Sisters!

2 weeks have come and gone. And although we are starting to find some routine and schedules, we still haven't ventured out of the house much. With school almost out, the kids haven't had much homework, so Abbey usually likes to come home and "entertain" Kinley in the afternoon. Abbey likes to sit in the rocking chair with Kinley while vegging out to some afternoon cartoons. And sometimes, the two of them will just lay on a blanket together. It is so sweet to see this bonding time between the two girls! Tomorrow is Kinley's 2 week check up. She is definitely over 7 pounds now! At 2 weeks old, Kinley is trying really hard to "talk" and smile. As with most babies, she prefers to be held, although she is getting better about sleeping in her bouncy seat during the day. At night, she is doing amazingly well. She usually has a 5 hour stretch between her 8-9pm feeding and then doesn't wake up again until around 5:30am, which is fine since I have to be up by 6 to get the kids ready for school. She is finally taking a pacifier during the day, which means happy mom and happy baby!

New Baby...New Traditions!

Now that Baby Kinley is here, we have a new tradition that we've started with the kids. Every night when it's bedtime for Abbey and Brady, Baby Kinley has to come and lay next to each one of them and say prayers with them. Sometimes Kinley is screaming crying, sometimes she's sound asleep, and sometimes she just calmly lays next to her Sissy and Bubba and listens to them say their prayers. Abbey and Brady look forward to it every night and I hope that it will be a tradition that we continue in some way or another for a long time.

New born math

After 3 children, I still have not been able to figure out the newborn math! You know the one: weight gain + satisfied baby = no spit up! I have tried every configuration known to motherhood to keep my children was spitting up 24/7! There must be a spitting gene in our family. I have tried nursing for only 10 minutes total but feeding her every 1-1 1/2 hours. I've tried the gluttonous method of letting her stay on for as long as she will. I've tried not laying her down for a period of time after eating, but the only thing that does is make for one spoiled baby! Our poor visitors come with food and presents and leave with a Tide pen or a dry cleaning claim. Kinley's nickname when we first got home from the hospital was "Bitty Baby" now it's "Spitty Baby"! I have just learned to live with the fact that I WILL be the mother who wears her child's spit up proudly. It is a right of passage and as a third timer, I know that this too shall pass and I will be missing the days of snuggling my newborn. Despite Kinley's spittiness, she is doing amazing. We took her in last Friday for her first newborn pediatrician appointment. She had lost about 6oz. in the hospital and had gain one ounce back as of Friday. But because she was little to start, the Dr. wanted me to bring her in on Monday for another weight check. She weighed in at a whopping 6lbs. 10.8oz. The Dr. was very pleased with that gain, so now we don't go back until she is 2 weeks old.

Kinley Ane

After several years of waiting for this little blessing to join our family, we are happy to announce the birth of Kinley Ane. At my doctor's appointment on Monday (May 10th) my ob suggested I come in on Tuesday to be induced. I was at 3cm and having contractions, but they still weren't enough to make any progress. We got to the hospital at 7:30 on Tuesday morning and they hooked me up to all the monitors and started all the paper work. My doctor said I was registering some good contractions so he decided to wait on the pitocin. He broke my water at around 9:30 in the morning. By 11:30 my contractions were pretty regular and strong so I was hopeful that my body was working the way it was supposed to. I asked for my epidural and shortly afterwards I was examined again but I had only progressed to 4cm. My dr. decided since I hadn't made much progress even with my contractions, to start the pitocin. They checked me off and on over the next few hours and kept bumping up the pitocin, but I still wasn't moving much. At 2pm he came in and checked me again and I was still at 4-5cm. So he bumped my pitocin again. I was starting to think this was going to be a really long day, so we let Abbey and Brady come in and visit for a little bit. At about 2:30, I had a contraction that was really strong and quite painful (considering I had an epidural). About 3 or 4 minutes later I felt another one and realized I was experiencing a lot of pressure all of the sudden. I told Matthew to get the kids out of the room and call the nurse. When she came in, I told her I was feeling a lot of pain and pressure and I wanted to get a "top off" on my epidural. She said let me check you first. She looked at me and said "Sorry, Honey, I can't top off the epidural. The baby is here and will be born in the next few minutes." Over the next 5 minutes chaos erupted as they phoned for the doctor to hurry and get in here. Seven minutes later little Kinley entered into the world with the most perfect coloring and the most perfectly shaped little head. It was by far my most painful delivery, I felt EVERYTHING! I'm not really sure why my epidural didn't work, but I guess if you're going to have an epidural that doesn't work, it's good to have a 7 minute delivery! We are all doing great. Abbey and Brady are absolutely in L-O-V-E! Thank you for all your prayers!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Kinley Ane
6lbs. 12oz. 20"
born on May 11, 2010
at 2:48 p.m.

Tomorrow's D-Day!

It looks like Baby J will be making his/her grand appearance tomorrow sometime. I am scheduled to be induced tomorrow morning at 7:30 and hopefully before early evening we will know if we have a Kinley Ane or a Cayden Matthew! Please keep us in your prayers tomorrow. We are all very excited (especially the kids)!

YES!

That is the answer to the questions I receive everywhere I go anymore:

1. Are you still here?
2. Are you ready?
3. Are you getting uncomfortable?
4. Are the kids excited?
5. Will you call me and let me know when you're on your way to the hospital?

Days away!

We are just days away from our new bundle being here! Hopefully sooner rather than later. We are all very anxious and excited. Abbey has been asking numerous times a day "if I felt like the baby was going to be born today?" I finally had to tell her that if she asked me one more time I was going to send her to her room and not let her out until after the baby was born. I explained to her that she will be one of the first people to know and that she wasn't going to miss anything!

I'm getting pretty uncomfortable and sleep does not come very easily, but I know it's just God's way of preparing us for having a newborn in the house! My question is how in the world can I be compared to the "broad side of a barn" on Sunday (thanks Sis. Amanda) and then the very next day be told "Oh wow, I thought you'd already had the baby. When I first saw you, you didn't even look pregnant." Aaahhhh! Who do you think I'll be spending more time with???