Name Game

Choosing a name is hard! It's so permanent, and there's so much to wonder… what if it's too trendy, what will it sound like once she's older, and so on and so on! It doesn't help that I'm not a decision maker! I think a boy's name would've been easier for us. A girl's name was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.

So that I can quit referring to her as baby girl or the baby… on May 12th, I think it was, we finally decided on a name, and it is... Kinley Taylor Smithson! 

We hadn't really talked about it TOO much, but one day it seemed like Colt got serious about naming her. He said he looked over and saw her doing flips, and it made him realize we were running out of time and needed to decide on a name!

Here's a little background on her name… I had several names wrote down in my planner and we had weeded them down to a few. The ones we leaned towards were mainly C or K names, with the exception of Elle, and that name was just mentioned and we liked it, but it was never really in the running. The ones that were our favorites were Kinley, Colbie/Kolbie/Kolbi or Callie/Kallie/Kalli (obviously we didn't have spellings figured out on those). 

I had mentioned Kinley but he had said no to it. He says now that when I asked him, we were still so early on in pregnancy that he was just ignoring me and not giving me real answers. Gerald and Allison are naming their little girl Hensley so I think that was another reason that he had nixed it. I still liked it but thought it may be trendy with the "ley" so it basically got took off the list. The names we were really deciding between were Colbie or Callie (we'll just go with those spellings for now to simplify). I really liked Colbie, but he wasn't sold. For some reason, I really like girl names that are unisex, and I also liked how it was spelled with the first three letters of his name. He somehow cameup with Callie, and I wasn't sold at first. He evidently hasn't ever really known a Callie but I know several. Somewhere along the way, he came around to the name Colbie, and I flipped and warmed up to Callie. Ultimately we ended up liking them about equally, and then somehow Kinley got brought back into the mix! I had all the variations of our name choices written on a sticky note on our fridge for a while trying to decide which I liked better and which spellings looked better. I even asked Colt which one sounded better with our names and with the boy name that we'll probably use if we ever have a boy! I also said that we could wait and see which name she looked like, but Colt said all our names "looked" the same and we weren't waiting! 

 As for the middle name, Taylor, I had always said that I had wanted to name a girl my maiden name. Years ago, I had liked the names Taylor Paige or Taylor Brianne for some reason. Colt had always said no to the name Taylor for a first name but said that it was ok for a middle name... so the middle name was pretty much decided for a while.  

Of course it seemed like our parents, and Colt's sister, were starting to ask us more and more often what the name was going to be. Nicci had already started calling her Colbie, but it hadn't stuck yet! When we were visiting my parents the first weekend in May, we mentioned our top names to them. My dad liked Kinley for some reason. He said it would be pretty to write (which it definitely is), but he also mentioned the nickname KT. That was my nickname so I'm pretty sure that's another reason he liked our K names over the C names. My mom didn't outright say it but she said enough to make me think that she didn't really like the name Colbie. She said it reminded her of a boy name and specifically a boy that I grew up and played with when I was little.  A week or so later while I was on the phone with my mom, she asked if we had decided yet.  I said no, and in the background my dad said that he thought we had already decided on Kinley! 

Colt and I started getting more serious about making a decision. Since we liked them all, he said we should just name her Kinley since my dad liked it. I told him my dad wasn't naming our daughter! Colt ended up taking Colbie off the list. Among other reasons I'm sure, he said a girl with the name Colbie would have to be really cute and girlie because if she was a tomboy, she would end up getting made fun of… so it was down between Kinley or Callie (and we were leaning towards Kallie over Callie). He saw the name Callie on a nametag at the hospital and said he liked the way it looked, but I don't think either one of us were dead set on it. My only hesitation on Kinley is that I didn't want to start seeing it everywhere or it end up being the name of every girl in her class at school growing up! However, I haven't ever known anyone with the name Kinley.  I know one Kinsley from college. How the name was actually "decided" is I think Colt ended up calling her Kinley in my stomach one night either before we went to bed or when he was heading to work. It just stuck and we went with it! Within the next day or so, he asked me if I was good with it. I said yes, and we officially had a name! I think he was actually on the phone with his mom when he asked me for sure. I'm pretty sure as soon as I gave the ok, she embroidered something because pretty much immediately she posted a onesie or bib on facebook with her name on it! I did ask Colt just the other day if he was still sure about the name Kinley Taylor Smithson?!! He gave me a look like you have to be kidding me!!

As SOON as we decided on a name, I got on Etsy to order her name sign for her room. Unfortunately, the lady that makes the wooden name sign in the style and font that I liked best won't be able to get it completed until the second week of July. The type A in me wanted to go another route because Kinley is likely to be here before we get the sign, and I would prefer her room be COMPLETELY finished before she arrives! However after looking at other options and at possibly doing a stick on decal instead, we ultimately just ended up ordering it anyways.  Now we just have an empty spot on the wall waiting for it to get here!  

Here's what her name will look like on the sign we ordered, and the other picture below is an example of what we're getting. I can't wait for it to get here!

Lucky's 8th Birthday

Lucky's 8th birthday was on May 8th! I still can't believe he's 8 years old. It seems like Colt just gave him to me in a little gift sack not too long ago! 

When Colt gave me Lucky is when I knew he loved me :)

I'm sure he was thinking,"Ok mom, now open up the treats for me!"

I'm really interested to see how he reacts when the baby comes, and I'm hoping he isn't too jealous. 

Week 31

Week 31...I actually wrote down a few things when I got to this point! This week she was about the size of a pineapple, which for some reason was a big realization for me that we were getting closer and closer! At this point, it started to get a little more difficult to flip over in bed or hop out of bed easily to go to the bathroom (three times a night). It also started getting a little harder to do things like bend over to get laundry out of the dryer or shave my legs in the shower. I wrote these things down, but looking back, I think all of these things were still easy at this point! I don't feel like I hit the milestone that I really felt a LOT bigger or things started getting more uncomfortable to do until I hit week 33 or so. Colt did comment one time during Week 31 when he went to HEB with me that it looked like I was waddling though! She was also really, really active at this point. You could see my whole stomach moving and basically see her laying across my stomach and guess which body parts she was sticking out. She started constantly pushing and it creates a big cone that is either her head or her butt one.  Since Colt had an easier month in May, we (really he) got to work on the nursery. He got it pretty much knocked out… more pics of it later! 

My doctor's appointment that week was on the 6th. I had to go in for a mandatory HIV test at the lab prior to my appointment. At my appointment, my blood pressure was 137/77, and I weighed 145 lbs (4 lb. weight gain since my 29 week appointment and at about 25 lbs. total which could've still kept me on track to only gain about 35 lbs. or so). Her heartbeat was about 140. After my appointment, I went back down to the lab to go ahead and knock out my dap shot. They told me my arm would be sore afterwards, and they weren't lying! It was sore for a couple of days!

 

April

April was a bit of a whirlwind. Colt was in MICU that month, one of the two rotations that are supposed to be the longest hours during first year. I, of course, was wrapping up tax season the first couple of weeks. Per our phones and my planner, here's a little recap of our April... 

The pups hanging out outside my work window… I guess Lucky thinks it's cooler laying the middle of the monkey grass than anywhere else.

Our blooming hibiscus which have since quadrupled in size

And our roses that were blooming like crazy in April

One of our squirrel friends hanging upside down eating

They started eating about two corn a day so we had to quit replenishing so often. 

They also started getting more comfortable and coming up on the back porch. 

Baby stuff started arriving. Her bedding came in. Our jogging stroller that Nicci ordered us came in, and a few other gifts came in. For a while there, the room was covered in boxes. 

Some bows came in to start baby girl's bow collection. 

On April 15th, tax deadline day, I had flowers delivered from Dede and David!

Colt was off on the 15th for the first time in 14 days. Luckily, it wasn't a bad deadline day so we got to see each other a little and went to Chipotle for lunch. That day we also realized that it was a little hot in our house and found out that our A/C was out! Since we have a warranty on the house from when we bought it, we had to go through them. We called and it was going to be a couple days before anyone came out to look at it. We debated driving to Forney, but since it wasn't TOO hot outside, we went and got some extra fans. At night, we camped out in the living room for a couple nights. 

I ended up buying Blue Bell since it was back on the shelf at HEB. Of course, THE NIGHT that I finally ate some, a couple of hours later, they announced another recall and starting removing it from the shelves again! I wouldn't have been worried at all but since I'm pregnant, it scared me a little!

On April 22nd, Colt invited the group he was working with in MICU over for margaritas, pizza and Cards Against Humanity. Earlier that month, we had met some of them up at Wing Pizza 'n' Things. I think they had all gotten together but I had passed while Colt went solo. 

April 23rd, we celebrated Wade's birthday with friends at Olive Garden. 

April 25th, we went to Alicia and Robb's to celebrate Alicia's 30th birthday. The theme for the party was 1920's. Since I was pregnant, I wasn't going to buy a special outfit so I improvised with a black dress and headband. Colt had actually thought about wearing his pinstripe suit, which would've been fitting. However, it was so hot that day that he wasn't willing to do it, and he also wasn't willing to wear a long sleeve dress shirt. We went and got some suspenders. He decided to go with red just to be out there since he wasn't "really" 1920's anyways. He got the male stripper comment ALL night long!

The birthday girl 

A couple pics that I stole from Colt's phone from one of their training sessions

I had been really wanting shrimp so on April 29th, we went and ate out at the lake at Deadfish Grill with Matt and Whitney. It sounded good, but after eating, I was disappointed with my shrimp! I had forgot Deadfish is all about the atmosphere! We had a good time though!

April 30th, James hosted the monthly intern dinner at his house. I ended up leaving there and riding with Tina out to Schoepf's for one of their Thursday night concerts. Colt stayed at James'.  Evidently they started making up their own questions, and they are going to use this in one of the second year's roast down the road!

Week 30

Since I didn't have the best doctor's appointment this past week, due to blood pressure issues and swelling/weight gain (which I will post more about later), my plan for the weekend since Colt is working was/is to do absolutely NOTHING but relax and keep my feet up... along with writing some thank you notes and blogging a little. Yesterday all I managed to do was get sucked into watching Lifetime though!
After doing nothing yesterday, my swelling was better. Evidently sitting at my desk everyday last week did contribute to the swelling a little becaue it would get worse everyday as the work day went on. My blood pressure was also better just checking it at home. 

Backing up a little… this was back on April 29th when I was 30 weeks. 

And a couple more from that week

Week 29

We had our first of three baby showers yesterday! It was our co-ed BaByQ shower here in Temple. Unfortunately it's the only one of our showers that Colt will be able to go to due to his work schedule. The girls that hosted did such a great job on everything, and the shower was a ton of fun! We were blessed with lots of friends that came and are very grateful for all of the gifts as well. As we were putting everything in her room, I didn't know where to put everything! Once I get caught up on old post, I will be posting pics from the shower. 

Week 29… I had to take my glucose test that Wednesday. I chose the orange flavor.  I really don't see what the big deal is or why people say it's so bad??  It just tasted like a sweet orange soda to me. Maybe the three hour test is worse but for the one hour, it was no big deal at all. I had my normal doctor's appointment that same day after my glucose test. They measured my belly. All was measuring right on track, and her heartbeat was good. My blood pressure was 134/73 which still isn't great. I was still at the same weight as my appointment 2 weeks prior, 141.  

I was still feeling good. Not to complain at all, but I do think this was around the time that my tailbone started hurting a little. It wasn't, and still doesn't, ever hurt bad.  It just hurts a little, especially when I sit in the same position for a while. I think this was also around the point where I started waking up (besides the normal waking up to go to the bathroom AT LEAST two or three times a night) and having to roll over and switch sides because my ribs were hurting from laying on one side for too long. I'm normally a stomach sleeper anyways so sleeping on my sides has been an adjustment. Since then, the need for rotating sides has switched from my ribs being the cause to my hips hurting and being the cause.  This was about the time of the ribs I think! 

I had tried sitting in the yard one day to get a little sun, but my swimsuits were a no-go! I ordered some bigger ones online and they came in that week. Colt was over at Robb's that Friday night helping build a bar and deck for Alicia's 30th birthday party so while he was gone, I tried them on and sent him this picture. I also sent it to my mom and she said her and my dad were dying laughing! When she told me that, she started feeling bad the next day and wanted to clarify that they were laughing at my facial expression, not me! She hadn't hurt my feelings though, and I didn't even think twice about it! I've grown A LOT since then though! I definitely didn't take a picture of myself when I sat in the yard in a swimsuit today!

And no, I'm not all belly, my face has filled out and I've definitely expanded in the butt, hips and thigh area too, especially now. 

Ultrasound Appointment

On April 20th, we got to go in for our follow-up ultrasound. During our ultrasound where we found out the sex, they saw a choroid plexus cyst, which was the reason for the follow-up. Based on when we had the trigger shot, we should have a due date of July 8th. From the ultrasound measurements, which really doesn't mean much, she was measuring with a due date of July 3rd. She weighed 2 lbs. 13 oz. This was the last time that we've seen her and been given an estimate of her weight so I would be interested to see what she's weighing in at now! Her heartbeat and everything else looked perfect!  The cyst that they had seen previously had went away on it's own and was gone! 

Here are a few pics that we got from the appointment … and YES, a few of these pics are still on our fridge! They are the last ones we have of her! 

She really didn't want to cooperate for pics. She kept putting her hands in front of her face. Colt and I said her nose didn't really look like either one of ours. After I sent the pic to my mom, she started sending me newborn pictures of myself saying that it looked kinda like mine though. I can't wait to meet her and see what she looks like!

Here are a couple of profile shots of her.

This one was funny. We kept trying to get a look at her face, and she gave us this mad look like "leave me alone!"

And here are a couple more when we were trying to look at her face.

Even though I wasn't really too worried about the appointment, it was still a good feeling to hear that everything looked great! It was also a fun appointment since we got to look at her for so long!