Updates - July

My itty bitty, teeny weeny baby is not so itty bitty or teeny weeny anymore!  She's officially growing up WAY TOO fast!!

Here are some updates on what Miss Grace is doing these days:
-She smiles and laughs like it's going out of style
-She is trying DESPERATELY to tell me something, constantly talking, I can't wait to know what it is.
-She is still the apple of her big brothers eye - he is so sweet too.  He's definitely hit the terrible twos, but he loves to talk to her and try to get her to play games with him on my iphone (hehe).
-Grace is starting to work on getting mobile - she's scoot all around in her cradle and even try to roll over.
-She hold her head up and really enjoys tummy time.
-We recently started putting her in an exersaucer, which she LOVES!  As well as time in her bumbo!
-She is starting to enjoy playing with toys in general, but mostly likes to sit back and just watch the world go by.  (I'm told she is exactly like her Daddy was)
-She is still nursing wonderfully - has never even had formula!  I'm so lucky this came so naturally to her and to me.
-She SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!  I know - it really panicked me at first, but she is wonderful!  Most nights she goes to sleep at 10:30 or 11 and until 6 or sometimes later.
-Grace is still wearing mostly 0-3 in clothes, but 3-6 in PJ's.

Jake these days is a little pill!
-He was obsessed with Cars for a couple of weeks... but now he's moved on to Thomas the Train.
-Currently, he carries around all of his cars toy, a couple train toys, and a stuffed Mickey Mouse (that he calls Mickey Mouff)
-He has recently decided there are monsters EVERYWHERE, specifically in his closet.  Just today he told me there was an Eagle in his closet - I think I convinced him that Eagles live outside....  Hopefully!
-He learned his whole name - He says it like "Jacob a-kissin"
-He can count to 5 in spanish (and sometimes higher)
-In English (most of the time) he counts 1, 2, 3, 7, 8.  I'm fairly certain he knows that isn't right, but he's mostly just stubborn.
-He is learning emotions - so we hear lots of "Debah MAD" or "You happy Mommy? Debah happy!" He only called himself Jacob when you ask his name, otherwise he still calls himself Debah.
-He's wearing 4T and I have a feeling it's time to start looking at size 10 shoes!

Grace's Birth Story - A little late!

Ooops!  I wrote this over a month ago and meant to get back to it because it needed to be edited, but I forgot! Either way, at least it's written down!




Here we are - on the eve of my baby girls 2 month birthday and I just don't even know where the time has gone.  Seems like I was still pregnant just a few weeks ago, but in reality I have now been back at work for over 2 weeks!

I figured I better take a minute to write about Grace's birth before I forget all of the details!  I'll start with the few weeks prior to her birth - I was due on April 20th and ended up taking leave from work about 3 weeks before my due date because I was just miserable.  It turned out to be fantastic - we got to spend those few weeks at home as a whole family because Jess was still not working.  The time we spent together before Grace came can never be replicated and I'm so glad we got it.  Luckily, the week or so before I was due Jess got THE CALL - what turned out to be a fantastic job was waiting for him, all that needed to happen was for Grace to make her arrival and he would be starting back to work.  The new company was wonderful and basically ended up giving him a week after she was born to stay home with us and then he started at his new job, which he LOVES.

I think it was the week of my due date that I started to really get anxious about her arrival - my body wasn't really progressing and I didn't want to go weeks past my due date, but was determined to wait until she was ready to come.  All of that equated to LOTS AND LOTS of Mall walking, I was walking the mall for hours at a time, after eating huge meals, and nothing was happening.  Two days after I was due, Jess' Mom came and got Jake to take him for what was supposed to be the weekend, this was on the Good Friday.  Friday night we went to Chedders and I ate what I wanted, which happened to be a giant plate of cheese fries and then I forced Jess to come walk the mall with me.

We walked until the mall closed, ran into a friend picking out Easter clothes for her little girl, all the while I was having mild contractions, but they were getting to be kind of regular.  I wasn't holding out too much hope at this point.  Fast forward a few hours and I am sitting on the yoga ball watching TV (I'm telling you, I wanted this baby OUT!) and I decided maybe I should start timing them, which by the way - there's an app for that.

I sent Jess to bed anticipating I would have to wake him at some point to head to the hospital, but I still didn't want to get my hopes up.  It was around 2 am and my contractions were about 5 mins apart, a minute long and had been that way for an hour - the magic numbers - so I called the nurse and was told to head on in.  So I hollered at Jess to get up - I REALLY didn't want to climb the stairs.  Eventually I hear the shower come on and I'm pretty sure my exact words at that moment were, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Anyways, the shower was taking too long, so I feared he had fallen back asleep standing under the water, so between contractions I maneuvered up the stairs.

Oh I almost forgot the part of this where Jess had been REFUSING to pack his bag, which was really stressing me out!  He did pack it (luckily) before he went to bed, so after the shower all he had to do was get clothes on and get into the car.  Dads out there - when your wife has been nagging you for WEEKS to pack your bag, she is past her due date and starting to freak out - JUST PACK THE STUPID BAG!  I don't care that it will only take you 2 minutes to do so when you need it, just do it in advance so that the hormonal woman who is about to push out a watermelon doesn't have one more thing to stress about.

Ok back to the story.

We head to the hospital - I'm hurting at this point, but trying to be brave.  They check me and I haven't made any real progress - WHAT?!  I could not believe it.  If you'll remember from the Jake birth story, I was sent home from the hospital and I did NOT want that to happen again.  So, they tell me to walk for an hour and they will check me again to see if I get to stay.

THAT SUCKED.  I was terrified that they would send me home, I was in serious pain, the contractions were definitely ramping up, but after about 45 mins I let them check me again and I had dilated to a 6 and was getting to stay!!

I didn't really want an epidural because with Jake it had really slowed my labor down and I was worried that would happen again and my labor would take forever, so instead I got a shot of some kind - it was FANTASTIC - for about 45 mins, then I was in serious pain again.  The nurses couldn't give me another shot, so I gave in and got the epidural.  Unfortunately, they went in too far and gave me a spinal instead. Oh, interesting note - as soon as we were admitted and I got the first round of drugs Jess fell asleep and missed all of the next part.

So, they are sticking me in the back with a giant needle and all of a sudden the anesthesiologist asks the nurse to start regularly checking my blood pressure and the baby and then I realize I can't feel anything from the chest down.  I'm starting to panic when the anesthesiologist tells me that she needs to do another epidural and I ask her what it all means and this is the response I get, "oh, let me get this in and we'll talk about that in a few minutes." HUH?!  All I can think about at this point is the baby, so I just focus in on the monitor and watch Grace's heart beat and try really hard not to freak out. Finally, they lay me down - and I mean THEY did it because I couldn't move anything. but my head and arms, I couldn't feel my legs or torso.  I have to say - that part was really really scary.  The upside was that I couldn't feel ANY contractions.  So, they check me - I am an 8 - holy crap batman, what will happen if I can't feel enough to push?!   At this point they told me that it would wear off and I would be able to push.  I am trying not to panic and I start facebooking and text messaging, just to stay busy.  There was no sleep happening because I was just too scared.

After a couple of hours I did start getting feeling back - and it was VERY quickly.  All of a sudden I could feel everything and it hurt, but they still needed to give me another dose of antibiotics and my water had not broken, so they basically told me to hang tight for another 30 or 45 minutes - no biggie, right?  HA!

The nurse set me completely upright, like with my feet hanging down, kicked Jess to wake him up and
I sat there and watched the IV run.  This is when I ask them to turn on the epidural and guess what?? It's too late.  No more drugs for me.  This part was not pretty - lots of crying out in pain and trying not to come apart, but finally the IV had run through and I needed to push.  Small problem - no one was ready, Jess was out at the car getting the camera (being our 2nd time around we didn't take anything in but ourselves just in case), the doctor was not around, the bed wasn't set up correctly, it was a mad house.  Luckily, I had a GREAT nurse who basically said to push when I needed to.  There was no counting, or focused breathing - I pushed while they hurried and after a couple of minutes I hear someone say, "We better get over there to catch the baby!"  Jess made it in plenty of time, the doctor walked in and barely got her gown on before Grace made her perfect and quick arrival!  I think I might have pushed for 10 mins, if that.  It was amazing.

Since it was the Saturday before Easter lots of our family was able to come on Saturday to meet Miss Melody Grace Kinnison.

Her stats were :
Born April 23, 2011 at 9:27 am
7 lbs 14 oz and 20.5"

Jake thinks she is fantastic - he loves her so much and always wants to hug and kiss her.  It really is quite adorable.

Here she is at 2 months:


Birth:


Birth Announcement:

29 Weeks!

Wow!  Where has the time gone?  The most amazing part for me with this pregnancy is how totally unprepared I feel, not about the delivery, but about the AFTER....

This baby is coming out, hopefully in 11 weeks or so and not much sooner than that, but that part doesn't bother me.  It will happen, I have no control over when or over most of it, and I know I CAN handle it because I have been able to do it before.

The scary part for me is the after - how in the world will I survive a newborn and my terrible 2 year old?!  Today we went to play at the mall and he was behaving SO BADLY that he made another kid cry!  Now, in his defense, he really didn't do anything too terrible, he was just hogging the slide and another little boy was going a little too slow and so he lightly pushed the little boys bottom to hurry him along and the little boy FREAKED!  Alas, still not appropriate behavior, but when I took him over to apologize to the little boy the Mom wouldn't even cut us the tiniest bit of slack!  Here is my 2 year old apologizing to her 2 year old and I apologized to her and she couldn't even be bothered to tell me it was ok.  Geez!

ANYWAYS, enough of that rant...

The bottom line is I know we will survive it and we will get into a routine and all will be fine, but it's really scary none the less.

We did go play over the weekend and I got some great pics of my just about 2 year old!

Won.... Twooo.... Won.... Twooo...

You forget so much, things that you think you never thought you would forget you do.  Today, I got the joy of remembering how hard a 2 and half pound baby can kick! I remember feet in the ribs, but not these karate chops!

The past few months have had their fair share of ups and stresses.  I wouldn't call them downs, but definitely stress!  I had all kinds of plans for homemade Christmas gifts, but when push came to shove I just didn't have the time or energy...  Oh well...  Either way we had a fantastic holiday, filled with lots of family time, a sick kid (which always seems to happen), and a ton of presents for the boy!

We realized after the first of the year that we were soon going to be the parents of a boy and a girl!  Luckily, my friend Amanda came to the rescue and provided us with girly hand me downs galore!  We are so blessed and Grace is going to be one excellently dressed baby girl.

Before all of that, I was giving a new role at work.  It's not quite a promotion, but it is more prominent and is a lot more stressful, but in a different way.  I really have been enjoying it, I basically am 2nd in command handling finance issues for our Australian customers - of course there are only 2 of us, so that makes me last in command.  :) The best part is that it keeps me really busy at work and everyday there is something new!

Recently, we found out that Jess was going to be losing hours at his work.  AHHH!! That was not good news, but we will figure it out.  He's been putting out feelers for something new, just in case.  That would not be ideal, so now he is getting his CDL Certification to make him more valuable at his current job.

Earlier this week we had a little scare that landed me at the hospital - just to get checked out.  I started having Braxton Hicks contractions that went on steadily all day and were getting more and more painful, luckily they really were BH and I was able to head home after a couple of hours on the monitor.  We did get to hear Grace's heartbeat for the whole time, which was steady and strong, that was the absolute best part!  I have been ordered to take it easier, stop carrying my 2 year old and to up my water intake - all of which I have been following!

Now that you are all a little more up to date, let's talk about why I decided to blog today...  Well, things have been stressful and we are SO NOT READY for Grace to be here.  By so not ready I mean like we have not even started Jake's big boy room or her room, but you know what I realized today that it really doesn't matter.

Ok, it does matter, or at least it does matter to me, but I have this strong little girl growing inside me and kicking the crud out of me and no matter what happens she is going to keep growing and gaining weight and then whether we are "ready" or not she will be here to rock our world all over again.  I know it will all get done, it just will.  The money/work/job stuff will work itself out, we have amazing families and friends who will be here to support us and in around 12 weeks life will change again.

Anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of hanging out with my toddler lately is missing out.  That child is daily reminder of how amazing life just is.  Considering he is turning 2 in just a couple of weeks I won't give you all the details, but he does wonderful silly things like count to 2 - over and over again - he will see something and start counting - "Won... Twooooo.... Won... two...".  We've been trying to get him to go up to 3, but he's not interested at all.

We've got the big birthday party right around the corner, which is another thing that will get done.

I miss this blog, I haven't had the time/energy to update lately, but I intended on at least giving you guys some short updates more frequently.  I also haven't been doing much in the photo dept, but I have a feeling that is about to change as well!  I've been feeling the urge to dust off the ol' camera so hopefully I'll be posting so new pics on flickr! (I know Lollie - you are bored with all the old ones!)

In the mean time - here's a cutie for ya.