Taking grandma to the airport

So I haven't updated our blog in a while and I thought I would say hi! I am on jeff's iPhone and i can't add a pic of Packson.... Dang!

Yia Yia challenges Papou to a diaper change!!

My dad always claims he can change a diaper, no problem, but this time my mom challenged him to it and he took her upon the challenge!! He really did a great job and here is the video to prove it :) Way to go Papou!!

Packson has arrived with Smiles!

Packson Robert McDaniel joined this world on September 1, 2010 at 5:17pm! He weighed 7lbs 13 oz and was 20 inches long. He had a full head of dark hair and came out perfect :)

I know I haven't posted for a while and haven't updated on the progress so here is the recap.

Week 1: Born on a Wednesday, went home from the hospital on Friday. He was a little jaundice so we had to watch his wet and dirty diapers for a couple of days. The first night went well until about 4am when I got worried because since we had left the hospital he hadn't had a wet diaper which was very important in getting rid of the jaundice. He was also only 7lbs 4 oz when we left so gaining weight was important too. Finally after a few more hours he had a very wet diaper and we were all relieved!! Tuesday after he was born we went to his first doctor's appointment and he had gained more weight and was all the way back up to 7lbs 11oz. So we were happy and dr. was very surprised with his record weight gain. She wasn't concerned about the Jaundice and sent us on our way with a clean bill of health.

We also had lots of visitors in Week 1, we had Yia Yia and Papou Schroeder here for the delivery and a few days afterwards. After that Grandma and Grandpa McDaniel came for a few days as well.

Week 2: Nick Morgan and Ewan came to visit us the 2nd weekend after he was born and we enjoyed having them all here. We didn't do a whole lot but it was fun getting to see them and them meeting Packson for the first time!! On Monday of Week 2, I got mastitus and ran a 102.6 fever! I felt aweful and that was the first day Jeff was gone from home :( I called the dr. and got antibiotics, but they couldn't work fast enough. The rest of that week I was basically in bed as much as possible with a newborn to try and get healthy again. I finally by about Friday or Saturday started to feel a little bit better, but was still on the mend. Thank goodness I made it through that, because it was bad. I don't wish it upon anyone. During that time we went back to the dr. (on wed) and Packson had gained another 1lb 1 oz and was weighing in at 8lbs 12oz. So we were so happy that despite me getting sick, he was still eating well!!

Week 3: Was a week at home with Packson, just learning his schedule and routine and figuring things out. Finally feeling better so things were starting to fall into Place.

Week 4: Yia Yia arrives on Saturday to help me while Jeff is in Kansas City for meetings all week! We have had a fun week of running errands to the grocery store, the Mall, picking up Packson's birth certificate, and to the hospital to weigh him again! We have been busy and lazy all at the same time. Makes me wish I had someone at home with me every day during maternity leave :) At the hospital you can weigh your baby for free in the lactation center, so we took Packson in to see how he was progressing! He weighed 9lbs 14 oz, so he has gained another 1lb 2 oz in 2 weeks, right on schedule since they want you to gain an oz per day! Makes me happy to know that the breastfeeding is sucessful and that he is thriving :) Happy baby = Happy Mamma!

So here we are at Friday and that really recaps the first month of Packson's life! Sorry it took so long to post, I have been a busy bee this month :) Hope you enjoy the video below, mom and I can't believe that he is already interacting a little bit with us and we can get him to smile :) So fun already!

We have joined the Mini-Van Club

Welp - We joined the club of the mini-van drivers! It will have much more room for our 9 hour drives to KS. I am opposed to having to lift a carseat up to the level of an SUV and I love my automatic doors, so hey it works for us! I will be very sad to leave the camry behind, but it will luckily stay in the family for now!



Booker can even see out of his windows that only roll down half way!

Packson's Room is Finished!!!

This week was very eventful with the girls in town, they got everything on the walls and lots of great things finished. The pictures don't do it justice by any means, but I might be biased just a bit! I will try to give you the tour and tell you about all the pieces of the room!

Packson got a great surprise when he got these towels, I had not planned on these, but I love them. The piece on the wall the girls found at the Furniture store where we got Pack's furniture.

With the towels, here is the rest of the bathroom for changing the little man and keeping him clean after his bathtime. The "curtain" was one of Cindy's great ideas, it's a curtain rod with ribbon hanging from it with sparkly things and pictures of Yaya, Papou, Grandma and Grandpa, as well as cousins Ewan and Benon. This way Packson has some fun stuff to look at when he is getting his diaper's changed.

Here are the towels all embroidered with his initials :) In chocolate and blue to match everything.

Packson's name is on the wall above his crib, so now it's official. The lighting was not as good as I had hoped in this picture so the colors look a little washed out. The letters on the wall are blue to match his bedding, and he has a new blue and white monkey mobile to gaze at from bed :)

Over the chest of drawers we have a new wall hanging, it's so appropriate for us dog loving folks. We know that Packson will love his doggy as much as we do. As for Booker he is still getting used to the new "Baby doll" that we are practicing with. The Frame says "Snips and Snails & Puppy Dog Tails, that's what little boys are made of." Another piece the girls found at the furniture store.

Here is a look from the door walking into the room, the frames on the wall by the curtain were a gift from Mom and Dad at the Shower in Independence, we have to get some pics in there very soon.

Here is a shot from the bathroom looking towards the door, his shelves are filling up!! You can't see it from these pictures but we got a cute little KU piggy bank from Karla that sits right by the Kansas Jayhawk blocks. Sir Packson is ready to become a KU fan.

A shot of the hutch and rocker. Note the baby blanket on the rocker. Packson's blanket from his Great Grandma Schroeder all washed and ready to go. He will use this one for sure, I got mine out and though it was very worn it's still in good shape. So this will be one blanket that he can use, I always did :)

Looking into the entrance of his room, I had the idea that we needed something for the wall right as you walked in and the girls found this one. Very cute cross and it really does make it look like someone lives in there now! Very very soon he will. Also, the Jayhawk on the door handle is super cute to get him ready as well. Thanks Scott Cowman Family for that one!

A close up of the cross, everything matched perfectly!

So that is an up close and personal walk through Packson's room for those of you that live many many miles away and can't see it right away.

Now for the Dr. Visit update. We had an ultrasound and everything was good. He was showing off his face, chubby cheeks and even his boy parts for us! The measurements estimate he is 7.3lbs (or 7lbs 5oz), but she said he could be as small as 6.5 at this point too. All looked good and his amniotic fluid levels are still good, so we were happy with that. Doc thinks based on my size when I was born that he will be around 8.5lbs. Let's hope he is on the 6.5 side now so he can be between 7.5 and 8.0 pounds :) in 2 weeks.

She did check me again and I was between a 1-2 cm, and more effaced than last week (she didn't give us a number, she just said my cervix had thinned out more). She again said his head was really low and I asked her about the stations and she said he was at a -1, so making his way down. She said he is coming very soon :) She mentioned that she was on call this weekend so if he wanted to come this weekend that would be fine too :). We are going to wait another week to go back to the dr (she talked about having us go back earlier), but we will go back next Friday and if we haven't had him by then, we will go back that next week early in the week (Aug 23) and she is going to begin the process of trying to put me in labor. She is going to strip the membranes that week and see what happens, and there is a 50/50 chance of that putting me into labor. I think she wants to go ahead with it for 2 reasons, 1 - so she can deliver him and 2 so that he doesn't get too big in there!

So all in all, he is most likely coming before September 8 and possibly even in August at this rate! We are just glad that everything looks healthy in there. Now we are just saying our prayers for a healthy and safe delivery to get him here! I will keep everyone updated and will post pictures as soon as I can (or Jeff) after he is born. We are ready and waiting Packson!

Lastly a HUGE THANK YOU to Cindy, Sharon and Yaya for helping us with everything this week! We couldn't have done it without you! We love you!

McBaby has a name!

I know I promised the name reveal very soon, so I thought now that the family knows I would go ahead and post the name!

McBaby is going to be Packson Robert McDaniel on his big day! Packson is a name that I have always loved and a name that we don't mind the nickname at all, so that was our choice. Robert just so happens to be Papoo Schroeder and Grandpa McDaniel's 1st name so it works out great!

We learned from the Dr. today that I am 1 cm dialiated and 70% effaced.. so Packson is starting to make his move for the door. Dr. Richter doesn't think he will come like next week or anything, but she does think he will come before his due date. I was surprised that 70% was the number I thought it sounded high, but I had a friend that was at 1cm and 80% for 3 weeks before induction... so we will see what happens. She acted like she would induce before if I was uncomfortable and I might take her up on that.. we will see. If I can get through the next couple of weeks of work I will be happy!

The old body is starting to be a little more uncomfortable to live in, but I am still sleeping and moving around ok. Just getting a little more whiney! :) I would also say that I don't look great in this picture but you get the idea. I thought I needed to keep posting it. This is 35.5 weeks along our journey.

Jeep Stroller!

Today/tonight we put together the high chair and the Jeep Stroller! Here are some pictures of the Jeep Stroller which I think we will love once he gets a little older. Jeff of course was excited about the "beer holder" on the side :). We are getting ready for him and have 7.5 weeks left. Still have a few things left to do on the nursery, but know that in the next month we will be finished. All of the essentials are done, we just have a few things for the walls to complete.. no biggie! So enjoy the pictures including the ones where Jeff has put Mr. Booker in the stroller to cruise around!

Don't think that he is enjoying sitting in this, he is hating every minute of it :)

32 Weeks... 2 months left!!

Mr. McBaby will be here before we know it! 32 weeks tomorrow and only 60 days left till he will be here. We are busily preparing and tomorrow I will be signing up for Day Care, filling out the birth certificate paperwork and calling for newborn pics. Then on Friday we meet with a possible pediatrition. After that I think we will be set. We just need to get a few more things to get the room finished and ready and that will be it. The big stuff is done and now it's smooth sailing from here! Here is my latest pic from tonight.....Yikes I have grown from my last pic 9 weeks ago! Please ignore my slouch.. I don't have enough energy to re-take the photo tonight!



Dr. on Friday said 2 more 2 week appointments and then every week from there... we will be getting checked for dialation in 4 weeks... can't believe it's that close!

We went to TCBY tonight since I had a hard day at work today! We have been frequent customers lately, I vowed I was going to stop with the ice cream and cookies but I had both today. So tonight we went in and were walking out and saw ourselves staring at us. It was a guy and a girl about our age, and when I looked at the guy he had a smirk on his face looking at me and she was kind of looking giggly too. They proceeded to stare at me the whole front window we walked by. So after that we determined that he was saying to her what Jeff used to say to me... "look at the gut on that one," or "she is HUUUUUGGGE." So we had to laugh the whole way home because we probably used to stare at pregnant couples that way back in the day. At least Jeff has learned he can't say those things anymore!



PS... we have a name... stay tuned.. once all of our family has been let in on our secret we will post his formal name on our blog :) Just a little teasor to keep you checking back!

Shower and Closets!

Well the past couple of weeks have been busy for us! I had a great baby shower given for me, Jeff went to the lake with the boys, and this weekend McBaby got a new closet! Wanted to post some pics of all of it! We are fast approaching 30 weeks (on Wednesday June 30) so the next few weeks are going to be relaxing and final preparations for the little one to arrive! We are getting excitied!

Too cute wreath at the shower!

Texas Flag on the outside of the house! Can't wait to fly this one when little guy arrives!

The treat table!

Super cute Cowboy Diaper Cake that Mom and Morgan made! They are professionals!

Great Grandma Schroeder's quilt for the BabyBoyMcDaniel!

The Grandma's and Stephanie/McBaby

Cowboy Ewan in his Shower Get-up!

Benon ready for some sun!

McBaby's new closet - Jeff spent some time this weekend building the baby's new closet and I am very impressed with how it turned out. It has shelves for linens, lots of hanging space and a few drawers/shelves for other things in the cube system. We love it and know it will be great for all of his new stuff!

2 levels of hanging!

Linen or other odds/ends shelves.

6 cubes for fun stuff for the baby, toys or whatever we decide to put away in there!

Kansas Jayhawks

Well quickly I will say that our Dr's appointment went well and sonogram was fine! We do start every 2 week appointments... so the time is going to fly now! Also, I haven't heard from the Dr. this week so I think that means my Glucose test came back normal. Saturday we got Mr. McBaby's closet cleaned out so we are ready to develop our closet for him. Should be fun! That will be next weekend's project! This weekend we have the McBaby Shower in KS, which I am very excited about. Jeff has boys weekend at the lake, they are taking the Grand Lake Reality Beer Tour on the lake.. sounds like fun! Will post pictures of the weekend!


One of the many things that we got done today was getting up our Kansas Jayhawk letters on the wall after 1.5 years of holding off. They look good! I will say that they probably would stick better if you put them up right away.. and the texture will prove to be a challenge on them staying up. The humidity here will make it interesting. Here are some pictures of that!

Sonogram X2

Monday was our latest sonogram and boy did we have lots of sonogram time! We had it twice in a couple of hours! As far as I know everything looked good on the sono, he was moving around, but we go to the Dr. tomorrow to find out if everything is going well. We had the sonogram to do a full check on his heart (the last sono he was a bit to small to get a good look) so hopefully that went well.

Now the reason I title this Sonogram x2 is because we went for the first sonogram and all went well so we went on our way. I got home and was looking at the photos on the computer and noticed someone elses name at the top of the sono. I thought it was weird because they always put the patients name at the top. I was then getting worried that someone else would get my results and maybe not even be pregnant (wouldn't that be a surprise if you weren't having a sono for that). I was also worried that our results wouldn't be delivered to my doc. So I was trying to talk to Jeff about what I should do, he was on the phone working and couldn't talk. I then decided to wait until he got off to discuss, and about the time I sat back down the phone rang and it was the ultrasound tech. She let me know that she did the sono under another patients name and we would have to come back and re-do the sono. So we hopped back in the car and went to the hospital for another sono! So needless to say 2.5 hours later we had 2 sonos and pictures with 2 different names on that. But I do have to say I didn't mind seeing him twice that day! Little squirmer he is :) Too fun!!

The pictures below are really not that great, it's much better in person, but I had to share!!! Stay tuned for tomorrow's update from the doc! It's Glucose test time, wish me luck!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

I know some of you have been waiting for this for a bit, so here it is! 23 weeks today and here are the pictures to prove it! I was looking at 10 week pictures vs. 23 week pictures, so I thought I would share! I hope I get my before body back!! :) Little buddy is growing big!

10 weeks

23 weeks

Back to the doctor on Friday, will post the progress... no sono, but will get to hear his hearbeat! Next up I am sure is the glucose test and sono at 26 weeks!

McBaby's room is getting closer to done everyday!

Here are some pictures of McBaby's room as it sits right now. We have a bit left to do and a few tweaks to do on some things we already have, but we are making big progress. We have a lamp for the 5 drawer dresser on order that will hopefully match perfectly and we have picked out some frames for that space to the right of the window as you walk into the bathroom. So here are the pictures I hope you enjoy as much as I already am!!

It's a good thing we have gotten as much done as we have, some Dallas friends with a 6 week old are coming to visit tonight and they have a great setup here for the little guy! We can't wait to have Jenny, Scott and Tucker here tonight! :)

We had Yaya here this week helping us get some more things ready and she found the curtains for us, they match perfectly. We had to get them up before she left us! She has a good eye!

Below is the look from his room into his bathroom! We had just the right spot for a changing table in the bathroom right by the sink. We are really excited to have this handy space!

Clean sheets and a new mattress, just for our house guests, and for our newest little house guest in September :) I think he will like it!

Rock Chalk! Here are the blocks on the bare shelf of McBaby's hutch! They are so cute and his first set of blocks! The best part about these blocks are that they were given to him by some great friends that are K-State fans!! So sweet of them to buy something KU for us :) Thanks guys!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there! A big thank you to my MOM for staying with us for the week and helping me with LOTS of things this week! I don't know what we would do without you!