It was stinky!

Breast feeding has proved very challenging. Kylee doesn't seem to eat efficiently. I think she is still kind of weak. I am going back to the lactation consultants tomorrow to weigh her and I will see if they can give me some advice. It has been taking her close to an hour to eat. Needless to say I have been exhausted. Sometimes I pump and feed her a bottle to give myself a break.

Well anyway back to the stinky. Last night I fed her at 11:30 and she didn't really finish until 1:00! She was very fussy. So when she wanted to eat again at 2:30 I decided to give her a bottle of formula. I felt incredibly guilty for doing it, but I was too tired to feed her again. I have been surprised how emotionally exhausting breast feeding can be. I feel like I don't have what she needs, etc. So when I changed her diaper this morning, it was so stinky. Now I remember one of the reasons that really like breast feeding.

To all of you moms out there: did your babies want to be held to fall asleep and then wake up an hour or two later and want to be held while he/she slept? I was watching Bringing Home Baby today and they just put their newborns in the bed and they fell alseep. How unfair! Of course I didn't have Kylee during her first week. Maybe when they are newborns they do sleep that much? Kylee was on drugs to keep her from pulling out her IV's and oxygen during the first couple of days so she was always sleeping.

Updates

• We went to the lactation office and Kylee is back up to her birth weight, yea! I no longer have to supplement, which means that I can just feed her and not have to pump at the same time! They think that she is lactose intolerant so I have to cut out all dairy products from my diet. It has been really hard since I couldn't have milk for so long and I have been enjoying it since I got pregnant. But hopefully that will clear up her stomach troubles (she has been throwing up :(
• Kylee can totally turn her head over, she is getting so big! She is also sleeping in her chair sometimes so she is not in Mom and Dad's bed every night. I think she is finally feeling more secure.
• Bryan is playing Upward Basketball. It is a great program based on Christian principles. They have a devo at every practice and game, they don't keep score, and the referees explain what the kids do wrong when they do it. What an awesome program. He seems to be enjoying it. Big plus: they have practice one night a week and games on Saturday mornings.
  
• Jonathan is still looking for another job, so please keep us in your prayers. He has filled out applications all over and the only offer has been from Alaska. We didn't take it!
• Karen and Scott are coming up to see Kylee (they haven't gotten to hold her yet). I hope she is in a good mood and sleeps well since they will be sleeping in our living room. I hope she doesn't keep them up.
• My mom has been coming up to help me a lot. It just feels good to have my mom around. I wish that she lived here! Thanks for all of your help mom.
• We hope that all of you are doing well!
  

A good scare

Kylee and I are still adjusting to each other. She doesn't really like to sleep anywhere except in our arms. It is sweet, but poses a problem when I want to get something done or get some sleep myself. So she doesn't really like to ride in the car unless we are going about 50 mph. I was reading some websites about babies sleeping and someone was talking about the swaddle and how they had used it in the car seat. So I tried it this morning when we went to see the lactation consultant. She was so quiet that I actually pulled over to check and make sure she was alright.

It turns out that my daughter has been starving. I had an appt. with the lactation consultants today to make sure that Kylee is gaining weight. Well she only gained 6oz. in a week and a half. She is still not back to her birth weight, and they were very concerned about the color of her stools. So I have to continue to feed her on one side for 25-30 minutes and then pump the other side and feed it to her in a bottle.

She is a different baby! She is not fussy after I feed her. She takes better naps, and they said this should help with the gas problem. Apparently the watery milk can cause gas. They said that she is probably weak and doesn't suck hard enough. We will go back next week and they will weigh her again. I'm so thankful for those wonderful ladies!

Entertainment

So i thought I should finally write about something other than the baby :) Jonathan and I watched all of the past seasons of Lost over the last year so that we would be ready for the newest season that just started. We watched the first episode, but I was a little disappointed. They sure are milking the information as much as they can. I guess I'm just ready for more answers, and this show is definitely not for the impatient.

Grandma Pam (or Nonny, we're not sure what she wants to be called) kept Kylee for us on Sunday afternoon and we took Bryan out for some one-on-one time with us. We went to see the new National Treasure movie. I really liked it, even better than the first one. I think it was because I was more invested in the characters this time. Bryan enjoyed the movie and the popcorn. I cried when it was time to feed Kylee while we were in the movie. It was weird, like my body was ready and my hormones let me know. As soon as I got back I had to hold her! I guess I'm still not quite ready to leave her.

Kylee

Well Kylee is almost 3 weeks old! I can't believe it has already been 3 weeks. Jonathan and I are still adjusting, but she seems to have made herself at home :) My mom has been here the last two nights and she takes the night shift and Jonathan and I have slept 5 hours in a row each night. Kylee seems to really like to be on a schedule. She actually sleeps better during the day though. We usually have to hold her at night. But hopefully eventually we can put her in her bed at night.

Daddy is holding her right now and singing to her. She is really fascinated by him. I love to watch them together. She looks just like him. Sometimes I can see her when I look at him now.

The doctors told me to not take her anywhere for the first month or so. It is RSV season and since she was so sick, they don't want to take any chances. So I haven't gotten to show her off yet! I can't wait to show her to people.

We went for her two week check-up on Tuesday and she has gained an oz. since she came home from the NICU. She started at 8.8 and now she is 7.12. The doctor didn't seem worried that she wasn't back at her birth weight, he was pleased that she was maintaining her weight. He said that she is very healthy. He did hear the heart murmur just a little bit, but said he was not concerned. We have an appt. with a cardiologist in March to make sure it is still okay as she grows.

Here are a few more pictures!

She's finally here!

Kylee Michelle was born on Saturday, January 12th at 2:48 PM. She weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and is 19 inches long. I ended up needing a cesarean because she was so big and I had an infection. It turns out that I had a uterus infection and that is what was causing those horrible pains in my right side. I stayed in the hospital for 3 days to recover, but Kylee had to stay for a total of 9 days. As soon as she was born they took her to the NICU to check her out.

The infection planted itself in Kylee's lungs and she had pneumonia. She was also having trouble breathing normally, had a bubble on the back of her head from being in the birthing canal too long, and had a low blood cell count. It was pretty scary to see her hooked up to all of those machines when she was so little. I was very thankful that she ended up being big so she had some to loose.

Jonathan and I had about 20 minutes with her before they discovered something was wrong and took her to the NICU for good. We each got to hold her for a few minutes and those minutes were very precious. We didn't get to hold her again for 4 days. I must say that was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. I'm crying right now just thinking about it.

We have been flooded with prayers and love and to all of you, we want to say thank you. Our class at church has provided meals for us every night since we got home from the hospital. It is so nice to feel taken care of. My school gave me a shower the day before she was born. I wasn't able to go because I was at home with contractions. It was perfect, I got to come home to all of the presents and didn't have to be the center of attention. When we came home from the hospital without Kylee, it was nice to have a distraction to look at in her nursery.


She was released on Monday and I was so excited!! I went up there to feed her and stayed for a while just holding her. When the doctor came by to check on her she asked if I thought she was ready to go home. Of course I replied, "Yes!" The discharge process started and we got to bring her home that afternoon.

She is doing really well. She is breastfeeding nicely despite the fact that I had to pump for the first week and she was on the bottle. I am very thankful for that. Jonathan took off all of last week to take care of me and he is home this week to be with Kylee. I'm really going to miss him when he has to go back to work on Friday.



Bryan did not get to see her until we brought her home on Monday. He had the sniffles and he was not allowed in the NICU. He was so excited to finally get to meet her. He seems to be really fascinated by her. He doesn't even seem to mind her crying :) He is going to be a great big brother!

Getting ready

I started having sharp pains while I was at school yesterday. I made it through the day somehow and then I had to take Bryan to the doctor. It turns out that he has strep. He said that his throat was hurting, but he didn't have any fever over 99 and he was not acting sick at all. I know that strep knocks me down. But he does have it so we are at home today and I am trying not to let his germs get me.

So anyway, the pains. I could time them for a while and then they kind of subsided. About 10:30 last night I tried to lay down and go to sleep and they got really intense, so Jonathan took me to the hospital about 10:30. They checked me and said that I was only 1 cm, but my cervix was thinning nicely. Luckily my mom had come up so she was at home with Bryan. I decided to stay home today because I am still having some of the pains, they just aren't consistent.

When we went to the hospital last night, my mom told Bryan that he might have a sister in the morning, so this morning when he got up he noticed that Kylee's door was closed. He asked why it was closed and if she was asleep in there. He wanted to go and see her. How sweet.

Happy Birthday Karen!

Today is Karen's birthday! I hope you have a great birthday Karen, I wish I was there to celebrate with you :)

From our family to yours

(picture courtesy of Images of His)
Well its a little late, but we wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We had all of the family up to our house for Christmas. We ended up having three Christmases in all! Christmas Eve Jonathan's family came up and we had dinner and opened presents. Kylee got quite the lute and she's not even here yet. Jonathan's Grandmother got to come up too and it was really good to see her. We really enjoyed our time with them!

Christmas morning was just the three of us. We have never had Christmas morning at our house with just our nucleus so that was fun. We found Bryan sleeping by the Christmas tree. He said that he saw Santa and talked to him. I think he knows there is no Santa, but he still wants to believe. He found the special paper that I wrap Santa's presents in. He said, I guess Santa has the same paper as us :)

We all helped make breakfast: waffles, eggs and bacon and then got to open presents. Bryan got me some cards for playing nerts (I think he had a little help from dad). Jonathan got me a straightener for my hair, a birthing ball, a pedometer and lots of little goodies in my stocking. Bryan and Kylee got me a Crockpot. Jonathan was so sweet, he got a card from Kylee and wrote in it for me, isn't he thoughtful?

Jonathan got all of the Bourne series and a Star wars book, and money for ram and a graphics card. Bryan got him a hammer because he said he didn't have enough! Our big present to each other was our camcorder. We have enjoyed learning how to use it.

Then Christmas afternoon we had 20 people from my family here! I can't believe we all fit, but somehow we did and we all had a good time. Jonathan helped me get the house ready so now it is really clean. I'm hoping we can keep it that way until Kylee comes.

I hope all of you had a good holiday.

I need advice

So I have packed the bag, but I'm not sure if I have everything I will need for the hospital. My pregnancy journal says that I need to take diapers, wipes, cotton balls and diaper ointment. I always assumed they would provide that stuff. Any advice is welcome!!

34 weeks

I went to the doctor yesterday and he said that everything looks good. We discussed my anemia a little, but he said as long as I take my vitamins I should be okay. He said this is the waiting game part. If I do go into labor early they won't stop it and so it could happen anytime. He didn't give any guestimations, but he did say that I was having a braxton hicks contraction when he looked at my belly. I didn't know that I was. I thought they would hurt, but they are just tightening. I have been having them for a while now, but I just thought that Kylee was rolling up in a ball and putting pressure on my belly. I guess I should enjoy it while they don't hurt!

Tuesday was our anniversary. My mom came up and kept Bryan on Sunday so that we could go and celebrate. We went and saw "I am Legend" with Will Smith and then we went to eat at the Olive Garden. It was really good!! We enjoyed having some time to ourselves. Then when it was actually our anniversary I gave Bryan some pizza and put a movie on in his room so we could have a quiet dinner together. Jonathan got me a purple duffle bag to use for my hospital stay. For those of you who know how much I like purple, it is stapler purple!

When I showed Bryan my present, he asked if he could open one of his Christmas presents. We explained that it was our anniversary, but I don't think he really got it. Wow can you believe we have been married 7 years?

Feeling better!

I am feeling better. I have been falling asleep on the couch around 7:30 every night! I guess I am storing up rest for when the baby comes. Last night I actually made it through a one hour show after I got home.

Karen took our pictures over the Thanksgiving holidays. Didn't she do a great job? Here is my favorite belly shot. I think I was about 29 weeks here.


Here is a picture from the other day. I am 33 weeks, only 7 more to go!


On another note, it is concert week. Last night I played my flute with one of the MS choirs in Killeen. It was fun to actually get to play again. Our choir concert is in the morning for the school and Thursday night for the parents. I guess I better try and get some sleep. My alarm will go off in about 2 hours! Have a good night.

Feeling very pregnant

I have been feeling very pregnant lately....tired, big and emotional. Thursday I got up, worked out, got ready for work and was about to walk out the door when Jonathan asked me what was wrong. Well that turned the tears on, he is the only one that I cry around, poor guy. He insisted that I stay home and take the day off. I fought him, but he insisted, so I did. I called for a sub in tears, but luckily it is automated. I took it easy for the rest of the day. I took a morning nap, called and setup for a guy to come and put up our garage door opener, called and setup a time for the salvation army to come and get our broken car, had lunch with Jonathan, took an afternoon nap and read some of my baby book. It was a very good day. I really don't have an explanation for why I was crying-it was just one of those days.

Friday I did go to work and that night we went to order a rocker for Kylee's room. I have Jonathan's grandmother's rocker in there now, but it is not comfortable. I tried putting pillows in it, but it didn't help. So we found a reclinver/rocker at lacks that we really liked. I didn't want to spend that much, but I thought we could eventually put it in our room after we are done with babies. We have a nice recliner in our living room, but I don't want to always have to be covered up while I am breastfeeding b/c of Bryan so I will probably be in Kylee's room a lot. I came home and we started a movie, I fell asleep in the recliner at 7:30.

Saturday Jonathan had to work so Bryan and I cleaned the house a little and went to the grocery store. That afternoon we took a nap and some friends came over for dinner. We went with them to Salado for the "Salado stroll." Unfortunately it was about 75 degrees and kind of took away from the Christmas spirit, but we had a good time anyway.

I think I overdid it though, when I got home my hips and legs were killing me. I woke up this morning with a little bit of fever and a very sore body. I have stayed on the couch/bed all day. Jonathan has taken good care of me. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow because this is the week of our choir concert and I can't afford to miss any work. I was going to get a belly shot today, but I haven't changed out of my gown. I will take one soon. I hope all of you are doing well!

Its the little things

When Bryan came to live with us he brought all of his clothes and toys. He had a nice winter coat which he has worn for almost 2 years. He recently lost it at school or daycare and can't find it. Yesterday while I was at Kohls I looked at the coats and I found one that was on sale so I got it for him. When I brought it home he was so excited!! He said "Thank you SO MUCH Becca!!" He had never had a brand new coat before. He wore it through dinner, he wanted to leave the tag on, and he even slept with it.

We are so blessed!

I had my baby shower two Sundays ago and I felt very blessed. We got almost almost everything that we need. It was so sweet of everyone to come. My family came up from Austin and some dear friends came with them. I have an awesome church family and I can't wait for Kylee to meet everyone. Here are some pictures from the shower.

Well I tried to upload some pictures, but its not working!

We also had Bryan's b-day party that weekend while the whole fam was in town. He had a great time. We got him a trampoline and he really enjoyed that. We had cupcakes and hot dogs so the food was pretty easy.

We have Kylee's room all set up except for the nightstand. Hopefully Jonathan and I will have time to put that together this weekend. He is busy putting together his new computer. He got an end of the year bonus at work so we had Christmas early. Karen and I got up early and went shopping. We found a great deal on a camcorder so now we are ready for Kylee to come!

Bryan is spending the weekend at Grandma's so we have had the house to ourselves. We slept in late, went out to lunch, did a little shopping and watched a movie in front of the fire. I love having a fire place. We always go through a lot of firewood in the winter time.

We are hoping to fix up Bryan's room a little. He loves to go and sit in Kylee's room because all of her stuff is new. We got the faux blinds for her room and he said that we were rich. I think Jonathan and I are going to get him a dresser and some new blinds. He really wants to paint his room too, but I think we might just put up some border.

I hope all of you had wonderful Turkey days!

Busy weekend.

So I'm up at 5 AM on a Saturday morning, how annoying. I guess my body is getting me ready for when the baby comes. Jonathan finished painting her room and it is very purple. At first it kind of overwhelmed me, but I think that it will look very nice once the whole room is done.

Last night we had dinner with a couple and then they came over and helped us get all the painting tape up in Kylee's room. After that we watched Ratatouille. It was very cute. I only slept through the middle 30 minutes, so I can definitely say that the beginning and end are excellent.

Karen and Scott are coming up today around lunch time....I am so excited! We haven't gotten to spend any quality time together in a long time. They are going to help us put the furniture together and then we are going to go out for an adult dinner. We got a babysitter for Bryan!

Then Sunday afternoon is my shower and I am excited. Then Sunday night the whole fam will be here so we are having a birthday party for Bryan. Jonathan and I are going to get him a trampoline and I can't wait to see the look on his face. We are just inviting family because our family is so big, they totally make the party!!

I went to the doctor on Wednesday and he says that everything looks good. When he measured my belly I asked him if it was unusually large. People at work have been making comments about how big I am and that I look like I'm about to pop! He said, "Well you just tell those people to mind their own business. Your belly is measuring right on target." He is such a great doctor. I needed some encouragement after getting on the scale. That is the part of the visit that I hate. The first five months I had almost no weight gain and now I have had a lot. I told him I am exercising everyday and watching what I eat. He said not to worry and if I am doing those two things, there's nothing else that he can ask.

28 Weeks

Here I am at 28 weeks. She is really growing!

Kylee

My sister-in-law recently got a job at one of those 3-d ultrasound offices. So we went down yesterday and got our very own 3-d ultrasound! It was so fun. They projected it on a huge screen and the whole family could see everything. It took me a while to get used to the images, but I finally caught on. The first time that I saw her, I just wanted to hold her. She is so cute. She definitely has the Gondola nose from my dad's side! Isn't that cool that I can already see that?

Here is a picture of her being sweet. Isn't she cute?

Here is a picture of her with her mouth open.

Here is a picture of her sucking on her umbilical chord. On the video you can actually see her sucking! I know there is probably a way to post the video, but I haven't figured out how yet.

Shara also confirmed that she is in fact a Kylee and not a Kyle!

Shara said that overall she was a very cooperative baby.

Halloween

I hope all of you had a nice halloween. We had a party at church with our class and all of the kids dressed up. Here is a picture.

Bryan was a ninja! He was really cute. We all went to the funival at church. It was in lieu of Wednesday evening services. They had 20 booths set up and 2 of those blow up bouncy things. Bryan had a lot of fun and brought home a lot of candy. It was great because we didn't have to walk around for hours trick-or-treating. I think we definitely do that again.

Long Time

So it has been forever since I posted, I'm very sorry. My internal clock woke me up at 6 AM so I decided to finally update my blog. We have been crazy busy trying to get the house ready for the baby. We have been cleaning out the office and trying to find a place for all of the junk that we have accumulated in there over the years. Of course we have gotten rid of some of it, but some stuff we still need. For instance I have all of my formal dresses from college hanging in that closet and I'm not sure where I'm going to put them. Our house has no coat closet so all of our coats are hanging in our closet in our bedroom. Needless to say, it is pretty full. But I guess we'll figure it out.

We bought an armoire desk and put it in the entryway. It is no ideal, but it doesn't look too bad. That is one reason that I haven't posted in a while. Jonathan had to run the cable for the internet up through the wall in the attic and back down to the entryway. For some reason entryways are not equipped for internet, weird? LOL


We have made a lot of progress as far as Kylee's room goes. Jonathan put the crib together a couple of weeks ago and I had to put the bedding on it as soon as I could. Here is a picture. Bryan says that he is in jail.

We bought the paint for her room, it is a light shade of purple. Kim and Marj (my nieces) are coming up tonight to help Jonathan paint. I can't paint because of the fumes. Some people say that you can some people say that you can't, I am going with the people that say that you can't. I'd rather be safe than sorry. I will post a picture of the finished product on Sunday. Kylee is getting very big and so is my belly. She has been kicking a lot and she really likes to roll over. Last night our family entertainment was watching her roll over and seeing my belly contort to her motion. Even Bryan got into it!

We started our childbirth classes two weeks ago. They have been interesting. I have learned about dialating, efacement and that I can get my epidural at 4cm! That is the most important thing that I have learned so far. The nurse that is teaching the classes goes to our church and is very sweet. Hopefully she will be on duty when I deliver. We are going for a 3-d ultrasound this afternoon, I am so excited. We get to see what she looks like!!! And confirm one more time that she is a girl before we paint her room purple. I will post pictures from that as soon as I have them. I hope everyone is doing well!

Something is wrong with the blogger site and it won't let me put the picture of the crib when it is finished so I will have to do that later.