The last 5 months...

Here is my attempt at blogging about the last five months.  I’ve been wanting to blog ever since I had baby Gary, but it’s definitely been at the bottom of my priority list of many other things.  Needless to say, things have been very busy for us since Gary was born…or at least since we got our house in Georgia packed up.

Baby Gary was born April 17^th at 5:02 am.  I was pretty sure that may labors would be very similar to my moms, so I knew that he would come quickly (because I came very quickly for my mom).  I started early labor the day before, but awoke at 3am with unmistakable labor pains.  We left the house by 3:45 and were admitted by 4:15, and 45 minutes later we had a new baby boy.  I had planned on having an epidural.  It did not happen that way.  I was very much less than thrilled when the nurses told me they’d have to run my blood first before they could give it to me.  Really?  For those of you who have had a child naturally, you know how I feel.  Anyhoo, thankfully it was a quick labor and before I knew it I had a sweet little boy in my arms.  I had known for the past 9 months that I would have a little boy at the end of all this, but it was amazing to finally see him.  I didn’t get much sleep in the hospital between feedings and people coming in and out.  Thankfully, my mom had come in town just the day before, so it was perfect timing.  My mom and Caleb came to the hospital, and Caleb was so sweet.  He just had a huge grin across his face and loved his new baby brother.  I am so happy to finally have baby Gary and I just can’t get enough of him.

We were only in Georgia another month before leaving to move to Fort Campbell, KY (we live in TN).  We took some time for a little bit of a vacation and visited my family in TX before officially moving and checking into Ft Campbell.  I loved getting to visit home to see friends and family, especially now that we had Little Gary.  Once we got to TN, we stayed with friends for a few weeks before we were able to move into our house.  Gary’s mom visited us that first week we were in the house, which was perfect timing.  She was such a great help at unpacking and helping with the boys.  Gary’s dad and stepmom visited us July 4^th weekend and we had a great time with them. 

About the middle of July, Gary got to take some leave from work so we took a last minute family vacation to Washington, D.C.!  I had been before, back in summer after 7^th grade with my church youth group, but Gary had never been.  Luckily he has an aunt and uncle that live only 45 minutes from D.C., so we stayed with them for a week.  We got to visit that part of his family, and we took a couple of rest days while we were there.  Between the driving and walking all around D.C., we were exhausted.  But I have to say that I love D.C.!  We had a really great time.  We also took part of a day and drove to Annapolis – walked around the Naval Academy a bit, and the historic bay area around there and had lunch.  We were hopeful on being able to see the White House in D.C., but didn’t get to, although we did get a great tour of the Capitol building by our TX rep’s intern.  We got to meet up with one of Gary’s good friends from Ft Benning while we were there, too.

Since D.C., we’ve just been unpacking and trying to get settled.  We’re pretty much done, except we’re hopeful on being able to organize the garage enough to get both cars in there.  We’ll see.  Caleb started school at the beginning of August and is doing well so far.  He has more homework this year and he’s doing well.  The spelling and reading is definitely more difficult but he’s doing pretty well with it.  I like seeing him improve in his schoolwork.  We have him in Cub Scouts so far and he’s enjoying that, and we just signed him up for AWANA at church that started last week on Wednesday nights. 

Gary stays pretty busy with work and that’s going well.  He just finished his last triathlon for the year, until next spring (they stop at a certain point during the year because the water will start getting too cold for the swim portion).  In the triathlon on Saturday, he shaved about 8-10 minutes off his previous time.  It’s an Olympic distance triathlon, which is about .9 miles swimming, about a 30-something mile bike ride I think, and about a 6 mile run.  I’ve been staying pretty busy myself, between taking care of Little Gary, trying to keep up with cleaning the house, dishes, laundry, etc., getting together with new friends, helping Caleb with homework, and I’m now involved as the treasurer for our FRG (Family Readiness Group).  We have a great group and I enjoy our meetings and get-togethers. 

My mom got to visit us at the end of July right before Caleb started school, and my parents just flew up here last weekend for Labor Day weekend.  I’m glad they both got to come up and visit, and I can’t wait to come back home to TX for a visit.

Little Gary is getting bigger all the time.  Sometimes I wish he could just stay like this forever.  He will be 5 months on Saturday, September 17^th and as of last Friday he was 17 pounds.  He doesn’t skip any meals. J  He started rolling over at least a few weeks ago, but is doing it more often and better now.  He’s been drooling for a while now, so I’m sure within the next month or two he’ll start cutting some teeth.  When he’s in my lap, he tries to sit up, so I’m sure within the next couple of months he’ll be sitting up on his own, too.  I try to do tummy time (which I wasn’t doing much of), but he hates it.  I know it’s good for him, so sometimes I just have to let him be frustrated.  He can now sit up pretty well in his exersaucer.  He likes to “talk” and blow bubbles a lot, which is so cute.  I can tell he will probably be very active, just like daddy.  

More to come later, but I think that’s enough for now!  More pictures to come!

36 weeks and 3 days

I had my 36 week checkup today and things are going well.  My belly continues to slowly grow – luckily that’s all that’s growing these days.  I think I’ve gained between 20-24 pounds according to my scale at home (depending on what time of day I weigh).  I actually lost about 4 or 5 pounds within the last couple of months or so, which is a good thing.  I gained too much weight between my December and January appointments, so I changed my eating habits and started exercising regularly, mostly every day.  I blame desserts and the holidays.  I haven’t been exercising quite as much lately because I developed a stress fracture in my left foot several weeks ago. L  I can still exercise, it was just recommended that I not do walking as exercise anymore…for now.  Obviously the doctor didn’t want to take x-rays for the time being. 

I’m feeling pretty good, although my back hurts in different areas randomly throughout the day and it’s a toss-up every night whether I’ll sleep well or not.  Between waking up for bathroom breaks and trying to get comfortable, sleeping sometimes feels like a chore.  Other than that, I usually feel fine.  Oh, except for the almost daily heartburn.

On an exciting note, I bought baby boy clothes a few days ago.  I recently found several great items at a consignment store but bought a few new things, including the little outfit he will wear home from the hospital.  I know that people always talk about buying little girl clothes and how cute they are (which they definitely are), but I think that little boys have equally cute clothes and it’s so fun!  I remember how I loved picking out clothes for Caleb and getting to dress him in whatever I wanted.  I get to do that all over again now, which is awesome because I definitely lose the clothes battle when it comes to Caleb.  I have all the clothes and blankets washed and the bassinet is ready, so now I’m trying to get other things ready (diaper bag, my hospital bag, etc.).  I’m a bit nervous that Baby Klein will come and I won’t be ready…which is funny, I don’t really remember feeling that way with Caleb.  You would think some of my nervous or anxious thoughts would have happened the first time around, not the second!   

I go back in less than two weeks for my 38 week checkup, and they’ll start checking to see if I’m dilated or effaced at all.  The more I look at the calendar and think of timing, the more I realize how close it really is…3 1/2 weeks!  Or less!

Caleb is doing great and got to go swimming this past weekend.  I know, swimming in March?  Our apartment complex’s pool is open year-round.  We’ve had great warm, sunny weather lately.  The pool water was still cold, but he didn’t care.  So he swam while Gary and I read our books.  He’s reading a book about resiliency (which I want to read when he’s done) and I’m reading Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge (which I very much recommend).  Today I just got through Chapter 5, which was very eye opening.  Caleb’s spring break is coming up soon – it’s late out here, don’t know why.  Gary starts a short course in a few days that I think is about a month long.  I don’t think spring break around our house will be very exciting this year.  Gary will be in his course and I’ll be waiting to pop – we’ll have to find some fun things to do that don’t involve traveling.  We also just recently broke out the Nintendo...the AWESOME 1985 version with Mario 1,2 and 3.  Caleb loves it, mostly Mario 1 and Duck Hunt.  Gary and I played Mario 3 the other day...literally ALL afternoon.  Great fun!

So many things going on...

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so let’s see if I can recap the last three months! 

In December, my mom, sister and her kids all drove from Texas to visit us right before Christmas.  We had such a great time!  My dad wasn’t able to visit due to work, but he’s coming to visit us very soon and we’re really excited.  I’m so glad that Caleb got to play with Emma, Megan and Bodey for a few days.  For Christmas the three of us drove up to Michigan where Gary’s family lives.  On the way, we stopped to check out Ft Campbell (Clarksville, TN) where we’ll be moving in May, and also got to spend the night and visit with my Aunt Linda.  Caleb got to play a bit in the snow in Michigan, which is always fun.  I have to say that this year, maybe because I was pregnant (or maybe because it was just cold!) I wasn’t so interested in playing in the snow.  I tried to stay warm inside!  We had a really great time visiting with all the family.  I think Caleb’s favorite gift was his scooter – he can’t stay off the thing.  My favorite Christmas gift was from Gary – he had a friend of ours make me a diaper bag out of one of the uniforms he wore while in Iraq. J  So awesome and very special.  I can’t wait to use it!  For New Years, we spent the time down in Florida (great weather!).  Our hotel was on the Naval Air Base in Jacksonville – awesome!  We went to the Michigan/Miss St bowl game in Jacksonville (sad that MI lost).  We also spent time down in St. Augustine just south of Jacksonville.  We toured the city a bit and went to an Alligator Farm.  Great weekend in FL!

 Here's the diaper bag - now I have Gary's name thing on it (our last name) along with "U.S. Army" on the two front velcro areas.  The two sides have his previous patch from Ft Hood (1st Cav) and the patch where we're headed at Ft Campbell (101st Airborne).

In January, I took a parenting class on post based off a book called 1-2-3 Magic.  After the class we bought the book and plan to implement the rules with Caleb.  We actually bought the Christian parents version of the book.  If you don’t have it or have never heard of it, I highly recommend it.  http://www.parentmagic.com/

The newest things going on…

About three weeks ago Gary ran in a half marathon (trail run) just west of Atlanta.  He got sixth place overall and finished in 1:53:53.  This past Saturday he also ran in a full marathon in Albany, GA and finished 14^th in his age group at 3 hours 46 minutes.  Great job, baby!!  Wednesday Gary had his MCCC Graduation (pic at the top is us at the graduation).  This is the course we came here for that he’s been in since last September.  He did AWESOME!  He was recognized as the Distinguished Honor Graduate, having the top GPA in his class of 175 guys.  He also won in his weight class against 4 different people in their Combatives Tournament (specific movements for fighting/wrestling…that’s my best explanation without asking him, lol), and he won 10^th place in their “ironman” competition.  He also received recognition for doing so well on the papers he wrote for the class.  By doing so well overall in the course, he was awarded three medals: two of the Army Achievement Medal and also the Army Commendation Medal.  So very proud of him!

 Here's a pic of Gary finishing the half marathon

Caleb and me in front of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta we visited after Gary's half marathon.  

Gary shaking General Brown's hand  - check out the bling on the uniform!  :)  Oh, sorry about the heads in the way.

Caleb is doing really well, also.  He does great in school, is progressing in reading, and has done a great job at learning to ride his bike.  He has done really well in Cub Scouts and we are very proud of him.  Gary and Caleb went to the DeSoto Caverns in Alabama in February for a Cub Scout trip.  Caleb got to go through a life size maze, panned for gemstones and went through the caverns.  Great father/son trip!  Last month for Cub Scouts they had the Pinewood Derby.  If you’re not familiar with it, the kids are given a specific piece of wood with wheels and axels, basically a blank slate.  You can cut the wood into whatever shape of car you want (but the more aerodynamic, the better).  The boys paint and decorate their cars, and each car can weigh up to but no more than 5 ounces.  Then they race.  We wanted a simple car – simple is better.  The more you pile on the car, and the more of a weird shape, the slower it will go.  Caleb ended up winning first in the Tiger Cubs (first graders) and third overall!  Caleb has also started piano lessons with my Aunt Marilyn (actually my second cousin) up in LaGrange.  He is really catching on quickly and doing well, which is really exciting for me since I took piano growing up.  She said she thinks he really has some talent.

Caleb playing the piano at Aunt Marilyn's

Here's the winner with his trophies.  

On my end, I’m doing great.  My OB checkups are good and I am 34 weeks now.  A part of me can’t believe I’m having a second baby, but the closer April 18^th gets, the more excited I get.  Other than some normal pregnancy complaints (heartburn, legs and back hurting at times, some Braxton Hicks, and lots of strong kicks from the baby), I’m doing just fine.  I have been eating better/healthier and I exercise every day.  I’m just anxious for the little guy to finally be here.  As far as the name goes, I think we have it picked out, but everyone will just have to find out when he arrives!

Belly pic - this is about 32 weeks I think