labor and its really difficult to push them out because your working with more of the baby's head, its just not "natural".  So the doctor tried suctioning him out about 5 or 6 different times.  He also tried to turn his head as well, as soon as he would get it turned sweet stubborn baby Braylon would turn it right back.  The doctor and Lydia tried for a good hour and ten minutes to get him out but it wasn't going to happen this time around... He was just turned to awkwardly and wasn't budging from his position...

About 5:10 in the morning Dr. F. finally decided that an emergency C-Section was what was needed at this point because her temperature was rising and Braylon had been in "there" for too long.  So they did an emergency C-section and he was born at 5:43 a.m on July 23 2011!! Because of Lydia's temp and he actually had a "low" high temperature they decided that admitting him into NICU to get him on antibiotics and some sort of nutritional fluid was the best route for Mom and baby.  Lydia's was so exhausted from being up for 3 days straight and everything else she went through, that she could no longer hold her eyes open to carry on a conversation for longer than a minute.  They all got some form of rest on Saturday and went to visit Braylon that afternoon.  

Braylon is doing great they actually just moved him to Josh and Lydia's room because he got on a great feeding schedule and they only need to check him about 6:30 tonight to make sure everything is going well. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that he will continue to do great and will be able to go home with them tomorrow morning! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAYLON! I love you so much already and I cant wait to get my hands on you soon!  

Let the Fun Begin!!!!

Update from Thursday, July 21st. Well I know from personal experience that it isn't much fun but thinking with a sarcastic sense of humor we will say "Let the fun begin!" Meaning, Lydia who is 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant, has entered the labor stages, of course I'm thinking its just the first stage of labor maybe fixing to move on into the 2nd stage but either way I think Braylon Craig Kiser may be here in the next 24 hours! I know that those of you who read my blog are more than likely going to see it on my facebook page as well, but I am just so excited, I can barely contain myself!!!

She started having some mild "menstrual" like cramps yesterday morning, she dealt with them all day and went to the gym that afternoon.  WOW! I might add! But she wasn't counting them until they got a great deal stronger, she and Josh then decided once they were between 2-8 minutes apart lasting a minute to a minute and a half to head over to the hospital which was around 4 this morning.  As of 6:15 a.m. she was only 1cm dilated and 80% effaced (progress, progress, progress!) Josh said they will check her again at 7:15, still no change keep them walking until 8:15, and check and if there is still no change then send her home! I PRAY that there is change!

They haven't contacted any other family as of right now and are waiting to see if she gets admitted. Once admitted they will run through the contact list (that's what I'm guessing anyway!) So say a little prayer for them and lets hope she has a short smooth labor! Thank you :)

Update as of 9:56 p.m. July 21st, STILL. NO. BABY. She was sent home from the hospital with an ambien and was basically told that when her water breaks to come back unless its for some other reason like even worse contractions and what not! She was only dilated to 1 cm so they want her to progress more before they admit her.  She is handling the pain very well but suffering from some back labor as well.  She knows that she more than likely wont get much sleep because the contractions are about 5 to 8 minutes apart and some are really strong lasting almost a minute and some are short lasting 30 to 45 seconds.  They are way to irregular but she has a doctor appointment in the morning at 8:15 so I am hoping they can do something to speed things along.   I will hopefully have an update sometime tomorrow morning but we will see. He is definitely stubborn like his momma and just as late too! :) 

Due Date

Hey y'all if you could say a quick little prayer for my sister Lydia, she is due on Wednesday and as of 2 weeks ago she has had no change... I know that is to be expected and a lot can change in a matter of days or even hours.  So she goes back to the doctor on Wednesday to find out what the next step will be and hopefully my sweet nephew will be here soon!! So say a little prayer for her if you will just for a safe labor/delivery and no complications with sweet Braylon! Thanks and its much appreciated!!!

Our Weekend Wrap Up!

Today has been a fun lazy day... well actually this entire weekend has been that way.  Its been so nice to have zero plans for once.  Kyle and I went to Gastonia Friday night we had Kohl's cash to spend and wanted to see what we could buy for baby Blake's room!  We had subs for dinner and shopped until around 8ish and then headed home for an early night.  Saturday we decided to go to Hickory because we just didn't find to much the night before.  We went to Babies R Us and walked around we were debating on buying a new stroller one that was lighter but also could fit an infant car seat. We got lucky! The one we found weighed 11 pounds, the infant car seat fit perfectly, and it was 30 percent off... not only that but it was an additional percent off because it was the display!!! We checked it out thoroughly and decided to give it a try.  Hannah loved it and I personally loved it because it is SO light, Kyle loveed it because it folds up so tightly and really doesn't take up much room.  So we were all pleased to say the least!

After we went to Babies R Us we wanted to run to Kirkland's because that store is just awesome and we actually didn't find too much that we "needed" so we left empty handed. We actually wanted to go the Habitat Store in Hickory they stayed open until 4 or 5 so we had plenty of time! We looked around and they were having a 50% off store wide sale! Wow, of course all the good pieces were sold but we did luck up and find an artificial tree for $15 bucks! Wow its about a 7 foot tree and it is in great condition those things go for at least 50 dollars... As fun as it may sound it was a crazy idea to try and stuff a 7 foot tree in our car but we made it and there was no damages maybe a few bruises but nothing was wrong with the tree! 

We try not to spend full price on anything we buy these days especially since we are on a sweet little budget but I feel like we got a great deal both times this weekend and I've really enjoyed spending the time with my family! 

Today we went to Hickory yet again to have dinner with the Kluttz side of my family and that was tons of fun! We ate at Iron Thunder and it was really delicious they give you massive amounts of food, it wasn't anything I was expecting it was a really nice place (during the day anyway haha!)

Tonight we are eating dinner with Kyle's parents and enjoying a relaxing time over there! 

Kick Me Baby One More Time!!!!

Tonight I am sitting here at the computer desk, sipping on my low fat mocha ice coffee and I am still semi-fitting into my pre-pregnancy pants and since they are Hollister brand I have to wear a belt because they are the butt crack showing kind when you bend over.  I obviously do that a lot with a 17 month old because she wants up and down... up and down!

Anyway, I am sitting here sipping away and typing away with my almost too snug jeans and all the sudden I feel a few nudges... I sit still and pay attention and I felt a few more!! That was without a doubt my sweet little boy kicking me! Such an exciting feeling.  I remember feeling Hannah kick for the first time and it only felt like bubbles but this felt like nudges. I was so excited to reach this point in my pregnancy, I think its the best part of pregnancy! Kyle and I stopped by Kohl's to spend our 40 dollar Kohl's cash and bought Baby Blake an out fit... It may just be perfect for him to wear home! It is a brown onesie, with striped cap, brown and white socks and the onesie says little brother!!

This whole having a little boy is starting to really sink in! I really wasn't sure what to think! I haven't been sick in so long (almost 2 weeks whoop whoop!) That sometimes I honestly forget I am pregnant! Crazy I know! But now I am ready to start buying some cute things for his room and get that ball rolling! Oh my goodness I am REALLY HAVING A LITTLE BOY!!!!!!!! God has blessed me and Kyle beyond measure, and to just thank Him never seems like quite enough.... But I am reminded every day that He has a bigger plan for us and if we let Him take the wheel for once we might actually enjoy the ride! I hope each and every one of my blog family has a great weekend and a blessed one too!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I have wanted to do this since the first time I saw it on a friends blog.  So here I am FINALLY doing it!

Here we go... Welcome to my first official "What I'm Loving Wednesday" blog post....

The fact that it is Wednesday means that I only have one more day left of my work week!  And I am LOVING that!

Because so many friends and family members of mine have suggested me reading the book Heaven is for Real and so far its awesome!

I love me some Dr. Pepper these days.  It is about the only soft drink I will drink (since I've been prego)

but I will only allow myself one a day... :(

I am loving Rainbow Chip icing, I bought some for our gender party cupcakes and I get at least one dip in it a day... So not a habit I need to be making...

I am also loving carrots any kind boiled, steamed, raw any way I'm loving them!

I love my new phone the AT&T's newest Android, it totally rocks! It takes awesome video, pictures, and has tons of free apps!

Here lately I have had an itch to cook so I have been cooking every day this week (I know it is only Wednesday) but still it has been so much fun and a super nice change!

I am also in a decorating mood I addicted to the wall sconces that hold little candles and just really accent your walls plus the wall art either painted or just scenic.

I am loving the fact that I am out of my first trimester (WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!) The sickness comes less and less!!!

Here lately I have been addicted to any ChapStick flavor or lip gloss ranging from clear to red!

My new nephew Braylon will be here in less than 2 weeks and I am about to burst with excitement!

He is going to be so handsome!

And finally on this Wednesday I am loving the baby bump that I am already rockin'... Yes I know 16.5 weeks pregnant and should I really be baby bumpin it yet??? Well my thoughts are who cares!!!! I'm loving it! :))

So what do you think? How did I do?

It's A....

Tonight we revealed to all of our family the sex of our second child by having our first Gender Reveal Party! It was so much fun! When everyone arrived, which was immediate family only. We kicked off the night with what I crave most... anything Italian! I decided to make a simple but delicious meal that doesn't require a lot of prep work (my kinda meal) I don't know the actual name for it so I just call it Mac & Cheese Lasagna!

Sorry I dont have a final picture of it baked...

I am sure you can add whatever ingredients to it you like but since I was feeding 7 others I went with Plain Jane! I layered the meat sauce and the mac & cheese and sprinkled Cheddar cheese in between the layers, I then baked it for about 15 to 20 minutes and it was done!

My MIL brought the salad as our veggie which I am addicted to salads so that was a plus too.  She also brought the sweet tea and we chowed down and conversed for the next hour or so.  When we finished our meal, my sister who is due in like a week and her hubs helped me clean off the table and get the dessert ready.

The dessert was the most exciting part.  We revealed to our family what the gender of our newest addition was by adding the color to the inside of the cup cakes (actually fairly easy too).  So we handed out cup cakes and ice cream.  I then said everyone had to take a bite of their cup cake at the same time. 

TEAM BLUE!!!!

And as soon as they did the color BLUE was revealed! There were hoots and hollers because someone guessed right or because someone guessed wrong but it was a great time and I am glad I was able to mark this down in the scrap books as a memory that revealed whether we would have an Olivia or a Blake and Blake won this time!

TEAM BLUE!!!!! Hannah gets a little brother! :)

A little blurry but you get the gist!

We have a named picked out and it was sort of a back up name from when we had Hannah.  Kyle's full name is Johnathan Kyle Ledbetter and his first name is a family name.  We wanted to keep that name in the family.  So we decided to go with Johnathan Blake Ledbetter and we will call him Blake! Don't you just love? We are so excited to see what this little guy will turn out looking like.. Mom or Dad? And what he has in store for us. The anticipation is always there, I don't think it matters if its your 2nd baby or your 5th baby!

Not only do I love this picture of my big brother Lee (haha) but it was a great picture of the cup cake
it really showed how the middle only was BLUE!

Drum Roll Please!!!!!!!!!

Today was our big day (of many that, I am sure)! But today marked a huge day for us with this pregnancy!!!

Today we found out of our little baby was a boy or a girl!!!! I know super exciting right??? Well even though I know you are all just DYING to know we wont spill the beans until later this evening after our GRP (Gender Reveal Party).  We sadly did not do one with Hannah but this time around we wanted to do something a little different.  We have gel filled cup cakes (made by myself and the hubs) and we will reveal the gender when each and every family member takes a bite! We are also making mac and cheese lasagna, salad and bread! YUM!! It was one of those 30 minute meals we got of the kraft website (I think) anyway it is delicious!!!

Hopefully I will remember to take lots of pictures and post them tonight (maybe)! But for sure you will know if my BOG is a Boy or Girl and what its name will be! Yep! We already have a name picked out (we are just a tiny bit ahead of ourselves) LOL!

15 weeks pregnant and a 17 month old...

I am going to do a quick run through my 15 week pregnancy update... There is obviously not much at this point to post about the pregnancy except that....

Today I am 15 weeks and 3 days pregnant... I'd prefer not to weigh myself every week so I honestly haven't weighed myself this week (yet..) I'm thinking I've maybe gained 4 to 5 lbs total.  I cant help myself but be excited because honestly, I gained 51 lbs with my sweet Hannah so if I gain 1/2 of that I'll be doing super!  I haven't been "morning sick" for about 6 days now which is AWESOME! Although I have had some lightheaded spells (boo..) The way I prevent those is by eating like 6 small meals a day.  Sometimes they happen so quickly that I don't have time to eat anything.  Another thing and it may be because Ive had one babe already I can actually feel when I lying on my back of course where my uterus is... I couldn't don't remember being able to do that with Hannah. 

I am over the top emotional, and I am terrified about making my family of 3 a family of 4.  I'm sure its normal things (at least I'm hoping I'm not weird) that I fear.  My main worries being "Can I actually do this?" Can I actually love both the same? Can I actually handle an almost 2 year old and a new born? Will this baby be bigger than Hannah? (I certainly hope not).  8lb 8oz was my absolute limit, I think! How will I go to school, to work, be a mommy, and be a wifey?? Ahhhhh.... This list is overwhelming me, I hope its not overwhelming you too!!! I just want to be the best mother/wife I can be.  I want to make sure that Hannah's 1st Christmas ripping presents open and stuff be pushed aside because I had to be in the hospital... I really want to breast feed, or at least pump for longer than 2 weeks and I'm nervous about that too.  I have so many wild emotions running through me and I know that when the time comes it will be absolutely perfect... I just have to have Faith!

I honestly feel like this pregnancy is flying by! I mean another month and I'll reach the half way mark! CRAZY!!! It doesn't seem possible to be going by this quickly!

Now my post turns to this cute little girl who is growing so quickly, her name is Hannah and she turned 17 months last Sunday. 

I have this cute little board that I measure her on that was a gift and she has grown a quarter of an inch every single month for the past 3 months! She will be short like me, but I'm not THAT short! Her hair has lightened up some in the sunlight.  She wont be the snowy blond like her daddy was when he was little but she wont be the brunette like her momma is.  A perfect little mix and she even has some auburn tints in there too! Her eyes are not as dark as mine, yet in pictures they look very dark.  She has her daddy's smile for sure and my eye shape, she actually has my mom's nose when she smiles it squinches up (p.s. I know that's not a word ha-ha) but it sure is cute!

Hannah now has maybe 30 or more words in her vocabulary.  She is truly the social butterfly (like her daddy) she says "hey and bye" to every single person you come across.  Hannah even says it so loudly that people turn and chuckle.  I know it is a matter of time before she actually tells me what she wants or if something hurts.  She still thinks that the word "mommy" means she wants something or anything ranging from wanting to be held or wanting more food/drink.  I am still keeping Hannah drinking water, occasionally I will get her an apple juice, but she hardly ever drinks all of it! She is in love with water she even tries to say it! It sounds more like "waaa-er".  She now says the blessing by holding our hands and bowing her head! I have got to video this, its adorable! So many things have changed I wish I could mark down all of them but my list would go on and on forever. 

Every day I love that little girl more.  I don't know exactly what happened with the Casey Anthony trial but it got me thinking... I wouldn't hesitate one second if someone ever tried to hurt Hannah.  I cant imagine hurting her myself.  It would surely be something that you could never forgive yourself for.  I look at Hannah and she is such a blessing, such a gift from God.  I didn't deserve her but God was kind enough to give me this beautiful little angel. I will give her what I can and love her with all my heart, I can only pray that God will take good care of her when I am not there to do so and give me the strength to raise her the way He sees fit! Have a lovely day, and give those little ones an extra hug and kiss... 

Gatlinburg Equals a New Love for Me!

We went to Gatlinburg for the weekend, I havent been there since I was a little kid, I really dont even have a memory of it.  But we decided to take this long weekend and head up there for a relaxing mini vacation!

We got there around 8 or so and enjoyed the rest of the evening strolling around the main street if you will.  Our hotel was in walking distance so it was very nice.  Then Saturday morning we woke up and headed down for a little breakfast at the hotel buffet! (YUMMM!!) Afterwards we decided to do a little swimming before we headed to our first "excursion" of the day.  Believe it or not the pool outside was too cold for us so we headed inside to the heated pool and swam Hannah had a blast.  She has really come to enjoy the water these days!

Around 11:30 we went up and got ready for lunch and then went to the Titanic Museum.... Which was totally awesome! I couldn't believe how huge it was inside, all the things they had done and collected!  They even had an "ice burg" and 28 degrees water you could stick your hand it.  It was really neat.  I will say however Hannah slept for the entire time we were in line waiting to "board" Hannah slept and then after about 10 minutes of being in the museum she decided would be perfect to wake up and make a fuss.  She didn't want to stay in the stroller. She was ready to get down and run around or at least be held for the entire 2 to 3 hours we were in there (not really an option when she weighs 24 lbs) she hasn't quite mastered wrapping her legs around me to help hang on so it made things a little rushed to say in the least.  We had to rush through most of the museum and that was okay, we got the gist of it!

We didn't have ANY time in between events after the museum we had reservations to attend the Dixie Stampede at 6.... WE LOVED IT TOO! I haven't been in years and shockingly Hannah loved every minute of it... Including the corn on the cob, I think that was her favorite part of the meal! It was a really fun afternoon and a beautiful day to add to it.

That night we headed back uptown and walked around to more stores, I know it was the 4th of July weekend and what not but I seriously couldn't believe how many people were packed on those sidewalks and stores.  But regardless of the amount of people or the heat of the day, we all had a time we will forever remember!

Olive Garden our last day...

All because she couldn't have her way... lol

She now smiles really big and tries to say CHEEESE when we take pictures of her!

I only wish I could nap... This time I wasn't successful... :(