Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas day and the snowy day after!

Well just like that Christmas 2015 has come and gone. The holiday snuck up on us very quickly! Let me first apologize for my extreme tardiness on Christmas cards this year. I made an attempt to start them earlier this week, but quickly realized that my ink pads were dried up and I would have to go buy a bunch more plus it was just going to be a bigger headache than I anticipated so I gave up on those and decided to go with just picture cards instead. The picture itself has been a process (you'll see why soon) so we still don't have them out. As soon as that occurs we will let you know, but hopefully they'll be out by New Years. I really haven't been that busy for the last week since my school and work got out, but my mind has been and it's kept me highly distracted. Lame excuse I know, but hey nothing I can do about it now.
Christmas was awfully quiet this year, but we couldn't have asked for better weather and we are fortunate enough to live in the 21st century so we could facetime our families. Christmas day was sunny and clear, absolutely beautiful...and cold. The day after was VERY snowy, warmer, and fun. We started a little early this year by doing Christmas eve with my parents and then took full advantage of sleeping in before we did Christmas morning with John's parents. Facetiming with both of them was amusing, as all of the dogs included themselves talking with each other and their two legged friends through the screen. Ammo always seems to be one of the loudest and most talkative, but everyone was equally talkative this year. Guess everyone was happy about Christmas :) We were excited to see our parents open their gifts and visit for a bit. We were blessed to get A LOT of clothes for Baby Klein as well as some fun toys and nick nacks for ourselves. John and I didn't even talk about Christmas this year, but still managed to surprise each other with some fun gifts including biscuits and gravy for breakfast. After we exchanged gifts and visited with family, we spent the next few hours in the kitchen making apple pie and potatoes to take over to our friends house for dinner. It was a total team effort and fortunately everything tasted great. We managed to finish up just in time to head out and spent the next few hours eating and catching up. We got home much earlier than usual this time of year and did Christmas with my family for the cousin exchange over skype and for the first time got to "open" a gift for a two legged child ;) It was fun to see everyone and their excitement. After visiting the family for a bit, we had a Maze Runner marathon before heading to bed after midnight. I did my meditation about 30 minutes before hitting the hay, doing so peacefully and slightly dizzy. Mission accomplished ;)
 Christmas morning on our balcony
 We each got a piece lol. I pretty much just ate the edge and missed out on the nicely cooked inside :(
 Reading Baby Klein's first Christmas story to him


 Ammo talking to his grandparents
 TJ watching Grandma and Grandpa open their gift




 Catnip overload
 All eyes on dad with undivided attention
 John's new shirt from his parents
 one of my gifts from John

My mom is very creative
Lovin on our Christmas present :)

The day after Christmas, we took advantage of sleeping in again, as did TJ. TJ has decided that I bought the second body pillow for him, not me, and hogs it like it's catnip. I always feel very cuddled and loved on by all of my boys ;) Anyway so we got up and saw the amazing inches of snow outside and the constant beautiful snow that we continued to get and decided it would be a good day to go play in it. I did my yoga, made some yummy breakfast and then we headed to the Glacier with our snowshoes, in case we needed them. Normally in this kind of weather we'd go skiing or head out for a day long snowshoe trip, but being almost 8 months pregnant, not to mention only having a few more hours of daylight left, makes that tricky. Fortunately Juneau has no shortage of safe places to go for a little lady with a big ol' belly. The Mendenhall glacier was packed in the hilly areas where kids were sledding, but fairly quiet on the trail. We took the dogs on the frozen lake and checked out the beautiful ice burgs on the way to Nugget falls, stared at it's power for a few minutes, took some pictures, and then headed back to the car. We didn't end up taking the snow shoes, but they would have been nice in some parts, overkill in other areas so we were fine without them and I got a little bit better workout that way. We had a great time and then spent the rest of the day together at home cleaning up a little, watching movies, and talking baby. It was a quieter Christmas than usual for us, but beautiful and peaceful. We are so grateful for our blessings and can't wait to enjoy Christmas with out bundle of joy next year! We hope you all had a great Christmas as well, we wish you a happy New Year!


Gearing up for some hard play
Dad I'm ready, let's go

Like father, like daughter

Nugget Falls
You can see the glacier, if you look closely
Hi Baby
Happiness

Happy Dogs

Oh my!

Just two days short of 35 weeks
Sportin my new hoodie and headband :)

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Being pregnant and making time for other stuff...

For the past seven months since the moment I found out that I was pregnant, I have been completely wrapped around and engaged in pregnancy stuff. I made changes to my diet and lifestyle from the get go. I began looking at pinterest boards for recipe's, safe exercises, and pregnancy/birth pins. I downloaded pregnancy apps with trackers and started on a search for beneficial pregnancy books. I became obsessed with the little peanut growing in my belly and giving them the best chance I could. I've made exercise and nutrition a top priority, even more than it was before. Once I discovered the books that I wanted to read, I read (and still do read) them constantly. I've read many blogs, researched many birthing options and how to have a healthy pregnancy, taking weekly pictures, and read lots of stories to Baby Klein. We've adjusted home, the car, and my body for whatever Baby Klein needs. We've worked on adjusting the dogs to our new family member and look forward to them meeting. I talk about Baby Klein constantly, review research commonly, and get distracted easily. Basically I have become that pregnant mom who won't shut up about her future baby and obsessed with pregnancy, birth, and newborns, specifically mine.

Since August I have been taking two classes and should have spent more time on my courses. Anyone who knows me knows that I have always put 100% into my classes and made school a top priority behind family. This semester however I've really struggled to make it such. Being informed and learning about pregnancy and birth has often taken the time of school simply because I am more interested in it and have a hard time motivating myself to get school work done. Not to mention these two classes have A LOT of work to do for 100 level courses. I've even missed assignments *gasp* which kills me, but I just really struggled to get them done. I've never missed an assignment in college before and I haven't had anything below an A since my last two years of my undergrad. Well I can tell you, that's not going to happen this semester. I often feel amazed at God's timing because he knows I wouldn't have wanted to sacrifice time in my studies or with pregnancy info so he knew after I graduated was the best time for me, because I would have ran myself rampant refusing to give up any time for either, probably sacrificing sleep and getting sick often. The weird thing for me with these courses is that I don't even regret it, because it means that I was able to spend more time on pregnancy stuff including birthing classes, other mommy sessions, and researching plus I was able to stay active. With all of that I was still able to spend time with John and the pups, which would have had to have been sacrificed as well. Fortunately the classes are early childhood so a lot of the information from them and what I'm researching for baby overlap. I am SO grateful for my understanding and experience in researching quality info so I know what is rif raf and what is not. 

I was doing pretty good about keeping the house clean and cooking, but lately since I've been more tired, I haven't been as good. I know this will get even harder when Baby Klein is born and instead of being obsessed with pregnancy, I'll be obsessed with him. So I still have Christmas cards to make, my house to get more ready, my car to be spotless, one more assignment to finish and about a month and a half before I'm due before life gets really fun and crazy. I won't end up with A's, but I will pass and I have gotten good grades on everything I've turned in plus learned a great amount. I won't have a perfect house, but it will be clean and healthy enough for Baby Klein. I might have a perfect car for a little bit, but it won't last for long (I have dogs). I won't have homemade meals every time, but more than I could have and still healthy when they're not. Baby Klein and I HAVE had healthy check ups each and every time however and I feel confident in my body's ability to bring our son to us. That makes all of it worth it to me. I'm used to being a busy b and prefer it that way, but becoming pregnant brought me a whole new passion and desire to be informed and prepared. Being someone who didn't think they could have kids and had given up on the idea, gave me a deeper appreciation for pregnancy and more empathy for my friends struggling with similar situations. My heart goes out to them. I never would have seen myself in this position before May, but I can't imagine ever going back or changing things. Who knows maybe you'll even see a dissertation on healthy and pregnancy later lol ;)  Welcome to mommyhood!



Saturday, November 28, 2015

Month 7, almost 8...WOW that came fast! And a few updates about school and work.

Well we are almost 12 weeks past since the last update and have gotten use to the 3rd trimester. We are 30  weeks, 5 days and growing, which I guess is a good thing because that means he's growing! He is gaining a half a pound a week at this point and mom has felt a little pressure in her ribs, but overall movements have remained around my belly button. Many times my whole belly moves, the first time John saw that was pretty funny. He was amazed and laughing. Baby Klein has gone as far to wake his dad up in the middle of the night by kicking him in the back or pushing his hand off of my belly lol. He definitely recognizes John because he starts movin a bunch when he reads to him and when John puts his hand on my belly. I tell John that's Baby Klein saying hi :)


We've had a very easy pregnancy, especially throughout most of the second trimester. I've been lucky enough to avoid most symptoms...knock on wood. I just tapped the wood in the picture :) The last few weeks I have been experiencing a little bit of indigestion and heartburn, but not bad and not every day which is really nice. I've had a few weird things come up, but nothing too scary and they went away quickly. They are probably not scary at all to most people, just a little nerve wrecking for me. We are having checkups every two weeks now, which is fun to me because I get to hear him, see him move a bunch and know that everyone is healthy! At my most recent 29 week check up, My midwife told me that his heart rate and mine were great and I've gained just the right amount of weight. I'm measuring right where she expects me to and my blood pressure is great. I have been walking the dogs almost daily, stretching and/or doing yoga regularly, and going to water aerobics or swimming laps 3-4 times a week. I can still swim a mile continuously which not only makes me feel mentally and emotionally great, but feels great physically too :)


Now that we're getting so close we've really been trying to make room for baby Klein. We've been so occupied with getting out of the storage unit and moving things out from the condo, that we haven't spent a lot of time putting baby stuff up yet. We are being a bit more creative than the average bear, because of our small space. John's current project is to build a changing table that will go on top of the crib. Today we got some fun fabric for it. Any guesses on what it is? John has been so encouraging and cute throughout our whole pregnancy. He has been very helpful in keeping the house cleaner and even folding my clothes for me just to be nice. He's surprised us with a few books and constantly says I love you to the baby and rubs my belly. The other night I was trying to take a bath, but had run out of hot water from washing the dishes and John came up with this bright idea to boil some water just warm enough and let me take one. I'm such a lucky lady.


Between reading for Baby Klein and reading for school, I have been very busy reading and writing. I've learned a lot from my early childhood classes, but I must say that I have struggled to keep up the motivation and been slitely irritated with my courses. They are not as organized or interesting as my previous classes, but they're ok. Not to mention we did not have any break from classes over Thanksgiving. After next week I'll be done with one of my classes and after the following I'll be done with both. Once I'm done I'll have enough credits to teach early childhood special education in Alaska, so that's nice. I didn't get a Thanksgiving break, but I will be done sooner and have a couple of weeks to work on Christmas cards and enjoy the season without course work.

Work has been good, I enjoy the people I work with and the students are great. Everyone has been very supportive and helpful as I have gotten bigger and some of the students are pretty intrigued by my growing belly as well. We recently finished a 5 week movement challenge and our team won 3 maybe 4 of the weeks. I won two gift cards, a really nice water bottle, and something else I think, but I can't remember :)

It's been a while since our cruise in September, but that'll be a big enough post on its own. I'll post about that later. We had a great Thanksgiving with John's boss over the weekend where we were graciously served some delicious food. We did a fun run/walk with the dogs in the morning that helped out a local lady with cancer. We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was sunny and beautiful. John made his first attempt at a pecan pie and it turned out great. He even made the pie crust from scratch. Yesterday we worked all day at the shop for black Friday and today we finally went to see Mocking Jay part II, the finale of the Hunger Games trilogy. It was an excellent movie and I loved it, but I'm sad that it's over. We have the first two movies, we'll have to get the final two as well so I can re-watch them over and over again :) I may just have to re-read the books too.


Besides these updates, everything else has been about the same from last time. Since daylight savings it's been getting dark soon after I get off work at 3 and we've had some snow. Em's hoping to make it up snowshoeing before Christmas, because it'll probably be too late by then. Let it snow! The dogs have adjusted to the season better than we have (as long as they get outside to play) and they as well as TJ have continued to love on mama's belly. John and I have enjoyed many nights of catching up on Dr. House recently. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying your fall/winter season.
Love the Klein's!

Monday, September 7, 2015

19 weeks and feeling great!

Well I thought since our update last time included just a little bit on our pregnancy, and we've have some questions/request, I'd give another update. Today marks 19 weeks. That's almost through the fifth month :O holy smokes that's more than half way! I'm feeling great! I'm starting to notice that exercise is becoming a little more difficult aerobically, and my belly is getting bigger but other than that I'm feeling normal. In-fact things are feeling more normal than they did in the first semester, but we'll get to that in a few.
19 weeks today looking plump, as John says. 
So how did we figure we might be pregnant if we didn't think we could have kids. Well it took longer than some if you're really paying attention, but not too long. Basically my stomach had been bothering me for over a week but it was right after I walked for my master's and at the end of the school year. Life was stressful with teaching and jobs were very uncertain. My teaching position had been cut and I didn't see a lot of hope at the time in regards of teaching for the next year. I was also slightly bored from being done with school and drinking a lot of soda and eating a lot of sugar. So between stress and tons of junk food, I thought my stomach was pissed at me and misbehaving to get back. There was even one time that I remember specifically where we took a friend out to dinner for watching the dogs and thinking that the food simply didn't sit well and that I ate too much, because I felt SO Full and really not that great. A few times we even made jokes about having a baby because my stomach had been acting up. It never felt like a flu though and I never got sick. I decided to lay off the junk for a few days and try to have more fun to see if that would help, but honestly it didn't. We continued to make minor jokes and I started to take a few precautions like avoiding raw fish and soda completely just in case, but never really thought to test. After 8 years of nothing and being told pregnancy wasn't possible, we had stopped paying attention to mother nature and literally written the idea off. Then finally one night john's coworker had given us some treats that he wanted us to try and I wanted to try it without worrying. I hesitated, but while John was on the phone, just left and went to the store. I came back with a test thinking that I could just clear my mind about it all and move on with normal life. SURPRISE the test was positive and both of us, jaws open, flopped down in the bathroom going "holy shit" and in shock. I had just ran a six mile trail run an hour or so prior and thinking about the last few weeks. By this time school had ended and summer had begun. I had started working the docks and it was rainy and cold. I had been drinking 1-2 large coffees a day and not paying attention to what I ate at all. We couldn't believe it! We immediately started going through the fridge and medicine cabinet saying "no more of this" "more of this" "start taking this". The next day at work, after I had already left, John was so cute and surprised me with a large cup of homemade hot chocolate at the dock since I couldn't have coffee. Although we were pretty shocked we immediately started taking action to give our baby the best chance and help me have a good pregnancy.

The first trimester
Throughout the first trimester I was very tired! I stopped drinking caffeine completely and quickly started realizing how many things had egg yolks, more sugar, and other foods to avoid in them. At first I tried to push through the fatigue, but after doing a little research I started giving in and take almost daily naps. I was very tired and couldn't doing anything about it, and everything says you should rest when tired, so naps became necessary. Other than fatigue, a heightened sense of smell and having a slightly upset stomach at times, I really didn't have too many symptoms. I have learned that pregnancy brain is NOT a myth and that sometimes the thought or task that should come to the brain simply doesn't and when you look like an airhead enough times you blame it on the pregnancy brain. I haven't gotten sick once, knock on wood, and the weird food cravings and crazy hormones have been nonexistent. Let's hope that continues :)

I ran a few more times, but never felt great doing so. I experienced heartburn for the first time in my life and pretty short winded. So I decided to stick to hikes and walks. I've continued to do yoga regularly just stuck to prenatal yoga to keep things safe and prepare for the baby. After a few weeks I took up swimming again and haven't looked back since. I feel great swimming and continue to do laps and water aerobics two to four days a week. A friend told me about a class that she attends and I LOVE it. The teacher is great and it's not your grandma's water aerobics class. Everyone in the class is young, the teacher is young (not to mention a few months postpartum) and she makes us work! It's awesome! I love that I can still be active and healthy for myself and our little one.

I discovered an awesome book while mom and dad were in town called "Yoga Mama Yoga Baby". I've enjoyed it for the breathing and stretching exercises to keep my healthy and feeling great. It also has some good recipes and what to expect during each month and trimester. I look forward to reading and referring back to it. Pinterest has become more fun and helpful than it even was before and I've added "Fit Pregnancy" and "Yoga Journal" to my list of regular reads.

Like we stated above, we're well into the second trimester, but that'll have to wait till later. We're having a great journey and glad you could be here to share it with us. Here's what we have of my first trimester belly...
8 weeks


13 weeks
9 weeks





Wednesday, September 2, 2015

BIG Update!

Wow it's been too long since I've updated this. I promise this will be a good one and worth your read! Summer is about over, the days are quickly getting shorter, and the academic year has begun. A lot has changed, in a good way, since some of you last heard from us. John no longer works for the mine. We decided that it wasn't the best place for him to be and an opportunity to work for the gun shop full time pretty much put a kaboosh on the cost analyst job. So he's been working as the business manager for the shop all summer and continues to love it! The tourist season has kept him and the other guys quite busy, working 6-7 days a week, and brightening lots of customers days with new firearms, bows, and machine gun time. John does all of the bookkeeping for the business so he's able to use his great skills and enjoy the accounting side of things. He's learning a lot about smaller businesses and we have both gained a greater appreciation for small local business.

Em helped out a little over the summer by selling tours on the docks in-between summer school. She taught P.E. for a summer program through the school district. Between that, the docks, the pool, and hiking she stayed busy enough, but not too busy. She spends a lot of time hanging out at the shop to visit John and the others and just to hang out. John got her into archery this summer so that she could learn to shoot bow and take advantage of the great range here in Juneau. Not to mention she's not shooting rifle or pistol right now. She's still has a lot to learn, but has enjoyed it more than she thought she would.

July 4th, John's dad came to visit and we got to take him all over Juneau. We went on some beautiful hikes, fishing, and sight seeing. August was an even busier month for the two of us. Summer school ended, however we had visitors from the beginning to just last week. We had an excellent time and loved having Em's parents and our friend Todd from Nevada in town. We got to take them to Tracy Arms and see whales, bears and huge glaciers caving. We also took them hiking all over and even saw some black bears up close while they fished for salmon. We did a lot of fishing with Todd; he and John caught a few great salmon that we are excited to get back soon. Hal still wins with his first catch though; he caught a starfish right off the bat lol, but don't worry he threw it back :)
Two redneck boys livin in a man's world, so they think ;)

At the top of Mount Juneau soaking it all in, and resting :)

What an adventure! Over 3,500 feet elevation climb from sea level.







Rainbow over Herbert Glacier!




So now it's September, the school year has begun and normal life (as we know it) proceeds. Em is working as a paraprofessional at a middle school in a Developmental Education Classroom. She's bummed to not be teaching, but excited to be working with the students she is. She gets to go to the pool and help with adaptive PE every day for at least one of the students and at times two or three of them during the school day. It turns out this year is a good year for her to be less busy and have less stress. She is taking two early childhood classes online to expand her credentials, but she still won't be nearly as busy as she is used to being.

But for the biggest update and change this year, and why less stress is good as well as why she got into archery, we have an announcement for everyone! Some of you already know, but many of you don't. John and I recently found out that we are going to have a baby! No we're not adopting another dog or cat, we are actually pregnant with a two legged human child. Can't believe it? Neither did we. After 8 years of understanding that we couldn't have kids and writing the idea off, we were surprised to find out that we were pregnant. Em was so shocked that she took another test 3 days later and another (from another company) a few days after that just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. We went to the doctor to find out we were 7 weeks pregnant with our little peanut and skyped our parents a few days later. Both of whom are SO excited and dying to know what it is. We are now a healthy 18 weeks pregnant (as of yesterday) and both doing great. Keep your eyes out for more specific updates, but for now we wanted to let all of our friends know that we are actually going to have a baby! John is going to have a little hunter by his side and Em can't wait to have her yogi and swimming partner ;) We have gotten over much of the shock and begun the practical planning side of things, however we still often shake our heads and go "I can't believe we're actually talking about this" or "wow this is actually happening". So now well into the second trimester the excitement grows and the adjustments begin. We talk to the puppies and TJ all of the time about having a baby and let them get close. We are starting to rearrange the house and bring in a few babyish items to begin the transition period for all five of us. You'll have to stay tuned for more updates :) For now we are happy to finally share the news with everyone and look forward to sharing more updates with you!
The first test 
 9 weeks, celebrating with a hike to the glacier :)
 Our little seven week peanut!
 15 weeks at the top of Mount Juneau. That was a heck of a hike and we had to keep taking breaks to make sure my heart rate didn't get too high. Totally worth it thought!
Our little family of four and a half :) in front of Herbert Glacier at 14 weeks. 10 mile walk round trip!

Happy Human Parents to be!

Turns out I was probably pregnant when I walked for my master's :D
18 weeks and SHOWING in my new rocking chair from daddy John and Mr. Moose from Grandma Janey ;)