Latest Family Update

I appologize in advance, couldn't again get the spell check working :-( and didn't have time to check well !!!

I am sorry that I have not had time to update on here much but with the family being in town and Amber keeping us busy, being on the computer doesn't even come into my top 5 things to do in a day ... so I am going to try and keep this as short as possible but post as many pics as I can coz I think that's all you want anyway :-) so here goes !!!

During Ambers first week, we visited the doctor a couple of times because she was very jaundice, to me she looked like she has been on a tanning bed in my tummy for 9 months but apparently like yellow, the red is also a jaundice color. Thankfully a bit of tanning on Jades bed helped and after a week she was fine :-)



Then we had Jades parents observation day at gymnastics, Jade did really well actually, I took a little video of the walkover she did that she got right for the first time at this session. Unfortunately by the time I got her on video she was really tired and this was not a good one at all but you will get the idea and I will take more video later :-) Also we didn't get great pics of her with her little class, sorry, I had my hands full !!!

This was Amber on the 21st of May ...





Then I was excited to have my folks here for Speedstreet as we always have such a good time there but this year really was a little disapointing, they didn't give away as much free stuff as they usually do, I guess the ecconomy really showed it's face this year around. Anyway we took this little video of Jade climbing the wall.

Picturs and video taken of Amber on the 25th of May.

Jade used to lie this way too :-) They look so different but sometimes there is something that reminds me of what Jade was like when she was this little.



I totally love little hand and little feet pics :-)



This is one funny shot for the books, with my feet in the way, it looks like she is a reindeer (hehehe), I need to show Jade this one :-)



My sleepy girl, she has about 2 hours worth of awake time in a day now, thats one long stretch and then before feedings she is awake for a short period of time too. After her 7pm feed she spends time with Dave but he is so busy doing stuff all the time that she gets so irritated with him, it's quite funny, she voices herself loudly as to say ... Daddy, pay attention to me !!!



Tummy time, she is such a strong little girl, way stronger than Jade was this early, she pulls her neck up easily and doing tummy time, it's funny, she looks like she wants to crawl already (hehehe), and when you are burping her if she is on your tummy, she pushes up like she wants to stand, it's weird, I know Jade was not this strong at this age. Also look at her eye color here, I have a feeling she is going to have green eyes which I would love, one blue eyed blonde and one brown haired green eyed girl :-) Very different color to Jades right now, well I guess we have blue, brown and green eyes on both sides of the family so who knows, we will have to wait and see, she has more my coloring, skin wise etc. so we will see :-)



Here she is waking up from a nap ...

More tummy time ...

My parents are actually lucky to be here at this time of the year because it is at the end of Jades school year so they have a ton of things on for the parents to attend which my folks are getting to see too. Here they had their Blue and Gold day which is a little sports day, nothing like our school sports days when I was at school but they had fun anyway. These were just the kindergarten kids, Jade was Gold and Blue won the kindergarten round, Jade will tell you that Blue cheated that is how they won (hehehe), she is her dads child as far as that goes, they both are bad losers !!!

This is them all warming up ...



And these two are just of Jade and her class playing games ...





Then they had a day later a 15 odd minute little musical called Frog and Toad, it was very cute, here are two short videos to give you and idea :-) We got lucky with Jade being in the front.

This is just a picture of all kindergarteners that took part.



Ok and these are the last few pictures of Amber that I took yesterday the 28th of May, she is going to be another chubby little baby with all that she is eating right now, I am sure you can already tell how much she has grown but I would rather have her chubby and happy now not to mention sleeping well :-)















Ok that's me for now, Jade has a party today and another one tomorrow but we don't have too much else planned for the weekend but I am sure we will go somewhere on Sunday. 8 more days of school and then it's vacation time and we can plan a little more :-) can't wait. I will try and update again as soon as I can, Amber has her one month check up next week, can you believe that so I will let you have another update around then, today is the 29th which was her original due day, golly how things can change in a flash :-) No regrets !!!

Happy Mothers Day !!!

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there !!! Firstly thank you to everyone for all your comments on both my blog and on Facebook, they are all so special and I appreciate them more than you can possibly know.

Ok so I look terrible, I know that is what sleep deprivation does but it's Mothers Day and the first Mothers Day with baby Amber so I had to have a few pics taken. Look at those rings under my eyes, oh golly ... my age is definitely showing here that is for sure !!! But anyway there you go !!! That's mainly for you mom !!! Gosh in one week you will be here, we all can't wait !!!

I had not planned on going out today but the hospital called and told me I had to come sign Ambers birth certificate which the nurse had forgotten to do at discharge, oh dear so out we went, Amber 4 days old and already on her first trip out. We had a quick lunch, might as well right, stopped at the store and then we headed home. Not too bad for a first trip.







Day 4 with Amber, she is still eating very well, eating almost too much I think but we have our first trip to the paediatrician tomorrow so we will talk it all over there, hold thumbs, Amber gets shots, oh no and I have to do that by myself !!! She already has a diaper rash with all her pooping, I am worried her formula might not be the right one although she is eating well, not throwing up or anything, just pooping a lot. Hold thumbs we can get that all sorted out pronto !!!



Ok, that's me for now, just wanted to add these quickly.

My Three Most Favorite People In The World !!!

Two pics which have now become my absolute favorites !!! I cannot believe how alert she is for at this stay 3 days old !!!

Welcome Amber Hope Kropman

Well believe it or not ... she is here, our precious little baby girl Amber Hope Kropman !!! Before I go on ... I couldn't get this silly thing to spell check so I am letting you know ahead of time, oh dear, sorry about the spelling !!!

Tuesday late morning I went in for my normal OB check up which included an ultrasound considering they were watching my fluid around the baby, well ... surprise surprise, my fluid was really low, just over 4cm and the lowest they like to see it is at 5cm so my doctor suggested I be induced that night which totally freaked me out, I wasn't ready !!! Yeah, yeah I know what you are all thinking, me not ready but I really wasn't ready !!! Anyway so I asked her if Amber was in any danger right now and she said, no it could wait till morning if I didn't think I could do it that evening so Tuesday afternoon I ran around like a crazy person trying to get all my ducks in a row. Thank God for my BFF Tina who had always been my plan B if Amber came before my parents arrived, she took Jade from that night till now, Dave's actually on her way to get her. Tina has a full time nanny so Jade got to skip school for 3 days and hung out with the nanny and little Layla, sounds like she had a ball, she always does there, Tina spoils her rotten and I am always told what a fun house she has :-) Anyway so now Jade has the weekend to get used to Amber before she goes back to school so it has worked out well I think ... anyway back to Amber.

So Wednesday morning we had to be at the hospital at 6h30 but I think they only really got me started on induction after 8 ish, they didn't break my water early like they did with Jade so I knew that this labor was going to take longer than Jade. Things progressed very slowly and at about 11h30 my OB came in to break my water and slowly but surely they increased my medication to push my labor along. I had my epidural at 14h30 not that I felt like I needed it quite yet, things really weren't that bad by my OB said, why not, it didn't slow down labor at all so why not go ahead and get it done and get some rest before the big push so I went ahead. I totally did not like the doctor that came in and did that but at least after a good dose of crying he was done and it seemed to be working BUT then ... I was lying too flat and instead of the lower half of me being numbed up, my chest got numb and I felt like I couldn't breath, my blood pressure went scary low and I felt like for a short time I lost touch with reality but after yet another medication they got that under control, thank Heavens. Unfortunately the epidural only lasted about two hours and then it wore off, I got topped up twice more and again had the same blood pressure issues so I really was too scared to have anymore after that so I pretty much felt the rest of labor and all I can say is ouch ... and thank God it didn't take too long !!!

The afternoon went quicker and I progressed from 4 - 8cm quite quickly and again from 8 - 10 quicker than they thought I would and before I knew it, it was time to push and all it took was about 5 pushing sessions and they told me to stop since the nurse gets you that far and then she calls the doctor to deliver the baby, now ... obviously at that point not pushing is hard and the contractions are really ouch and you think they could find my doctor, well I almost got up and tracked him down myself, that was an aweful few minutes but thank God he eventually arrived and in two pushes she was out, not too bad at all. Also they said I really got lucky and did a good job since she came out face up which is very unusual and often pushing a face up baby out takes up to 3 hours ... oh my gosh, thank Heavens I didn't have to endure that !!! Dave got to cut the cord which he missed out on with Jade so I was very happy about that !!!

Ok so she was 7 pounds 5 ounces so just .2 less than Jade, so thankfully I didn't have to carry her too much longer or she might have been a harder labor for me, she was born on the 6th May at just short of 37 weeks. She was 18 1/2 inches at birth. They had to run a bunch of tests of her because she was pre term but thank God she passed everything with flying colors :-)

Anyway here are some pics taken over our two day stay in the hospital.

This is one of the first pics of Amber, she was getting her first bath in the nursery, well her sister screamed just as loud when she had her first bath and now she is our little fish so hopefully Amber follows in her footsteps.



This is the first pic of she and I taken shortly after her birth. Look at all that hair, Jade also had dark hair but nothing near as much as that !!!



What I didn't tell you is my OB went off duty before Amber was born which was really sad coz she delivered Jade but anyway Dr Solomon once he finally arrived did a good job at catching Amber on the way out, here is a pic of him and her for Ambers scrapbook which hopefully I will get to some day.



Another one of Amber and I.



Here Jade is meeting Amber for the very first time, she was so excited and looked so cute in her Big Sister shirt which Tina got her, Tina got Amber a Little Sister shirt too which I will definitely take a photo op of later when I get my act together, mabye on Mothers Day, gosh yeah who thought that she would be here for Mothers Day. Thanks Tina for the great shirts, you are of course the best !!!



Jade holding Amber for the first time, what a proud moment !!! Jade got so emotional and excited to be holding her sister that the tears just ran from her eyes and Dave was overwhelmed with all the hormones in the room (hehehe) coz Jade brought Tina and I both to tears as well :-) So cute.



Jade wanted to see Ambers entire body, little did she know Amber didn't like to be uncovered like that :-)



I love this one, Daddy and his two girls !!!



Here Jade was fascinated that Amber could already open her eyes.



Amber trying to figure out what all the noise and fuss is about.



Here Jade asked Daddy to hold her like she was still the baby ... oh dear !!!



So it's Friday and I am home, wanting desperately to go take a nap since I really didn't sleep at the hospital like I thought I would but I wanted to get this blog updated quickly to send out to everyone as I knew there are a bunch of people waiting for pics and with all the love that was shown our way during this pregnancy, I didn't want anyone to wait a minute longer :-) Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone, you guys are the best.

Here are two last pics of her that I just took before updating the blog, she is in her bassinette with her little pink hat on from the hospital. I need to cut her nails already can you believe that, she is already starting to scratch herself.





I am sure I will update the blog a ton over the next while so if you want to see more, keep the link handy ok :-)

One last big thank you to Tina, for all you have done, I don't know what I would have done without you. Love you lots !!! Thanks for all the emails, calls etc. I got while in the hospital, I know I have a couple of you still to get back to, I will soon I promise, just want you to know that Dave and I appreciate all the outpouring of love for our new little one.

Until next time ... Happy Mothers Day to all the mom out there.

Great Weekend !!!

Hi All

Well another 18 days and counting, two weeks today and my folks will be here, so there's much to look forward to, that is for sure. I am starting to get very nervous for the birth, all my friends think she is going to come early but as uncomfortable as I am right now, I just feel she has hung in there this long, now she must wait for my folks to arrive but I guess only time will tell.

Having said that some days I just want her out, she has dropped and well walking is now a challenge, also she keeps on pressing on a nerve in my lower back or hips which leaves me crying half the time, I feel like she has to be bigger than Jade was but the doctor says she will be around the same size from what the scans show. I go for another scan this coming Tuesday, after that I will see the OB once a week ... not long now, hold thumbs all goes well !!!

Anyway this past Thursday at gymnastics I managed to video Jade doing her back handspring, she has only started doing it unassisted the past 2 weeks and she has a long way to go to get it right and perfect but she is so proud of herself that I had to share this moment with y'all :-) Jade only has two or three more weeks and then her gym season is over for the Summer, I think her last day might actually be the day I am being induced so my folks will have to take her, that will be fun for all three of them :-)

Then yesterday my BFF Tina gave me a 'surprise' baby shower. This was my 3rd baby shower so I feel totally spoilt. I work with two different groups at Church At Charlotte and both of them gave me a shower to surprise me, I really am blessed to be around all these wonderful ladies that have been the best support I could possibly have asked for the past 9 months. I hope this little girl inside me grows up to know just how much she was loved long before she stuck her head out into this world. Anyway yesterdays shower was suppose to be a surprise but a couple of people unfortunately let it slip so I knew about it, that being said, I didn't know whether it was Saturday or Sunday or where or when it was going to be held or who was going to be attending so much of it was still a nice surprise. Tina went all out to make it a fun occasion for all attending which was so special of her, much thought and planning went into it, that is for sure !!!

Tina is also so talented that the tables were decorated so nicely, it was held at a local restaurant but there was a menu just for my shower as you can see below :




One of her girlfriend baked this special cake as well, it was really a masterpiece and was very yummy, very different as it was kind of like a marble cake with two different layers, with a yummy caramel layer in between and frosting like I have never tasted before, that was a real treat !!!



As you can tell I am getting bigger by the day ... oh boy !!! Or I should say oh girl right ???



Then the tables were decorated with this cute little flower pots with three flower in them, the flowers were chocolate and of course Tina made them all, what with three kids and working most of the time, I don't know where she found the time, this is so her kind of thing to do though but I hope she knows how much it meant to me that she spoilt me so rotten !!!



Can you believe this, this was the center piece on my gift table, it is a 'diaper cake' not a real cake but a layered cake shape made from diapers, obviously one day I will use the diapers but it's so cute I don't want to break it apart, maybe after my folks have seen it for real :-)



We played a bunch of game too which was such fun, here we had to chug down water from a babies bottle, it was too fun, yuck but funny. Heather won that one which was good considering it was her 30th birthday and she had taken time out of her busy day to attend my shower, now that I am thinking, I wonder if it was water in her bottle (hehehe), Tina had prizes for all the winners, so I am glad that Heather got one.



There were two things, one at this shower and one at my work shower that I thought was really cool, at the work shower what they did is they opened a pack of diapers and everyone got to write me a message on a diaper, I have been told not to read the messages till I use the diapers but I did sneak a peek at three of them and they were really special messages which I know I will enjoy reading as I use them, what a great idea. Then at this past shower, Tina organized some blank bibs and some fabric paint or pens and every lady got to make the baby a bib, how special is that and what a great idea ... here is a pic of one of them, one of the only ones that didn't have the babies name on it so as not to give away the surprise for family :-)



Three of the ladies actually also bought Jade a gift which I thought was very thoughtful and sweet of them, here is Jade getting her gifts before she and Dave left after dropping me off.



Here's a picture of most all that I got at my showers, what a spoilt little girl this little one is !!! I got a good few gift cards too so tomorrow I am going off to the store to try and get a few must haves that I didn't get, like a bath, a nice diaper bag, some drop ins for the bottles, maybe a mobile and well we need a stroller but after selling all the baby stuff when we moved, I have money for all that put aside so that's cool !!! I am excited to go get all that tomorrow, then I will be totally ready !!!



Oh one last thing, while I was at my shower, Dave took Jade to a local Fair kind of thing in Downtown Matthews, it was a lot like the Matthews Alive but smaller, but at least she got to have fun while I had fun, it was a beach party theme, here is one of the sand sculptures they had there, is this not amazing ?



Jade also got to hold this beautiful big bird, only shame I wish she had a t-shirt on as she has the scratches to prove she held it ...



So that's it for this update, work is slowing down now thank Heavens, this week I only work Wed and Fri and then the follow week only the Wed and then I am done, I might work some in the Summer but for the most part I have a break while Jade is on vacation so that's pretty cool :-)

Hopefully I get to do one more update before the baby comes, we will see :-) Oh I wanted to say, I might add a few more pics of the shower later, Tina has some pics on her camera but the copies I have of them are very bad quality so I will rather wait for the originals.