Year-End Update

Wow! This year has been so busy and gone so fast for us. I planned to do monthly updates on John but life has just been so crazy that I haven't taken the time so here is a little update on the last six months since John was born.

The summer was, of course, amazing with our new addition to the family. John has always been such a happy baby. In September I went back to work and started a new position as a Critical Care Tech in the ICU. It's been hard to leave my little guy but he gets to stay home with Daddy in the mornings while I work and Aunty Kinz babysits when Cade has class in the mornings. I work 4 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mon-Fri. I love my job and I am learning so much and getting great experience for my future nursing career. Most of all, though, I am loving being a mom!! John is such a blessing in our lives and makes me smile everyday.

Cade is working at Wal Mart as a support manager of the truck unloading crew. He works an evening shift which works great with his school schedule and lets him be home with John for a lot of the day. Cade has two more semesters of school left and then he will graduate! Yay! He will graduate with a major in Ag Systems Technology and a minor in Ag Business. Cade is such a great daddy and is totally in love with our little John. Those two are the best of buddies and love playing together.

John is growing up so fast! He is six months old already and weighs 17 lbs 1 oz and is 27 in long (as of his 6 mo check up). He can sit up by himself very well. He rolls over easily and is so close to crawling already. He will rock on his hands and knees, but doesn't quite dare pick up his hands just yet. In the last couple of days he has decided he can roll to where he needs to go. He has two teeth on the bottom and I think he is getting another one on the bottom, too. John is a great sleeper at night; he usually goes to bed around 8:30 or 9 and sleeps until about 8 or 9 in the morning. However, he is not generally a very good napper lately, but that's ok. He loves trying new foods and flavors. We love watching him grow and be so happy. John has a contagious smile and loves to laugh. Christmas was a fun experience for him and he was very spoiled with lots of new toys and clothes. We can't wait to see what the next year brings with his development.

And I think that is enough writing, so here are some pictures from Christmas:

John Cade Hunter

Our little boy finally arrived. John Cade Hunter was born Monday June 20 at 6:32 a.m. I had been having contractions on and off for weeks and Friday night they started to get a bit stronger and were 8-10 min apart but I knew I needed to wait until they were more like 5 min apart so I went to bed to wait for them to get closer. When I woke up in the morning they were gone. Same thing happened Saturday night and they were gone again by Sunday morning. So Sunday evening about 5:30 they started again but I didn't think much of it until I realized they were getting a little stronger and were 5 min apart. At 6:30 I called Cade at work to tell hum to come home. We got to the hospital about 8 and I was nervous because I wasn't in terrible pain yet and I really didn't want to go home since it was my due date.
The nurse checked me and I dilated to a 3 and about 80% effaced. She said we'd watch my contractions and check again in an hour to see if I would be staying or not. An hour later I was dilated to a 3+ but my contractions were getting really close together and were getting a lot stronger. She talked to the doctor and they decided to give me another hour. We went on a few walks and I sat on the birthing ball for a while. At the next check I was still only a 3 and 1/2, but since my contractions were so hard and so close together they decided to let me stay and the doctor (not my regular doc, but the one who was on call for her) would break my water later in the night.
Shortly after midnight I was ready for an epidural and they put that in about 12:30. The doctor finished another delivery and came to break my water at 1 a.m. By this time I was barely dilated to a 4 so progress was being made, but slowly. It took me until about 3 a.m. to get to a 5, but then when the nurse checked me again at 5 a.m. I was complete and ready to deliver. They had me wait to start pushing until 5:45 and had me stop pushing at 6 a.m. to wait for my doctor to get there (my doctor came back on shift at 5 a.m. Monday morning). I started pushing again about 6:15 and little John was born at 6:32 a.m.
Mostly my labor was pretty uneventful especially after getting my epidural, but I kept throwing up the whole time. Actually vomitting probably made me have to push a little less since throwing up is a really good push with my abdomen. :) During delivery my left leg was completely numb which was a really weird feeling and Cade had to move it for me when needed. Anyways here are some pictures of the event.

Just before leaving for the hospital. Full term right on my due date.

First picture after being born. 8lbs 2oz. 20 in long.

Holding Daddy's finger.



Mom and John after delivery.

Such a proud daddy!

Ready to come home.

Almost Here

We are on the final countdown to baby John. Last weekend we thought we would meet him, but he is just content to stay put for now. Last Saturday night I started having contractions that were stronger and closer and more regular than before. But they still weren't truly painful like I am imagining real active labor will be. So all night I debated on whether or not we should go in (and for those of you who know me well know I stress easily about things like that). Finally about 4 a.m. I decided I wasn't sleeping anyways and wouldn't get any sleep laying there stressing over it. So Cade took me to the hospital. They checked me and I was dilated to a 1+ and 80% effaced. They said they'd check again in an hour and if I had progressed at all they'd keep me, if not they'd send me home. Well the second check I hadn't dilated anymore, but she thought I was more like 90% effaced. We went home and after getting some rest, my contractions pretty much stopped. Monday they started up again, but still weren't getting super strong or any closer than about 8 minutes apart. Tuesday they were gone again and the rest of the week I didn't have much of anything happening. Thursday we had a doctor appointment and there was absolutely no change still. :(

John is really sent here to teach me patience I think. He waited patiently in heaven and now he is just content to keep growing to the last minute in my belly. I really cannot complain about the pregancy though. True I've had the typical pregnancy pains like hip joint pain, back aches, and some sciatic nerve pain the last couple of weeks, but all in all I have been very lucky in how well I've felt most of the pregnancy. I still love laying down and watching my bell jump around with his movements. I think I will miss that part when he is finally born. These last couple of weeks have been by far the slowest though. Part of it is that my body feels tired of being pregnant and ready to get back to as normal as possible. But mostly I am just so anxious to hold my baby and see what he looks like. I am so excited for Cade to finally get to hold him, too. I know this will be a huge change in our life, but I feel so ready for it and so blessed to finally be able to experience being a mother.

Here are a couple pictures from the last part of my pregnancy.

34 Weeks

39 Weeks

9 More Weeks

Today we had our 30 week appointment (I'm actually closer 31 weeks now since our appointments are on Fridays). Everything still looked great. I got my rhogam shot and they said my glucose test from last time looked good. My blood sugar was a bit on the low side actually so my doctor was happy about that. My blood pressure has stayed low and I'm right on track with weight gain. Other than typical pregnancy woes I have been feeling great. A few of the things I've learned so far: 1) stop drinking water after 9 pm so I can sleep a little longer at a time during the night. 2) a little pudding for a midnight snack can help relieve heartburn at least long enough to get back to sleep 3) if your husband wants you to have smooth legs bad enough, he will shave them for you :)

We are just getting so excited to meet our little guy. However, he is not allowed to come until June. So instead of wishing he would get here sooner, I just keep hoping the rest of April and May will go by quickly. I keep having dreams about holding him and I keep wondering what he'll look like. Regardless, I know he will be the cutest baby ever and will be absolutely perfect. We are so blessed to be able to welcome him into our family and we know he will be very loved by all around him. We get to have appointments every 2 weeks now until 36 weeks and then we'll start every week. Makes it kinda fun to hear his little heart so often and know that things are still going well.

30 (and 1/2) Weeks:

A (luckily) Uneventful Preview

Here is me at 27 weeks:

On Sunday we got a little preview of the Labor and Delivery floor at the hospital. Nothing major happened. I just woke up to red urine and some cramping and lower back aches so decided I'd better get it checked out. Since I was having abdominal cramps and was more than 20 weeks along the ER sent me straight to L&D. They took a urine sample and hooked me up to the fetal heart monitor. It was kinda fun to hear little John's heart for a while and hear every little movement he made. Anyways, since I wasn't having more than just a couple random contractions they didn't worry about me too much. Just got results that I had a pretty good (or bad I guess) bladder infection and sent me home with an antibiotic to treat it. On Friday we have our next appointment with our regular doctor and I "get" to do the glucose tolerance test. YAY! haha. It will be a good thing to get over with. So other than that little discomfort on Sunday I have been feeling really great. I can definitely start to feel my joints loosen up, but all in all it's not so bad so far. Well that's it for now. I'll keep updating more on baby stuff later.

Go Aggies!

Cade and I don't make it to many athletic events up here with our work schedules, but we finally took the day off together to go to a basketball game. We were wishing Millard's basketball teams wouldn't make the playoffs and some of Cade's family could come up to the game with us. But Their teams did better than we'd hoped (that sounds bad since you should always want your teams to do well...haha) so Kinz had to stay to cheer. We missed them up here, but that's ok. So Cade and I had to the day off still and decided to go anyways. It was so much fun to get out together for something like that. And Aggie fans are the best. The Spectrum is nuts during Men's basketball games. We had to learn a little about what cheers to do when since we were sitting in the student section. It was a great game though and the Aggie's won. Yay! Anyways so here is a picture of us before the game, too.

Nursery Ideas

We want the nursery to be a cowboy/western theme and I found such a cute crib bedding set that I want to get. I posted a link to it in case anyone wants to see it. I actually found quite a few western style crib sets, but this one was my favorite. I think as far as colors go I'll try to stick mostly with the sky blue and brown that are in this set. And then use red as maybe an accent color. Although I don't know how much decorating we'll really be able to do since we rent our place and can't paint and are trying to avoid hanging things on the walls (our landlord says we can, but he'd rather we not put nail holes in the walls). I have found some really good alternatives to nails though; the Command brand of hooks makes a huge variety of hooks and ways to hang things on the walls without ruining paints and walls. But now I am getting off on a side note..... :) Back to nursery things: I also created a registery on Babies R Us website and found lots of cute things for John and his nursery. Anyways here is the link to the crib set for anyone who wants to look at it.

Bananafish Rodeo Round Up 4-Piece Crib Bedding Set - Bananafish - Babies "R" Us

And It's a.....

Boy!! Cade and I had the big ultrasound today. We are so excited to be having a little boy. Cade will teach him so many good things. But most of all we were so excited to see that he is so healthy and perfect looking. He is measuring about 12.5 ounces and I am officially 20 weeks and 2 days according to the ultrasound and our previous calculations so he is right on track. He is moving so well too. We tried to get a good picture of his face, but he kept hiding behind his hands :) but we managed to get a couple pretty good ones. He also kept crossing his ankles and I wondered if that would make it hard to see if he was a boy or girl.....but if you can tell from the first two pictures we got a good clear view of his manhood parts.

Such a cute little face!

See? hands by the face again.
Ankles crossed. Cute little feet :)

And here is me at 20 weeks.

Funny Feeling

The other night Cade and I were laying on the couch watching a movie and suddenly I felt a little poke from the inside of my belly. I thought "was that a kick?" So I put my hand on my belly and I felt it again. It was a pretty good little kick so I grabbed Cade's hand and put it on the same spot hoping Baby would kick again and it kicked twice for him! Cade's eyes lit up and we were both so excited to actually feel our baby moving and kicking. The baby has started kicking with decent strength a few times a day. Cade gets jealous when he is not with me when it kicks or if it stops kicking just as he starts to feel my belly. :) He is getting so excited and it is so cute. He is going to be the best daddy ever! He once asked me "How big does the baby have to be before it can sleep with us?" Haha! And he's is loving looking at baby clothes, shoes, and other things; I have to keep telling him we can't buy much just yet. It makes me so happy to see how excited he is for our baby.
Well I am 20 weeks along now and feeling great. We go in on Tuesday for an ultrasound and get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl! It will be so fun to be able to start calling the baby by a name instead of just "It." I will be sure to let ya'll know the gender soon. :)

More Pics

Although I refuse to post these pictures to Facebook out of courtesy to others who may be trying to get pregnant (I know it kinda bugged me to go on Facebook and see all these pictures of pregnant women while I was struggling so much; even thought it shouldn't have bugged me it did a bit).....anyways I will post them on here for people to see if they want to keep up on stuff; plus I've had a few people request it so I am giving in. I didn't think to take a picture of my belly when we first found out so there is no comparison with how I looked before I started getting any sort of a bump, but that's ok. I mostly wanted to take these pictures for my own personal curiosity of how much my belly would really change over time.

12 Weeks along:

16 Weeks along:

By the way I must say I am so glad they make cute maternity clothes now. I actually found maternity pants that look like normal pants when the elastic material at the top is covered by a shirt. And shirts are really stylish shirts rather than just big baggy T-shirts. Cade took me shopping for a few things and then we discovered that Ross has the best deals for cute maternity clothes and I bought a few more things today while shopping with my friend Adrianna.

Late Christmas Stuff

I realize Christmas was many weeks ago, but I am slow downloading pictures onto my computer. So here are some pictures from Christmas morning at my parents' house:

Look at that mess of presents and wrapping paper.

Jaylee wrote Santa and asked him especially for a bell (like the one on Polar Express she said)

My sister Heather is so spoiled; with her new iTouch.


Rance got the exact train he wrote to Santa Claus for. :) Yay!

Kinley liked her princess watch.

I think Jaylee liked this one too. :)

Time to discover a slinky.....

Pretty necklace for Kinley.

A Baby This Year

So on New Year's Day I had a fun thought: this is the year our baby will be born! It makes it seem that much closer even though it is still five months away. Although I think it will go by somewhat fast. It seems like hardly any time at all goes by between our appointments. We just had our 16 week appointment today and the heart still sounds good and strong. February 1st is our big ultrasound and then we'll know if it's John Cade Hunter or Hannah Hunter growing in there. Cade took me shopping earlier this week and we bought my first maternity clothes. I am starting to look round and I feel kinda huge already and I know I have a lot more growing to go. Things are just starting to feel more and more real to me with each appointment and each thing we do in preparation. The baby's room is still pretty full of storage stuff, but since I am not taking classes this semester I think I'll have lots of time to work on it and get it all ready for baby.