Pride and Joy

I thought I would put some updated pics of Kayla up since it seems like she changes so quickly and there are a lot of you that don't get to see her.
She makes such funny faces and I try to capture as many as I can...thank goodness for digital camera's because I think we've taken about 100+ pics of her so far :)

1 MONTH DOWN 18 YEARS TO GO!

Ok - so I'm not really counting down to the day when Kayla is considered an adult....but why does it seem like when you have one thing down (or think you do) another one comes along and smacks you right in the face?!?!

I feel like I have dealt with the facts that I wasn't going to get a full nights rest for the next few months, and that it's OK when your baby poops a yellow river all over your couch because it's microfiber, and yes... that it's even OK to pull a baby booger out of your childs nose....even if you gag a little.

That all being said... I've recently realized that I am far from having things figured out. I am constantly having to remind myself of some wise counsel given to me by a friend "There will always be an end". What she means by this is....every "phase" has an end. Right now I feel like I'm in the "Trial and Error"phase. Learning to read Kayla's signals of when she's hungry or when she needs to be soothed or when she is uncomfortable, were super easy to read at first, but now it seems like as she is getting a little older, it's getting a little bit more challenging. Hopefully I will continue to learn the art of motherhood and be able to read all of the different signals as they come. In the meantime, thanks to everyone for their support, love, and much needed advice!!

Shout out: My sister in law is awesome. She came and cleaned my whole house....I mean cleaned. She brought her floor cleaner and cleaned all of our hard floors. She also did the dishes, scrubbed all of our bathrooms top to bottom and dusted everything. She also brought us 2 dinners! She is amazing!!!

Shout out: My mom is also awesome. She came down for 3 days and spent time with us. She also cleaned our house, wiping down walls, cleaning out our laundry room and much much more. She and I vegged out and watched a couple of chick flicks while she was here.....it was great!

Thanks guys! We love you!

GIRLZ GOT SKILZ

When Tim was told he would have extra Christmas "wrapping", he had no idea....:)

CHRISTMAS

Ode to the babe:
We had such a great Christmas with our new little one. I always thought it was silly when mom's would say " I just love being a mom" I always thought...well of course you do, what are you going to say "I REALLY hate being a mom"....but now I get it :) I really love being a mom, I have never given so much of my time and energy to something so consistently and been so exhausted and so rewarded at the same time.

Ode to the husband:
My husband is amazing, he has been Mr. mom/housekeeper/host with the most/support team....I feel so lucky to have him as my husband. It's funny how you think you love someone a certain way....and then you have a baby and it grows into a different type of love....I know that is high on the cheese O meter...but seriously he's the greatest:) As you can see from my pics....he really spoiled me this year. He got me a road bike! Boo ya! He also surprised me with the sale of our house in Lehi that we have been trying to sell for a REALLY long time......ya I cried.... A LOT!

We also had a great time with the fam....all the girls got footsie pj's which I must admit I was a bit skeptical about at first...but once I put those babies on....I didn't take them off for almost a whole day, they are so comfy and right now...I'm all about comfort.

Champ also had a great Christmas, we had a hard time keeping him out of his stocking while we were opening our gifts, finally we just let him have it. Then after he got all of his treats out of it, he picked the stocking up with his mouth and took it to Tim in the living room.....we guessed it was because he wanted a re-fill :)

Kaula/Labor Story

What kind of a name is KAULA? We got Kayla's birth cert. info back today from the hospital and they read her name wrong. I guess Tim writes his Y's like a U with a tail and so they thought her name was KAULA!!! What? She's not a bottle of liquor! Just kidding...anyway, we are working on getting it corrected, but sheesh what a pain! Also I've had some people ask about the birth and the details of my labor experience since it was my first and we had decided to go natural, so here it goes...

on Sunday the 13th I started having regular contractions all through the morning and at church, about 30 mins apart. Then throughout the day they got closer and closer. By about 10pm they were 1-2 mins apart and getting what I thought was fairly strong....not excruciating, but I had to breathe through them. So we left for the hospital and got there about 10:40pm. Then my amazing doula Brooke go there....she was my saving grace through this whole thing, can't thank her enough!!!
The nurse checked my dilation and I was at a 3.....boo! But the baby had already descended to a negative 1.....so I was thinking sweet, if I can just get my body to dilate, then we are good to go. Little did I know this would be as probable as hell freezing over :)

So I labor a little longer, about an hr and a half and I'm already at a 5....sweet! So they admit me and I continue to labor and I'm feeling a lot of back labor which from what I had read....could mean that the baby was posterior. Contractions continue to get stronger and I'm at a 6....then they get even stronger and stronger....still at a 6, I hit transition.....still at a 6. I'm screaming at the top of my lungs....still at a 6. In transition for 4 hours....still at a 6. They break my water, hours later....still at a 6. By about 9:30AM the next morning I was toast!!!! I was exhausted and couldn't do it any longer, so I said a little prayer asking heavenly father what to do and I got the impression to ask the doctor if an epidural was an option ( I didn't think it was since I was already transitioning, so I didn't even think to ask) and she said that it was.....HALLELUJAH!!!!

20 mins later the doc came in and shot me up with the drugs, then they let me rest for an hr. but all I could do was cry and cry and cry because I was so glad that I wasn't in pain any more and that I was going to be able to meet my little one soon. Then they came and checked me and I was at a 10, I pushed for 20 mins and she WAS posterior (hence all the problems and really painful contractions) luckily they were able to turn her (good for the baby, killer on the tail bone!) and bing, bang boom....she was out :)

I later found out that sometimes if you have a posterior baby and walk into it planning on getting an epidural, they will C-section you right away instead of letting you labor through it. Since I was able to labor long enough to get the baby to descend where they could turn her, I didn't have to have the C-section. So it all worked out for the best :) It was hard, but worth it!

She is the best baby, we are so lucky! She only wakes up every 4 hours...sometimes 5 and she is strong and healthy and we can't get enough of her.