Week 1 Milestones

Today marks the first week of life for baby Kallan Marie! We have had such a great time snuggling her and loving on her. Things have gone really well for the most part. A couple nearly sleepless nights, a couple stressful moments. But overall, we have had a great week! Things don't seem too crazy yet, being a mom of two. I'm sure once Kallan starts growing and spending more time awake then things will get a little bit more hectic!

So what's gone on in this family of four this week?

1. Lyla went pee in her potty! We were reading a potty book and she suddenly wanted to be a 'big girl' and sat on her potty... for an hour and a half. And then finally went!! We had a great celebration full of "Hooray's" and chocolate covered dried cherries! YUM!

2. Breastfeeding success!

3. Breastfeeding related breakdown!

4. First big sister temper tantrum... when Daddy was carrying Kallan and Lyla wanted UP. "Just carry Lyla, just carry Lyla!" Other than that, Lyla has been adjusting really well... so far!

5. Kallan slept in her Pack 'n Play bassinet thing! The first night she would instantly wake up whenever we set her down, so we took turns just HOLDING her all night long.  The next night we got her to sleep in the baby swing.  But now it seems like she is growing accustomed to lying down. Last night she slept in there all night... and by all night I mean in increments of 2-3 hrs. But that means I got to sleep for 2-3 hrs at a time, too!

6. First time out and about in our DOUBLE STROLLER! That thing is heavy with two children!

7. Realizations that our family has changed... when we say "our girls" or refer to Lyla as "our oldest." How strange to refer to your first baby as the "oldest"!

8. First name mispronunciations. Likely the first of many. Sorry Kallan. :(

9. Kallan's first sponge bath! She didn't like it but she DID seem to like having the water run over her hair.

10. And to celebrate a great first week, we are off to the "cottage home" for the weekend to see family and celebrate Tim's 21st birthday! Kallan's first road trip and first time to the cottage! Lyla is SO excited. She has been looking forward to it all week! There will be 15 of us in one house. Sounds crazy, right? I'm sure it will be, but only in the best way!

What's in a Name?

So several people have asked me about our baby name. I have to say that it's not a very interesting story, but I will share our naming process anyway.

I started at the Social Security's website because they had recently posted the most popular names of 2011. I skipped the Top 100 and went from there. I saw plenty of names that I liked, but nothing that I loved.  It seems like there are two huge trends right now... people either want a 'unique' name or a 'classic' name. I guess "Lyla" is a classic name.. and is #127! I really love the comeback of these old-fashioned names. I guess it's not just me that thinks Willa and Olive are both adorable!

After searching SSA and the rest of the web, we turned to our ever trustworthy phones.  We got a couple of baby names apps and kept searching. I saw Kallan and fell in LOVE. I simply felt that this was the one. At this time though, I was fairly confident that we were going to have a boy. I saw that "Callan" is in the top 1000 for boys and thought that we would maybe go with the "C" instead. When we found out we were having a girl, we weren't sure if we felt that it was a very girly name anymore after having considered it for a baby boy. But the more we talked about it, the more we felt like we just KNEW that was our baby's name. I should mention that Erik is incredibly picky.... I like a lot of names, and he likes very, very few, so I always got discouraged from being turned down so much. As soon as he gave Kallan a "maybe, " I pretty much considered that the baby's name. Then at one point, he turned to me and said, "She's Kallan, isn't she?" So that's the story!

For a middle name, we wanted something simple and pretty and feminine. When we went to the hospital at 32 weeks, we still hadn't decided! Marie had been our tentative favorite for awhile and we thought it sounded and looked the best so that's really the story there.

Kallan can either mean "powerful in battle" or "flowing water." It's technically a girl's name, but could be used for a boy, which makes it unisex in my mind, and for whatever reason, I just LOVE unisex names!

The end!

P.S. Like my stretch marks? I used lotion every day during this pregnancy and got more than I did the first time... when I didn't EVER use lotion. Hm.... They say it's genetics, guess it's probably true!

Kallan's Birth Story

Well for the first time in a couple days, I am feeling like I am NOT on the verge of falling asleep. And of course, it's midnight and definitely the ideal time to be sleeping. Actually, Kallan woke up seemingly hungry, but now isn't interested so I am waiting and hoping she'll wake up and eat in a bit.

So I'd better start writing out our "birth story" before I forget anything interesting. Actually, Thursday I was feeling like things would start happening soon, just because it was a strange day. I slept through the night without waking up to contractions or to go to the bathroom, which hasn't happened in FOREVER. Honestly, I couldn't believe it when I saw the time! And then I had zero contractions all morning and afternoon. I kept thinking, "This must be some kind of 'calm before the storm.'"

Erik, Lyla and I had a fun evening at the beach and went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant. I had been having contractions sporadically at this point. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Later on I had some regular ones, but as soon as I thought maybe I'd call in, they stopped. Story of my life of the past month.

Friday morning, I woke up at 4:00 with a contraction. Nothing painful, but enough to wake me. It didn't take me long to realize that this was the real deal. Contractions kept coming regularly, then closer together, and with increasing pain. My back just ached the whole time. I woke up Erik at 5 and we were at the hospital at 5:30 am. I was checked at 7 cm dilation. The nurses assumed my water would break and then things would progress pretty quickly from there. So Erik and I walked the unit for awhile. At about 7:30, I asked the nurse when would be too long to wait for the epidural. I was in a decent amount of pain, but the contractions were still about 5-6 minutes apart, and I thought I'd wait it out a bit longer. But she thought that the doctor would likely come in and break my water soon, and then things would go really fast, and if I wanted it for sure, then I probably shouldn't wait too much more. I definitely knew I wanted one, I remembered how it saved me from horrible back labor the first time around... so at 8:00 the anesthesiologist arrived. Turns out he was a friend of mine's brother! Small world! By the way, I also ran into a girl I played volleyball with in high school who was doing her clinical at the birth center. And a student was shadowing our nurse that day, and it turned out she was a friend of a friend!! Like I said.. small world!

Anyway. So I got the epidural, and I could still feel a lot of pressure from contractions but no pain, so that was fine by me. So we waited for awhile and at about 10, I got a small dose of pitocin to help "nudge" things along. We hadn't progressed much since we arrived, and the nurse said our contractions were sort of 'dysfunctional.' Is that a medical term? I'm not sure. The nurse thought that it might help break my water if contractions were a bit stronger. Things definitely got a lot more regular and intense after that. Still no broken water. At noon, the nurse checked my cervix again and I was almost fully dilated. But my water would still not break on its own. Apparently, some women just have a bag of waters that is like steel and takes forever to break. So finally the doctor came in, broke my water, and we were basically ready to go. Kallan arrived after three good pushes in one contraction.

I got skin to skin time right away with her. She is so beautiful and perfect and tiny! I could not believe how small she was when I first saw her! I can only imagine how small she might've been at 32 weeks. We had a successful first feeding, which was amazing! Lyla and I really struggled with feeding in the hospital, and I had been kind of dreading getting started again. Definitely helps to have one breastfed baby experience in your belt going into it! But Kallan is just a determined little eating champ!

Lyla came to see her baby sister Friday afternoon. We put Kallan in the bassinet so we could give Lyla some big hugs and kisses before she saw her sister. We had also made a build-a-bear to give to Lyla as a gift from Kallan. You know, encourage sisterly affection right from the start. :) Lyla came in, and we asked her if she wanted to see the baby. We lifted her up and she looked in... there was momentary confusion as to why baby was not in mommy's belly, but then she said, "She came out!" She gave Kallan many hugs and kisses and loved the gift! Since then, she was been so sweet to her, loves to hold her, but wants her to wake up all the time. Sorry, Lyla, not time to play yet! I'm so proud of the way Lyla is handling everything so far! She just loves her sister! When Kallan cries, Lyla gets worried. Or she'll say, "uh oh!"

Hospital time was filled with snuggles, skin to skin time, and.. a bit of sleeping. Then the nurses said we may be able to come home Saturday night instead of Sunday, if everything continued to go well. We were SO excited! We were home Saturday evening at around 6:30. I took a nap at about 8 ... felt so good to be in our own bed! Good thing I had that nap, because we got very little sleep the first night. Kallan just would not be put down at all, so we took turns holding her while she slept. Night #2 went a lot better! She sleeps in her pack 'n play now, and for 2 hour stretches at a time. WOO HOO!

Some hospital pics.

We are so happy to be home with our little family. And we are so thankful to have made it to full term with our pregnancy. I was counting down the days with so much anxiety, imagining being separated from Kallan for any time she needed in the NICU... and I was SO relieved to hit the 37 weeks mark! We are so grateful for the extra growing time we got for our little girl and for our perfectly healthy baby! Beautiful in every way! What do you think? Does she look like her big sister?!

We love our baby Kallan! 

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

This whole pre-labor thing is pretty confusing. It amazes me how different two pregnancies can be.

With Lyla, I really didn't feel any contractions before I went into labor. I started leaking fluid so I was sent to the hospital, hooked up to monitors, and then saw on the screen that I seemed to be having contractions that I couldn't feel. Once they got going, I had "back labor" and then had the epidural. So I really had no experience with the typical, crampy contractions.

Now, here I sit, counting contractions before bed, like I do every day. Generally, it's all "false" labor, although I had very high hopes for tonight, but things are kind of slowing down.

I am now 5 cm dilated, so our doctor said not to wait too long before calling in. Actually, she said call immediately at the first sign of contractions so I make it to the hospital in time. So, we did that, and then we went to the hospital, only to be sent home 2 hrs later. They even had us walk around the unit for 45 minutes to see if that got anything progressing.  Not much to see out in the halls... not even any babies to peek at in the nursery. I ended up just walking in circles in our room while we played Hangman on a whiteboard. Oh fun hospital times.

I can't believe that it's been 5 weeks since we first went into the hospital. We are so lucky to have been able to stop our labor and have so much extra grow time for our baby. We are so ready to meet our little girl!

Even Lyla is getting excited about her little sissy! Grandma and Grandpa got her a book about being a sister, and I think that has helped a lot. We call the big sister in the book "Lyla" and the little sister "______" so instead of just associating the baby with some big thing in my belly, she actually sees a baby to go with the name.

Today, Lyla was sitting in our new double stroller, just because she likes it so much and munching some fruit snacks. She asked where her old stroller was, and I told her that we put it away because she and baby ______ can ride in this new one together. I swear she gave me the death glare for about 1 minute straight. And then she was like, "_____ in the back." So I told her yes, baby would ride in the back in her car seat. I asked her if she wanted to see the car seat, and she said yes. I brought it out and told Lyla that baby would sit by her in the car every day, and that got her really excited. Then I asked her if she wanted to help with the baby's seat belt, and then she was REALLY excited. Lyla LOVES to buckle up! She practiced buckling the car seat forever. And then she got the baby's pacifier and we put it in the car seat to wait for baby. It was really a very proud mommy moment!

Then I ruined it by suggesting we put it on the stroller to see how it looked. This was fine... however, Lyla's favorite cupholder tray on the stroller is actually needed to lock the car seat in place... so I *dun, dun, dun* MOVED the tray. A temper tantrum followed. Oh the toddler years. It's the little things.

Last night, I went and peeked in at Lyla before bed.. and I couldn't help but feel sad that it won't just be the three of us anymore... the two of us during the day. Lyla is growing so fast, and yet she is still such a baby to me. I could just love on her and snuggle her all day long. But soon, I won't have all the time in the world to do things with Lyla. If I feel sad about it, I can only imagine how Lyla will take it. I don't want her to feel stressed or upset :( I know it might be hard at first, but I am still so, so excited to be growing our family and to have our two little girls to love and snuggle! I guess these last few weeks have just been a little bittersweet for us!

Alright I am off. My doctor didn't think we'd make it through the weekend, so we'll see if we have our little on in our arms soon !

37 Weeks!

I can't believe it, but we made it to FULL TERM! When I was sent home from the hospital, I prayed and prayed that we would make it to even 34 weeks. And here we are, at 37! Amazing. I just went off my medication yesterday. I am getting so, so excited about meeting our baby girl! There is nothing like holding your baby for the first time. Except maybe seeing your husband with tears rolling down his cheeks when he gets to hold baby for the first time. I am so grateful that we will get to experience all those moments again!

I really wanted to get some good pics of me and the baby bump and was feeling a bit panicked because I was on bed rest, and then baby could be here any day! So yesterday, we went out and took some little family/maternity pictures. Thanks to Grandma Gin for the camera work! Here are a couple of my favorites.

A Year of Baby Lyla

Our biggest baby is getting SO big.

A couple recent reminders that our baby is a big girl.

1. Extra long sentences.. i.e., "I don't want to go in the potty... don't have to!" or "Purple's all gone on this hand and purple's almost gone on this hand!" It blows my mind when she says something like that.

2. We can have little conversations, and there's nothing more fun than having a chat with your baby. This was super nice on bed rest because she'd come home from the park or grandma and grandpa's house, and I could ask her what she did there. She would tell me, "swing and slide." Or "Pet the kitties!" Little things like that. Today she looked deep in thought so I asked her what she was thinking about. She answered, "stairs." Interesting... and then she said she was thinking about the stairs at the "cottage home." She said, "Have carpet on them." Oh, a 2 year old's random thoughts!

3. She can open doors in our condo and sometimes open the door to the hall! We now keep our door locked.

4. She drinks out of a regular cup!

5. And of course, she is growing out of all her clothes :(


I wanted to pick out some baby pictures of Lyla to look back on Lyla's first year. We didn't really take official "month" pictures, but I basically took some of her every day. So here's Lyla's first year in pictures!

One day

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

One Year

And our baby now!

Paper and Glue Project

Today I decided that Lyla and I would do a little craft. I am not a 'crafty' person, so I wanted/needed to do something really simple with stuff from around the house. I found some construction paper and cut up a bunch of shapes and grabbed a glue stick.. and voila! A craft! 

Some shapes!

 Thinking hard.. where should it go?

Add the glue!

And.. the finished product!

Lyla had a lot of fun with this! I helped her out a bit at first, but it quickly became something she can do on her own. This was just one of three shape pictures she made... and in this one, she started sorting the shapes... triangles together, some squares/rectangles together, circles/ovals together.  Fun AND educational! Woo! Do I get a gold star?!

When Erik came home, she showed him her pictures.... and then tore off all the shapes! I actually rescued this last picture and snapped a picture of it on my phone. Whew. I'm a pack rat... everything is a keepsake that must be saved! FOREVER! :) Speaking of though, my friend Brittany told me about this iPhone app called "Artkive" that lets you take pictures of all your kids' artwork and store them... and soon you'll be able to turn the pictures into a coffee table book!  I thought this would help with my patrackiness, but I still can't get rid of the originals. Anyway the app was free for a limited time, might still be! 

I am going to scour pinterest for more easy craft ideas. I am off bed rest but still taking it easy until Sunday so I needed something today to occupy some of Lyla's time. Crafts will be handy with baby #2 around, too! Which could be any day! Although it could be in a lot of days so I'm trying not to get too impatient. We've still got some preparing to do still... but we can't wait to meet her!

Freedom!

Today we had a doctor's appointment at 10 o'clock. There was a lot of anticipation building up to this appointment. Would I get taken off bed rest? Would I be allowed to at least get up and move around our place? Or would nothing change whatsoever?

And the verdict was....

NO MORE BED REST!

This doesn't mean that I can just start doing everything I want right away. I am supposed to ease into normal activity. So today I did some light cleaning and organized some clothes. The best part was when I went and got Lyla from her crib. I haven't been allowed to lift her or pick her up for the past 4 weeks! I don't know who was more excited, me or her! I got a big hug when I picked her up, and it was sooo nice. Afterwards she said, "Mommy's happy!" I am happy indeed! I can only imagine how it must feel for someone who has been on bed rest for months and months!

At this point, I'm still on my medication. Our doctor wants me on it until Sunday when we'll be at 37 weeks.. full term! That is, if we make it, of course. For some reason Erik thinks baby will come on Saturday. We will see!

Now I want to take these remaining days or weeks to appreciate lots of Lyla time before our new addition comes. I feel so lucky to have been able to be a stay-at-home-mom these past two years and have had so much time to be with Lyla and watch her grow. I have heard that the hardest part of having a second child is feeling sad or guilty about spending less time with the older child. I have also heard the opposite... that moms feel upset that they can't give their second as much attention as they gave their first. I don't know how it's going to feel. It will be an adjustment, but I am excited more than anything. I know our little girls will grow to be best friends :)! Before we know it they will be wreaking havoc on us together!

Enjoying some snuggle time with my biggest girl. She still just loves to watch us write!

36 Weeks

We are trying to take bump pictures every week now, since every week could be our last week of pregnancy. Here's the 36 week baby bump!

That's our baby! And my crooked linea negra!

We are very much looking forward to our appointment tomorrow. I could potentially have some more freedom!!

The Little Things

It's all about enjoying the little things. Like when Lyla comes home from the store with Daddy or a visit with Grandma and Grandpa, she always walks in the door saying, "We're home mommy!" Or the look on Lyla's face when I get to sit with her at meals. She says, "Sit by you awhile... back to couch!" Or all the hugs, kisses and eskimo kisses I get throughout the day.

Or like the time I was feeling gross, unshowered and lazy in my usual bed rest attire... Sweats. Lyla came over to me and said that I "look fancy!" Thanks honey!

Or how today, she brought Erik a "D" for daddy from her letter puzzle. Mommy got an "M" and she even brought over a "__" for the baby and put it on my belly.

Or listening to Lyla sing throughout the day.. about everything! She is so full of joy, how can she NOT brighten your day?

Or watching Lyla's face as Erik builds a card castle.. and watching her knock it all down!

In pregnancy news, we are 36 weeks tomorrow. I honestly did NOT think we would make it this far, but I am so relieved that we did. At this point in our pregnancy, our doctor will not try to keep baby in if she decides to come out. We are so, so, so excited to meet our baby girl. Of course, we'd love to make it to full term (37 weeks) but at this point, we are still in really good shape, especially compared to when we first went into the hospital...32 weeks and 3 days. Excitement has taken over the anxiety, and we just can't wait to meet our precious baby girl. At this point, all we can do is wait! And build card castles.

Prepping For Baby: Stroller

So my parents wanted to get us a gift for the new baby and decided on a double stroller!! After much deliberation and research between the four of us, we ended up going with this Baby Trend Sit 'N Stand.  And we just got it today! Erik and Lyla are out testing it out at the park, so I will sit here and write a blog post about it.

I had thought about a Sit 'N Stand type stroller from the beginning. Generally, they have several configurations for fitting your two kids, and I definitely liked that idea. I wanted something that would fit the car seat for now but later accommodate two toddlers, or a toddler and a *gasp* preschooler (I don't want to think about school yet!). After we narrowed our choices down to two, the Baby Trend won out.

I am really excited about this stroller, so hopefully Erik brings it back with a positive review! Lyla loved it immediately, of course.

Some pics!

Lyla Sings Silly Words

Video of Lyla singing some silly words! This is one of her new favorite things to do... sometimes when she gets up in the morning, she will be singing just like this! I guess she's a morning person!

35 Weeks

Sunday we hit 35 weeks! Tomorrow will mark three weeks since we first went into the hospital. That's three weeks of growing and developing for our baby girl! I hope she can sit tight even longer, but I would feel much more confident now if we ended up going into labor. Some babies born at this gestational age spend little time in the NICU, if at all, so that is a comforting thought. 

Honestly, I'm just so happy to still be pregnant! When they let me go from the hospital, still contracting away, I was sure we'd be back in the next week to have our baby. But here we are! It's amazing!

We snapped some quick 35 week pictures the other day! I think it's been awhile since we've done any belly shots! 

Hubby Shoutout!

I feel like one person doesn't get enough mention on this blog... and that's this cutie!!!!

Ya know, just the greatest husband in the world! I am so lucky to have such a helpful, caring and selfless guy to call my best friend and hubby. Obviously, bed rest would not be possible without his love and support. He works 10-12 hours a day, comes home and doesn't get a break before getting dinner ready, entertaining Lyla until bedtime and taking care of his bed rested lady. There are sometimes errands to be run and cleaning to be done. Sounds like a lot for one person! And it is! But Erik doesn't complain, though he does pass out at the end of the day in about .0001 seconds.

I'm so lucky to have such a great guy in my life! Our first year of marriage flew by, and with TWO kids, I can only imagine how fast this one is going to go. 

A couple pics from my phone!

Daddy with his little girl!

Team Mommy & Daddy! 

Erik made us heart shaped waffles the other day! YUM!

Erik and Lyla went to the store, and Lyla came home saying, "Here you go mommy!" and carrying these beautiful flowers! Am I the luckiest mommy in the world? I think so!

Thank you Erik for everything you do for us girls. You are the greatest husband a girl could ask for, and the greatest daddy any baby could hope for! So glad to be tackling this little thing called LIFE together!