baby and bunny

we had our one month check up friday - well, it was really 5 weeks because we switched pediatricians and they couldn't get us in last week... so here are her new stats:

22 1/2 inches long ..... 11 lbs 7 oz.... things are good!

my two baby girls:



mommy, i'm so tired of this dress!



trying to eat daddy's nose!



our "professional" posed easter pic:




i'm such a doll!

one marvelous month

so "technically" i'm a day late - but to me, it's still Kai's one month birthday! everyone seems to want to know her sleeping habits... so here's a normal schedule in the day of our lives:

12 AM - settle into deep sleep until...

3-4ish - rouse for feeding, settle sometimes quite quickly back into sleep until...

7-8ish - rouse for midmorning snack - mom tries to stay awake but joins me rather quickly in midmorning nap

11:30ish - rouse for lunch - mom stays up for good after this feeding, i usually fall asleep just as dad is getting home for lunch which gives mom time to take a shower and get me ready to run errands if we need to

3-4ish - rouse for mid afternoon snack - it's a little harder for me to fall asleep after this meal - i like to check out our house, especially the ceiling

8 ish - wake up for late dinner - sometimes i stay awake after this feeding until the next one - i'm a party animal!

11ish - midnight snack and sleep (i've let mom and dad sleep till 5 a couple of times!)

here's me waking up from a nap today:


aren't i cute?

also, her belly button has completely healed and i wanted to take a picture, because let's face it, i'm her mother and think everything about her is adorable... but do you know how difficult it is to get a picture of a newborn's belly? i can't use the flash because it's way too bright and if i turn it off, she squirms too much for it to take a clear picture... but take my word for it, it's precious

we should've gone for her one month check up this week, but we're switching pediatricians and the soonest they had was next friday - i'm anxious to see how much the little monkey weighs... hmm... maybe i'll do a poll...

well, expect some more pictures after sunday, being easter and all - until then sweet dreams:

always read carefully

i try to teach my 5th graders this lesson daily... maybe i should spend more time teaching my husband!

we went to whole foods last night because i wanted to check out their selection of baby products (more on that later)... and because we needed groceries...

i took shawn with me, which i usually don't do, but it's nice to have an outing with the baby and feel like a family... so he came. we were in the meat department and he spots a brisket out of the corner of his eye... the price tag says 8.99... shawn's like, that's a great price for this... so i'm like, well get it then...

let me mention that he is totally excited about his brisket... we're checking out and he picks it up, looks lovingly at it and says, mmmm grass fed beef, this is going to be good... i'm like, where does it say grass fed? and he's like, i don't know...

so we check out and our grocery bill is over $200! ok, feel a little guilty - but some of that was diapering stuff and well, i hadn't spent any money in over 2 weeks... so i didn't feel so bad.

as we're heading for the door, shawn says, i should've read the price on that brisket more carefully... and i'm like, why? was it 8.99 a pound? shawn kind of awkwardly grins, yeah... it was like $29 or something...

turns out the price was printed on the meat - just like it usually is on packaged meat - 9.99 a pound x 3.9 pounds = $39.76!!! all the way home, shawn felt sick to his stomach - this is a man who thinks $4 a pound for ground turkey or beef is a lot!

so we'll be eating 40 dollar brisket this weekend if you'd like to join us... but please, bring a side - we can't afford potato salad!

kairi the social butterfly

my brother got married on saturday...so kai had her first party!

resting up in the car on the way to the reception, isn't she adorable?



with the bride and groom, uncle matt and aunt rita



our first family photo



representin' the crooked I

two weeks today

time flies doesn't it? well, it crawled by when i was waiting for her arrival, and now it goes too fast... each day she changes... i can't believe how different she looks already from two weeks ago! i figured i needed to type up her birth story soon, because each day the memory fades a little more and more... i suppose it's nature's way of keeping up reproduction! here goes:

*disclaimer - may be some gore involved*

2.21.08

6:00 - woke up eager to get ready to get to the hospital

6:45 - pretended like my water had broken, rushed to hospital (one exit down the freeway)

7:00 - arrive a Baylor Irving, Labor and Delivery, check in

7:30 - Dr. Dominique comes in and breaks my water for real, very strange feeling... find out there's meconium in water which means baby has had a bowel movement in utero, freaks me and shawn out a bit, but no big deal to everyone else

8:00 - contractions begin - not too bad, kinda like a period... nurse comes in and says, ok, we're going to begin pitocin

9:00 - 5:00 - time becomes foggy/irrelevant - pitocin makes the contractions worse, they give me Stadol - makes room spin, makes pain disappear and makes Shawn a god

Stadol wears off, torture nurse returns with more pitocin

contractions start to take my breath away - shawn no longer a god, in fact, becomes cops-watching-wife-neglecting-doofus with his hat on crooked

ask for epidural and cry alot because of pain and feeling of defeat, i look at shawn for a moment and see a tear streaming down his cheek - no longer a doofus but a sweet husband who just doesn't know what to do

anesthesiologist arrives and the horrendous experience of an epidural begins - the first time she stuck the needle in my spine and started "routing around" i could feel everything quite painfully but not as painful as the contractions in my right hip - strange sensation... she says, ok, i'm just going to find a different spot... puts bloody needle on bed beside me which makes shawn queasy - he has to leave room so he doesn't pass out... she does it again and it takes, tells me to lie down... about the time my blood pressure drops to like 70/40 and the baby's heart rate dropped to i don't know what and i start vomiting and feeling like i'm dying and begging someone to help me... they stabilize us and leave us be for a couple of hours... only complaint is that i'm numb from the neck down instead of the waist down.

at a couple of points, they check my cervix for progress... at 3 PM i had made it to a 5... they came back at 5 PM and i was still at a 5, my contractions had pretty much stopped... so Dr. Dominique was called and I was prepped for a c-section

5:30 - enter torturous anesthesiologist again - she gives me the drugs via IV and the nurse makes me drink some stuff that's supposed to keep me from vomiting... they wheel me out and through the halls to the OR... getting queasy, anesthesiologist asks if i get motion sickness alot - no - hmmm - we get into the OR and i start vomiting again - all the stuff that was supposed to keep me from vomiting - all over my cheek and shoulder... lovely

we make it into the room and i make an interesting observation - all of the people working on us are women, not a man in the room... i was very impressed that they could move me from bed to bed with no men... girl power! i digress... so they strap me to the table and all the sudden i can't swallow... FREAKS me out... the anesthesiologist is like, it's ok, you don't need to swallow and i'm like, i can't swallow, i can't swallow! over and over again and then start trying to get free from the table and she's like, ok, here's something to calm you down... thank you!

5:55 - so i just kind of drift in and out of consciencious until shawn comes in... they start cutting and before you know it

6:02 - we hear a baby crying and then we see her... shawn says "i feel like i'm dreaming" and all of the sudden we're parents of the most beautiful baby girl in the world... just like that. crazy how that is.

in case you forgot what she looked like then:



and here she is today:





this is one of those, you have to look at from far away....me trying to be artsy again

some more pics

I don't have as many as i thought... but here are a few:

Kai with her god parents, Kari and Rob:

One of my favorite things:



Mama likes to try artsy angles, but i just like my hand:





Noli and Kai, 8 days apart:

on the drip

so, i went to the ER Friday night... they were really good about getting us in a room pretty fast so Kai wouldn't be exposed to all the nasties... turns out i had some kind of "oma" which is basically a collection of blood that might have been infected... so they put me on an iv with antibiotics and did some blood work... and sent me home... the pain was significantly better upon leaving the hospital, and i haven't had it since... so i'm assuming i did have an infection... still on antibiotics, going to follow up tomorrow... but things are better... i guess i just assumed it was part of the healing process...

i'll post some more pics of the baby tomorrow - and maybe get around to her birth story sometime this week!