Blog Re-Vamp

I felt like since this blog isn't exclusively about Regan anymore, and will soon have a new addition to update about, that we needed a change.

Now this blog will be about our entire family and what is going on in our lives as a family of four.  Since Rian will be the last Kerl baby, it was time to think of a new title too.  Since Regan is "the bean" and we have been calling Rian "bean 2.0", the new name seems appropriate.  Overall I'm really liking the new scheme.

We have been having a busy weekend enjoying the nice weather.  I have a doctors appointment on Tuesday, and hopefully a final ultrasound, so I will post more after then!

35 Weeks/25 Months - Happy Easter!

This year was quite a successful one for us.  We decided to let the Easter Bunny double as the role of "binky fairy".  That meant that the night before Easter Regan put her pacifiers in her Easter basket, and left them for the bunny, with a note saying that he could take them for babies who needed them.

Regan did a great job without them that night, and only asked for them back once.  Ever since we have been binky free for naps and nite time!  I'm so glad we kicked the habit quickly and easily. 

This week I am 35 weeks along, with 28 days to go!  Four weeks from today I will be in the hospital having a  baby!!  Panic mode/Nesting is due to kick in any minute.  

Jack was staying with us for the night, so he helped Regan find her basket

She went right for the books

She sat right down and started reading one!  Forget the rest of the goodies in the basket!

Oh Yeah, there's chocolate too!!

The bunny also left eggs around the house

Showing off her Easter dress

 Here are some pictures of her with her Easter basket through the years...

Happy Easter Everyone!

34 Weeks - Late Again

I"m a little late on this weeks post again, but today is the 23rd, which means Rian will be here this time next month!  Time is just flying by now!

This week we were busy making preparations for Easter and the Easter Bunny.  Here are some pictures from the past week:

Regan was having a "picnic" at the table

Grandma Judy and Papa brought her a belated birthday gift - dress-up Minnie Mouse...she LOVES it!

She wanted Minnie to have a Green outfit like her

Cosmo wanted in on the action too

Kisses for Mr. Mo

Getting ready to dye Easter Eggs

The Preparation

Adding some colored "speckles" to her eggs

Showing off her colored hands when she was done... and a little blue dye in her mouth

The Finished Products

I will take some pictures tomorrow of what the Easter Bunny brought us, and hopefully it will be warm enough to have an Easter Egg hunt outside too.  Busy day tomorrow!  Go Sabres!

33 Week Belly Pic

Here we are at Week 33 - Regan is showing her belly too!

Close-up/33 Weeks with Regan for comparison

A nice smile for once...

Regan peed in the potty today but it was hard to get her excited about it - so I made a sticker chart

Showing off her butterfly sticker!

33 Weeks

"Baby’s senses are continuing to improve -- when light peeks in through your (extremely) stretched belly, those tiny eyelids and irises blink and dilate. And, baby can now recognize and react to simple songs… time to start practicing your lullabies! Growth (at least inside your womb) is starting to slow, and you may notice baby descend into your pelvis at the end of this month. "


6 weeks left until baby boy makes his arrival.  We went out to run some errands this weekend, and stopped and Babies R' Us to see if we could pick up some of the last few things we would need for the baby.  We walked out with NOTHING... so we decided that we were probably as prepared as we're ever going to be.


We had come fantastic weather this weekend and enjoyed getting a lot of stuff done outside.  Regan has been re-discovering all of her outside toys and swing-set... getting dirty and having a blast.  I will post some new pictures soon!

32 Weeks

This week was rather uneventful for us, given how exciting the past few have been.  I don't even have any pictures to share because Kevin had my camera all weekend.

Kevin and Colin left for Atlanta, GA on Friday to attend Wrestlemania.  Here is a picture of them at a promotional event.

As of today we have 47 days until Rians arrival!  This week I used our completion coupons to finish getting some of the things that we need for him and his room.  Grandma Judy bought him a bunch a cute outfits that need to be washed and ready.  Besides that I think we are pretty well prepared in advance this time around.  I'm sure there will be other little things that we will think of that we might need in the weeks after his arrival, but hopefully we've covered all the basics.

31 Week - Update

We are all recovered from the prior weeks illness, and I just got back from the doctor.  I gained 4 pounds in 3 weeks, and the Dr. told me I need to slow down the gain.  I have no idea how I gained so much, since I've been sick for 2 weeks, and not eating much.  Also, I passed my glucose test, so that's good news.  My belly in measuring 30.5cm - right on track and Rian is moving around like a break dancer in my belly!

I got my paperwork for the hospital, with all of my instructions on it.  It's starting to feel really official now!  Only 54 days to go!  I guess we need to get moving on picking up all the little odds and ends we will need before this baby comes!

Regan is TWO!!! / 31 Weeks (don't ask what happened to 30)

So this week turned out to be another eventful week in the Kerl household.  Hold onto your hats...

To kick it all off, Kevin and I had to go out of town for a few days, leaving Regan in the capable hands of the grandmothers.  By the end of the first day, all the grandparents were calling to tell me that Regan was not feeling well, and was running a fever, and having tummy troubles.  Luckily Kevin and I were coming home the next day, so they kept a close watch on her and she seemed to be doing fine.

They day after we got home was Regan's 2nd Birthday.  She was all excited when she woke up, and we sang happy birthday to her, and told her when daddy got home we would do cake and presents.  Regan and I were supposed to go to our usual library class, and I made cake pops shaped like little chicks for all the kids:

(Why, do you ask?  Because I'm super mom... and I was guilted into making something cool after the other moms brought in snacks.  Don't judge me...)

So that morning Regan celebrated getting dressed in her birthday shirt by ceremoniously throwing up all over it.  Great.  Into the tub she went; I sent the snacks to the library with Grandma who was working anyway.  Then Regan took a nap because she looked beat all of the sudden.  She woke from her nap to the tune of more vomiting, and another bath.  After that we just snuggled on the couch and watched TV, drank plenty of fluids.  I tried to explain to her that it was not her fault, because I think she was feeling guilty about making a mess of everything.  I told her it was a bummer, and that we would have a "do-over" of her birthday on Sunday when the family was planning on coming over for dinner and cake.

Regan napped on the couch for a couple of hours, and when she woke up she was feeling much more chipper.  She even asked me to take some pictures of her:

After daddy came home, Regan ate a little bit, and kept it down, so we decided to sing happy birthday and have cake - though I removed most of the frosting from her piece - just in case.

So after cake we let her open her presents from us.  We got her all of the stuffed food you could ever dream of from IKEA, and a Magna-Doodle... all of which she absolutely loved.

By then end of the day Regan was beat, and went to bed after the usual routine.  She slept though the night, only waking once, so we knew she was still feeling a bit under the weather.

The next day we found out that all the grandparents (with the exception of Papa) AND uncle Colin, were sick with a stomach bug... of course everyone blamed Regan for being the source, but Kevin and I felt fine, so we figured it might have been one of them who gave it to her.

That day we took Regan to the doctor for her 2 year check-up.  She had seemed to fully recover from her illness the day before, and they weren't concerned about it.  She checked out perfectly, of course.  Here are her current measurements:

Weight: 23# 7oz - 11%

Height: 33" - 25%

After the doctors we went our to lunch as a family.  I spent some time working on a cake for the party on Sunday.  I made cupcakes for Regan and Beth, since her birthday was Saturday.

Kevin stayed home from work just in case one of us fell ill to the dreaded disease that was going around, but we truly felt fine... until about 7pm that night.

Kevin succumbed to the porcelain throne first, with me following close behind at about 1AM.  Neither of us slept very well, and by 8AM we were calling for back-up.  Grandma & Grandpa were feeling better by then, so they agreed to take Regan for the day so we could sleep it off.

Thankfully by the next day we were all feeling much better, however, understandably, no one wanted to come over to our house for a party, so we cancelled the food, and put the cake in the fridge for a later day.  We spent party day Lysol-ing every surface imaginable and bleaching all the laundry.  Regan did get to open some gifts from Uncle Colin and Grandma and Grandpa, and her and Grandma shared a cupcake (mostly because they were the only two who felt up to eating anything.)  Here are a few pictures of her modeling her pretty dress she was going to wear for her party.  She loved having it on, and kept saying she was "fancy".

 

On top of all of that, I am 31 weeks pregnant today, which means I have exactly 8 weeks left till this baby is born!  I go to the doctor for a routine visit on Wednesday, so i'll post more then.

29 Weeks - Better Late Than Never

So this weeks blog post is almost a week late, but I have a reasonable excuse... I was dying and slow and painful death.

This past weekend started out great.  We had a get-together at our house to celebrate Derek and Kevin's birthdays, a little belated, with the family, and then Kevin and I went to our last hockey game of the regular season.  The next morning I woke up feeling like death.  I head a fever, chills, aches, pains, sore throat, stuffy nose... you name it.  Kevin went to work for a little bit in the morning, while I checked with my doctor to confirm that I was basically SOL, and just had to suck it up.  Thankfully Kevin came home shortly after Regan woke up from her nap and I was able to just moan on the couch & lay in bed for the rest of the day.

My fever broke at 3am the next morning and after that I was able to get a little rest, but it was difficult because my nose was completely stuffed up.  Of course the only medication I can take right now is Tylenol, which really didn't help at all with the fever or the achy-ness.  Thankfully Mom & Dad came home from Florida the next day and offered to take Regan for a while so I could sleep during the day, when I could breathe out of at least one nostril at a time.  Today I am finally feeling like I am on the mend, and had a mostly  normal feeling day.  I never want to be sick + pregnant + have a toddler, ever again.  I did manage to muster up enough energy to make corned beef and cabbage on Thursday, so St. Patty's Day or as Regan calls it "Happy Saint Rian Patricks day!") was not completely lost.

Ok, whine over...

Back to baby business.  This week we get a new monthly produce!

"Baby’s energy is surging, thanks to the formation of white fat deposits beneath the skin. (Have those kicks and jabs to the ribs tipped you off yet?) Baby is also settling into sleep and waking cycles, though -- as you’ve also probably noticed -- they don’t necessarily coincide with your own. Also this month, all five senses are finally functional, and the brain and nervous system are going through major developments. "

Rian has been rocking and rolling in-utero as of late.  He loves to simply push on my belly with even pressure for long periods of time.  I think he needs more room, because its feeling awfully cramped in there already.  My belly is trying to accommodate though - only 65 days left!:

Week 29 Belly - St. Patrick's Day

Regan and I still managed to have fun on St. Patrick's day.  We went to the library for our class and learned about colors.  She wanted me to take her picture, and we have been practicing her "nice smile" instead of her chin up in the air, eyes closed, smile.

Showing off her balloon from Wegmans, her favorite part of every trip

the "other smile" - showing off her sunglasses

Uncle Colin recently taught her to wave her hand in front of her face and say "you can't see me"... thanks Colin...

Friday we went for our first inaugural trip to Kone King, this was Regan's first time eating a cone herself

She did a really good job, ate the whole thing, and was really happy about it!

Today we went up to the outlets, and stopped at the Falls

This was Regan's first visit, she liked the waterfall, but LOVED the rainbow it was making

Regan and Daddy at the Falls

I promise I will update on Monday of this week, even though there won't be much to report.