K's Big Girl Carseat and Extended Rear Facing

This is a HUGE subject for me.

After doing some research, I have decided that K will be rear facing as long as her carseat allows. Extended rear facing is something that's not so popular around my area. People I know turn their kids around right at a year, or even before.

Keeping your child rear facing is 500% safer than foward facing. No lie. A child's neck just doesn't have the strength to protect it during a wreck. A simple fender bender can snap a child's neck if they are foward facing.

I know, I know. I've been told by more than one person that I'm being stupid.

Here are the "excuses":

"She'll get bored." Yeah. I have the high maitenence child that hates the car. She screams from point A to point B 98% of the time. She never sleeps in her carseat. But, I'm not sure when and how happiness trumps safety.

"Her legs will have nowhere to go" - Yes, when you ERF, there is less leg room. However, it is so natural for a toddler to sit "indian style" (no, I don't know the politically correct way to say this, so my apologies.) I've been told that sitting like that will break her leg if we get in a wreck. Well, then so be it. I'd much rather have a broken leg than a snapped neck.

That's just 2 of the responses I've gotten so far. There's more, but those are the 2 most stated.

When I had K, I became a lot more outspoken about some of my opinions. This, is not an opinion. It is so much safer to rear face your infant/toddler. It's a fact.  The law states that an infant must be 1 year and 20 lbs, but it is in the process of being changed to 2 years and 30lbs.

It's really not a hard decision if you stop and think for a second.

Here is a video that explains it all a little better. Take a few minutes and check it out.

and for good measure, here is K in her new carseat. =]

Playdate with Miss A.

After we went swimming, we hung out at R&B's house. They have a 6 year old daughter, D, and a 10 month old daughter, A.

K and A were so amused with each other. Neither are old enough to actually "play" but we got some good photos. =]

A was trying to share her paci

First Swim

In August, we went to a friend's house to go swimming. I was really excited about taking K swimming. She loves bath time, so I figured swimming would be a huge hit.

K's first swimsuit from Hawaii!! Thank you Phelp family!!

First moment in the pool.

Relaxing

She loved the ball. We may have a future athlete.

She kept trying to put her face in the water, so finally I told B to let her. She blew bubbles!!

It's hard to tell, but she was smiling so big right here

Mommy and K

All in all I think it was a success. She loved it, and we will definitely be signing up for swimming lessons next summer. It is so important to me that she knows how to swim and float. Love my little water bug!!

Cereal and messes.

At the end of July, early August, we started cereal with K. We used rice at first, but it seemed to upset her tummy pretty bad, so she's eating oatmeal now.  She did really well for eating solids the first time. Dr. J. warned us that more might end up on her than in her tummy, but she did fantastic! I fixed a tablespoon and she ate all(most!) of it.

"I'm not so sure about this Mommy!"

Success!!

She is now eating a variety of veggies, and we just started fruit today. She does so well. It makes me sad thinking about how fast she's growing!!



Baseball!!

Ok, so for the record, I am neglecting any and all housework today in order to try and catch up on my blogging. Darn.

Alright! In July, Jake and I went on a "mini-vaca". We were supposed to go to the Condo with my parents, but Jake got a promotion (**side note: Jake got a promotion!! He is now a corporal!! Yay! So proud of him. He's already got his sights set on sgt. =] ) Anyways, Jake got a promotion, so he couldn't take that many days off work. Boo.

But, we decided to go to Dallas, do some shopping, and of course, go to 2 Ranger games. =] This was the longest I'd been away from K. So let me tell you, I was a little nervous. Alright, way more than a little. Jake's mom came to our house to watch K, and bless her heart, I left her 238572385720 pages of notes. At this point, K had been diagnosed with colic, so she was a little touchy. Things had to be done a certain way, or the night could turn disastrous.

We had a great time! I can't tell you how nice it was to get 10 hours of sleep in a row. That was the best part. Forget the shopping, forget the baseball, sleep was the best part.

Here's  a few pics from the weekend. All baseball. =]

This is Jake, waiting for batting practice. He looks excited, huh?

Mmmmm CJ Wilson. I may or may not think he's a HUGE hottie. =]

Got to watch Tommy Hunter throw before the game.

One of my favorite parts of Ranger games. The dot race!! =]

Ok, so. I suck at blogging.

Really, this is terrible. It's been 4? months since I've updated. I feel like I'm making a blank promise when I say I'm going to keep up with this. It's like my grade school diary, I only right in it when I'm supposed to be cleaning, or it's raining. Well, it's raining, and the dishes are stacking up, so I'm 2 for 2, guess it's time to write.

Let's see. I'm going to try to go in order here, but it's really probably going to be a free for all. =]

In June, we went to visit Jake's very sweet Great Grandmother Johnson. She is in the nursing home after having a bad fall at her house. I will be totally honest here, and say that I was more than a little wary about taking K to a nursing home. She was not even 3 months old and hadn't had any vaccinations yet. The paranoid me was afraid of her catching something dangerous. But, we went, and I am so very grateful we did. Here is the first moment:

Kori wasn't so sure about meeting someone new. She made this terribly sad face where her bottom lip stuck out. I thought she was going to boo-hoo. Let me just tell you also, she is a very "scheduled" baby. If she misses her nap, the whole state of Texas hears it. I was so scared of her having a meltdown in the nursing home, but she did fantastic!!

She was smiling and talking the whole time!! This next picture just made me tear up. We walked in, got to talking, and I looked over and saw this:

She had that picture of K next to her bed, and next to her Bible. It took everything I had in me to not cry right then and there. Yeah. I'm about to cry just looking at the picture.

Here, Great Great Grandmother Johnson was telling Kori something important. I can't even begin to remember what it was, but it was a life lesson. Can you see how serious the conversation is? =]

Here, is 5 generations of Johnsons/Papenthiens. Amazing. From left to right: Great Grandpa Don, Great Great Grandmother Johnson, Princess K, Grammy, and Daddy.

This is SO amazing to me. I never knew my Great Grandmother, much less my Great Great Grandmother, so I am so glad we have these photos.

K's First Bath

Ok, so these posts might be a litte out of order. Sorry. But bear with me, I'm trying to get caught up.

Anyways, K's first bath was....terrible. She cried. I cried. I swore I was never gonna bathe her again.(Gross, I know. But if you heard her cry, you'd feel the same way)

Here's some photos:

This is after, drying off is apparently much more enjoyable.

So, yeah. First bath=fail. Here recently, though, she's been loving bath time. This week, she has started splashing. I think I ended up more wet than here after last nights bath. =] 

Annnd, on a super happy note, her hair as started to curl!! Hoorayyy! It's also got a red tint to it. Just what Jake and I wanted. Curly, red hair. The best of both Mommy and Daddy. =]

Trying out Tummy Time and the Bouncy Seat

Wellll, our first tummy time was a big fat FAIL. Here's 2 photow that describes it perfectly:

Yeah. Now, however(a month later) she actually enjoys it(at least I think she does?).  The bouncy seat isn't as big of a fail, but she doesn't lovvvve it. It's a take it or leave it kind of thing.

Long Overdue Update

Ohhh dear. I'm not sure how people find the time to blog everyday. Where has the last 2 months gone?!? Seriously. Is K really over 2 months old? If I think about it too much, I start to tear up!!

Let's see. What has happened since March? I haven't had much time to practice and work on my photography skills, but I had a few little mini photo shoots with K. It's so much fun to dress her up and come up with the different poses. She usually tolerates me for a couple of outfit changes right after "lunch/snack" and we got quite a few shots in before she decided to spit up on my background. =]

Here's a few of my favorites:

They're not fantastic, but I love them. =]  I hear a baby waking up. I'll update more later. =]

Baby K is here!!

Welcome to the world Kori Beth!!

Kori Elizabeth arrived via C-section at 9:33 Tuesday, March 9th. She weighed 7lbs 8oz, 19 1/2 in. She's perfect in every single way.

How it happened:

We had our normal Ob appointment Monday after lunch. My blood pressure was higher than Dr. B liked and we decided that the best thing to do was have a baby!! He called and set me up to go in at 4:30. After running around like crazy trying to get everything finished, we headed up to the hospital.

I was on Cervadil for 12 hours and started Pitocin at about 6am Tuesday morning. It was a LONG morning.

 I had REALLY bad back labor. My water broke on it's own about 8am. I progressed slowly throughout the day.K's heartrate had been dropping with the contractions since early that afternoon and I was put on oxygen. Turns out the cord was wrapped around her neck one time. Nothing serious, just enough to stress her out during contractions.

We were ready to push at about 7pm. We pushed with the nurse for about 30 before Dr. B came in. We pushed for about 2 hours with Dr.B and K just wasn't moving down. We made the decision to have a C-section because Dr. B was certain that she wasn't moving down anymore and I didn't want her to be in distress much longer.

I was terrified of having a c-section, and to be honest, I don't remember much of it. I was exhausted from the last 30 hours and Jake had to keep me awake during the beginning of it. The whole thing is kind of a blur. After K was out, Jake and my mom went with her to the nursery. I dozed through the rest of the section.

When I was wheeled into recovery, a nurse brought K in and asked if I wanted to hold her. Unfortunately, the spinal had gone up into my arms and they were not cooperating. That was the worst feeling of the whole day. But, Daddy got to hold her.

The next few hours are still kind of fuzzy. K's sugar levels were lower than they wanted, and she was put on Dextrase(or something like that?) through IV. She had to stay in the nursery until Thursday afternoon.

K finally got to come room with us Thursday at 2. It was great. We were released to go home Friday and left about 1. Coming home was amazing. I missed our little apartment and our sweet puppy. =] Lilly has done great with K(even though I think she's scared of her.) The first night home was....rough. Poor baby K had some serious gas pains, but we made it and every moment is perfect.

 It's weird, I never thought I could love her this much. I mean, I knew I would love her, but no one could ever describe this feeling. I don't like going to sleep because I feel like I'm going to miss something. I just want to stare at her all day everyday.

LooonnggFriday

First off, I apologize for spelling errors andmade up words. I'm exhausted.

So yesterday was.....long. I'm not sure there is any other word for it. Draining, pointless, you get the point. I've been having some severe upper epigastric/chest pains for about 2 months now. It started again about 1:30 early Friday morning. It hurts. Bad. It hurts to sit, lay down, stand. haha! Usually, it only lasts a hour to two hours. I think I set a record for 15 hours this time. It was terrible. I called Dr. B's office at 8 and was told to go to Labor & Delivery to get evaluated. Then, was told to go the the ER. Whoo-hoo.

We had been in the ER for this about 3 weeks ago and got all the tests done. Nothing was wrong that they could find. I had my gallbladder ultrasound-ed(Is that a word? ) and it came back normal. I knew the ER could do nothing. BUT Dr. B told me to stay.

So, long story short, after sitting in the waiting room with Wichita's finest meth heads and homeless people for 4 LONG hours, I was told. "Oh, you have heartburn". Ok, he called it something else but thats pretty much what it was.  I was given some Maalox with some pain stuff mixed in. Now, anyone who really knows me, knows that the very thought of Tums, etc make me yak. The nurse hands me this cup of liquid Tums. Ummmm. My mom starts laughing and Jake immediately asks for a trash can. Thanks guys. =]

A favorite, classic movie of mine is Wayne's World. Lame, I know. But the nurse gives me this long plastic bag with a cardboard funnel looking thing at the top. Me, going on about an hour of sleep in the last 24 hours, busts out with "If you spew, spew in this!" haha! The nurse shook her head and I think I embaressed Jake. =] I took a picture with it, but I'm not posting it because A: I look like poo and B: It's on my phone and I'm not 100% sure how to get that on here. haha!

Yesterday could have been a LOT worse. Jake's Lt. and Sgt. are incredible for letting him leave for 3/4s of the day with no notice. I'm SO thankful they understand.  It's taken a lot a stress off of me, knowing that if I go into labor while he's at work, he can leave. My wonderful mother sat with us ALL day and Jake's dad sat with us for a lot of it. It's nice to have support during the crazyness.

Well, I'm supposed to be doing dishes, but I think I'm about to go shopping with mom. =] 

9 more days at the most!! =]

Blogger

I've decided to start a blog. =] I'm not sure how many people will read, but I think it will be good to keep up with out little family and K's milestones.

We'll see how it goes. Ideally, I would LOVE to blog about our life of becoming new parents. We'll see how that goes once K is here. haha! I guess I will update everything else untill she decides to arrive.

We had a Dr's appointment yesterday. No progress and K is sitting high. SO, 38 weeks appt = fail. haha! Everything else looked good. Dr. B said that we would talk about an induction on the 15th at next weeks appt if I still had little progress. K is measuring big so induction would save us from having a 2 year old. =]

Now I'm just on a crunch to get everything finished. Her room is 99% done. Just have to get some sheets for the crib and PnP and stock up on some more diapers and wipes. And laundry. ::shudder:: Why do I hate laundry so much? It doesn't help that I have to go somewhere else to do it. But at least my wonderful mother has let me use her washer/dryer so I don't have to sit at the laundry mat all day.

Here's a couple of pics of her room. =]

I'm not sure how many of my friends know, but I've decided to "take up" photography. As in, I'm learning how to use my camera not on auto. =] I'm so very excited, but I'm wondering if I've taken up too many hobbies. Bows for K, photography, etc. Oh well. I LOVE it.

Ok. I'm off to learn how to make my blog pretty like Ms. B's and then probably take a nap. =]