So this blog has been used for several different things. I've written to share joys, confusions, and fears. I've asked for thoughts and opinions from experienced and inexperienced parents alike. I've documented my daughters first months here. Today, however, this space will serve another purpose.
Today is favorite-outfit-that-she-is-about-to-grow-out-of day!
On the whole, I am not very schedule-oriented. (clearly I am in love with the hyphen today) But lately KK and I have fallen into a morning routine, of sorts. I get up before her and make myself some breakfast: either Kashi mixed berry cereal or an egg and cheese bagel. Then she gets up and we eat. Shortly thereafter Kynzie plays on her activity gym and I do the breakfast dishes and put on daytime clothes. Then it's one of my favorite times of the day! Picking out what she will wear that day! Hooray! We go into her room and sit on the floor and browse through her dresser. It's really pretty fabulous. The other day it became a little sad when I had to take out all of the newborn clothes that she is growing out of to make room for the 3 to 6 months stuff I have in the closet. By the way, this was more than a little depressing. I cried. She's just getting so big already! She'll be three months old in a week! But I digress...Sometimes we have to sit there for several minutes piecing together a new outfit or deliberating between a few options. This morning, however, I awoke already knowing what she would wear today. As she is a growing baby, I am trying to put her into all of my favorite 0-3 months stuff one last time. And today is by far one of my favorites. So without further adieu...
I love this outfit for many reasons. 1. I love the classic Winnie the Pooh theme. Her nursery is classic Pooh and it makes me happy every time I go in it! 2. I specifically love the phrase in the picture box. "always enough for two" It's so stinkin adorable! and that's how we go through our days...just the two of us. 3. The material is so soft and pretty! It's a very pretty pale pink (yeah, I bet you never thought I would be saying "pretty" and "pink" in the same sentence unless discussing the Molly Ringwald 80s movie), but I really like it! It has a lace ruffle around the arms and has little eyelet patterns all over. I just love it! And she's about to grow out of it. So I had to share it with everyone so we can all enjoy how utterly fantastic my baby looks in it.
So I wrote a post awhile back, entitled The Vacuum, that addressed Kynzie's digestive issues. She has been pretty colic-y since about two weeks after she was born. However, the has problem has become sooo much better in the last couple of weeks! My doctor, Dr. Pevoto (<--he's with the Austin Area OB/GYN in the Women's Center of the North Austin Medical Center. and he's awesome), tried consoling me at my 6 weeks appointment:
(Kynzie has now been screaming for half an hour in the appointment room)
Me: I am so sorry, it's her gas. It hurts her and so she screams. (p.s. I spent a lot of time telling people this)
Dr: Oh don't worry about it, my first son had colic also.
Me: Really? How long did it last? The last month has been really hard on all of us.
Dr: My son started getting better around 3 months, so congratulations! You're halfway there!
Me: Ohhh...great...
I was not particularly pleased with this. 3 months of this? Even with the vacuum and the white noise, that was going to be a looooong time. Thankfully KK decided to come around a little sooner. Right at about 2 months we started having to use the vacuum a lot less. I also stopped giving her mylicon as often. Seeing her happy so much more of the time has been so awesome!
Needless to say, gas had definitely become a "four letter word" in our home until recently. But not anymore! In fact, Kynzie's gas has become more than just normal; it's actually been really funny the last few days!
Humorous gas story number 1:
The other day Kynzie was hanging out on my lap and we were talking and playing with each other. All of the sudden, she releases some serious air and then throws her head back, opens her mouth wide, and laughs for the first time!! It was the smallest guffaw ever, but most definitely laughter! I may or may not have cried a bit...
Humorous gas story number 2:
Kynzie has begun tooting in her sleep. This is pretty adorable in itself, but this morning she took it to another level! I woke up before her to feed the dogs and have some breakfast. As I was finishing my egg and cheese bagel (my newest breakfast endeavor!) I heard something from our room. It sounded like a horn of some sort. I walked in and heard her moving around a bit and grunting, but by the time I got over to the bassinet she had gone back to sleep. I stood there for a moment watching her beautiful sleep, when it happened again. The loudest fart I think I've ever heard! It actually moved her body up and down! I had to run out of the room because I was laughing so hard!
We may not be completely out of the "colic" phase, but as long as we can laugh and smile at the gas, we'll be ok!
Here's a couple pictures I took this morning of her playing :)
Shockingly enough, I have the time two days in a row to write! This is not normal, but I will rejoice and be glad in it!
KK has discovered the dogs! I use the plural form because as of this last Sunday we are keeping Ender for a while. James got Ender, the stubborn yet thoroughly adorable dachshund, the week before we went on our first date. However, once we got married we lived in an apartment and Ender had a very hard time adjusting to life without grass! So when Aunt Kathy was in search of a dog, we ended up giving him to her to take back home to her three boys and backyard. This last weekend they moved back here and we are holding on to him until they get a place of their own. While the cat and the neighbor's dog are not particularly fond of our new arrival, Ellie and Kynzie are loving it! Kynzie has never really noticed the dog or cat. They can pretty much walk on top of her and she doesn't even twitch. But since Ender showed up and he and Ellie are running around and playing together, KK is in awe! Whenever they play around her, she is fixated. She stares and smiles and coos at them in encouragement! It's adorable. And it makes me happy that she is aware of her surroundings so much more than she used to be! Ender will eventually be returned to his family, but we are enjoying his stay so far!
This last weekend we had guests in the form of two nephews, Zimmer and Bauer. Their parents were helping Aunt Kathy move, so we took them for Friday and some of Saturday. I was so excited to have them come! KK is a blast to be with, but she is still so small! And since I haven't been working, I miss spending times with kids! So, I was pumped to spend some time with these boys. We made rice krispies treats and pancakes, spent time watching strange videos about "the annoying orange" (<-- go look it up...it's an orange with eyes and a mouth...weird), and played outside with the dog and cat. We took a walk to the community park, and Bauer, James, and I even spent a good amount of time coloring some pages in my Winnie the Pooh and VeggieTales coloring books. The boys took baths, James made chocolate milk (I didn't realize it was as simple as milk and syrup...), and there were bedtime stories and singing all around. The most enjoyable times, though, were when the boys would play with Kynzie. They wanted to hold her and touch her all the time! Bauer kept asking to hold her hand or tickle her foot. And Zimmer would just sit and talk to her! They were so sweet!! It made me even more sure that we want another baby. Now now, calm down. I'm not saying that I'm getting pregnant again in a couple months or anything! But seeing the boys with each other made me remember how wonderful it is being a sister! I grew up with two of the best siblings, and seeing Zimmer and Bauer playing with and loving on each other and Kynzie was so great!
Here's a cute picture we took at the playground on Saturday morning
Our family is just now starting out, but I hope one day to have kids that are as happy and fun as these two!!
I have always thanked the Lord that He is sovereign in all things. He knows how to fit things together so perfectly that it seems "natural" -- although even nature spins towards chaos without the Lord's guidance. This has become even more apparent since having Kynzie come into our lives. I was talking to a friend the other night, and she said that I seemed like a "very competent and easygoing mother." Bah! I had to laugh, because I am far from either one of those most of the time! However, because of the Lord's sovereignty, I CAN be competent in His ability to mother my child! As I went through my pregnancy and delivery experience, people constantly commented on what a "great pregnant woman" I was, or how easy my delivery happened to be. It was as if they were congratulating me on my efforts. But I didn't do any of it! There was nothing I could have done to make my experience come out the way it was. I don't have some secret that made me able to go through labor with no drugs. There was no special mystery to maintaining my energy and not gaining much weight through pregnancy. The Lord is sovereign! He works all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. And I've been called! Being a mother has been no different. Whether or not she gets 30 minutes of uninterrupted tummy time a day, KK will crawl. Whether or not I talk to her in the right way or for the recommended length of time, KK will talk. She will grow, learn, and be the person that she is supposed to be, because the Lord is sovereign! And that makes me a competent mother. That allows me to be easygoing. KK is in the best hands, and they are thankfully not my own!
Now, that's not to say that I don't try to be the best mom I can be, and it definitely needs to be said that I freak out and stress all the time about whether I am doing the right things for her. But when I remember who Her eternal father is, and how in control He is, I can relax and enjoy my time with my daughter so much more!
OK, this post was actually not supposed to be about that...at all. but once i got started I just couldn't stop! I guess I will write the post about my weekend later : )
Yep, I am embracing this classic mantra! "But KK is too young for any kind of steps, even baby ones!" you say. Well the baby steps are not for her (yet), but for me! If you had tried to tell me that I would be spending ANY amount of time away from Kynzie already, I would have laughed at you and called you crazy! And yet I have been baby-stepping my way along!
Baby Step number 1:
Ever since Kynzie has begun to grab hold of things and keep hold for a very extended period of time, I have found it essential to get my hair cut. My hair was well down my back and I couldn't seem to keep it out of her hands, no matter where it was! SO, off with the hair! You would think that making a hair appointment would be easy for me since I don't really have any sort of schedule during the week, but I was terrified of sitting down in the chair and then not being able to hold Kynzie if/when she started crying! I made an appointment for a late Saturday afternoon and convinced James that it would be fun to come with me and hold the baby whilst my hair was being cut. (he's awesome, btw) But when it finally came time for me to leave, KK was asleep and James was so comfy on the couch, and I decided to go WITHOUT them. That's right! I put Kynzie in his arms and left the house sans baby, diaper bag, and baby bjorn! It was really hard at first, but by the time I was at Miss Suzy's Salon in Round Rock (let me know if you want a card...Tracy is AWESOME) I had rolled the windows down and was singing Jason Mraz at the top of my lungs! I kept my phone in my hands the whole time, but made it back home without an emergency call from James! When I arrived they were having a great time! Success!!
Baby Step number 2:
So the haircutting appointment was a week ago, and as much as I had enjoyed the time away, I was NOT planning on stepping any more in the near future. Then my parents and sister came into town this weekend (YAY!!!!). They hadn't seen Kynzie in almost a month, and so it was wonderful for them to come to town! On Saturday the men had planned on going golfing and I wanted to take the ladies to Duetchen Pfest at Pfluger Park. However, just as before, when we were going to get ready to go, she fell fast asleep! Turns out my dad didn't really want to go golfing anyway, and so the boys offered to stay home with Kynzie. So Mom, April, and I went to DP all by ourselves! I made it almost 2 hours before calling, and everything was fine! I ran into several Park Crest folks and felt a little guilty that I was out without her. I tried not to, but I wanted to explain to everyone that I still loved her and that I would be going back home to her very soon to hug and kiss her!
Baby Step number 3: (the BIG one)
And yes, I know that a big baby step is an oxymoron, but it's true! See, the first two baby steps allowed James to stay with her while I was out. It's not like I don't trust other people with her, but it made me feel better knowing that one of her two parents was with her! You see, Pirates of the Caribbean #4 came out this last weekend. James and I both enjoyed the first one, and saw the other two even though they got progressively worse. We had already decided that we wouldn't be seeing the fourth one until it came out in netflix because you can't take a 2 month old to the movie theater! And then Dad came through again! He had gone to see it on Friday and since Mom didn't want to see it, they offered to keep Kynzie and let us go! I said, "Yes!" and then promptly freaked out. James and I were going to leave KK? Both of us? At the same time? Oh no. no no no. I tried to back out that afternoon, but then again I really wanted to go out to a movie with my husband and my sister! So in the end, we went :) I spent the half hour before we left going over everything I could think of with my parents: "Here is how she likes to take a bath.", "This is what she should wear to bed." "Here's the milk, here's the bowl, here's the hot water; this is how you warm up a bottle of milk.", etc. It was like I thought my parents had never taken care of a baby! (clearly not true...) But I left, kept my phone in my hand, only texted once to see how she was, and thoroughly enjoyed an evening with James and April. I even got to have a HUGE guilt-free Dr. Pepper since she was drinking a bottle at home and the most amazing pretzel M&Ms. **sidebar: if you haven't had the new pretzel M&Ms you haven't LIVED** When we got home Kynzie was sleeping in her bassinet and Grammy and PopT were watching TV! It was wonderful!
In the end, I still want to spend all of my time with her in my arms, but turns out I don't HAVE to! It was a wonderful weekend full of fun and love and an extremely happy baby! Now I feel like this:
Kynzie has been starting to make some pretty awesome noises lately. When she is awake and alert, which is more and more of the time, James or I will sit her down facing us and start talking to her. And sure enough, KK will start talking back to us! She is probably the cutest thing in the whole world when she does this. We will sit there for as long as she will stand it and listen to her make her little coos and snorts. A-DORABLE!
And for your viewing pleasure, here's a short video of her talking to Daddy tonight :)
p.s. cheers to James for being amazing and patient. i might have gone a little crazy trying to save and post this video...he's awesome for putting up with me :)
So James and I are getting pretty good at this whole "baby" thing. We know when she's tired and when she's hungry; we can tell when she is mad or hurting or just whiny; we can identify the times when nothing but the vacuum will make her smile. But we have one area that is still a major question mark for us.
Yep, the car. Poor little Heidi! I had been talking to her about the arrival of Kynzie for months! I got a professional carseat installer (that's right, they have those...) to install the carseat and make sure it was perfect for KK. I put several baby einstein cd's (and my beatles lullaby cd - totally awesome) on my phone so I would have wonderful, inspiring music for her to listen to while riding in the Jeep. I bought sunglasses that velcro around her head so they would stay on and prevent the sun from getting in her eyes when she was enjoying the drive. And I got a mirror so I could look back at her smiling face while I drove. Then Kynzie came and it was time to put all of my preparation to the test!!
And she hates it. Absolutely LOATHES the car. What?! First of all, little Heidi is one of my all time favorite things. James and I bought her with our children in mind! The Jeep was purchased with thoughts of road trips with our kids! And she screams the entire time she's in it. Awesome. I shouldn't have been surprised...she is soo much like her mother. Here are two examples:
1. The Seatbelt. James is always yelling at me to put my seatbelt on. I hate seatbelts. They don't let you get comfortable! I am always putting the shoulder strap behind my back or sticking it somewhere so it will hold the waist strap so far away from me that I could fit two of me in the seat. I guess I should have known that KK would be the same way. As soon as the straps go down around her she is grabbing at them and straining to see if she can push them away from her. Hates hates hates the seatbelt.
2. The Rear-facing Seat. If you know me AT ALL then you know that I am a rather social being. I thrive off of social interactions. I am pretty sure that if you look up extrovert in the dictionary, there is a picture of me next to it. I am not so good by myself. (which might be why I asked the DirectTV guy at best buy to stand there and talk to me even though I didn't want to buy what he was selling...it's a little sad) Well, shockingly enough, Kynzie is the same way. I don't know for sure, but I think she dislikes being back there by herself with only the back of the seat to look at. When James is with us, I normally sit back there with her so she will have someone to talk to and she won't feel so abandoned. But when it's just the two of us, she has to sit back there all alone and sad...it's no fun.
My mom says that once she can face forward it will be better, so just another 11 months or so to go...
Luckily James found me a white noise cd that I put on my iPhone, so now we have something that calms her down on my long drives to Target and HEB :)
So since the last post had no pictures in it, how about a whole post of just pictures?! OK!
Here's a great shot of the mo-hawk discussed in the previous post! She hasn't lost any more hair, but it's not growing back in yet either... Luckily she is super cute sans hair!
Look Look!! KK loves her bumbo! She just started sitting in it yesterday, and we are both loving how comfy it is! Plus, it's a great place to play with her favorite toy frog :) She just loves sitting up. Before yesterday, we would just sit her on our lap, but the bumbo is much more stable for her back and neck, and it leaves both of my hands free to play! The frog has huge eyes that she loves to look at and his webby feet have some material inside that makes them crinkle when you bend them. She loves the sound!
Side story about the frog: This was the first toy that KK and I started to play with. She liked it because it has huge eyes that she can stare at; I liked it because it was green. One evening my nephew, Bauer, came over and decided to take out all of her toys, play with them, and then line them up on the nursery floor in order of "funness". As he picked up the frog, I opened my mouth to tell him all about the eyes and the crinkly feet...and froze. Immediately upon grasping the toy, Bauer grabbed the yellow ring under the frog and pulled it. The whole frog erupted in vibrations! What?! I have been playing with this thing for a MONTH and I never knew it vibrated! For crying out loud, I never even pondered why there was a yellow ring at the bottom of the frog. And turns out it makes the toy like 100 times more fun! It bummed me out a little that a 3 year old knows more about my baby's toys than I do! So I made him play with all of the toys again and I took notes. Ok, maybe I didn't, but I probably should have...
Plus also, doesn't she look flipping adorable in purple??
Kynzie is one month old! Yay! One of my assistant principals gave me the idea to have a special onesie for each month of her first year. Then I talked to James about it and he made a different picture for each month! They are all Pooh and super cute! I can't wait for you all to see the other months!
Last but not least...THE SMILE! This is the first picture of her beautiful smile! It has taken us countless pictures and over 2 weeks to capture this elusive expression, but we got it in the end! She is smiling all the time now -- not just when she has gas :) It's so wonderful! She is so beautiful and it makes me feel like maybe I'm not too bad as a mother if I have a daughter that is THAT happy!
Now I am just waiting for her to laugh for the first time :)
I have been having small, random thoughts about KK for the last two days, but since none of them could individually become a post, I haven't messed with it. However, I now feel as though I have enough small thoughts to compile them into one hodgepodge blogging event -- incoherent though it may be...
Kynzie is going through an unfortunate hair phase. And by that I mean that her hair is falling out! Turns out this happens to babies? I had no idea. This, in itself, is not so bad. Yes, we were pumped when she came out with so much beautiful dark hair. And yes I was enjoying watching her hair grow and get longer. But just having hair fall back out would have been a minor setback. What we have is something far more bizarre. Kynzie has lost all of the hair on the top of her head except for a small racing stripe down the very middle. It's a weird monk-like do with a small mohawk added in...I've been trying various come-overs, but nothing's working so far. And let's not forget that none of the hair in the back is falling out, so it is becoming a lovely shade of mullet. Beautiful. Actually, it is still beautiful, which is the most shocking part about it! How can she still be this gorgeous with hair like that?? It seems to defy all logic and reason, but it is so nonetheless. I am, however, looking forward to the time when her hair begins to act normally!
Kynzie has changed so much in only a month! When I think back to how much she was awake and alert the first couple of weeks, it's astounding to see how far she's come so quickly! I bought her an activity gym for her one-month birthday and she loves it! She will sit and look in the mirror or stare at the monkeys. Her favorite part, though, is the rhino and bird mobile in the middle. She will stare and smile at it for minutes at a time! Minutes are like hours to a baby much in the same way that one year is like 7 years to a dog...so you can see how huge this is!
I think James and I are becoming more adept at this whole parenting thing, as well. When she cries (which is on the whole much less often than before) we can calm her quickly and know more readily what she wants. I am starting to feed her before she cries because she's hungry and get her to sleep before she works herself up and cries for an hour! Now, this is not happening 100 percent of the time, but we are trying really hard! Today was a great day, so this is a good day for a blog post of this nature. Yesterday would not have been a good day to discuss my parenting skills, as I spent most of the day confused about what she wanted and sad that I couldn't seem to give it to her.
**Warning! The following is of a relatively personal nature, so be prepared**
I am breastfeeding Kynzie and have not yet started pumping at all. It has been a pretty daunting task for me. I have this amazing pump (Medela) and I've known that I should probably start soon, but until late last week I hadn't even opened the backpack to see what was inside! When I finally did it scared me even more because there were soo many parts and tubes and buttons...oh my... So I found the manual online and read the entire thing. I even started reading it again in Spanish and then remembered that it would be all the same information and stopped. That helped a ton. I sanitized everything and got everything ready last week and it has been sitting in the corner of the living room since then. Just staring at me. The only time I have felt the need to pump is at night. KK is sleeping so well that she will go 8 or 9 hours without eating. Great for her, not so great for my boobs. So tonight it begins! Maybe...if I don't chicken out...I think I am going to go read the manual one more time.
We got a couple different kinds from showers and I had been waiting for her to get big enough to use them! I have used soo many pampers swaddlers and feel bad every time i have to just throw it away. I know it seems silly, but it seems so wasteful to just throw away all of those diapers...
So I am officially starting her in cloth diapers. Pray for me.
For today I put her in the littleG diapers from babies r us. They were super easy to put on. There is the outer cloth diaper, then a plastic liner that snaps in, then the "pad" that absorbs everything just fits into the liner. I am not a huge fan of the velcro on the cloth, though. I would much rather have snaps. And I have both microfiber pads that are washable, and biodegradable pads that you flush down the toilet. Somehow it doesn't hurt my conscious so much to flush the pads instead of throwing them away. I dunno...
So over the next week or so I will try every variation and see what works best for us! Hopefully I will be comfortable using these instead of having to constantly throw away diapers, but I am not above returning to the "poop and trash" technique!
Oh, and here are a couple of pictures of her in her littleG's! Shockingly, I decided to start her in the green one! And she looks too fat for them, but she isn't; it's just to way she is sitting :)
So today Kynzie decided it was time she explored the world around her a little bit more...and by that I mean that she was bound and determined to 1. find her hand 2. bring it to her mouth and 3. suck on it! This is more difficult than you might first imagine. She was at this for a good 2 minutes or so before I got the flip and began getting a video of it. It's too bad because most of the quality exploration happened before I was filming (per usual). However, this was too cute not to share anyway, and I have been wanting to figure out how to post videos to this thing. She ended up quitting and just sucking on my fingers, because that is way easier, but we'll get there eventually!!
Kynzie has started to really get on a schedule--ish. She wakes up around 8 or 9 and stays awake until about 10 or 10:30, then she is back down until 1 or 2, then she's awake until 4 or so, then asleep until 7 or 8, then awake until 11, then she does her big sleep until about 5, then goes back to sleep until 8. It's a pretty awesome schedule! Except for the days when there is no schedule and she keeps me guessing all day :)
My favorite time of day is definitely from 8 until 10 in the morning! She is the most awake then and the most aware. We do most of our "play" during that time. I put that word in quotations because she is still not really playing by any sort of standard except the one that I made up for us. According to that standard she is blowing the top off the charts :) Anyway, we play in the bouncer, the swing, or just on my lap. I sing to her (mostly old hymns and Beatles--because it makes sense to us! Although I always start with the good morning song that I made up after she was born), I let her feel different textures, I make silly sounds, and sometimes I just talk to her and let her follow the sound of my voice with her eyes. She normally can't handle more than 15 minutes or so of any of them before she loses interest, but it's been fun!
The best part of our morning together time is when she smiles! When I put her in my lap and sing or talk to her, she will look right at me and smile! It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! I am not saying that she necessarily knows that she is smiling at me, but she is and I love it! James and I tried for several minutes Saturday morning to get a picture of it, but it comes and goes so quickly we just couldn't quite catch it! It almost makes me cry when she does it, because she is so beautiful and it just melts my heart! It's a good thing she can't talk yet, because that gummy smile would get her an-y-thing that she asked!
So I am not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes I have a camera and a baby and a giant classic Pooh Bear, and this is what happens...and by sometimes I mean earlier today.
I've decided to provide a running commentary with what I think KK was thinking with each picture. Enjoy!
How did you get way up there, Pooh? Don't you want to come down here with me?
This isn't exactly what I had in mind...
That's more like it! This blanket is nice and soft isn't it?
Pooh, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
I have plans to get REAL photographers to take REAL pictures of her eventually, but this was fun :)
My Kynzie is 3 weeks old today! These 21 days have gone by so quickly AND so slowly all at the same time. I cannot believe that she has been with me for three weeks already; yet I am having a hard time remembering life before her! Here's a picture I took this morning :)
So about a week ago Kynzie's digestive system decided that it didn't want to work as well as it had been -- meaning that she started to have bad gas! (suddenly a little weirded out that I am blogging about gas...welcome to my life) We went one 24 hour period last week sleeping no more than an hour at a time. And we pretty much cried the rest of the time. I say we because I am sorry to say that I didn't hold it together very well. It is such a hurtful thing to watch your baby scream and have no way to fix it. James even came home in the middle of the day because I had called him sobbing. Then we realized: when KK toots or poops she all the sudden stops crying. What could this mean?? It took us longer than I want to admit before we connected the screaming with the pain of gas. But once we did we were on a mission! I stopped eating broccoli, peanut butter, and milk automatically. This may not sound like a big deal but those are three of my all time favorite things to eat. But we read somewhere that those three things can give her stomach pains... We tried tummy massages also, but if I have pains I don't want anyone pushing on me, so I stopped that almost immediately. After several trial and error sessions, we finally discovered the key:
The Vacuum
Yeah, the vacuum is awesome! She will be screaming like crazy and then we flip the switch and she calms instantly. It's as if she has a switch too, and it is inversely related to the vacuum! Vacuum - ON. Kynzie - OFF. A-mazing! We also bought her some Mylicon (thank you Kay for that suggestion!!) and the combo of drops and the vacuum have made a much happier baby, and thus a much happier mommy!
This is clearly a short-term fix, mostly because eventually the vacuum will overheat and die. BUT, I am not really that upset about it. I want a Dyson :)
Kynzie Kay is officially two weeks old!! These last two weeks have gone by soo fast! She is already so different from when she was first born. She is awake during the day so much more, and I am enjoying having that time with her. She is gaining weight like crazy and I am loving putting her in a different super-adorable outfit every day. Wanna see today's?
I thought you did :) She is the cutest pooh bear in the whole world!
On the other hand...
I keep forgetting that it's only been two weeks. What I mean is, she has only been "outside" for two weeks! 14 days! Things are constantly changing in her world. Her stomach is really new at digesting food; her mouth is barely becoming used to drinking and swallowing; her eyes can only see 12 inches at most. I keep expecting her to do things the way that I have seen other babies do them. You know, other babies that I have been around before. I have babysat young babies and I even worked at a daycare for about 6 (truly horrible) months and spent large amounts of time in the infant room. So why are my expectations of her behavior soo off? BECAUSE SHE IS ONLY TWO WEEKS OLD! She's not 6 months like the baby I babysat. She is not even 3 months like the youngest baby at the daycare...she's 14 days old. She is just at the beginning of figuring out the world around her. She is scratching the surface of her environment. So of course things startle her, or course she becomes overstimulated, of course she is confused when awake!
I guess what I am saying is that while she is learning to live outside of the womb, I am learning to throw off everything that I thought this would be and just be thankful that I have had 14 days with the most amazing little girl.
And tomorrow will be even better than today! I am so lucky!
Kynzie dreaming is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. At least it will be until she does something else...then THAT will probably be the cutest thing I have ever seen. It seems to be a pattern. Like first I was obsessed with her eyebrows. I don't think you realize how adorable her eyebrows are! Look ------>
Then it was her ears and the way they are sort of flat at the top. After that came the fingernail fascination. Tiny fingernails are crazy cute.
So the last couple of days have been so great! I have learned how to let her sleep in something other than my arms. You should congratulate me. Seriously, that is not as easy as it sounds! She slept with me for almost 42 weeks! I always knew when she was awake or asleep and I kinda miss it. So having her sleep on my chest is my closest substitute for that. She still sleeps with me at night, mostly because she sleeps longer that way (or that's what I tell myself...) but I have been putting her in her bassinet for day naps. It definitely has its benefits. Like being able to use my hands for things like typing, making lunch, answering the phone, etc. I miss her though...
I think that's all the time I am going to have for today! She is fussing...
Welcome family and friends to the Payton family blog! I have had blogs on and off again for years, even dating back to the ever-prestigious livejournal my freshman year in college. Hopefully this blog will be longer lived than its predecessors (which pretty much means more than 4 or 5 months), but it will last at least until I go back to work next fall...which, now that I think about it is about 5 months from now...
Today I thought I would just throw out some of the observations that I have had over the last week having a daughter. Speaking of...
So, James and I have a daughter!?! I haven't really been using that word much yet. I have been having so much fun just using her name; I hadn't even thought about the term "daughter". Then yesterday James was showing Kynzie off to everyone at RockSports and he introduced her to a coworker as his daughter. Woah. His daughter! My daughter! That was definitely a weird, but truly amazing feeling.
No matter how tired I think I am, I would rather be up with a crying Kynzie than be anywhere else without her. It's nuts how I can want to cry out of frustration one second (mostly from 11pm to 2am when KK wants to be up and screaming) and then a second later I want to cry because she is so beautiful and I love her so much!
After driving on I-35 with Kynzie for the first time yesterday, I have decided that I am not taking her out of the house again unless everyone else agrees to stay home while we are out. I can't handle taking her out in a car (aka death trap) when there are other people around. Other people are stupid. Honestly, I don't think it's an unreasonable request. Right?
Several people mentioned how much I would enjoy staying home with KK because I would be able to catch up on reading, have some hobbies that I haven't had time for, etc. Ummm, I don't know what YOUR first week was like with an infant, but mine has had about 10 minutes of free time so far. She pretty much requires both of my hands at all times. Maybe other mothers hire someone to hold books for them? Or make lunch for them? Or go to the bathroom for them? I don't know. Supposedly it gets easier as she gets older, but for the last week I sure haven't read one single thing and in fact it's taken about 10 attempts over the past two days just to write this post!
I'm not complaining about the no time thing. In fact, it has shocked me how quickly our days go by! I can't believe she was born over a week ago already! Every day I am amazed at how much bigger she is. She can raise her head and keep it up (for a little while anyway), she can find her fist and suck on it (she can almost fit the whole thing in...just like her mom!), and she has such a strong grip! I can't wait to see what she comes up with for tomorrow! Every day is truly a blessing from the Lord, and James and I are doing everything in our power to take full advantage of each one. Kynzie Kay is our miracle. I hope you will continue to check in with us because there's no telling what He has in store for our KK!!
