Callie Is Here!

I apologize for not updating this recently. Things have been a little crazy to say the least =o). Well, Callie is here! She arrived on May 8th, 2012 at 2:07pm weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and measuring in at 20 inches.

Labor did not take too long. They started my induction at about 7:30am and she arrived at 2:07pm. I thought it would be fun to hold off on my epidural for a few contractions so I would know what they feel like. After a few I decided I had had enough and opted for the epidural, ha!

I cant even express to you how amazing of an experience it was. When they handed Callie to me just after birth it all became so real. Here I was holding this beautiful little girl that we have struggled and worked so hard over the last 3 years to bring into this world. It was amazing. I did not know I could fall in love so quickly. They let me spend a few minutes with her before they took her to the nursery for a bath and wheeled me into surgery (Tubal Ligation). We were reunited in the recovery room and have been inseparable ever since =0).

I am not going to lie, it was rough at first. I am not sure I slept much at ALL. Callie is a lazy eater so she would eat for about 1.5 hours sleep for maybe 30 minutes then she would be ready to eat again, yikes! She has definitely gotten much better now and I am getting more sleep than I was. Don't get excited, she still likes to keep me up at night, but not as much as she did at first and she is well worth the lack of sleep.

We took newborn pictures of Callie shortly after she was born. I absolutely love them! The photographer, Jennifer Hensley (http://www.jenniferhensleyphotography.com/), was amazing with Callie and managed to get some amazing pictures. Here are a few:

   

Arn't they adorable?

Callie turned 1 Month Old on 6/8/12. She has already changed and grown so much in that one month. She went from 6 pounds 12 ounces (The weight she left the hospital at) to 9 pounds 13 ounces, wow! She loves her food and it shows in her weight. Here is her 1 Month photo:

  

She is starting to recognize people and my favorite new development is her smile. She started smiling (while awake) a few weeks back and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen. She responds when you talk to her with big grins and fun noises.  It melts my heart every time.  I have to return to work on 7/17/12.  I am excited to see my co-workers again, but I am not sure what I am going to do without seeing that gorgeous smile all day every day =o(.

Well, that is all that has been going on at our house.  I'll try not to disappear so long this time.

3 Weeks Left!!!

Hello,

Well, believe it or not I am now 36 weeks pregnant and have only 3 weeks left at the most! It is crazy to think about. I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off recently, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Callie has been growing like crazy. My belly is getting huge. I feel like she has really decided to pop out and show the world that she exists, and I love it! She has been moving around like crazy and LOVES to dig her heal or whatever it is into mommies side, Ha! Here are a few updated pictures of my ever growing belly.





March and the beginning of April proved to be a very exciting, busy & crazy for me. I had 3 baby showers (which were AWESOME!!), hosted a baby shower, have been planning a bridal shower I will be hosting this weekend and trying to get things in order at work for my leave. It does not seem like too much, but lets just say I am a scatterbrained mess. On top of all this I went into the doctor last Wednesday after waking at 3:00am with extreme pain on my right side. The doctor sent me to ARA and discovered that my right Kidney was completely full of liquid and my left had a little from Callie pushing on my organs (Trouble from the start, He He). They could not see any kidney stones, but assumed that to be the case. They thought they might be too small. TALK ABOUT SERIOUS PAIN!!!! OUCH!!! They gave me pain pills until the stone could dissolve or pass, but I was basically out of commission from Wednesday till Sunday. Finally when I woke up Monday morning the pain had subsided a little. I was still queezy and nauseous, but I could handle that. Once the pain from that subsided, my body decided that it was still going to mess with me and I broke out in a rash all over my chest and stomach. I have had the rash for about a week now and it has not gone away =o(. It is so itchy and I cannot do much about it. It is probably PUPPP (Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy) which is a hive-like rash common in pregnant women and harmless besides the fact that is itches HORRIBLY and can last till I deliver. I hope that it does not last that long, but we shall see.

On a much lighter note, we finished Callie's room. It looks awesome! I am so happy with the way it turned out and cannot want to bring her home to see it! Here are some updated pictures of it.









Poor Adam has been working like crazy to get his 'Honey Do' list done before Callie's arrival. I was very excited last weekend because he finally completed the Patio that he started about 2 years ago. It looks awesome! He really did a great job! Here is a picture:



Now we are just playing the waiting game and seeing how long till we get to hold little miss Callie! If she does not come before May 7th, we will go in that evening to start the meds and induction will follow the next morning! 21 days left at the most until we meet her. Woo Hoo!

I will let y'all know if anything happens between now and then. Well, that is all the fun going on in our home right now.

Love you all,

The Casto's

It's Been a While

Hello!

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. I feel like Adam and I have been constantly busy trying to get our 'To Do' lists done and finish Callie's room. I did not even realize that I had been neglecting the Blog, sorry.

Well, believe it or not, I was 28 weeks yesterday, woo hoo! I am getting super excited about Callie's arrival. We are still on track to induce on May 8th, so Callie should be here in about 77 days!!!!

I feel like Callie has really grown over the last couple of weeks. My belly is really starting to pop out now. Here are some recent pictures of my ever so quickly growing belly:





We are just about done with Callie's room. The only thing left we have to do is put up the chair rail and it is done. Here are some pictures of the before and after =o):









I am getting really excited for the month of March. That is when all the baby shower fun begins. It is crazy for me to think that we finally made it to this point, and I am getting very excited as it approaches. I cant wait to see what cool stuff Callie gets to start her little life out with and spend some much needed time with many friends and family!

On top of having showers for Callie in March, I also get to throw one for my best friend!! I cannot wait to spoil her little boy to be as well. Archer (her little boy to be) and Callie are going to be best buds from the start, I have decided it! Plus it has been pretty darn awesome getting to share this whole experience with her =o).

Well, besides trying to get a bunch of work done around the house before Callie's arrival, that seems to be all that has been going on in the Casto house for now. I will keep you all updated as things happen, hope to see a bunch of you in March, and will leave you with a few pictures of Callie:







Love,

The Casto's

5.5 Months Down!

Hello all,

Well, it is official, I am 5 1/2 months along now (22 weeks) and am more than half way there, Woo Hoo! We went to go see the doctor this morning and she confirmed that Melissa is fabulous at reading ultrasounds and it is still a GIRL!!!

The internet says that baby "is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day."

She is now about the size of a Papaya:



She is moving like crazy. I can feel her moving around and kicking a lot. It is still really light, but Adam has been able to feel it once or twice. I LOVE it when she moves around a lot, it is a pretty cool feeling.

My tummy is really starting to grow. I feel that is is getting bigger daily, ha! Even though I still feel like I look like I ate way to much food rather than pregnant, here is a picture of me at 21 weeks:



We talked a bunch over the past few weeks and have finally decided on a name. We are very certain she is going to be named Callie Ann Casto. We are super excited to meet her and cannot wait to put her room together.

We spoke with the doctor this morning about delivery and the doctor and us both agreed on a game plan for delivery. The doctor is going to switch me to a shorter acting Blood Thinner at 36 weeks, and then, if I have not gone into labor by 39 weeks, she will induce me so I am able to plan ahead and go off the blood thinners prior to delivery creating less risk if I have to have a C-Section, and allowing me to have the Epidural, whew =o). So, it looks like if Callie does not come early, she should grace us with her presence on or around the 7th or 8th of May. That is only about 120 days away, WOW.

Well, we finally picked out a bedroom pattern for Callie and I am super stoaked to start working on her room. We are going to have a lot of fun painting the nursery and putting it all together. I believe we plan on putting a chair rail across the middle of the room and painting Pink below and Cream above, but we will see what happens when it gets down to it =o).

We will go see the doctor again next month, I get to do the fun Glucose test, woo hoo. That is all I have for the time being, but I will leave you with a picture of Callie to look at:



Love you all and hope to see you soon!

It's a Girl!!!

Well,

We went to go see Melissa today (could not wait until our next appointment in January). Melissa had a blast scanning and determined that Baby Casto is a she! That's right, we are having a GIRL!! I am so excited to finally call the baby something other then IT =o).

Here are some pictures of the baby:









I had to go back to work after the scan, which was tough because I could not concentrate at all, but got a kick out of Adam who promptly went online and ordered a bunch of cute Cardinals gear for her! I cannot wait for it all to get here and to start registering and getting everything together for her.

Hopefully we will decide on a name soon, but that is all I have for now!

Stubborn Already =o)

Well,

We made it to 18 weeks and had our anatomy scan today. Everything looked great! Baby is measuring good, but he/she would not expose him/herself to us, so we still were unable to find out if it was a he or a she. He/she was being shy and hiding from us, so I guess I have to put off my shopping spree for the time being, boo.

My belly is really starting to grow now. I can really notice a difference. Here is my 18 week picture:



We did not get many good pictures from the ultrasound today, but here is one of the pictures:



Guess we will updated y'all once this little he/she is willing to let us know what he/she is!!

Love y'all!

Second Trimester is Upon Us!

Well, I know it has been forever since I posted, sorry about that. We have a lot of ground to cover. I have been feeling pretty sick lately. My body FINALLY started to produce the hormones that normal women produce from day one, so the docs took me off my supplements, but it feels like I am now going through round 2 of 'Morning' sickness because of it. I am nauseous all the time . . . Talk about fun!!! Ha! I am finally starting to show, yippie! Here are a few pictures of the last few weeks:







I also went to go see Melissa at 13 weeks so she could get a sneak peak at her new little neice/nephew. It was so much fun. She scanned me and measured all kinds of things on the baby. It was so neat to see the difference from only a few weeks.





My favorite thing over the last couple weeks was a little prediction Adam made. As some may know, Adam decided to go to St. Louis for Game 7 of the world series. He can't get enough of his Cardinals =o). While he was gone, before game 7 started, I got the following text message from him:



Needles to say, he was correct!!! I was so excited that he got to do something so exciting and that his predicition came true.

When I first found out I was pregnant this time, I knew I would be a huge ball of worry as stress the whole time given my history, so I copied my best friend and bought a fetal doppler online. This allows me to hear the babies heart beat at home any time I want! It was hard to pick it up prior to 12 weeks because the baby was super low, but now it super easy to find and I LOVE it. Adam and I play with it all the time. Here is a video I took of one of the times we were playing with it (If the video works?):



For those who are anxious, like me, we will find out officially on 12-12-11 if it is a Boy or a Girl!!!!! We may go see Melissa at 16 weeks and see if she can tell yet or not, but the official date is 12-12-11 (18 Weeks). I cannot wait!!!!

Well, I think that is it for now. I will touch back with y'all again in a few weeks!

Love you all!