Happy 4th of July!!!

From the cutest girl in the entire world...

I might be a little biased :-).

How 'bout from our family to yours...

Kodi had a tennis ball in the pool that he was a little more interested in.  He normally doesn't miss a good photo op!

Her outfit is for 6-9 months, so she hasn't exactly grown into it...but in the spirit of all things red, white, and blue....

:-)  The things I do for entertainment these days...

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Happy 3 week Birthday Kalia!

This week, Kalia :

• became somewhat clingy.  She doesn't like to be put down for very long without one of us holding her.
• fought off sleep every night but one.  We finally figured out if we use the 5 s's, she calms down really easily.  Swaddle, shhh, put her on her side, bounce (shake, but slightly), and then put her in her swing (I'm not really sure if that's the 5th s or not, but it works for us!), she'll calm down relatively quickly.  
• Cooed while smiling twice.  So cute!!
• Went for a few walks with her little hat on...adorable!
• Puked twice (Thursday and Saturday).  Boo.  We think she gets motion sick.  Poor Girl.
• Had her first adventure out with just Mommy.  We went to breast feeding support group.  All the girls there couldn't believe she was only 2 weeks and 1 day old because of how big she is!
• Ate...A LOT!

Kalia also taught me something new on her 3rd week birthday.  It took me the entire day to figure it out, but instead of just rooting around when she's hungry to let me know it's time to feed her, she sticks out her tongue.  I thought it was so cute at first...she'd stick out her tongue like a mad man and then start bawling crying.  I went through 3 cry fests during her photo shoot before deciding what I had was good enough.  I'm getting there...she's training me, I'm just a bit slower to catch on these days with being sleep deprived!

Here's the tongue in action :

"I want my milk!"

And here's the rest from her weekly photo shoot :

"Sooo boring!!!"

Kalia with one of her serious faces.  She's a very serious girl.  She must get that from her Daddy!

"Listen Mom...we need to have a serious chat.  Enough of this photo taking business, lets talk milk."

"Ummm...you want me to wait to eat until after the photo shoot?!  I'm not sure that I can do that."

"Fine, I'll lay here for the photo shoot...but I'm not smiling.  I'm not happy about this!"

Lost in thought...about milk, I'm sure.

"Milk???"

"Quit shoving that camera thing in my face please Mommy!"

"Yes?  Can I help you?"

"So...milk time yet?!"

"Allright Mommy...I'm going to show you this tongue thing one more time.  If you don't get the hint that I want milk now, all you-know-what is going to break loose."

I didn't get the hint fast enough :-).

I've got to start narrowing down to just a few photos for these weekly posts.  They'll be more on time if I can do that!

Happy 2 week Birthday Kalia!

This week, Kalia :

• taught us to not count our eggs before they're hatched.  The max amount of sleep we got between feedings was 2 hours...and that seemed like a blessing!
• rolled from her tummy to her back three times in a row.  She's a strong little thing!
• gained quite a bit of weight.  We had her two week checkup and the main concern was that she had at least reached her birth weight (the goal is to regain all of that between 10-14 days after birth).  She did that and then some.  At her two-week checkup, she weighed 9 lbs 2 ounces.  Her birth weight was 8 lbs 6 ounces.
• gained 1/2 inch since birth, so she's now 22 inches.  Her head has also grown another 2 cm, putting that grand total at 36.5 cm.  Thank god I got her out when I did!! :-)
• went for her first walk at John Chesnut Park in the Baby Bjorn worn by her Daddy on Father's Day.
• cooked breakfast of apple popover pancakes, a bacon, egg, and cheese wrap, orange juice, and coffee along with Kodi's help/supervision for her Daddy for Father's Day.  She also made him a cute card with a few pictures of their first 12 days together.
• had a record setting blow out diaper day.  She blew out 3 diapers in a 24 hour period.  She's now officially out of newborn diapers and has graduated to size 1 dipes.  When you're sleep deprived, sometimes it takes 3 times to get the message.

Kalia wasn't as cooperative this week with the photo shoot, but we still managed to get a few decent ones in.  She fell asleep in the middle of it.  I like her dreams...her little devil grin cracks me up!

I also had my 2 week post partum checkup this week.  Everything is looking good, although I'm under strict rules to not exercise...I'm only allowed to walk to and from, not for exercise.  So I walk from my house in a big circle to my house most days.  We walk slow...it keeps me sane...and Kodi, it keeps Kodi sane too.  I actually stepped on the scale (happily) at this checkup too.  T minus 13 lbs of Kalia lovin left to lose.  I'm guessing these milk jugs will keep some of that around for awhile...sigh.

Oh...and because a few of you have asked, Kalia is most definitely growing on Kodi.  Especially when we get out for walks.  Yes, this is the same outfit I wore last time...if it doesn't have milk, spit up, or poop on it, it's considered clean in my book these days!

Oh, and the camera is sitting on a post and on a self-timer.  Kodi is just a ham...he's still the most photogenic dog ever!!

I'll try to post more pictures of more than just weekly bday shoots soon.  This took a few days to get completely done, so hopefully Kalia starts sleeping a little bit longer soon!!

Happy 1 week Birthday Kalia!

A week ago, this little miracle finally graced us with her presence.

We've learned more than we've ever learned in any week of our entire lives.  This week, Kalia :

• taught us to be patient.  We'd learned previously that life isn't always about the destination, but the journey.  Kalia taught us the exception to the rule.  While the rest of her life will be about the journey, getting her here was most definitely about the destination...the journey of how she got here will, eventually, become a small blip in the radar.
• made us aware that even though she's small in size, she runs the show.  We eat, sleep, and function according to Kalia's eat, sleep, and bathroom times.
• showed us that there's nothing like being first time parents.  She's pooped on us, had a few blow outs (Huggies - booo, Pampers, much better!), had a few freak out moments with incorrect temperature readings, has eaten for hours on end, responds to our voices, likes it when we sing to her (even if we make up our own words), and makes us so proud at the smallest things.
• POOPED...A LOT!  (This one will make Grandpa Hoskins very very happy!)
• taught us how to function off of very very little sleep.  3 1/2 hours of sleep two nights in a row seemed like such a treat!
• peed all over the changing table, vanity, mirror, and wall.  This baby girl has projectile pee and poop.
• told us what she thought about her rectal thermometer without using words.  Every time the thermometer went in, she immediately pooped it out.  Every.single.time.
• can hold her head up.  When she wants to eat, she roots her mouth around her Daddy's shoulder and head-butts him until he hands her to Mommy.
• taught us to slow down and enjoy the small things.  A little grin, raising her eyebrows, a cute yawn...just sitting with her and watching her million different face expressions can entertain us for hours.
• was a little shy.  She stayed asleep almost the entire time we had company over, and would be awake for hours after they left.
• reminded Mommy that what she eats, Kalia eats.  And green peppers on Kalia's little tummy does not sit so well.  Lesson learned!

 Here are some of our favorite pictures from her one week photo shoot :

 

When we asked Kalia her thoughts on this photo shoot, this is what she had to say :

We moved outside to take a few pictures with her tree we planted for her.  Because we're not sure if we'll be able to take these weekly due to weather, we did the above photos in her chair as well.  Hopefully we can keep these up for all 52 weeks (although I'm imagining the number of pics will go down some!).

Where's Grandpa's shades?!  Too bright!

 

Come on guys, entertain me.  This is bor-ing!

It's exhausting looking this good...

Mom, Dad...what is this thing?  Is there a return policy on it?!  :-)

To celebrate Kalia's one week birthday, we took the above pictures, and then took our first adventure outside in her jogging stroller.  Kalia was crying to be fed as we were about to walk out the door, and we grabbed my hooter hider and decided to try to make it to the bench by the pond in the back of our sub-division just to actually make it outside of the house.  As soon as we got going down the sidewalk, Kalia stopped crying, and eventually fell asleep.  She likes the outdoors as much as her Mommy and Daddy.  We walked for 1.5 miles at a very, very slow pace.  Kalia loved it!

That's all we've got time for now...off to be milked!  (And yes, I still have a baby pooch...my baby is just hiding my pooch in the pics above!  Nice how that worked out, eh? :-))

The End. 40 weeks 5 days

Little Miss Kalia has 29 hours to get here on her own before we start the eviction process.  We are scheduled to start induction at the hospital at 5 p.m. tomorrow night.

The doctor did not check to see if I was dilated at all at today's appointment.  He said he had no reason to believe that I'd made any progress since Tuesday, and they'd check me upon arrival at the hospital tomorrow night.  I believe there's two types of people when it comes to dilation and effacement.  Those that dilate and stay dilated for a some amount of time before actually going into labor, and those that dilate and then immediately go into labor.  I'm think I'm the latter.  Which is why, I'm guessing, he has no reason to think I'd made any progress since Tuesday.

First I'll explain the process, then I'll relate our wishes for how we want to handle the masses :-).

When we get there tomorrow night, after they check to see if I've dilated, they'll administer a pill into my cervix which will stay in for 12 hours.  The purpose of the pill is to soften and dilate my cervix.  I'm going to have to fight to get them to use telemtry to monitor Kalia and allow me to walk around some during that time.  After 12 hours, they'll check my cervix, and if I haven't dilated/effaced any / enough, they'll put in another pill for 12 hours.  After 24 hours of the pill, they'll start pitosin.  If I've started dilating to 2-3 cm before that, and I'm not contracting on my own, they'll administer pitosin.

Once I get into active labor, 4-5 cm dilated, the doctor said the average Mom delivers the baby sometime between 6-8 hours later.  He said average induction start to labor finish is about 48 hours, but it could take longer than that.

We've talked about it quite a bit, and we really would prefer not to have everyone sitting around waiting for my cervix to dilate.  The doctor actually mentioned not calling in the crews just yet too because it makes the Mom over-anxious which leads to all sorts of bad things for Momma and Baby.

So...to those of you that are heading up to the hospital...  our plan is for Chris to call everyone when I start going into active labor.  That should give you guys plenty of time to get down / over here pretty closely to when Kalia's going to arrive, although planning that is next to impossible.  Please please please after Chris calls, do not call to check on my progress.  Although I know everyone cares, it'll only make me more anxious if I hear Chris's phone ringing off the hook.  Once you get to the hospital, there's monitors that show how far along I am, so you can check that way.

We're bringing our computers, so I might update this blog prior to going into active labor.  I have no idea...I don't know how I'll feel or what I'll be going through, so no promises on this end.  I just know that I don't want a room full of people there just sitting around twiddling their thumbs, and I don't want a room full of people when the contractions start coming hard and fast.  If you get into town early and want to swing by to see how I'm doing prior to active labor, visitors for a little bit here and there are fine, but no camping overnight in my hospital room, and when the nurses come in to check me, everyone but Chris is out :-).

The hospital won't give out any information either...I called to check.  Sorry!!

The only one that I know that is for sure going to be around during all of it (although not camping in the room!!!) is my T. Mom and Dad.  They're heading over here Sunday night to stay with Kodi at the house.  So, if you want their cell number to get updates, email me, and I'll email it to you.

The doctor did say it's very possible that I'll go into labor on my own in the next 30 hours, so I should be prepared for that too.

Those of you that aren't parents and driving over here, Chris is making an email list to email updates when he can.  We don't have texting, and emailing is so much easier for both of us with our dinosaur phones.  No promises on updates towards the end of everything, so if you haven't heard anything for awhile, just hang tight until you get a 'she's here!' email!

....

Whew!!!

Yesterday was our 5 year wedding anniversary, and we went to Melting Pot to celebrate.  Here's a few pictures to hold you over until Kalia pictures arrive.  Sorry, no belly pics...I wasn't flashing the camera in my dress!

Before :

During ... (yes, my face already looks fatter from eating all the yummy food!!)

After :  Wowzer.  Huge.

This is all you get of a profile shot.  I stood sideways with my hands on my belly and said "oh wait, can you even see it?!?!" and then after Chris said "yep!" realized that I just asked if you could see the equivalent of the good year blimp attached to my belly and couldn't stop laughing.

Chris thinks they may have spiked my lemonade.  I think my brain is going bonkers.

Last 'free' weekend!!!!!

Today at the docs I weighed the same as Tuesday.  Total love gained : 34 lbs.  Oiy......  It's okay though, Kalia will be here SOON!!!!  WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

40 week 2 day pictures

Chris took these at midnight last night, so that's technically 40 weeks and 2 days.  I fell asleep during the basketball game, and then re-put on my clothes and made him take pictures before we went to bed.  These might be the last ones you see before Kalia gets here!!!

I'm starting to swell more, and I think she's shifted down more, so my hips have spread more.  Fun stuff...get here already will you Kalia?!

I know, you can't really see my 'shape' above...I tightened my shirt for the next one.

And now for the blimp pictures...Chris took a ton of them, but didn't have the VR (vibration reduction) set to on, so 90% of the pictures turned out blurry.  I didn't care to check them too closely because I was tired!!  Sorry!  These are the 'clearest' ones (although I look horrible...sooo tired!!!).

Get here soon Kalia...I can't handle this much longer!!