DD Has Arrived

Today is my official due date. It's crazy to think that any day now another little blessing will be joining our family. I remember having this same feeling before Annaliese was born. It was hard to imagine another person fitting into our life, and yet within a few weeks we couldn't imagine life without her.  Love doesn't get split between children, it multiplies to encompass them all. I trust this will happen with this little one too. In fact, this baby is going to be showered with love - especially by an older brother and sister.

Over the last couple weeks, we have been making preparations for this little one. When I made it to my 38th week, we started mentally preparing for a baby coming "any time". I packed bags for everyone and cleaned up the carseat. I've also been trying to stay on top of the cleaning and laundry so I can relax as much as possible once labor progresses. Every morning I'd wake up and think, today could be the day! Immediately followed by, "Yipes! I should throw that laundry in the machine and buy some newborn diapers!"

Last week I was struck with how often I thought, "What if today is the day...". As I folded a pair of newborn socks, I was humbled to realize and be reminded that our Savior could come any day too. Up until now I have been very preoccupied with my life: the upcoming arrival of a baby, taking care of our family, homeschooling William, and so many other things. I was definitly in need of a reality check. As exciting and time-consuming as things are for us right now, I need to remember that my life is still not my own. Everyday should be lived for our Lord Jesus, to give him the honor and glory in everything. I do believe that taking care of our family and house are part of honoring God, but I was definitly focused on the earthly side of things. I pray the Lord's will is done and everything from the arrival of a baby and the return of Christ will happen in good time. I also pray for patience as we wait eagerly!

Number 3, what will you be?

I am now just passed the 37 week mark, and I can tell my body is getting ready. Hubby is convinced the baby will arrive early, but I'm not ready to assume. With both the other kids my due date came and went. I'm not going to psych myself out - the baby will come when it is ready.

In the mean time, I'm busy getting the house ready, packing going-away bags and washing little socks and onesies. At this point I've made all the gender-neutral preparations. Now I'm starting to get antsy about whether this little one is a boy or a girl. I have found some cute knitting and sewing projects for baby girls and boys, but I'd rather not waste my time making things that won't get used. I'm trying to be patient. It is just hard when I know I will have very little energy to make things after the baby arrives. I suppose a baby girl doesn't NEED a little petal hat and a baby boy doesn't NEED a cabled vest, but how cute they would be!!

Thankfully I have two peanuts running around to keep my occupied. We started school a little later than I had planned. My original plan was to start mid-August. With the baby due to arrive at the end of September, I decided we may as well get a jump on school to make up for the lost weeks. However the books I ordered at the beginning of August were delayed. In fact, the box of curriculum will finally arrive this afternoon. Thankfully we have a few books from last year that didn't get finished and the first few weeks of school are generally review from the previous year. So I put together a few lessons and we got started last week. Things are going great so far!

I am amazed how much William learned this past year, and I can't wait to see how much he'll learn this year. He's getting to be such a big boy! He is beginning to think he is big too. Now that he is 6 years old, he thinks the world is his playground.  He can handle more jobs and responsibilities around the house. (He is so proud to help out). He can reach shelves and faucets he couldn't reach before.  He likes to tell everyone he meets that he is 6, and he reminds Annaliese that there are certain things she just can't do because she isn't 6.

Annaliese is also learning more and more every day. I am not officially schooling her, but she loves to sit and listen to William's lessons and participate whenever she can. Yesterday while we sat in church, she was looking at the cover of the Book of Praise. I could hear her sounding out some of the letters. She said "off" for the word "of" and she knew the sounds for "p", "a" and "s".  She also loves writing letter As. I was annoyed to find one on the wall, but at least it made finding the culprit easy.

Both of the kids are excited about the new baby. They refer to the end of the month as "when the baby pops out". Initially William wanted a brother and Annaliese a sister. Friends of ours just had a baby boy, though, so in William's mind that means we are having a girl. Only time will tell, my boy :-).

Kaylyn Week 2

Well week 2 started off with a family dinner at Hong Kong Garden on Saturday evening to celebrate Tyler's graduation from WWU and for being grad student of the year for the history department! Kaylyn slept the whole time so it was nice to just relax and enjoy good company and super good food:) Saturday morning was finally the last time a nurse had to come to the house to prick Kaylyn and they finally took the bili bed with them too! Thank goodness!!! We were ready to throw that thing in the trash. lol (not really though) It was just getting harder and harder to watch her go through that every day. The first couple times honestly didn't bother me so much. In my head I was like okay this has to be done so I didn't even think about it. But after a couple days and seeing her heals bruised up so bad and how much blood would get everywhere really started to build up some emotion. Probably the lack of sleep and the stress of knowing that she had to be on the bed so long didn't help anything either:) At least I could hold it together just fine when the nurse was there. I was definitely glad that Jeremy was home the first couple days. Even though he would make himself scarce when the nurse would come, he would come in room the minute she was gone and comfort us both:) He is so wonderful!

Sunday was a wonderful day. We were blessed to have our little girl baptized. It was neat that Jeremy's dad was playing organ that day so he was right up there with us. (well almost:)) Kaylyn was also wearing the same baptism gown that I was baptized in so that was really special for me. After baptism we all went to my parents house for buns and lots of other yummy food.  On Monday my friend Angela from the salon came and took Kaylyn's newborn pictures. Kaylyn was pretty much crying the whole time which was a bummer.  Especially since I fed her three times during those three hours Angela was here. lol at least you can't tell from the pictures! On Thursday Kaylyn had another doctors appointment and she gained a little bit more and is now 7lbs 9 oz! She has been gaining about a half ounce everyday so the doctor said that is exactly what she should be doing. Yay good baby:) I was really bummed though that I had to take her to the lab to get her heal pricked again:( I thought we were finally over that. She cried for the longest time too. Normally I would hear the needle go and she would give a little cry and then be done but this time she got so upset. Poor little thing! It is so hard to just sit there holding her and seeing her so peaceful and knowing that she has no idea what is about to happen. I know it has to be done but each time it is harder and harder to watch. She also only has a poopy diaper about every five days. So I know that isn't helping her jaundice much either. Sorry if that is a little TMI ha ha but that is my life right now:) Apparently that can be normal for breastfed babies so I am not getting too worried about it yet. Well that is all for now!  

 Here are a few pics of our darling little lady that my friend took. She has her own photography business that she is starting called Angela Joy Photography. Angela also took my maternity shots. She is so talented and I can't wait for her to take Kaylyn's 3 month photos!

Kaylyn Week 1

Well Kaylyn's first week of life was definitely a busy one:) She was born on a Thursday and we got to go home from the hospital on Saturday around 5 in the afternoon. Right away on Sunday morning we had a nurse come to the house to check her jaundice levels which meant them pricking her heal to draw blood:( In the hospital they did it in the nursery so I never saw it done. Jeremy held her when they did it on Sunday but they came everyday to check her levels until Saturday. On Monday Jeremy went outside to work on the yard cause he couldn't handle watching them poke her. Her poor little heels were getting so beat up. The first couple days didn't bother me when they did it but by the end of the week I just wanted to cry right along with her! 

Starting on Sunday she also had to be on the Bili bed. Which is like a mini tanning bed that fits right inside her bassinet. She had to be on the bed at least 12 hours a day! It was so hard getting her to stay there though. In the hospital she loved to be swaddled up nice and tight and she would stay nice and warm. But the Bili bed had this somewhat of a sleep sack that had Velcro on the corners to stick to the bed. It had little sleeves and a zipper with snap on the top to kind of look like a sleep sack but it was pretty much a glorified blanket with sleeves. So she had tons of room to be able to kick around and such. She stayed on it pretty good during the day but at night it was a major struggle. She always felt freezing cold and her feet where always purple. Poor little thing! We couldn't handle seeing her so upset so finally Jeremy just put her in her swaddle blanket on top of the lights. Hey it was better than nothing! At least she did have some progress when they told us her test results everyday. They weren't exactly where we wanted them to be but it was better than nothing. I was so afraid to tell the nurse the next morning that we had swaddled her at night. It was like not telling your elementary school teacher that you hadn't finished all your homework. lol But the nurses were really understanding and they said you gotta do what you gotta do so I was pretty relieved:) Kaylyn also lost a bunch of weight too. She was 7lbs 14oz when she was born and she dropped down to 7lbs pretty quick.

Kaylyn in her bed:) Can you see the blue lights peaking out from the sides? 

 Besides dealing with her jaundice, Kaylyn wasn't getting a whole lot to eat either:( I didn't really have a whole lot of colostrum and it took longer for my milk to come in as well. So we were on a strict feeding schedule as well. I had to try to feed her for at least 10-15 min (it usually took quite a bit longer than that cause she kept falling asleep) on each side then I would give her to Jeremy and he would finger feed her 15ml of formula in a syringe and a tiny little tube that was taped to his finger. Come to think of it I never took a picture of it. Bummer:) So the tube feed would take about 10-15 minutes as well. And while Jeremy was feeding her the formula I would have to pump for 10-15 minutes as well. I never got anything from pumping it was just to trick my body into producing more. Needless to say feeding took about 45 minutes each time and we had to feed her every 2-3 hours. 

On Tuesday afternoon I had to take Kaylyn to the doctor's for another checkup. This time she weighed 7lbs 2oz. 

Also on her one week birthday we went to Jeremy's sister Marina's 8th grade graduation from Cornerstone. It was pretty cute because Jeremy's dad mentioned Kaylyn in his principles speech and they had a blurb about Marina being super excited about being an Auntie before she went on stage:) After graduation we went to Jeremy's parent's house to celebrate some more. It might have been a little bit too much for Kaylyn cause she was super upset that night, but how do you not let all her Aunts and Uncles hold her:)

So it was pretty stressful the first week to have to feed her for that long and still try to get her to be on the bed for twelve hours each day. So much for lots of newborn cuddles! It was really hard when we would have lots of visitors too cause who comes for a visit and not get to hold the baby? But at the end of each day when I would lay in bed and pray, a sad or negative thought never crossed my mind. I was so incredibly thankful that God had blessed us with this beautiful baby girl. We had struggled for years with not being able to conceive a child but we knew it was all in God's perfect timing. Even though the days were a bit stressful I was so thankful that those were the only problems we were having. I knew that everyday there was more and more progress and in a week all of this will be a blur. 

Jeremy on Sunday after church

Kaylyn

Our Wee Babe is here!!! On May 31,2012 We welcomed Kaylyn into the world. She weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 18 3/4" long. We were so thankful for a safe and healthy labor and delivery. It was insanely fast but we wouldn't have wanted it any other way:) I can't believe that tomorrow she will be 4 weeks old already! She is a super good baby most of the time lol She is just a little stinker and wants to be held all the time. She has been that way since day one. She never liked being in her bassinet in the hospital and it still hasn't changed. She can be sound asleep and the minute we put her down she starts to fuss and within 5 minutes she is wailing:( We have tired a billion different things to get her to be able to sleep on her own. It was really hard at first because she was so little but now that she is almost a month old we are letting her cry it out longer and longer. AND as I am writing this she is sleeping in her crib by herself!!! I am really hoping I don't jinx myself by writing that lol She definitely was crying off and on for a while but she was fed, burped, and had a clean diaper so I knew she was fine. I am super thankful that today was the day that it worked because I have my sister-in-law coming any minute for a haircut and then I have another guy's cut after her! So hopefully she will be a good girl and sleep till mommy is done working:) 

Here are a few pics from the hospital

This was taken a couple minutes after she was born. I didn't get to hold her right away since her shoulder got stuck:( So they had to check her out to make sure she was okay. 

Me looking quite dead due to lots of blood loss

Jeremy holding his daughter for the first time:) So cute! 

Proud Daddy:) 

He couldn't wait to get on that phone and call everyone. He kept on asking me if he could call people. I was like dude chill out! lol I wanted to call people too but I had to lay with my feet above my head from the blood loss and because I kept on feeling like I was going to pass out. Apparently my blood pressure went insanely low. All I knew was that I just wanted to sleep and to have the doctor and the nurses to stop talking to me ha ha I didn't realize they were trying to keep me from passing out:) 

Me feeling a bit better (still really pale but that is okay) 

 Me feeling a billion times better after a shower! I remember after my shower feeling like I did not just have a baby three hours earlier. It was the weirdest thing! It just felt like the whole labor was a crazy dream I had just had. Must have been the pain meds they gave me afterwards:)

Visitors! 

Kaylyn was Jeremy's parents' first grandchild:) 

 Family Pic!

Four generations

We finally got to go home on Saturday afternoon! Yay! 

A Day in the Life...

After a whirlwind weekend, we had a productive as well as relaxing day. It was lovely waking up to the sun this morning! I always have more energy when the sun is streaming through our bedroom window. So after breakfast we got right to it.

William has been asking me to sort some Lego/Megabloks we bought off Craigslist last week, and I’ve been putting him off for days. So despite the itch to go outside, we sat down in the office, Googled the different sets and put them together. While we sorted, Annaliese curled up in her old infant car seat that is in our “ to toss” pile and read some books. I think she almost fell asleep.

After we finished organizing the toys, I took the kids outside to put the finishing touches on the vegetable garden. I found 4-for-$1 veggie starters at a greenhouse last week, and I finally had the time to plant them today. William helped dig holes, Annaliese squished them out of the containers and I did the planting. Hopefully we will have some peppers, tomatoes and eggplants by the end of summer! I’m a little worried about this late start to summer, but I’m going to try to keep them fertilized and watered for maximum potential.

Just a side note, I joined a free online garden site last week called The Smart Gardener. You can input statistics about your area and info about your garden and it will help you keep track of maintaining your plants. I was able to make an online version of my garden including all the specific varieties of plants and dates for when I planted things. But if I didn’t already have my garden planted I could have had the website generate suggestions for what, where, and when to plant different veggies. I should mention that only the veggies are free of charge. If you want to add fruit or herbs to your “garden”, you have to purchase the add-on. I am more interested in veggies anyways, so I wasn’t too disappointed. So far I think it is pretty cool. I don’t claim to have a green thumb, so I appreciate all the help I can get!

While I finished up the garden, I realized my little miss had wandered off. I was just about to check the front yard when she came skipping out of the garage in her swim suit. Apparently she has figured out that when work is finished and the sun is shining it is time to cool off. William was happy to haul out the hose and fill up the lady bug, our ex-sand box. I tried reading in the sun for a bit, but I didn’t last much longer than 30 minutes. It was hot out there! Good thing it was time for lunch.

After lunch the kids went to their rooms for quiet time and I read some more. (Oh, and I ate a yogurt pop…to stay cool, of course…) I just started reading a book called “Educating the Wholehearted Child”. I’m really enjoying it so far! It is a book about homeschooling, and I think it will be a great summer read to put fall plans in perspective. I appreciate how the authors put God at the heart of education and show how everything else about schooling will fall into place as long as God is first. So true!

Well, that was our day! Nothing too exciting, but it was wonderful anyways.

Well today marks exactly 11 days till our Wee Babe's due date! I still can't wrap my head around the thought that we are going to have our very own baby! We get to keep it and take it home from the hospital and everything! :) I know it's not going to be all unicorns, rainbows and butterfly's at first but I am going to try and cherish every moment of it. I know they grow up oh so fast and I want to keep a positive attitude no matter what complications or frustrations may come up the first few weeks. We pretty much have everything ready to go here at the house but I still feel like I am forgetting something and that the minute we take the baby home it is going to hit me. It is really weird to try and be prepared for something you really can't prepare for:) Every baby is different so you really can't go off every body else s baby stories. Well we just have to wait and see! ~ Andrea ~