Grandma Kenny's First Gifts

Mom drove through Lawrence this week, bestowing books on Baby Mildren!  I was excited to get one of my own childhood favorites, Goodnight Moon.  She also got a cute cat book, a soft Curious George book, several board books, and a Spanish-English book!  Fun fun!

12 Weeks = Food

This week things have finally started to calm down a bit with my uncooperative body and energy levels.  My appetite is SLOWLY returning and I've even been able to choke down some vegetables!  I feel less fatigued, but I am still sneaking in a healthy amount of napping.  I think some of that has to do with the fact that my grad school classes ended this week, giving me a second wind!

Baby News!

Finally, Finally! The moment James and I have been waiting for!

Over the Fourth of July weekend, we spilled the beans about the baby to everyone. :)

In Springfield, we told Rob and Linden we had a gift for them, and asked them to close their eyes, and we handed them a refrigerator magnet that said, "Praying for Baby Mildren." Linden took several gasps of air before looking over to make sure what she was reading was true, and when she saw us smiling, she knew it was real!

In Neosho, MO where my parents live, James and I concocted a Parent Trap of sorts, where we invited his parents to Neosho under the guise that my parents wanted to see them (which was true), and told my parents that his parents would like to come over (which was also true), though neither side knew anything was up, because we played it cool...

Once James' parents were there, after some general chit chat, we almost lost the Moms (who didn't know we had a hidden agenda).  They popped up to get busy with dinner, so there was no smooth way to ask them to come and watch the video we'd made.  Finally, we just told them to come watch the 'home improvement' video (my mom even asked how long it was, and I was hoping she could manage to stay seated for three minutes, and she luckily complied!).

We'd made an iMovie with the song 'Upside Down' by Jack Johnson, and we went through our house doing shots of "Good" (before) then "Better" (after) of home improvement projects we've done since moving in March 2010.

At the end of the song was the finale of slides we've been waiting months to share!

Engaged: October 2004

Married: May 2005

Pregnant with Baby Mildren!

Due Date: January 14, 2012

At first, for a good 10 seconds, NO ONE in the room breathed or moved.  My mom later said she thought it was a joke (who, James and I--joke? :) but then once they realized it was true, tears and shouts of joy filled the room, and the celebration began!!  Lynda agreed that it was very thoughtful of us to make the due date her birthday. ;)  All the parents were ecstatic (and beyond shocked, really really shocked), and we were happy to get to share the great news!  We called our siblings, too, and it was fun to have the parents there to hear their reactions at the same time we did.

 Moments after finding out the news!

The future grandmas are excited! 

...and so are the future grandpas!

Mildren Family

 Kenny Family

 General excitement :)

After dinner and calming down a bit, we went down into Dad's recording studio to lay down a few more tracks of Mamma Mia by ABBA, which, ironically, Dad and I had started recording earlier before he even knew I was pregnant! ha!

It was a GREAT day!

11 Weeks - Getting Harder to Hide!

At 11 weeks pregnant, I have a suspicion some close friends are wondering what's wrong with me. Why the spare tire? Why the acne? Why the lack of appetite? Why the abstention from alcohol? Why the fatigue? It's summer after all, shouldn't that give me more energy? Oh well, soon thee secret will be out and I won't look like I've given up on life! ha! It probably doesn't help that I don't feel the need to fix my hair, wear makeup, or dress cute in the summer, which has me sliding further downhill. :) James thinks I'm crazy to think all of this, but I am sure the thought, "Boy, she sure is letting herself go!" has entered at least one person's mind between May and now!

10 Weeks : Two and a half months

I'd like to say this has been a miraculous week of health, but it hasn't. In fact, I haven't been feeling any better--still queasy and nauseous, napping as often as time will allow. My food choices seem limited, and I do not want to eat a thing after about 5:00. Though that hasn't prevented weight gain, somehow!

I spent time this week creating the "Surprise, We're Pregnant!" video we are going to show our parents soon, guised as a home improvement slideshow. I hope they will be surprised indeed! Not surprisingly, I am not 'showing' yet, just looking a little more plump. :)

9th week: Baby Mildren's First Picture

This week, James and I got our first peek at Baby Mildren! We had our first sonogram, and I have to say, I'm already a proud mama! Baby Mildren is right on track with everything looking great, including the heartbeat (177 beats per minute strong) and the bit o' leg we could make out on the imaging. Very cool! We're both thrilled that there was only ONE child inside of me, no twins, please! I hear they can be kind of ornery. ;)

8th Week Ain't a Great Week

Sadly, the nausea and fatigue continue, with sleeping being my number one priority. Poor James, where did his fun-loving wife who could stay up until 9:00 pm go?! :) I wish there was more to report, but basically when all you do is sleep and think about sleep, it hasn't left much room for anything else...

I was so out of it this week I didn't even get a picture! Sorry, all.