Moving Eve

Okay, so that title doesn't make sense, but it's the day before the move.  We packed up most of our stuff in the truck last night.  Thankfully, it looks as if everything will fit.  Kudos to the guys from church who really know how to pack a truck!

The boys (I can't say kids anymore) are all at sleepovers.  It's their final hang out time here.  I spent the evening home alone with Kira trying to pack up the last stuff.  Needless to say, the swing I borrowed from a friend was a lifesaver.  Kira was in the swing for about three hours.  So I was able to get a lot done.  And she's sleeping in the swing again now, so I'm continuing to get things done.

So... just wanted to let you know how things were going.  James and Dad are on their way here from Atlanta this morning.  They got a little lost in Atlanta last night.  Hopefully they're not too stressed out when they get here.  It's so amazing of them to drive all the way here just to help us load up and then drive all the way back.  They rock.

Okay.  Ladies from church will be here in about 30 minutes, so I better get some more stuff done so they can actually do the cleaning like they plan to.  (Lovin' the Ladies!)

Wisdom

I thought I'd share an email that I got from my mom just now:

I know that you are overwhelmed with things today, but just pause a moment and look around. You are so blessed!

Mike - the loving, LOVING husband and father, good provider and your true soul mate;
Reid - a really good kid and good looking to boot;
Zach - a caring, challenging pre-teen with lots of love in his heart;
Jacob - the 'tall, dark, handsome' gentle little man with lots of caring;
Cole - the biggest little man around, with love and insight;
Kira - a blessing from above that 'binds the hearts of her family';
Kory - the silent keeper of the house.

No item(s) are more important than the love of the family. The move is a challenge but your love and patience is the part that will make the move a fun remembrance. Just keep in mind that the 'things' are part of your life, but nothing like the love of the family. Keep in mind that this can be a fun time; don't get to caught up on the little things to where you miss the big things that are fun.

I love you and think of you every moment.

Your Mom

Thanks, Mom. I needed that.

Crunch Time

My mom came this weekend and packed up my kitchen. That's a much bigger job than it seems. And it's only part of my kitchen. The rest is in storage... ugh. I'm so glad she came. And she got to hold Kira a good bit today while Kira slept. It was nice for them to get some time together.

So tomorrow I will be packing up clothes and putting together the suitcases for our trip. I'm going to do a little bit of shopping to pick up some trip goodies and some Trader Joe's staples to take with us to Texas. I'm going to miss Trader Joe's. I am moving within 15 minutes of an IKEA, but I think I'd rather have the Trader Joe's.

Guys from church are coming to the house Tuesday evening to help us pack up the furniture from the apartment and the storage unit. Then, if there's time, they'll come back to the apartment and pack up some of our boxes. We'll finish packing up the boxes on Wednesday, pack the cars, load up with my dad and James, and head out Thursday morning.

Sounds simple enough... sadly, it won't be. I'm sure I'll be one stressed out puppy by the time we're leaving. Then I get to spend two and a half days in a car with a newborn and a cat (and I bet my dad is looking forward to that, too!). Fun fun. I think by the time we get unloaded in Austin, I'm going to want to sleep for a month straight.

One Month

Wow. A whole month old. Time is just flying by. Next week we move to Texas. That's just crazy.

So I thought I'd let you in on the life of a one month old. Not that everyone reading this doesn't already know what it's like to have a little baby, but still... here's one aspect of life around here:

So, this is the outfit that I put on her this morning when she got up. It's one of my favorites. Such sweet little pants. Well... you can see what she did to them... she spit up all over them. So I changed her.

This is a sweet little outfit that I got from one of my mom's good friends. It has little owls on it. However, Kira is no respecter of owls and she spit up, peed, AND pooped on this outfit. So I changed her again...

This outfit came from the same lady that gave us the outfit in the first picture. Same sweet little pants (I do like the dark pink ones a little better). Isn't she cute in all of her pinkness? (Oh, and the blotching on her face is another reason I think she may be having a milk allergy.) She peed on this outfit, so Mike put her in this...

I can't remember who gave us this one. It is the definition of cuteness, though. I suppose Kira's just wanting to make sure that she's keeps up with the latest fashion trends, so she doesn't want to wear something too long. :)

Hopefully this little outfit will make it through the night. :)

Hard Night

On the eve of her one month birthday, Kira is giving her mommy a run for her money.

She has been crying pretty hard for a while now. Mike has her. She is just really not happy about life.

Here's what's been going on... she had started screaming really hard a couple of weeks ago at certain points during the day. Then she started having fizzy poop. Zach had what I called "coke fizz" poop. This wasn't quite that bad, but it was just full of bubbles. I started researching and most things said it was probably a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Meaning that she's getting a lot of watery breast milk and not enough high fat breast milk. Usually caused when the mom has too much milk. So I started working to make sure that she was getting the fattier hindmilk. Well, things were going alright. The number of poops seemed to decrease, the general fizziness also decreased, and she even seemed to scream less. Seemed pretty good, right?

Not so fast... her fizzy poop turned to a very watery poop and then a little thicker, but with lots of mucus in it. And finally today, she had a small streak of blood in her poop. And tonight she has been pretty much inconsolable.

So. There are basically two things that could be going on (according to what I've read, anyway). 1) This could all be from getting too much foremilk. Basically, the watery milk is very high in lactose and can overload baby's system and cause them to have digestive problems... thus the mucus and eventually blood. 2) This could be symptoms of a milk protein allergy. If she's sensitive to milk proteins that I'm ingesting, her body reacts with the mucus and blood in the poo. So I would need to cut out all dairy products.

Cutting out dairy can take 2 to 3 weeks to see positive results in the baby. And the foremilk problem can also take 2 to 3 weeks to resolve. So how will I know what's working? I suppose after 3 weeks, if she's doing better, I can have a glass of milk and sit back and see what happens.

But for tonight, and I suppose the next many nights, we'll just have to try to calm a crying baby. Hopefully it will all be a blur in a couple of months much like labor already is.

Oh, and she's still really cute. :)

What I Have To Put Up With

Hi. This is Kira. Mom's busy getting us ready to move to Texas, so I thought I'd give you an update and a glimpse into my life. Last night, somehow, I ended up with a purple onesie and a pink shirt over it. This morning, Dad decided that it would be funny if he put green pants and yellow socks on me. Very funny, Dad. I've got a closet full of sweet, adorable clothes, and you put me in this?


Granted, I'm cute in anything, but really... this is just over the top. Fortunately, you can see that Mom loves me no matter what. However, at the first opportunity, I made it so I needed a diaper change (I'm good at that) and peed all over my two shirts (I'm also good at that). Being the clever girl I am, I knew that with Mom being the one to change my diaper, that I'd get back into coordinating clothes. And I was right.


See how happy I am? Now don't get me wrong... Dad's great for a lot of things, but his sense of style is a bit lacking.

So that's what been going on with me today. Off to take a nap, or poop, or cry, or coo unbelievably cute... whatever I decide. ~Kira

My Favorite Part of the Day

Almost every morning, Kira spends a few minutes stretching and grunting while she wakes up. She will often make really sweet facial expressions and stretch and just be extremely cute.

Here's a picture of her this morning during her more asleep time of waking up (did that make sense?)

Upcoming Move

So... we're less than two weeks away from our move to Texas. I'm trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to get everything done that needs to be done. I think I'm going to ask a girl at church today to borrow her baby swing. That should give me some time to pack a few things here and there. I had intended to pack several boxes yesterday, but Mike spent the day helping Zach and Reid have a outing with friends. It was their sort of early birthday party before we go.

And yesterday I realized that I need to call to cancel all the utilities here and call to set up all the utilities there and it's just one more thing on my to-do list.

Then I got an email from Mike that his previous employer requires a copy of Kira's birth certificate before they can add her onto our now cancelled insurance. Really? I don't think I ever had to do that before... to-do list longer...

And so I just sit and feel overwhelmed instead of getting anything done. I guess I'll have to get over that!

Growing Baby

I just got finished folding a load of Kira's laundry. And I thought, "Hmmm... that doesn't really fit her anymore" when I folded this one little onesie. So I decided to go through all of her clothes and there were several things that she has already outgrown. Makes me sad. I don't know why time has to go by so quickly.

Kira's Blessing

Kira was blessed on Sunday. Our church doesn't do infant baptisms, but we do have a blessing. Basically, the dad and other elders of the church hold the baby and give her a blessing. Each blessing is unique and is given through inspiration. Kira was blessed, among other things, to have compassion on others and to be able to understand their needs. That she would recognize the sacredness of being a woman. And that she would be blessed to recognize the divine nature of families and be blessed by her own loving family.

It was really nice. She is a special person and we are grateful to have her in our home.

My mom made her a blessing dress. It isn't required, of course, to have special clothes to be blessed in, but it sure is a beautiful dress. She looked so cute. Here are a couple of pictures of her in her dress.

Three Weeks

My goodness time flies.

Three weeks ago I was soaking in this brand new little person. Today I'm stressing over whether or not something I'm eating is causing her tummy troubles. Last night I just broke down into tears at the thought that something I'm doing is causing her trouble. Probably a bit irrational, but it's really, really hard to hear your little baby crying so hard.

Fortunately, she's mostly doing good. She is fairly calm most of the time. And she's just getting bigger and bigger.

And let's see if I can't find a really cute picture to post...

This is her at four days old. I like how she's looking up at Reid. What cuties. :)

Growing Baby/Shrinking Mommy/Worried Daddy

This is Kira waking up this morning... great way to greet the day, huh? :)

Kira weighed 9lb 9oz today at her two week appointment. She's huge! I told the kids yesterday that Kira would be going off to college next week. :) She was the picture of health to the doctor. And her gaining 21oz in two weeks impressed him. He said his record was 28oz. I'm shocked by the 21oz. The boys were typically around 14 - 16oz.

And I got on the scale while I was there. I'm within about a pound of my pre-pregnancy weight. I thought I'd post a final belly shot.


Which brings me to the Worried Daddy part of my title. Mike went to Sam's the other day and brought home frozen cheesecake bites, frozen mozzarella sticks (like at Applebee's or Chili's), and a gallon of whole milk. :) He's a bit concerned because I think I actually lost fat during the pregnancy. I had to stop nursing Reid when he was 10 months old because all of my fat was gone and my milk just stopped. I've assured Mike that I have 15 lbs on that 22 year old mother, but it's cute that he's concerned and taking care of me. He's a good husband and a good dad. And I'm fine. Really.

Two Weeks and a Day

I wanted to finish up Kira's birth story before posting much of anything else, so now that that is complete, I'm going to put up a few pictures. She has her two week check-up in about an hour, so I'll post again later with all of her baby stats.

This is Kira at one week old. She was sitting there staring into my eyes. It was quite precious.

Halloween. Jacob was "Dark Link" from Zelda, Cole was "Deku Scrub" from Zelda, Zach was a cloaked skeleton/evil dude, Reid was a cloaked figure, and Kira was a fussy pumpkin. :)

As a note, my mom made Jacob and Cole's costumes. They were quite proud of them. Jacob did make his own shield and Cole impressively made his own mask. Reid opted out of trick or treating and ended up scaring kids and spraying them with silly string at a person's haunted yard. He had lots of fun. And Zach was let loose in the old neighborhood and came home with about 15 lbs of candy. He had fun, too. :)

Just a sweet little picture. Kira loves to be naked and especially loves being free of her diaper.

Our little monkey with her good Daddy.

We continue to be completely in love with this little person. It's so nice to have her in our family: screaming and all. :)

Kira's Birth - Part 3

With that scare behind us, I tried to relax and get my body to get serious about labor. I was, unfortunately, unsuccessful. By noon (12 or 13 hours after my water broke), I was basically having no contractions. My doctor came by to check me and I was barely 5cm dilated. He felt a bulging sac and questioned whether my water had actually broken. It definitely had, but he broke the sac part that he felt and more fluid gushed. I hoped that that might get things rolling. He agreed to one more hour before starting me on pitocin. Their concern was the 18 hour mark after my water broke.

And then at some point during all of this non contraction time, the baby's heart rate went down to 64 and was staying there. The nurse got me to lay on my side to make sure the baby was okay and after a few minutes, her heart rate came back up. Now, you have to understand that a week or so before, I had a dream that I was having a cesarean. So during all of this drama with her heart rate and my body refusing to go into labor, I just kept praying that I would be able to have a vaginal delivery. I wanted the baby to be safe, of course, but I just wanted to avoid a cesarean if at all possible.

By 1pm my contractions had not started back up with any type of regularity, so they started the pitocin. It started working pretty much right away. First it just gave me stronger contractions, then they started getting more regular. The nurse turned the dose up around 1:20pm. At this point, I was in instant hard labor. With contractions that basically never stopped. When the nurse came in somewhere around 2pm and tried upping the dose, I told her no. I was actually concerned that my uterus might explode or something. I stayed at that for a while with Mike's constant attention to rubbing my back and trying to keep me comfortable. I finally asked for a shot of Nubane. The contractions were never stopping. I think I got the shot around 3pm. It was great for the first few seconds before the first contraction started. Then the contraction hit and I thought, "Okay, that literally took the very tippy top of the contraction off, and that's it." And within about three contractions, everything was back to the way it was, and more so, before I got the shot and I started to freak out. Fortunately, Mike did the "take charge" routine with me and got me to focus on the contractions instead of on my anger at the pitocin machine. I literally wanted to kick the **** out of that machine. :)

Now, at some point, the nurse came in again saying that they wanted to up the pitocin level (I still can't figure out why) and I told them that I wouldn't let them increase it unless I got an epidural first. There would have been no way for me to handle that pain. This was probably around 3:40 or so. In order to give the epidural, they apparently had to pump me full of fluid first, so she started the fluids and said it would take about an hour for them to get my hydrated enough for the epidural. Mike was super during this time. He talked me through each contractions and rubbed my legs, my back, and anything else I demanded. :)

I knew within about twenty minutes that I was getting close to being fully dilated. I didn't say anything to Mike or the nurse about it. I'm not sure why I didn't want to tell anyone, but I didn't.

Then I started feeling lots of pressure and I finally said something to the nurse. She checked and I was fully dilated. The pitocin got turned off because I was in one big huge contraction and they finally decided that "my body had taken over". At this point, they called for the doctor and were asking me not to push. The pain from the pitocin overshadowed the urge to push, so it wasn't terribly difficult not to push. But the doctor got there pretty quickly and after getting myself situated, I was able to deliver the sweet little baby. She was born 1 1/2 hours before the 18 hour mark that they were so worried about. I was so happy to have a healthy baby and to have the whole thing over.

And after her little "I refuse to breathe" moment, they weighed her and I was completely shocked to hear that she weighed 8lb 4oz. When Reid was born, the doctor asked where I was hiding that baby. This time I asked myself that question.

So that's Kira's story. Full of drama. Hopefully she got it all out of her system and we can expect an even keeled child from here on out. :)

Kira's Birth - Part 2

Over the next couple of hours, my contractions became a little stronger and little closer together. Mike and I timed them for a bit and they were 2 minutes apart, lasting 45 seconds. Normally, I would have stayed home since they weren't really strong, but by this point, I was gushing fluid during the contractions, so I decided we'd better go in.

Our friend, Anne, came over to the house, Mike and I got loaded up and headed to the hospital. We got checked in and set up in our room and I remember looking at the clock thinking that I should have a baby by around 7 or 8 am. (HA!)

I had some good, regular contractions for quite a while, but they slowed down at some point. Mike and I walked a lot, but it didn't seem to help. It seemed that I had the best contractions when I was sitting upright. I figure now that it had something to do with Kira's position, but who knows for sure.

Before the nurse shift change at 7am, my nurse, Cheryl, decided to check me. I was at 3 or 4. Boooo. I thought for sure that I was feeling a lot of progress. Oh well.

Around 8am, I got in the tub to see if it would help get the contractions going again. It just seemed to make them slow down, so after a bit, I got back out and when I got put back on the monitor, Kira's heart rate went up to around 190 and stayed there for several minutes. Concerned, our nurse Linda, wanted to talk to some of the other nurses and our doctor to make sure things were okay. This was a bit scary. But she came back and said it seemed to be a normal adjustment by the baby, and indeed, her heart rate went back down to normal a little while later. And Linda said that the tape from her high heart rate would probably be shown in a training type meeting as somewhat of an unusual normal event. Glad we could provide that service to the hospital!

(Fussy baby... more later)

Kira's Birth - Part 1

I went to my 40 week checkup at 9:30 on October 21st. I was still 2-3 cm dilated, 70% effaced, and the baby was still engaged. My cervix was tilted to the back, though. I didn't know that a forward facing cervix could turn back again... I was a bit on the fence about whether or not to ask the doctor to strip my membranes. But after the word "induction" came out of the doctor's mouth, I decided to go ahead and have him do it. Hindsight has me questioning this decision, but I think it wasn't a bad one, just not certain that it was the right thing.

So... I went home, took some castor oil that I had bought and figured we'd see what happened.

I'm not sure exactly what time contractions started. I know I was having them during our family home evening game of Cranium Family Fun, so that was around 8pm. Mike and I spent some time cleaning up and getting things ready in case we did end up going to the hospital. I tried laying down to get some sleep, but it didn't work. I got in the tub around 11pm and then in the shower. At some point during that time, my water broke. I wasn't completely sure at first, but it made itself pretty clear during the next hour or so.

(Kira's crying and needs a diaper change... more to follow.)