We LOVE Jaiden Carter :)

After 20+ hours of labor and then a C-Section Jaiden Carter Combs has finally arrived. He was born Saturday December 19th at 8:02 pm weighing 6lbs 15ozs, 20 inches long. I’d say expecting the unexpected was the theme for his labor and delivery… not going to lie, it was rough; but I’d do it again tomorrow if I had to. He’s absolutely perfect and we love him so much already. My labor started at 11:50 on Friday night with my water breaking. I heard a slight popping noise and then came the gush. I had every intention of laboring as long as possible from home, but after getting in the shower, I realized that I had meconium staining. The Doctor had talked with us about the possibility of this happening and said that it was really important to get to the hospital quickly because both baby and I will need to be monitored extra closely. We arrived at the hospital around 2am and the chaos had began. I won’t get into all the nitty gritty details, but to sum it all up labor was slow, super intense, full of back labor, and the clock was ticking. In an ideal world, when meconium staining is present, Doctors usually like to have baby out within 12 to 18 hours. There is a large risk for infections and other potential problems the longer baby lingers inside. I was given an epidural at 12:15 and felt some relief, but little did I know that feeling would soon subside. I had roughly 2 hours of slight relief, and then the rest of the time.... absolutely nothing. My epidural didn’t work and all the nurses, doctors, and anesthesiologists were baffled. I no longer had any relief and was now feeling every second of pain and pressure with each coming contraction. I was put on oxygen and had to have an internal monitor placed on babys head because his heartbeat was slowing. By 5pm I had finally dilated to 9 and a half cm and this is where everything gets crazy. After being at 9 ½ cm for over 2 hours, the Doctor came in said we needed to talk. My cervix had not made any progress in hours and said that it truly was hard to say whether or not I would ever get to 10 cm and said we should probably start talking about a c-section. Anyone that has been in labor knows that being at 9 ½ cm and not being allowed to push is pretty much impossible, especially with no medical relief. The pressure was so intense and had taken all the energy I had left out of me. I had now reached 20 hours of labor and babys heartbeat wasn’t where they were hoping it would be. The Doctor left the room so we could talk about what we wanted to do, and in the next contraction I was screaming to get him back in the room and that I was alright with going ahead with a c-section. The anesthesiologist came in to administer the anesthesia for the c-section and then I was wheeled away. In the OR I kept telling the team of 8 people that the anesthesia was NOT working. I could feel everything still. They kept saying that it would kick in soon and I was so ready for this to happen. I never had any intentions on doing 20 hours of labor with no relief. They were washing my belly and through ragged breathing from contractions I kept commenting on how cold the soap was. They kept saying there is no way you can feel this. Hmmm, you are getting ready to cut me open and I can feel everything, someone needs to start believing me here because at this point I was freaking out. They hung up the curtain so I could no longer see anything and said that they were going to pinch me with this terrifying looking instrument… I nearly jumped off the table when they did it, and I could see that they finally believed me. They immediately decided that they had to put me under and then out came the gas. I’m sure Kevin was surprised when he walked into the room and saw me out cold, tubes in my mouth, tape over my eyes, and another oxygen mask over my nose. Definitely not what I had envisioned and planned on, but luckily everything went perfectly. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression, I loved my Doctor. The epidural not working only happens to such a small percentage of people that they were just so surprised! The Doctors did an amazing job and I’m so pleased with how everything turned out. The NICU nurses were in the OR ready to monitor little monkey as soon as he came out. I finally woke up an hour after he was born to my mom shaking me and telling me Jaiden was here. I will never forget what it was like seeing him for the first time. He was absolutely perfect and I would honestly go through all the pain and chaos for him again in a heartbeat. Our stay in the hospital was wonderful. We had the most caring nursing staff working with us. The only rough patch we had with Jaiden was his bilirubin levels. At around 1am on Tuesday we were woken up by a couple nurses telling us that his levels weren’t improving enough for him to be discharged the following morning. They were going to test him again at 8am, but if his levels hadn’t made a major improvement he would have to stay in the NICU for a couple days. They had brought us the “bili” lamp to use throughout the night and told me that the more I nursed, the better off he would be. Enough said. I stayed awake the entire night and nursed him every hour on the hour. The pediatrician came in after he had the results and said that I deserved a blue ribbon. I had nursed more than anyone else on the floor and his levels had dropped enough for him to be discharged. Wooooohooo! We arrived home late Tuesday and it felt amazing. There was always different people coming in to monitor Jaiden and I that being at home was so much more peaceful than I had dreamed. I am trying to stay as low key as I can because of the c-section and am enjoying every moment with our little guy. I have slight pain and discomfort throughout the day, but the worst part is all the swelling. Because of the meconium staining and long labor I was given 11 liters of fluid!!! Yuck! I thought I was swollen before! Hopefully only a couple more days of that.

Although Jaiden is only 5 days old, he has changed our lives forever. It’s truly amazing how you can love someone so much in such a short time. He is a perfect addition to our family and we are enjoying every moment with him. We can’t wait for you all to meet him. We have truly been blessed beyond belief this holiday season and are thanking God for all he has given us. Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. We love you.

1 more week until D-Day

Its official, I’m finally making progress!!! Woohooooo! Baby has made his way down and has settled head first in the birth canal. My cervix has thinned, no dilation yet, but labor could start at any point!! I still have no real complaints other than feeling a little off still, annoying edema, and of course the darn toothache is back! I swear, I’m about ready to yank it out of my mouth myself. Doctor gave me the green light to start up the Keflex antibiotic again if I need to, but I’m hoping baby will arrive before it gets too bad. Contractions are definitively getting stronger, longer, and closer together but are still coming at random times throughout the day. There will be times when I have 7 monster contractions in a half hour, and then nothing for the next 5 hours. It’s just a matter of time though. Our Doctor was pushing on my belly again to estimate Jaiden’s weight, and had us a little worried for a second. He kept saying, oh my, he’s going to be a BIG boy... WOW he’s really big.... and kept pushing my belly with a crazy look on his face. I shot Kevin a paranoid glance and then slowly asked the Doctor, how BIG are we talking?! He then asked me if I was having a mild contraction... I told him I was and he started to laugh. I didn’t think to say anything when he started pushing all around, but it was a little uncomfortable. He thought my entire uterus was just baby. He then waited for the contraction to be done and agreed with the previous Doctor thinking right around 7 lbs 7 oz, but under 8 lbs. Again, we shall see. With what I’ve heard from other new mom’s, I’m not holding my breath for that to be completely accurate. I have mastered the waddle-walk now as baby Jaide’s head is causing a little bit of pressure. I’m sure I look ridiculous walking around, but that’s alright. I now have people come up to me wherever I am and ask how much longer I have. I wish I could take a picture of their faces when I say oh, about a week! Haha Their eyes pop out and then ask me what I’m doing out... like I really have any desire to just sit and wait. I’m trying to stay busy people! If we make it to our next appointment, it will be next wednesday... little monkey's due date :)

I finally got our maternity/belly pictures from our shoot. My belly is obviously quite a bit bigger than in these pictures, but I thought I’d share a couple. These were taken when I was just about 35 weeks along.

Interesting Day

So the last couple days I have been feeling... off. Not sick, just different. I had commented to my mom and Kevin on a couple occasions that something felt different. I was thinking maybe it was just because I’m at the end of the pregnancy, or baby is just getting bigger and taking up more space, but my stomach has been weird. I’ve also had lots of swelling and a little headache to go along with it. I figured everything was probably fine and went about my day. This afternoon I had uncontrollable vomiting for about a half hour straight. Not so fun. I called the doctor and she asked me tons of questions and wanted me to get to some place where my blood pressure could be checked out and then to call them back to let them know. She also wanted to know all about baby’s movements throughout the day, and of course I started panicking. He’s always been so active but I remember a couple days this week telling Kevin he’s been on a little bit of a lull. He still is moving, but just not as much. By the time I got off the phone with the doctor I am now in a full panic mode. The doctor kept saying she thought everything was probably fine.... but call me crazy, I just needed a little more clarification then that. I called a couple friends to get there advice and all of them said that I should definitely just go into the OBGYN office to get peace of mind, especially being that today is Friday, the office is closed until Monday and that I really didn’t need to stress about everything for the next 3 days. I called them back and just said I would be so much more comfortable the next couple days if I knew everything was fine, not just with me, but baby too. They were fine with that and told me to come in when I could. I got to the office and they did a non-stress test for 20 minutes to monitor both myself and baby. Luckily, everything is perfect. My blood pressure was right where it should be, and Jaiden’s responses were perfect. She was explaining that they like to see at least 2 peaks in his heartbeat over a 20 minute period as it correlates to his movements and lets them know he’s doing alright in there. He had 3 peaks in 13 minutes, AND it actually recorded that I haven’t been losing my mind and had 3 contractions in the 20 minutes hooked up to the machine. She said there was a good chance that all of the feeling “off” is a sign of early labor!! Woohoo!! Obviously no one knows just how long "early" labor will last, but at least it's a step in the right direction! I won’t know much more about progression until my appointment on Monday, but she thought everything was completely fine and that there is no reason to stress about anything. I just hope that the throwing up thing doesn’t continue. I’m pretty sure I had my fair share of that in the beginning :( I will continue to keep everyone up to date!

Snowed In!

Today was supposed to be my 38 week appointment, but I had to cancel this morning. We are under a blizzard warning until this evening, and with good roads it takes over a half hour to get to my doctors office. Needless to say, we didn’t think it would be worth it to risk it. My next appointment is scheduled for Monday afternoon. This past Saturday, Sunday, and then again last night Kevin and I were timing some contractions so fingers crossed maybe we won’t have an appointment Monday. How’s that for wishful thinking?! haha! I am still having Braxton hicks throughout the day, but the contractions are much different. Now if I could only figure out how to keep ‘em coming we’d be in good shape. In the meantime I’m just trying to stay busy... time seems to be creeping I think in part because I’m just so ready for him finally be here. On the agenda for today, bake some Christmas cookies and work on some scrapbooking :) Hopefully I’ll have more news soon.

Dear December, I have been waiting 9 long months for you to arrive!!!

This morning I had my 37 week appointment. Little monkey was moving around constantly so they weren’t able to pinpoint an exact heartbeat, but it was somewhere between 147-153 bpm. I am still measuring to the exact day so they seem pleased with that. They left it completely up to me whether or not I would like to be checked for any progression... and at first I was like yessss I want to know. The more I thought about it, I decided against it. If I am dilated it would get my hopes up, and if there was no progression yet I’d be a little bummed! I figure little JaiderBug is going to come on his own time (possibly with a little, maybe a lot of coxing from me!) so no need to stress over anything. No reason to bring on any discomfort that isn’t necessary! He is officially considered to be full term now so he is welcome ANYTIME.... the sooner the better for me! I figure I’ll give him another week to be all comfy and cozy in the belly, but come December 13th, I will be doing/eating/cleaning/whatever I can to help this baby along. I was 10 days early, so we’re hoping maybe he will follow in that pattern... not to mention if he did come on the 13th he would share a birthday with his Grandpa Horan and Uncle Ryan. The nurse pushed all around on my belly and felt confident saying that Jaiden was right around 6 lbs give or take an ounce or two. She also said that if I went all the way to full term she didn’t think he would be any bigger than 7 lbs 7 oz... so we shall see. I am still feeling wonderful, with the exception of all the annoying swelling! I consider myself very fortunate to not have had problems with it up until this point, but it’s not fun. My ankles, calves, hands,... basically I feel gross, but only a couple more weeks! Baby boy has definitely dropped, so that’s something at least! I’ve developed quite the waddle when walking!!

Just a heads up, we will be taking the laptop to the hospital with us, and Kevin will be updating the blog to keep everyone up to date with news as it comes.

36 week appointment

It’s hard to believe that our 9 month extremely long and super slow countdown has finally reached just 4 short weeks to go… fingers crossed, maybe even less than that! All of my brothers and sisters came early except Alisha, so I’m hoping that since I’ve inherited so many other pregnancy traits from my Mom, I just might get lucky and have an earlier arrival than anticipated. We have officially reached the point where I can let out a massive sigh of relief. Although I completely realize that each day on the inside is beneficial to his growth and development, there would be no need to worry if he came at any time now. Our hospital bag, (well, I guess I should say massive suitcase) is just about packed and both Kevin and my Mom know to have their cell phones attached to them constantly.

Our 36 week appointment was on Monday morning, and it ended up going slightly different than I imagined. Kevin was originally suppose to be up north for a couple days (which ended up changing… he was in Grand Rapids for the day, but nothing overnight) but still couldn’t make the appointment so as I said last blog entry my Mom was going to fill in. Unfortunately, Amanda got a horrible spat of whatever yucky flu is going around and my Mom went up to be with her for the day on Sunday. Not knowing whether or not she was going to come down with whatever my sister has, I decided to play it safe and just go to the appointment by myself. I have had both the seasonal flu vaccine and the swine flu vaccine, but with only 4 weeks left, I just wanted to play it safe. Jaiden’s heartbeat was back up to 151 bpm and he has stayed head down. I haven’t started dilating yet and have now entered the weekly appointment stage of pregnancy. I was given packets of information to read up on for delivery options and then sent on my way. I’m glad Kevin didn’t take work off and that my Mom didn’t make the appointment… it wouldn’t have been worth it. I was probably in and out within 15 minutes. I did talk to the Doctor more about my recent turn of events… many of you have probably heard this story, but if not, here ya go…

Tuesday morning of last week I woke up with a slight toothache. It wasn’t too bad so I decided to just watch it for a couple days and see what happened. Well, I woke up Wednesday morning with shooting pain from my tooth to my temple, and knew something was up. I called my OBGYN and talked to her about the different options I had, and what antibiotics would be alright if necessary, and then called my dentist. I have only had one cavity in my entire life and this particular tooth has caused enough problems for me for a lifetime. The cavity was extremely close to the nerve, so not only is it more painful, but I’ve already had to have it resealed a couple different times. My dentist wanted me to come in within the hour. Its amazing how fast people react to different situations when they know you are 36 weeks pregnant! As luck would turn out I need a root canal asap. I have absolutely no intentions on doing that until after our little man is born, so in the meantime they wanted me on an antibiotic and I am happy to report that I’m finally doing much better. It was a rough couple days though. Wednesday night I slept for a total of an hour and 27 minutes and cried like a baby the rest of the night. That was torture, and I’m sure poor Kevin paid the price the following day at work. Ok, enough talk about the annoying tooth.

We are dying to see our pictures from the photo shoot a couple weekends ago. We had an absolute blast! The photographer showed us a couple of the pictures on her camera that she had taken, and it made us want to see more!! She will be taking newborn pictures of baby Jaid when he comes (along with the 100s that I’ll be taking) and I cannot wait for those either. I’ll post the pictures whenever we get them.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Kevin and I have so much to be thankful for this year and are truly grateful to have such amazing family and friends in our lives.

6 weeks to go!

Monday morning was our 34 week appointment and baby and I are still right on track. Pretty hard to believe that in only 2 weeks time we will have reached the point where they would no longer try to stop labor if it started! There are no reasons to believe that he’s coming early, but it’s still pretty crazy to think that he will be here so soon. His heartbeat was 140 bpm and he is officially in the right position… head down! Let’s just hope he stays that way! The Doctor was able to tell me exactly how Jaiden was positioned, which was pretty neat. Now I realize why I’m feeling little pitter patters on my ribs… nothing painful (I’ve heard some horror stories!) but he sure has active little legs! I have been feeling great still and my only complaint is that my comfort level is slightly dwindling. I can’t seem to get comfortable a lot of the time, and I wake up tons at night... but it’s nothing a good nap can’t fix. Our next appointment is Monday the 23rd, and from that appointment on we go every week! This is a big appointment where they are going to go over different policies, procedures, and get a birth plan going, but of course Kevin is going to be out of town that week until Thanksgiving! Luckily my Mom is going to take on Kevin’s role and will be at the appointment with me. They suggested having someone at the appointment if Kevin couldn’t make it because it’s going to be a lot of information to take in and it would be nice if someone else was there to help remind me of it all and help keep me calm when the time comes where I need to remember everything that was said. I feel like we’ve really entered the final stretch can’t wait until our little man arrives.

We are going up to Grand Rapids this weekend to get maternity/belly/Christmas pictures taken, but in the meantime Kevin decided to get a little creative. Here are a few of the pictures he took. I’m sure you can all guess what he was adamant on buying for baby as soon as we found out it was a little boy… Michael Jordan basketball shoes. I’m sure that when Kevin gets Jaiden dressed, he will most likely be wearing these with every outfit, whether they match or not!

34 weeks...

7 weeks 5 days....

This past week has been a busy one! Sunday, October 25th was my baby shower, and it was beyond anything I had imagined! My mom did such an amazing job with all the planning, decorations, and delicious homemade food. The menu consisted of bread bowls with broccoli cheese soup, salad, caramel dip with tons of fresh fruit, donuts and apple cider… pretty much all of my favorites. We ate lunch, played a couple games (trivia game, baby food guessing game which I was horrible at, and a memory game), opened gifts, and devoured a delicious cake. We received so many amazing gifts and are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives. I do have to say Jaiden is one spoiled little guy. I can’t wait to see him exploring each and every one of his new toys.

Tuesday was our 32 week appointment which lasted for a whole 5 minutes! The further along I get, the faster the appointments are. This one consisted of me weighing in, listening to babys heartbeat, and then measuring my belly. Kevin and I both had a little look of panic on our faces after we were told that the heartbeat was 128 bpm. The lowest it’s been since I was 12 weeks along was 158 bpm so we were definitely a little nervous. Our Dr reassured us that it was within the range of it being right where it should be. Up until this week all of our appointments have been in the morning and this one was at 1:50. Our Doctor said that there is a good chance that he was in a ‘food comatose’ from me just eating lunch and that he was simply taking a nap. He assured us that there was no need to worry about a thing.

Our house is starting to look more and more ready for baby to come. When taking a step into our front door it’s hard to overlook the swing, bouncy seat, activity gym, pack ‘n play and so on. Kevin sure has been busy this week! Who knew there would be so many things to put together?! I should have taken a picture of our living room before we set up all the baby gear because it’ll probably be awhile before its neat and tidy again!




























































































32 weeks... only 8 to go!

67 Days To Go!!

Tuesday morning was my 30 WEEK appointment!! Only 9 and a half more weeks until our little monkey arrives. I was a little nervous after the Dr measured me because usually I have measured to the exact day… if my 28 week appointment landed on 27 weeks 6 days I measure 27 6/7 cm, which always amazed the Dr because not a lot of people are right on the dot like that. I was measuring smaller than normal at my appointment, but was quickly reassured that from here on out the measurements will differ depending on the way baby is positioned. Jaiden’s heartbeat was still strong as ever beating away at 158 bpm. As much as I’ve hated standing on the scale and watching the numbers go up, I’m right on track with that as well. I’ve now gained 19 lbs since becoming pregnant. I know there will be more added on to that, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed it comes off after baby is born. It might be a little rough with all the upcoming holidays. My mom and grandma are quite the amazing chefs, and I’m already drooling over this new recipe I found for a pumpkin cheesecake…

I’ve encountered a new lovely symptom of pregnancy this past week… crazy, wicked, annoying heartburn. Yuck!! I guess I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed and believe in all the ol’ wise tales that it just means that Jaiden’s going to come out with lots of hair on his cute little head. We debate this constantly… I really didn’t have a lot of hair as a newborn and Kevin came out with more hair on his head than a gorilla has on his whole body. Look for upcoming posts with both of our newborn pictures. Who will Jaiden look the most like?!… Be careful when you answer this. Just remember who will have carried him around for 9 months…

I shot my last wedding until baby comes this past Saturday. From the time I left my house to the minute I walked back in through the door it ended up being just about a 15 hour day. Keep in mind I’m on my feet the entire day with the exception of driving to and from. Needless to say when I got home I was hurting. I always get Braxton Hicks when I’m on my feet for long periods of time so by the end of the night my stomach was hard as a rock and my body was telling me take it easy the next day. I hibernated for the next couple days, but am back to feeling great.

My mom, Kevin and I drove up to Grand Rapids yesterday to do one last ultrasound with Amanda. At first Jaiden was sleeping ever so peacefully, but not for long. He is getting so big! It was amazing to be able to see the change in the last few weeks. He is looking quite scrunched in there, poor little guy! He kept stretching out with his arms above his head and trying his hardest to kick his feet out for some more room. Only a couple more months and he’ll have all the space he needs! We have the cutest video of him yawning; I’ll try and upload it at some point. You should have heard all of us watching him move around yesterday, he already has everyone completely wrapped around his little finger and he doesn’t even know it yet.

I think I have officially experienced “the popping out” stage in pregnancy. My family hadn’t seen me for about a week and was completely blown away by the new and improved bump. Alisha came up from behind me at her volleyball game and as soon as I turned around her eyes popped out, jaw dropped to the floor and she said whoa! Your belly is getting so big. Haha It’s hard to imagine what the next 9 more weeks will do to it!

28 weeks

















29 weeks

















30 weeks



































Baby Jaiden

12 weeks to go!

I had my 28 week appointment this morning, and everything is still going great for baby and me. I had to do the glucose tolerance testing on Friday, and got the results today… I passed! No gestational diabetes for me. I was surprised to find that drinking the glucola wasn’t as bad as I expected. Is it bad to say that I thought it actually tasted good?! It was super thick, making it a hard to swallow, but the taste wasn’t half bad. I’m pretty sure Jaiden LOVED the sugar test. After finishing the liquid/syrupy mixture I had to sit in the lobby for an hour before they could do a blood test. I was resting my book on my stomach while reading, and the entire lobby was laughing at the way my book was bouncing around. I’m pretty sure he was on a little bit of a sugar high! Everyone thought it was pretty funny to watch. He is super active everyday and I still love every minute of it. We’re pretty sure he loves the sound of his momma’s laugh; whenever I start laughing, he goes crazy! Kevin can get him moving too… whenever he blows on my belly making a strange sort of fart sound, (?? Sorry, I’m not really sure how to describe it ??) little monkey always kicks back at him. We have fun making our little man move around. It’s so cool to be able to feel him move around and watch it too. My doctor’s appointments are now scheduled for every other week... it’s starting to feel like we’re entering the final stretch!!

I’ve had a couple new experiences in the last couple weeks, first of which being that I’ve now officially experienced Braxton Hicks. At first, for whatever reason I was scared out of my mind. I seriously thought I was going into labor!! I had pain throughout my abdomen and my stomach was as hard as a rock. I’ve talked to a couple people who experienced them and asked how I’m supposed to tell the difference between Braxton Hicks and real contractions?! I struggled when all of the responses were the same… “trust me, you will know”. Hmmm. How will I “just know” when it’s nothing that I’ve ever been through before?? I talked to the Dr. about it today and feel much better about it all. I thought I would have been a little more prepared for a Braxton Hicks because we learned all about it in our birthing classes, but when it actually happens for the first time it can be a little strange and catch you off guard.

Another ‘first’ happened this morning when I finally felt baby have the hiccups! I just hope Kevin is around the next time he gets them. I know he would love to feel it.

With the changing seasons, cooler weather, fall decorations everywhere, and the anticipation of the upcoming holidays, it’s making me more and more excited for baby’s arrival. Time is going by quickly and I’m thrilled about it. We cannot wait to snuggle up with our little man.














28 weeks

Ultrasound (26 weeks 2 days)

This past Friday, my mom and I drove up to Grand Rapids to meet up with my sister and have an ultrasound so we could see baby Jaiden again! I know Kevin was bummed he wasn’t able to make it this time, but I’m sure we’ll be back to GR to do it again soon. I’m pretty sure it was the combination of the warm jelly-goo that she put on my belly and the sensation of the probe moving on my stomach, but I have never felt him move as much as he was during this time. It was so fun to watch him sucking his thumb, rubbing his face, swallowing, balling his legs up and then delivering the mighty blows to my abdomen that I am now feeling all day long. Amanda wasn’t able to figure out how to convert the ultrasound to be in 3 or 4D but is going to try and figure it out for the next time around. I’m just so thrilled, lucky, and truly grateful to have been able to see baby again. I was bumming as soon as our first ultrasound was over because I already wanted more of him. I just can’t get enough… I can only imagine what it’ll be like when he finally makes his arrival.

I feel so fortunate to report that I have still been feeling great lately. I’ve had to alter my eating schedule because I am finding that with each passing day, I have less and less space for food. Instead of doing 3 meals, I eat small portions every couple hours. This seems to be helping a lot. I was at a point where I was so uncomfortable after eating, but now am absolutely fine. I have the yucky sugar test on Friday and then my 28 week appointment next Tuesday... wow, time is flying by now!!

The fence is finished, and it’s amazing!!! It’s so nice to just be able to let the dogs out without having to deal with anything other than opening a door. They love being able to run around without the restrictions of their leash. I’ll try to get some pictures of the fence for the next post. It’s a cedar fence, 4 ft tall and the pickets are about 5 inches wide for all those who were curious as to what it looks like.

We are both getting more and more excited everyday for little monkey to arrive. It’s pretty crazy seeing the countdown be double digits; we’ve been so used to seeing it in the 100s and now its 93 more days! We can’t wait to finally meet him! There are a few pictures below from the ultrasound. Amanda, we owe you big time… Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!

our little monkey :)














hands by his sweet little face














waving at us














Curling his legs up to get more leverage for his kicks

Exciting News!!!

My sister and I had been playing phone tag for the past week and finally were able to get a hold of each other last night. She had left me a message that she had something exciting to tell me so I was of course dying to know what it was. Well… because she’s pretty much awesome and was accepting into the sonography program at Grand Valley a couple months ago, she just found out that she has access to all the lab equipment including the ability to do not only 3D but also 4D ultrasounds whenever her heart desires. Are you kidding me?! I swear I was so excited I didn’t know if I should start shouting or crying. Kevin and I have wanted to get a 3D ultrasound done this entire pregnancy, but of course it’s not available at our doctor’s office yet. Needless to say, we pretty much lucked out. I’m absolutely thrilled about it! I actually get to see little monkey again, and again, and maybe one more time :) The plan is to go up next Friday (Sept 18th) and do the first (I’ll be a little over 26 weeks), then probably head back up to Grand Rapids again right around 30 weeks, and then just play it by ear from there. She will be able to print pictures out and everything… I seriously cannot wait!!

Kevin and Denny are starting a new project this weekend… putting up a fence in our backyard. Some of you may be thinking, hmm that’s exciting, but what’s the big deal?! Well, I personally cannot imagine having to bundle up not only myself, but also our little man in the dead of winter to take the dogs outside to go to the bathroom. It’s going to be so nice to be able to just open up the back door and let them do their business. It’s going to make such a huge difference even in our day to day lives right now prior to baby’s arrival. Anyone that’s been around our male dog (Mookie) knows that he likes to mark his territory at every opportunity he gets and Bella just likes to lay around outside, so the fence is going to be such a good thing for us all.

One final thing… for all those wondering minds out there curious as to what names we are thinking about, we’ve finally decided. He’ll always be little monkey to us, but we figure we need something besides that to put on the birth certificate. He seems to like it, always moving around when we call him by it. Our little man’s name is going to be Jaiden Carter Combs.

24 weeks along!

We had our 24 week appointment on Tuesday morning, and everything is moving along perfectly. Baby and I are right where the Dr wants us to be. With the exception of feeling utterly exhausted lately, I feel great! Little monkeys heartbeat was 161 bpm and the nurse was very pleased with that. He has been continuing to move around constantly! Kevin finally felt him move a couple weeks ago (right around 22 and a half weeks) but everyone else has struck out. The nurse told me a couple tricks as to how to get baby moving if I ever feel like he hasn’t moved as much as he should. Drinking water, rubbing my stomach, tightening stomach muscles, changing positions, and if I get really desperate, placing a bag of frozen vegetable on my stomach!!!! She said that surely would get him active… (I think that would be enough to get me to thrash, kick, punch, and so on too!!) My mom and Alisha have been trying for weeks to feel any movement, but I think he’s a little shy. I’m sure they’ll feel something soon… his movements are getting stronger and stronger each week. My next appointment is Sept. 29, and I have to do the dreaded sugar test 3 days prior to it. I’m not looking forward to it at all, yuck! I’ve heard it tastes absolutely repulsive.

Kevin and Denny started a new project last weekend… baby’s closet :) I horribly sketched out what I was envisioning in my head, and was blown away with the finished product. They did an amazing job, and I’m thrilled to be able to get much more use out of it then the way it was before. The rest of the nursery is coming along nicely, not quite finished but close. Once we decide baby’s name we will put that on the wall above the changing table. I’ve posted some pictures below.

Kevin and I had our first birthing class Wednesday evening. I wasn’t really quite sure what to expect, but we were both really pleased with the amount of information we left with. I don’t think anyone going into labor with their first baby is completely ready and prepared just because everything is so new and unknown, but I do feel like we are learning a lot. We have more classes still to come so hopefully some of my fears and anxieties about giving birth will subside… hopefully.

To any pregnant family or friends reading this I have one bit of advice… go out and buy a body pillow! I have finally invested in one and I cannot begin to describe how much better I am sleeping at night. It has made a huge difference and I’m hoping that getting a full night of sleep will help with the exhaustion I am feeling.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!