Baby Registering–Complete

Kyle is currently napping as I lay on the couch watching a really bad lifetime movie, but we spent our morning registering for little McKenna.  And let me tell you… (1) a baby is SO expensive (2) there is so many cute little pieces of baby clothes out there but since we have no idea how big or small she is going to be we’re at a registering loss (3) registering is just overwhelming, especially when it comes to bottles and feeding things and (4) it is just exhausting!

But. it is another thing to check off the “to do” list – we are officially registered.

We are registered at Land of Nod for all things nursery – bedding and curtains.  We ended up going with the gray and pink bunnies with the stripes.

We are also registered at Target and Babies ‘R Us for all things baby – and I mean ALL THINGS BABY.  You know crib, high chair, pacifiers, bibs, jumper, and the other 74975839038904 things an infant child “needs”.

Everything is obviously under Barbara Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan.  But there were people who looked for our wedding registry under “Barbie”.

And…. of course we couldn’t register without buying a few things.   We got the letters for the wall in the nursery for over the cribs, I got her a bib on clearance that says “my little black bib” with pearls on it.  And…. when Kyle saw this onesie, he immediately said “we are buying that”.  He is so so so in love with his little girl already it is just precious!!

Next weekend: paint colors for the nursery.  Obviously, probably not start painting yet unless Kyle gets the itch.  But… find the right pink to match the bedding and to go with the gray we already have plenty of!  ….and I will probably drag Kyle to Koo Koo Bear Kids to check out more cribs.  Gotta have options!

But… I am off to San Antonio again for work this week which will be a good distraction from all things little girl! =D

Gender Reveal // Baby Shanahan Boy or Girl?!

Kyle and I found out the gender of our little bambino this week! …well… we were told at like 13 weeks by a specialist, but lets be honest – 13 weeks is a tad bit too soon.  So – we had the specialist prediction confirmed or debunked this week by our doctor.  And let me tell you that appointment is just fun.  It is a HUGE appointment where you learn if the baby is developing ok and you make sure everything is on track, but the exciting part is the gender reveal.

And before I make the big announcement – don’t scroll down – I am going to go through all the old wives tales!  And, let me tell you, based on all the old wives tales it was a toss up on the gender.

Wives Tale	My Real Life Result
Morning sickness.  If you have it, you’re having a girl. No morning sickness – points to a boy.	No sickness at all.  I am having a boy!
Baby’s Heart Rate. Above 140 = girl. Below 140=boy.	We have had a consistently high heart rate!  We are having a girl!
Chinese Calendar.  Something about age and month	Says the baby will be a girl!
Cold Feet. Colder when pregnant indicates a boy, not as cold – that is a girl.	Freezing feet, we are having a boy!
Headaches – more prone to them? That is a boy? Not so much, it is a girl!	Hello headache that won’t go away – another point for a boy!
Acne  - the little girl steals your beauty. No acne = little boy.	Hello puberty face.  we are having a girl!!

 

Well.  Based on those results, it is a toss up! Just like in real life… it is a 50/50 chance of being a girl or a boy! =D 

But…. Baby Shanahan is A GIRL!!

Baby Shanahan is now Baby McKenna Marie Shanahan and we could not be more excited!! Kyle now needs to prepare for pink and glitter and dance moves and tutus and pigtails and teenage mood swings and tea parties and barbie dolls!  And honestly – we did not care if the baby was a boy or a girl, we just wanted healthly, developing well, and no bad news.  Which is what we got. So now we can just prepare for a house full of little girl giggles! But… he is so excited about a little girl and snacks during tea parties and a future easy bake oven. I cannot wait to see him play candy land and Barbie dolls. I do believe that I could just fall in love with him a little bit more!

Now onto registering (Land of Nod and Babies ‘r Us for sure and either Target or Buy Buy Baby) this weekend and then paint colors next weekend and so the baby planning starts!! 

Bump Watch + Valentines Day Weekend

 

well. lets start with what everyone who reads this blog cares about.  MY BUMP and our baby!  This week is the  exciting week – we find out on Wednesday if Baby Shanahan is Baby Girl Shanahan or Baby Boy Shanahan!  Tiaras and Tutus or Football Helmets and Mud!  We are more excited than we can put in words.  Mainly because we (1) also learn how healthy the baby is and confirm that everything has developed well and (2) we can start doing things like registering and planning the nursery!

Now… lets check out the “bump” – I am officially 19 weeks.  Our baby is the size of a zucchini.

I feel like 90% of the time, I do not look pregnant, just like I had too many burritos and need to his the treadmill.  But – when I wear a dress {19 week picture} it is more baby bump-ish.  and I know I shouldn’t be complaining at 19 weeks for barely looking pregnant. I could be miserable and uncomfortable.  But I am ready to get out of the “did she have a big lunch or is she pregnant” phase!  I have been able to feel him/her fluttering around and I cannot wait for kyle to be able to feel it – but for now, it is just me.  he/she seems to move the most at night – let’s hope that is just temporary!

in other news:

I spent the week in San Antonio for work and Kyle got to survive the snow and ice storm in atlanta.  Thankfully he was off work all week, we never lost power, and he was safe at home with the puppies!  there was brief moment when we all worried that I would be stranded in San Antonio for the weekend, but for once I followed the “play it by ear” instructions {as a planner, I HATE that phrase} and actually got home on my planned flight!

We had a very low key Valentine’s Day… cheese and crackers with sparkling grape fruit juice by candle light while watching White Collar.  Then on Saturday we did brunch + a VERY nice dinner at Vinny’s on Windward {I took the 19 week picture before dinner}.  Kyle and I may have had WAY too much food – but it was just too good to not eat.

Then today we went to the Greenway and did 3 miles – I walked, Kyle ran/walked and did more than 3 miles since he would run ahead and then run back to me and then walk with me.  it was a gorgeous day for a trip to the Greenway – even if I didn’t want to go.  Then I baked LOTS of muffins for the week and hope they won’t be all gone tomorrow since K has the day off work.

it is gonna be a LONG week.  I have about a 80 mile round trip commute all week.  I am spending time at a major account doing an audit, looking for best practices, and areas of improvement.  On the positive note: since I will be in the city I plan on hitting Flywheel one night to break up the commute and get  some cardio in!

WELL. COME BACK LATER THIS WEEK TO LEARN IF WE ARE HAVING A BOY OR A GIRL!! AND HAVE A GOOD WEEK! IF YOU’RE IN ATLANTA – ENJOY THE AMAZING WEATHER WE ARE ABOUT TO HAVE!!! =D

Bath time For the Grandparents!

the dogs in our house we getting gross and stinky.  As I worked from home on Wednesday I thought to myself “my coworker smells like a bag of Doritos” and no, I was not referring to a 5 year old – I was talking about Mulligan.

Well – Sunday was a miserable morning for the two fluffy kids in our house.  Kens and Mulls got baths.  We thought it was needed since the grandparents were coming in town on Wednesday and {don’t judge us} but I am pretty sure their last bath was in September and was done by the doggy day care center.  {we will bathe our real human kid better, I promise}

Needless to say – we didn’t have 2 happy dogs with us.  Mulligan put on the dramatic, pouty face the whole time and Kennesaw just attempted to shake the water off each time Kyle dumped water on her.  But… they now smell like shampoo vs. a vacuum cleaner {and you all know that a vacuum has a distinct smell to it once it has been running} and they are super soft.

Kyle had to wash them alone because I normally sit in the bath and hold the dog down {true story} but with me being all knocked up and things that was just too dangerous.  So, I played “catcher” and got them as they were done and attempted to dry them off as best as I could.  Mulligan is easier to dry off…. but Kennesaw just may be part dog, part sponge and I think hours later she is still drying off.

…..and they didn’t even run their wet puppy bodies into the guest bedroom on the freshly made bed!  They must really love their grandparents because they always put their wet bodies in our bed to dry off.

Snow “Storm” + Baby Update

 

Atlanta had quite the week if I do say so myself.

If you live in a cave – Google: Atlanta snow 2014 – and you will learn about our complete and total shut down of our roads and world. Needless to say, Kyle and I are alive and safe and warm and we did not have to deal with insanely long commutes home from work. We both got to deal with fishtailing a bit and morons who thought because they drove a big truck or SUV that they were invincible. But thank freaking goodness we both just had 2 hours of driving home at very slow speeds.  I could not image just sitting in one spot/barely moving for countless hours.  so I am grateful for my amazing coworkers who basically said “get you and your bump out of here now”. obviously no one thought that we would have had the situation that we did.  it was really just unbelievable that people were in their cars for 10+ hours trying to get home and kids were stranded at schools and people had to sleep at their offices.

I worked from home both Wednesday and Thursday and let me tell you – I could never do that full time.  These dogs of mine are cute, but insanely annoying with their barking out the front window at people walking by and kids playing in the streets.

Mulligan loves the snow and I think he would just stay out there until it melts if we would let him and Kennesaw, she likes it, thinks it is neat, but she is a smart girl and would much rather be in the heated house. I am pretty sure this is her first snow experience and I am not sure she is as sold on it as her brother is.  But it has been fun and cute to watch them just chase each other and play with  each other and wrestle in the snow. 

 

…baby update…

well. I knew that some people in my life would be interested in my growing {or lack there of} belly so here you go!  A week by week shot of the infamous bump for week 15, 16, and 17. I feel like it looks like the belly is just getting taller and spreading up vs. popping out.  but oh well – I will not complain about my itty bitty bump – I know some girls would kill to be in my shoes.  And I feel like in the future I need to do a better job of getting myself together before taking photos of myself – I promise, I don’t always look like a hot mess.

But, there really is not a lot going on in the world of the baby.  I am currently 17 weeks. Which means by baby is the size of a pomegranate and about 5” long. Still no sign of movement {that I know of because evidently it isn’t kicks it is “flutters” or something} and with the exception of my tension headaches {which are stress driven} and what feels like constant bloody nose I still feel good.  I have had zero cravings, but I will never turn down some Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets.  But all is good.  Just antsy to start the nursery and all that jazz.

Last doctors appointment we got a thumbs up – everything is looking good. Steady heart rate of 143 bpm {evidently that is “girl” range}. I evidently have gained pretty much no weight {a whopping 3 pounds} but all seems to be good!  We started a 529 for the kid through USAA. it is in Kyle’s name currently but will be swapped come July. Nothing like starting the college fund investment early on.  And best part – people and can donate to it. We find out the baby’s gender on February 19th – 18 LONG, PAINFUL DAYS!  And we are SO excited to find out. We LOVE both of the baby names we have decided on and have gotten a million and one compliments on the chosen names… now I just want to know if we are having a little blue C or a little pink M. 

but all in all – everything in life is good.  we survived the snow “storm” that really wasn’t a storm, just an epic fail on Atlanta’s part in regards to taking the weather predictions seriously and the dogs are good and the bambino is good too.  we bought a jogging stroller and this a behemoth of a stroller – but we {more me than kyle} are excited about our 1st baby purchse.  kyle is currently at poker night with the boys, so I just ate a whole pizza in under 12 minutes, am signing up for birthing classes, and watching lifetime. living on the edge this saturday night. so. life is good!

Bambino Bedroom

Since the bambino news is out in the open now I can share baby room fun stuff with you!  Ever since painting the guest bedroom and having A LOT of left over gray paint – we decided to paint the nursery primarily gray.  and then accent it in some way with either a blue or a pink {depending on the gender}. And in true Barbie fashion I have had to plan everything out and look at cribs and bedding because I want the nursery done well in advance.  So…. I have been drooling over Land of Nod bedding since they somehow found out I was pregnant (creepy) and started sending me their catalog.
 

And for bedding I have decided on these two prints/patterns.  I didn’t want anything cartoony or whimsical.  I feel like some parents go overboard with “themed” nurseries.  Kyle and I like clean, simple lines and I think both of these patterns fit our personalities and they are simple and clean.
 

And then for fitted sheets we want the matching animal {bunny or whale} prints + the big spunky polka dots to contrast against the stripes.  The only difference from the pictures is that the crib skirts show pink and navy – well, they are reversible so we would show the gray and then do the sheets in pink or navy {polka dots}.
 

Best part of Land of Nod – when  you sign up for emails you get an automatic 10% off, which will be nice and we will sign up for emails using multiple email addresses to get the best deals on all the bedding.  Don’t judge me.  I like a good deal. =)
 

We have been looking at cribs too {of course} and want to do dark wood for a boy and white wood for a girl and do a convertible crib that goes from crib to toddler bed to full bed.  That way we *hopefully* won’t have to buy furniture as the kid sprouts and gets older.  Plus we need a matching dresser and glider/rocking chair thing.  So – if anyone has any recommendations, please send them my way.  We have looked at Target and Babies ‘R Us and Buy Buy Baby and Koo Koo Bear Baby but everything is just so expensive. 

Obviously we don’t want to compromise quality for price but we also don’t want to spend as much as we just did on our big kid bedroom furniture!  So seriously, we are taking recommendations.  We want to start setting up the nursery in May so it is 100% done by the middle of June and ready for July.  But the baby room furniture appears to be the one thing we cannot seem to figure out due to price... and I think Kyle and I are just going to have to take a deep breath and just swipe the credit card! Yee Haw.
 

Overall – the nursery is going to be very very simple.  We don’t want a lot on the walls.  We don’t want there to be an overall theme that just clutters the room.  We want simple and relaxing. 
 

Come 20 weeks Land of Nod will be getting some business from the Shanahan’s!  That is when we learn if this Bambino is a boy or a girl! =)

News. News. We Have News.

In October Kyle and I wanted to have a wine night.  In passing I made a minor comment that I was late.  Yes.  That kind of late.  I said it was probably because I was working out more and stressed to the max because of work.  Kyle didn’t care.  He made me pee on a stick. and. no joke. like 2 minutes later we learned that I WAS PREGNANT. We then went to Mexican to eat our feelings. And for about 1 week solid I repeated a zillion times “I cannot believe you got me pregnant”. And then there was like 4 weeks after the 1st confirmation {when I was about 6 weeks along according to 1 of the 506548 apps I downloaded} that we took another test since I was convinced I was not pregnant that we got reconfirmation.

So. With that news. Kyle and I are expecting our 1st born in July. 

We are excited.  We had to go THE WHOLE TRIP HOME for Thanksgiving without saying a word to our parents because we wanted a confirmation from the doctor before we broke the news to anyone big in our lives.  And let me tell you – hanging out with our parents with such a huge secret was HARD.  Every time we left a parents house {since we travel between 3} we would look at each other and say “1 down, 2 to go”

We were able to tell everyone over Christmas and it was just a fun and exciting time to tell people.  …but let me tell you… making phone calls to say “hey, we are having a bambino” is awkward.

Then we wanted to wait till the 2nd trimester before any formal announcement was made online or to our friends and work.  So hello! We are in the 2nd trimester. 7 more months of brewing to go!

And to answer all the questions:

1. I have been feeling GREAT. Which is why I did not believe we were pregnant.  no morning sickness. no afternoon sickness. no heightened smell.  Just some acne and exhaustion and multiple positive pregnancy tests. 
2. The first ultrasound was amazing and breathtaking and so real. God really is just so good.  It is amazing.  And. We are having a little dancing alien.  That little nugget was waving his/her arms around like a wild person!  The other ultrasounds we have had since then have been good – strong heart beat.  We had one annoying one where the bambino would not move so they sent me down to a specialist to get the tests completed – but it was nothing big, scary, or anything to worry about.
3. Yes. We were shocked – really shocked,  But now we are excited. And scared. But we think we will be good parents.  We hope we will be good parents.  I am SO excited for my family. and his family. And for my Granddad to be a GREAT-GRANDDAD and my Aunts and Uncle to be Great Aunts and Uncles {I bet they are feeling old now}.  We have already talked about how to have my Granddad and what not meet this little dancing alien – I know that would be magical and just SO heartwarming. 
4. I am still working out and will work out the whole pregnancy – I believe staying active is a good thing and should be done.  And the Blast900 staff has been fabulous.  I am SO SO SO grateful for Nicole and Paige and all their advice and watchful eyes! Plus my doctor said I shouldn’t gain more than 20-25 pounds.
5. Yes – we have thought of baby names. Initials are:   BOY: CLS    GIRL:  MMS
6. I cry at random.  I cried at Home Depot over something stupid, the poor high school boy worker was probably thinking “oh my gosh, what did I do”.  I have cried over newborn photographers.  Me = Emotional Trainwreck.
7. Speaking of newborn photographers. (1) they are SO expensive for a good one (2) FYI: you have to book like MONTHS in advance – I contacted so many that were booked for July at our 8 week mark.  Did people pee on a stick and drop $200 on a deposit before a confirmed strong heartbeat?!
8. We have already found and registered our unknown named and gender baby in daycare.  if you know anything about me, I am a planner.  I follow checklists and all my iPhone apps said January = research and book a daycare.  So. We have toured, interviewed, visited and researched countless daycares and picked one that has a curriculum {and the bambino will learn both sign language and spanish}. and has an in house chef that makes everything fresh. and good teacher to infant ratios.  And for those who are thinking about having kids.  Daycare = a 2nd mortgage!  For reals.
9. We do not care if it is a boy or a girl.  We want happy and healthy and not too spoiled.  But I cannot stop thinking of little pink things, sequins, glitter, and tutus.  Le Sigh. And then I dread paying for a wedding in like 20 some years.  Can you say inflation?!
10. The dogs are getting some extra special attention and training – and it will only increase as the month go on.  But, I believe they will be good with the baby.  And with all my “preparing the dog for baby” reading should hopefully pay off.
11. I have not really had any cravings, but this child does not really like Mexican food – which is DEVASTATING or anything spicy.  And if the urban legend is true about the heartburn = a lot of hair {again. spicy food} I will be birthing a 4 year old.
12. Yes – this child will attend The University of Alabama in 18 years. There is no other option.  Their first words better be “Roll Tide” or I am giving it back! {Kidding. Maybe.}

We are church hunting.  We want to raise our baby in a church.  Kyle has mentioned how he is envious of my upbringing – 1 house that I was raised in and come home to every time we are in VA – a neighborhood full of kids – stable activities that included church.  So, if anyone has recommendations in Alpharetta, GA – please send them my way!!

I will keep you updated – but do not plan to see too many {if any} sonogram pictures.  Newsflash ladies: ain’t no one want to see your womb other than your family members.  And bump pictures – maybe.  Who knows.  I am SO anti selfies so I do not know how I feel about baby bump pictures.  But honestly, I still am not so sure this whole pregnancy and child birth thing is natural.  Why can’t storks be real things?!  But it really is just so amazing.  God is Good.

xoxo!