Introducing Keaton Bruske

More pictures to come....

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year's Eve!

Our Midnight Surprise

It's a Boy!!!!

Collin and I are excited to announce the birth of our son:

Keaton Bruske Konopacki

6 lbs. 5 oz.

18 1/2 inches long

Born December 30, 2008 at 3:37 am

I'll try to post a picture or two tomorrow and I'll write our short but sweet birth story when we get home. :) Let's just say I'm very thankful we made it the hospital in time!

Talk to you all soon!

36-week belly shot & a Game: Guess Baby Kono's stats!

I was planning on writing a post about our Christmas weekend tonight but we had our 36-week appointment this afternoon and got some exciting news. News that I have to share with you tonight!!

Today was my Group B Strep test and since I was having this done anyway I was hoping that our doctor would also perform an exam. I was disappointed when he said he wasn't planning on doing one since I'd likely only be 0 or 1 cm dilated, unless of course, I wanted him to. I never thought I'd say this, but hell yeah I wanted a pelvic exam!

And I'm so glad I said yes. Guess what?? I'm 4 cm dilated! Actually, he said he could probably stretch me to 5. That sounds gross. Sorry.

And since I'm this far along he told us that at our 38-week appointment (which should be on or about Jan. 12th) we can pick a date to be induced. I never thought I wanted to be induced, but when he said this Collin and I were both beaming. We are so excited. And the more I think about it; for the sake of my parents (who have a 4 hour drive to the hospital) and Collin's sister (who is flying in from Indy) being able to plan this a little would actually be very nice.

So we are pumped. We're both so excited to meet this little one that we were hoping that we might go early - and now it looks like that will be very possible.

As soon as I got home tonight I started two more loads of laundry and got out the hospital list that Jill sent me so I can get my bag packed. Collin got the video monitor working and put the base of the car seat in the car. Can you tell we are a little giddy?

So, with this news I thought it was about time to start a little game around here.

Guess Baby Kono's Stats:

In the comments section post your guess to the following:

• Sex
• Weight
• Length

The winner(s) will be determined by who has the closest guess in that order. There will be some sort of prize; I'm just not sure what it is right now.

If you would rather email me your guess, I'll post it in the comment section for you.

I was going to also have a game for the date of birth, but if we do end up being induced than that won't be relevant. So I guess we'll just stick to these three.

For your reference I thought I'd give you our birth stats:

• Kate: 6 lbs 6 oz; 19 inches
• Collin: 8 lbs 13 oz; 19 inches

Let the guessing begin!!

And before I go - here are my 36-week belly shots:

32- & 34-week Belly Shots

Wow, I knew it had been awhile since I last posted, but I have to admit I didn't realize my Thanksgiving post was the last time I wrote. Life has been busy but I feel like things are going to come together okay. Bearing no major catastrophes I think I'm going to meet my year-end deadlines at work, our Christmas cards came 2 days earlier than I expected so I should be able to get those out by the end of the week, and with the exception of a few small things, I think our shopping is done. The only thing I'm slightly dreading is the "home made" item I'm putting with our Christmas gifts this year. I've never made it before and I'm just really hoping it goes smoothly.

Once Christmas preparations are done I HAVE to get back to Thank you cards. And one of these days I'm going to finish up our shower posts.


But, for now I owe you some belly pictures! I didn't mean go another 4 weeks again but I do have to admit I kinda like seeing two in a row. The funny thing is in the past couple of weeks I feel like I've gotten huge and changed so much, but these pictures don't look all that different to me.

32 Weeks

34 Weeks

Some updates over the last 4 weeks include:

• I beleive my weight gain to date is now 27 pounds
• The nauseousness is back, only it is different from the first trimester nausea. In the first trimester is was just this constant feeling of yuck. The nausea I'm having now comes and goes but when it is here it feels like a ball of vomit is sitting in my throat. Literally, it feels like a ball. For the most part it is just annoying however the other night I had to get out of bed at 2:30 am and come out to the couch to sleep sitting up because I actually thought I was going to loose it.
• And speaking of sleeping. I'm still sleeping okay, but I'm now getting up about once every two hours to use the bathroom. So much for once or twice a night, I'm always going at least 3 times now, sometimes more.
• The swelling in my ankles has really stepped it up a notch in the past week or so. By about 7 pm I have to force myself to sit down and put my feet up because they do not look pretty. Yesterday at work was the first time that the swelling was actually painful. I don't know if maybe I didn't rest enough over the weekend or what, but today they did much better.
• I've still been having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions. Sometimes they are pretty strong and once in awhile they start to become pretty frequent, but overall they are still sporadic.
• Lots of people tell me I am carrying low, but I have to tell you, if I were carrying any higher when I sit down this baby would be sitting in my throat. It seems to be most noticable in the car, but when I'm sitting the baby feels like it is lodged between my ribs. In fact, sometimes I actually think it is.

Last week we also had our 33'ish (it was more like 33 1/2) week appointment.

• Heart rate was 145
• Doctor told us that the baby is head down
• After telling him that lots of people are asking for an estimate on size he said that my guess was probably as good as his, but if he had to guess he would say the baby is average size and about 4 lbs.
• On the way to our appointment I was having contractions about 10 minutes apart. I have a feeling it was stress from work becuase they calmed down the following day, but he said at this point if we go into labor, he won't stop it.
• Following our appointment we got to tour the labor and delivery ward. Once again, I was very impressed with both the hospital and the staff. I hope our labor experience goes as well as all of our other experiences at this hospital/clinic.

I hope that it won't be so long until my next post, but in case things don't work out as planned here's wishing you all the best of luck as you finish up your Christmas preparations.