Our Baby Girl: Rylee Grace Shuman

Well my baby is now 3 weeks old, I honestly cannot believe she has been in our lives for 3 weeks already. I thought I would update on the last few weeks.

My due date was October 7, but my whole pregnancy the doctor told us she would probably come early because of a condition I had. He said one of the main concerns he had wa pre-term labor, so we were prepared and ready to go weeks in advance. Well he jinxed us, she was perfectly happy where she was :) Well on October 8th I went in for my 40 week appt and the doctor decided we would induce labor. I went back to work (seriously a nervous  wreck...OMG in less than 24 hours I was going to be a mom) finished out my day and headed home to get the hubby so we could check in at the hospital.

We checked into the hospital at 7pm Tuesday and they gave me something called Cervidill (sp?) that was supposed to make me dialate and they were going to start the petocin (sp?) Wednesday morning. Well I got very very uncomfortable around 1am and around 3am my water broke. They came in around 6am and gave me an epederal (sp?) AMAZING! I don't know how women do it without it, I was in so much pain. Well it was pretty slow and go after that. They came in and checked every so often but I wasn't really progressing that much and the baby had not "engaged/dropped" enough, but everything else was fine...until it wasn't. Around 1:30 the doctor came RUNNING in the room saying he needed a heartbeat now. I was scared to death. Her heartbeat had dropped. Within 2 minutes I was headed down the hall to the OR for an emergency c-section. The cord was very short and had wrapped around her neck.

At 2:14 Rylee arrived with a strong grip and a great set of lungs :) She did have to go to the NICU for about an hour because she swallowed a lot of fluid. Her daddy was inlove from the word go...it was so cute. She looks just like her daddy!

Baby Derek-Baby Rylee-Baby Krystle

 

This is our first picture as a family! This was actually the first time I got to hold her and really see her (3 hours after she was born) I look a mess but I don't care!
 

Well I know one thing for sure I never knew how much I could love someone until they placed her in my arms. In that second my heart filled with so much joy and so much fear all at once. I love her so much and don't want anything to happen to her. I would do anything for her. I also worry about everything! I have been up with an infant at all ours of the night, rocked a baby with colic and yet it is completetly different now. I want her to be safe, happy, and healthy.

honestly couldn't say it better myself

The minute they placed her in my arms

 

She loves her mommy

Well I healed pretty well. Rylee did get jaundice which was just awful. At week 2 I ended up getting an infection and had to stop nursing. I hope I can start back on monday.

On her little tanning bed

Her pediatrition says she is healthy and happy and we are doing a good job...thank goodness

Such a proud daddy!

Derek is such an amazing daddy! I loves her so much and it just melts my heart to see him with her. I honestly love him more now seeing how much he loves her.

She LOVES her daddy!

She is such a sweet baby!

The good, the bad, and the ugly of our little miracle!

Well our baby girl will be here before we know it, the countdown is on. For those of you that don't know I thought I would share a little bit about how we got here...

Derek and I had actually been trying to have a baby because I have a couple issues, the first being a uterine septum (my uterus is divided by a wall so there are 2 chambers) as well as a couple other issues. I was told a few years ago that it would be very hard or impossible for me to ever get pregnant. I was honest with Derek from day one in our relationship knowing he wanted a family, and of course he was wonderful saying we always had other options. So anyway we started trying early because we knew it might take time especially if we had to take other routes.

Well after a few months of trying and nothing happening we found out my body had quit ovulating...great. So the doctor had to try me on a few different medicines to try and make my body do what it should naturally. After a few months the medicine started working and so I had to start keeping a calendar (Derek teases me about the calendar still because I lived by this thing lol). Each month that went by was hard because I would get my hopes up a little each time just to be heartbroken when I wasn't pregnant.

Let me take a minute and say anyone that knows me, knows I have always been the "mothering" type. Just ask my little brother and nieces and nephew lol. I have always wanted to be a mother and I knew one day God would bless me with a wonderful man and our own little amazing family.

Well in early February I was "late," I had to go out of town for a conference and Derek and I decided I would wait until I got back home to take a test. Well first thing monday morning before going to work I took the test....and I saw 2 very faint lines. 

I was scared to death. I know this is what we had been hoping and praying for but I was scared to get my hopes up. The lines were so faint I didn't believe it was true, so I decided to call the doctor. They had me come in to the office to do an in office test and also some blood work. Before I left the office they said yep your pregnant  I was over joyed. We wanted to keep it a secret so we didn't even tell our parents. The next day I got a phone call at work from the doctor saying my levels (hcg and progesterone) were very low and they didn't think it was going to be a viable pregnancy. I was completely devastated. They said I had to keep going back every 3 days for more blood until "it passed" because I am o negative and would need a shot. Of course I fell apart in my office (luckily it was between classes) called Derek and then broke down and called my mom. I needed her! After she was finally able to understand me through the tears she was so great and supportive and prayed with me and said it was in God's hands and to give it to him, worrying would only make things worse. I pulled my self together but was a total wreak for the next few days. 3 days later I went back for more blood work and the next day took 18 teenagers to Atlanta on a field trip by myself. While at the expo I got a call from the doctor saying your levels are actually going up. I think she was a shocked as I was. But she told me we needed to be cautiously optimistic. More blood work every 3 days. At what would be 6 weeks they did an ultrasound and we saw nothing again I was devastated. They thought at this point it was a blighted ovum. They had me come back a week later for another ultrasound. I was so nervous the whole week I was just sick. As soon as she got it going I could hear a change in her voice "now what do we have here" we saw our little nugget and heard a strong heartbeat. Derek told the nurse that we were very worried they wouldn't see anything and she said they were too. Finally we could be excited. 

Our first pic!

Found online...fits perfectly!

Now we are almost 34 weeks along and our precious little miracle will be blessing us with her presence very soon. All tests have shown she is healthy and has a strong heart. I have felt pretty great the whole pregnancy and been lucky to have only gained 8 lbs up to this point. (Of course I feel like I'm a huge whale.)

At this point we still do face a couple challenges, because of the uterin septum we have the risk of her staying breech and pre-term labor. In english... she doesn't have a ton of space in her side of my uterus so when she runs out of room she is coming and we can't stop her.  According to the doctor as long as she makes it to 34 weeks we are out of the woods with any big issues.

So now we just wait for our baby girl and pray delivery goes well.

I do want to thank my family and friends for their prayers and support during this roller coaster. Derek has been amazing through it all and I know she is going to have him wrapped around her little finger.

I just LOVE this! 

Miss Rylee Grace Shuman

Well let me first start off by saying I am so glad to be on summer vacation. I love my job but I do enjoy getting a little time off as well. It was a super busy and crazy year for me and I am not ashamed to say I'm glad it's all over. Plus the summer break gives me plenty of time to work on the nursery.

Derek keeps saying we still have plenty of time, but in all reality I only have 8 weeks off for summer and 2 of those weeks I will be at a conference and on our family vacation. Plus when school starts back I will be in that lovely 3rd trimester and probably won't feel like working all day on my feet and then coming home and working on the nursery. I know the time will also fly by and I would rather use the time I have and make it how I want. ;) 

For the most part Derek is letting me do what I want {pink and all}. I still run everything by him and if he doesn't like it I don't do it, I want him to enjoy the room too. We both decided on a nursery theme together before we even knew the gender---owls! I love all the new cute owl things they have and it could have gone boy or girl. We both really liked the idea of doing a tree mural in the room. 

Bedding-

I looked and looked and could not find bedding I liked at all. It all to me looks to cliche (not sure if that's the word I'm looking for, but you get the point) and I could not find anything in bright colors. I didn't want a pastel look in her room. So I started looking at 2 of my favorite places for help...Pinterest and Etsy (seriously I think I have a problem). I decided instead of buying a pre packaged bedding set I would just make it myself. I found this adorable owl quilt pattern on etsy and a friend/coworker is going to make the quilt as our gift. I get to pick out all the fabric so I can match it with the rest of the bedding. I also found this super cute nursery idea on Pinterest that used this fabric that I LOVED! I did a little research, found the fabric and ordered it. This is the main fabric for the room (curtains and bumper pads) and then I will pull colors out of it for all the other bedding (crib skirt, sheets, rocking chair cushions, and changing pad cover). 

I am so excited to get started on the bedding, and I will post pictures as I go along. 

I have been working on a couple other projects this last week. I made an owl pillow and an owl stuffed animal. They are both super cute and they will look great in the room. (Pinterest again) 

We also painted the nursery. Now this was an ordeal to pick out the paint color. We both wanted to paint the room blue, but I wanted a bright blue and Derek was going more toward a baby blue. After going to Home Depot and Lowes a couple times each we finally found a color we both liked. It is bright blue but not dark. I think it will make the room look bigger and really bring everything together. 

I have a couple other little projects I am working on but I will save those for another post. 

Did you like the title of this blog post? That is the full name of our baby girl. I love it! I really liked the name Rylee and Derek picked out the spelling. We both had Grace on our list so it fit perfect. Plus now that we have a name set I can start personalizing stuff ;) 

Derek bought me an embroidery machine for our anniversary! I was so excited! If you know me at all you know I am obsessed with monogrammed  anything. He told me now I can monogram my heart out lol. I can't wait to start putting it to work. 

Baby Shuman...boy or girl??

Let me just say I feel like it has taken FOREVER to get to the gender reveal. My pregnancy up to this point has really flown by but the last couple of weeks seem like they have taken forever! Everyone I know was able to find out the gender of their baby as early as 15 weeks, but because I am having to see a high-risk doctor I had to wait until 20 weeks and 1 day.

We were really hoping to find out the gender before we went home this past weekend. I wanted to do the whole gender reveal party. We were hoping to not find out ourselves, just have them put it in an envelope and we would find out with our family at the party. Since I live 4 hours away from my family we have had to do everything over the phone I really wanted to do something in person, but such is life. 

Old Wives Tales

1. Sleep position: left side =boy

2. Hands: soft=girl

3. Graceful orClumsy: graceful=girl

4. Food cravings: salty=boy

5. Pendulum test: back and forth=boy

6. Model hands: palms down=boy

7. Even and odd numbers= age and year odd=girl

8. Baby's heartbeat: high= girl

9. Chin test: no line=boy

10. Child test: if a child pays attention to belly=girl (Faith told baby hi an bye) 

So it was pretty half and half...no help lol. 

As far as my family goes they all thought boy except my dad. My friends Susan and Jess guessed girl and Faith was sure it was a girl too. 

Derek of course wanted a boy. I didn't wish either way because honestly I just want a healthy baby boy or girl. I was convinced however that it was a boy because everyone kept saying boy even the nurse (because the baby was so active ALL the time. It was always hard to hear the heartbeat cause the baby wouldn't stop moving around). 

Our appointment was set for Tuesday afternoon, but we told everyone it was on Wednesday. I called the bakery I used to work at and ordered cupcakes a couple weeks before, and filled them in on my plans. I roped one of my best friend's Jess in on the plan too. When we found out I called the bakery, they filled them with the color and Jess picked them up and delivered them to my parents, brother and sister. 

First stop... Mom and Dad's house (Cruzz was at this stop too) Jess told me when she was close and we FaceTimed my parents. It was so much fun seeing their reaction. My dad was so cute, he had the biggest smile on his face I have ever seen. My mom said he hasn't stopped smiling yet.

The next stop was Channing. We FaceTimed her as well. Channing is funny she HATES pink. She has never been a girly girl and was hoping it was a boy because she said she had no hope of making it a Tom-boy with us living so far lol. We are complete opposites I LOVE pink and all things girly, bows, glitter, and monogrammed. Her exact Facebook status was "Aunt Channing does not do pink, thank god for red and black." Lol

Well I am so excited and can't wait for my last day of work Monday so I can start working on the nursery. I have so many ideas. I love all the crafts I have in mind. Pinterest  is my friend and Etsy is going to get me in trouble lol

Anna Faith Pitts!

Well most of you that know me know my god daughter Faith. For those of you that don't know Faith, she is the daughter of one of my best friends and we along with my sister lived together when Faith was born. (Best roommates ever :) lol) anyway Miss Faith has had her Aunt Krystle's heart and wrapped around her little finger since the day she came into this world. She is such a strong and spunky little girl and always has been. She has grown so much from that little 3.5 pounder to long legged big girl she is today. I feel very blessed that Jess allowed me to be a part of her life because it has been such a joy to see her grow up.

 The week she came home from the hospital

She was our little cheerleader

When I took the job here in the Savannah area I was so excited for the opportunity but also sad to be leaving my girl. When mommy had to work Faith and Aunt Krystle got to have all kinds of fun and spend time together so I knew by moving all of that would change.


I cherished the last few days we had together because I knew it wouldn't ever be quit the same. We went to the park, had ice cream... You know the fun stuff. Lol ;) leaving that day was so hard it just broke my heart.

one of our dates :)

Of course I came home, we spent time together, they visited and we talked on the phone and yes she is still my girl.

another date...I think we have issues with sweets lol

When Derek came into the picture at first Faith was NOT a fan! She did not like someone else coming in and taking away her Aunt Krystle. Jess would tell her "Aunt Krystle is coming this weekend" and Faith would say "not Dewrek right? " lol. But as time went on and she came to visit us here they became friends. Now she loves Derek.

See she loves Derek

and her Aunt Krystle

Well now we have reached a couple new mile stones.... Faith is about to graduate from pre-k in 2 weeks. I can't believe it, where has the time gone? She was just our little baby and now she is graduating pre-k. She is also turning 5 in less than a month...5? We where just waiting for her to get to be 5 lbs so she could come home from the NICU not 5 years old :( And last but not least, now I am expecting a little bundle of joy of my own.

Faith was never jealous of my other niece Lillian, I think mainly because Lillian was older and around when she was a baby. Lillian lives in Charleston now so they don't see each other much. At our wedding they were friends!

Anyway... I have been ecstatic about the baby since we past the 12 week mark and have wanted to tell everyone and it was so easy. I will tell you I had one person to tell that wasn't so easy....yep you guessed it...Faith. I was so nervous...yes nervous about telling a 4.5 year old, mainly because I want her to be excited like us, I want her to love this little baby like its her cousin. I don't want her to be jealous :(

I went by to visit the last time I was in town, it took me forever to get up the courage but I did and I thought it went really well. She wanted to see the ultrasound picture but she didn't understand why the picture wasn't in color lol. At the time I told her that the baby was only the size of a lemon and she thought that was cool. I asked her what did she want the baby to be a boy or girl and she said girl!

I hope they will be best friends!

It's been awhile and soo much has been going on...

Well it looks like the last time I posted was back in November, I am horrible about keeping up with this blog lol. Oh well I promise that is all about to change because I will be super busy doing lots of crafty things for our little bundle of joy!

Bundle of joy at 13 weeks

Well I guess I will play catch up and show you the crafts I have done since my last post...

It is so hard to find cute stocking that don't cost a fortune so I decided I would just make us some.

I made all my girls towel wraps for Christmas. They were a big hit!

One of my BEST friends is getting married. I am so happy for her. She has found such a wonderful man that loves her and her little boy more than anything. She is such a wonderful person and deserves nothing less. Anyway the big bachelorette weekend was in Nashville, TN I was not able to make the trip but I wanted to still help with the goodies.

Personalized tumblers for all the attendees!

Michelle is such a classy lady so we didn't want to do anything too cheesy. So I made this great sash that matched her personality perfect!

The beautiful bride to be!

Well I got to go home a couple weeks ago and spend a fun filled day and night with 3 of my favorite girls!! We had tickets to see Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan in Sanford Stadium. It was probably one of the best concert experiences I have ever been too. I was worried this preggo lady was not going to be able to hang like I used to at concerts but my girls took good care of me! We cooked out in a GREAT shady spot and they let me go up the elevator instead of climbing the million stairs to our nosebleed seats lol. I love them! We had such a great time!! Just like old times! I miss my girls!

It has been a while! +baby shower

Well it has been like 4 months since I have posted last. I have been so busy with work that I really haven't had time to do much! I did get a little craft over the past couple months and I wanted to share with you guys. Well my best friend had a little boy in August...

John Thomas Christopher only the cutest little baby boy I know! 

Aunt Krystle couldn't leave out the big sis!! 

With the wedding this summer and Susan's traveling restrictions we did not have time to throw her a shower before the baby arrived so we had it after he got here so everyone could see him and he could enjoy it too. Well if anyone doesn't already know Aunt Krystle LOVES her babies all of them and I can't wait to add some cousins for them to play with :) But anyway I was so excited when baby John arrived and couldn't wait for the shower. Everything came out so cute and I think everyone enjoyed it!

I made this for them to hang in his bedroom. 

(made the same way I do the photo coasters just added ribbon)

his room is done is giraffes so I made him a little tag blanket

Since this was their second child and they had everything they needed we did a diaper shower. I even made the invitations into little diapers. 

Diaper motorcycle

 Diaper Wreath

Blue Velvet Cupcakes with Diaper Pins

 Blue punch with floating bath toys!