Bumbo Time

Today, I pulled out the Bumbo for the first time.  While we were in La Vernia, Kinley started gaining more and more head control, so I thought we would put her in the Bumbo and see how it went.  While she is really small - the back of it comes up past her shoulders - she did really well.  She loves to sit in it and look around.  Now that she is starting to notice more things around her, she doesn't like to lay back very much, unless she is eating or falling asleep.  Our little girl is growing up!  So now, we are the tacky people that ignore the warning on the chair, and put her on the table with us so we can both eat dinner with two hands.  At this point, I go for whatever keeps her happy for a while!!

A Week at Gran's

With Kathy getting married in Seguin, we decided to just make a little get-away out of it.  John was let go from his job, so we thought we'd take advantage of having time off together and just go spend some time with family.
We got out there on Thursday afternoon (6/21/12) and had dinner with my mom and Bob. On Fridays, my mom keeps Emily for the day.

Emily thought it would be nice to share her "blankie" with baby Kinley

Kinley was sleeping, so Emily climbed up to "sleep" with Gran, too

I wanted to find a dress for Kinley, so my mom and I loaded up Emily and Kinley and headed to the mall (separate post on that adventure).  We met John and Bob for lunch, hit up Babies 'R Us and then headed back to get ready for the wedding.  I was meeting Kathy in Seguin to get ready with her, so I just showered, dried my hair and then headed out.  My mom, Bob, John and Kinley came for the wedding, and then we went out to dinner with everyone from the wedding afterward.
Saturday, we just kind of took it easy, hanging around the house.  My mom and Bob had a wedding to go to in Austin, so they left late in the afternoon for that.  Todd came out for the weekend and after a late dinner, we started playing cards.  John, Todd, Brent and I stayed up until 4 a.m. playing spades!  John and I woke Kinley up to eat, and didn't get to bed until almost 5:00.  We still got up for church, though.  After lunch, Bob was heading out with their Jr. High youth for camp, and we took a much needed nap. Sunday evening my mom and I made chicken fried steak, and we all enjoyed that.

Hangin' out with Uncle Todd 

Look at that cute belly!

Monday was John's birthday.  We just had a lazy day, got Kinley in the pool for the first time, and then made dinner.  John grilled the pork chops for his own birthday dinner, but they were delicious!
Tuesday, my mom and I went to look for a pattern for Kinley's baptism dress.  When Kinley was born, my mom offered to use her wedding dress (from marrying my dad) to make Kinley's baptism dress.  I thought this would be a really special thing, so I graciously accepted.  When we got back to their house, Scott was there.  He had come out to see us on his day off.  We visited with him for a while, and then headed out to eat dinner.  Cory and Rachel were going to come meet us to eat, but Emily didn't want to go out to eat, so just Cory ended up coming.  After dinner, we stopped by their house to see Rachel and Emily.

"Chatting" with Uncle Cory at dinner

Kinley and Uncle Cory

Kinley with Uncle Scott

Uncle Scott with Emily and Kinley

Emily LOVES Baby Kinley!

The rest of the week we spent just relaxing at my mom's house.  Friday evening, Cory and Rachel came out for Cory's birthday.  Todd also came out again for the weekend.  So, we had a big family dinner (minus Scott) and hung out for a while.  We left about 10:00 after Kinley ate, and made a late night drive back home.
It was nice to just hang out and relax somewhere else for a little while.  We love spending time with family.

First Time Swimming

Since Gran got Kinley to decide a bath wasn't worth screaming over, we thought we would try some swimming.  Gramps and Gran bought this pool last summer for Emily to play in.  The last time we were in it was last August.  We were in town for Emily's 2nd birthday, and Kinley was on board, we just didn't know it yet.  We all sat around in the pool drinking some very strong margaritas . . . thank goodness Kinley came out ok!!

We got a swimsuit for Kinley, but it's too big.  However, I haven't been able to find one her size anywhere.  This is the best I've been able to do.  I guess crazy people like me aren't supposed to take a 2 month old swimming!  We eased her in to the water and she did great.  No fussing at all!  It was fun to just watch her kicking her little legs in the water. 

She didn't lilke the sunglasses, but stopped crying after we took them off.

Gran eased her in slowly

Chilling with daddy

Mommy got a turn

Family shot

Happy Bath Time

Since birth, we have had a baby that does NOT like bath time.  We have always bathed her on the little bath sponge thing on the bathroom countertop.  Once her cord stump fell off, I was told to try her in the baby bathtub, and they usually like that better.  Well, we did that once.  As soon as I put her in the water, she pooped, so we had to empty the tub, clean it and start over again.  Thank goodness John was home to help with that.  She still hated it and screamed the whole time.  So, I decided it wasn't worth all of the extra time if she was still just going to scream anyway, so I went back to bathing her on the sponge so I could just get it over with quickly.
While we were staying at my mom's she took Kinley to bathe her.  Since she is way more experienced than me, she got her to take a bath without screaming.  The 2nd time, I helped out, and miraculously, she seemed to enjoy it.  See for yourself:

Update:
Since we have been back home, Kinley has done very well at bath time.  Now, my challenge is still to be able to get her dressed AFTER her bath without screaming.  She used to scream through the whole process.  Now, we've eliminated the bath screaming, so we're halfway there.

Kinley's First Wedding

Kinley got to go to her first wedding today!  My best friend, Kathy, was getting remarried in a very low-key ceremony at the Texas Lutheran chapel.  She asked me to be her Matron of Honor, which I was thrilled to say "yes" to!  She pretty much wanted the opposite of what her first wedding was.  There were only a few guests, and it was a short, sweet ceremony. It was so wonderful to watch her happiness as she joined her life with Jason's.  We got some pictures before, but didn't get any after, so I don't have any of the bride and groom together.

Me with my sweet baby girl

Our little family

A picture with Gran . . . Kinley wasn't all that interested in taking pictures

John and I

Me with the bride

Kath and I with our moms - in the background is the

first dorm we lived in as "potluck" roommates almost

18 years ago!

Trip to the mall with Emily

Today, I wanted to find a dress for Kinley to wear to the wedding.  My mom keeps Emily on Fridays, so we packed up both girls and headed out.  Emily hadn't been to the mall to shop before, and she was enthralled!  We went into the mall through Dillard's, and once we got out into the open mall, near the food court, Emily yelled "Look, Gran!" and took off running.  It was pretty funny.  While we were there, Emily pointed out many things that she "needed."  Gran told her she could get one thing, but it was quite a process to get to the one thing. 

First she saw these shoes that were "just right for Emily"

Then she found this dress - this is what she finally settled on later.

She REALLY needed this pink poodle purse

Then she found this outfit, that we actually tried on.

We thought this was the keeper, but she went back to the pink dress.

While we were in JC Penney's, my mom took Kinley into the dressing room to feed her, and I walked around with Emily.  In the process of eating, Kinley had a major blowout diaper.  We had to use spare clothes from the diaper bag for the first time.  It wasn't pretty!  We didn't find anything we wanted at the mall - mostly because nothing is really small enough for Kinley.  She is starting to outgrow her newborn clothes, but most 0-3 month stuff is still too big for her.  We decided we would stop by Babies 'R Us after we had lunch with John and Bob.

 Emily eating lunch

Her purchase at Babies 'R Us was fairy wings

Riding the rides on the way out



We found a dress for Kinley that was cute.  It wasn't the one I wanted, but the one I really liked wasn't in her size, so we picked our 2nd choice.  Then, we headed back home to get ready for the wedding.

Shopping all day really wears a girl out!

Emily wearing her new purchases

A Dose of Reality

Today, I had to leave this sweet little face to go to a workshop all day.  I have known since the day Kinley was born that I was going to have a terribly hard time going back to work.  Right now, there is no possibility for me to stay home full time.  Plus, I have finally gotten to where I want to be with my career.  I'm not the first mom that has had to go back to work, nor will I be the last.  While I would love to be able to stay with Kinley all the time, I know the exposure to other people and experiences are good for her, and will help her to thrive even more.  I'm lucky that I will have 4 months off with her before I have to go back, and I have a job that offers lots of time off to spend with her!

Father's Day

Daddy with his baby girl before church

Today was John's first Father's Day with Kinley.  He has obviously celebrated many Father's Days before this, but I wanted this to be a special day for him with Kinley and I.  I was pretty impressed with how well I pulled off our morning!  I got up and made breakfast for us.  I almost had everything finished when Kinley started fussing upstairs.  John got up when he heard her and came down to see what I was doing.  So, we had breakfast together.  I even had time to clean everything up and get some eggs boiled to make tuna salad for lunch.  I showered, got Kinley bathed, clothed and fed, then got ready myself.  We were out the door for church right on time!
After church, we came home and had a light lunch, and then just relaxed for the afternoon.  Our budget was a little tight, so I told John I would cook him whatever he wanted for dinner, instead of going out.  He requested chicken and dumplings.  So, that's what we had for dinner.  It was a nice, relaxing day, and I'm glad we got to spend it all together.

Here is Kinley's card she gave her daddy.  She wasn't too crazy about making the handprints!

2 Months of Kinley

I cannot believe our sweet baby girl is already 2 months old!  Everyone told me the time would fly, and they weren't kidding!!  I'm already half way through my time off with her, and I'm dreading going back to work in August.  We don't really have the option for me to stay at home full time, so it's not worth lamenting over, but boy will I miss my time with her!!

Kinley had her 2 month checkup today, on her actual 2 month birthday.  She is doing well, after recovering from that tummy bug.  She was 22 1/4 inches long (46%) and weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces (6%).  Her head circumference was 14 5/8 inches (13%).  She's still pretty tiny for her age, but Dr. Flanagan wasn't concerned at all.  She's following the growth curve like she should, she's just a little baby.  He said the stomach bug she had also probably set her back a little bit.  Everything he checked out looked good.  He talked to us a little bit about vaccinations, and what to expect the next couple of months.  We love Dr. Flanagan, but we really hope we don't have to see him again until her 4 month appointment!  She got all of her shots she was due for.  It was probably harder for me and daddy, than it was for her.  The needles looked so big and long for her little bitty legs.  Even daddy got a few tears in his eyes watching.  Kinley screamed this poor little "what are you doing to me" scream, but she stopped crying as soon as I picked her up off the table.  She has handled it well so far - no fever or swelling.

Here are some highlights of Kinley right now:

** She's still wearing newborn clothes and diapers.  She has outgrown (gotten too long for) 1 sleeper, and I suspect some other things will become to small pretty soon.  Anything I put her in that is 0-3 months is still huge on her, especially if it's shorts or pants - they almost fall right off of her.
**  She has started taking about 3 1/2 ounces of formula, and still eating about every 3 - 4 hours.
**  She is much more alert and awake for longer periods of time.  She loves to look around and take everything in.
**  She is starting to sleep for longer stretches at night.  She will usually sleep for almost 5 hours, then wake up to eat once, and then go back down for 3 - 4 hours.  I'm hoping once she is able to eat a little more at a time, she will sleep a little longer.
**  She is starting to give "real" smiles.  She has been smiling for a while, but just recently, she has started to smile in response to me talking to her, or when she sees me smile at her.  This has completely melted my heart!
**  She is starting to coo.  I love hearing all of her little baby noises.  It's neat how she responds to being talked to.
**  She loves the swing, and is able to stay awake looking around.  She used to fall right asleep as soon as it started swinging.  She still will fall asleep, but she can fight it off longer now.  The swing is usually the only way I get anything done, unless daddy is home.
**  She has entered a little bit of a fussy/clingy stage.  She will lay on her playmat, or in her bouncy seat for very short periods of time, and then wants to be held again.  Most everything I have read says she's still too young to be spoiled, so it's ok to hold her if that's what she wants.  I have started using the Moby wrap more, so I can "hold" her, but still do little chores.

1st Birthday Party

Today Kinley went to her first birthday party!  It was Owen's 6th birthday, and was held at Pump It Up.  Kinley obviously couldn't do much but look around, and look cute!  As soon as we got there, we were swarmed by people who wanted to take a peek.  Everyone commented on how tiny she was, and how much she looks like her daddy.  She was very well behaved the whole time we were there.

 Ready for my first party!

My "aunt" Kathy gave me these cute socks.

She has great taste in footwear!

Sick Baby

Our poor baby girl has actually been sick for the first time this week.  It started last weekend, while Cory, Rachel and Emily were here.  She was having a lot of diarrhea, and just not acting quite like herself, especially when it came to eating.  She wasn't eating much, and was just fussy with her bottles.  I started to wonder if it was just that so many different people were feeding her, and she just felt out of sorts or something.  That was until she threw up.  I was getting dinner ready Monday evening, and Rachel was feeding Kinley.  She was being fussy again, and not really taking much.  After that, Cory was holding her, and she threw up pretty much everything she had eaten.  That's when I knew my "mommy instincts" were right, and something was wrong with our little sweet pea.  Kinley has never so much as spit up anything, so for her to throw up a bunch was completely out of the ordinary.  I was able to feed her the rest of the bottle Rachel had started, and she kept it down.  Later, after everyone had left, I fed her for the last time before bed.  She seemed fine and I held her for a while until she was good and asleep.  As soon as I laid her down in the bassinet, she threw up everywhere again.  We knew something was definitely wrong, and we would have to call the doctor first thing in the morning.  I wasn't sure what we should do during the night.  I didn't want to starve her or anything.  When she woke up to eat, I went ahead and fed her.  John had off the next day, so he got up with me.  She had finished eating, and was just laying in my arms, and again threw up everything.  All over me, herself, the chair.  I felt so bad for her.  So, we got her cleaned up and changed again.

As soon as the doctor's office opened, I called.  Luckily, they were able to get us in at 8:45, so we didn't have to wait all day.  Dr. Flanagan checked her out, and said he thought she just had a stomach virus.  He told us to only give her Pedialyte for 8 hours, and then we could start trying to slowly introduce formula again, just a little at a time.  She was able to tolerate the Pedialyte well all day long.  She was definitely thirsty, because she sucked it down every time we offered it to her.  Around 10:00 that night, we started to give her some formula again.  I only gave her about an ounce, just a little bit at a time.  We also gave her Pedialyte.  We did this all through the night and into the next morning.  About 1:00, after I fed her, she threw up again.  We weren't sure if she just ate more than she could tolerate, or what, but I was a little worried that we were regressing.  She did fine the rest of the day, but then about 10:00 that night it happened again.  She had seemed really hungry, so I fed her a little more than 2 ounces, because she had been doing well.  Well, I ended up wearing those 2 ounces!  We decided to just stop feeding formula altogether at that point, and call the doctor again in the morning.  We just gave her Pedialyte throughout the night, and I called the nurse line first thing in the morning.  The nurse called me back and said she put a message through for our doctor, but to just give her Pedialyte until we heard back.  They called back again within an hour and said Dr. Flanagan wanted to see her again.

We took her back, thankful that they fit us into the schedule, even though it was getting close to lunch.  Dr. Flanagan really pushed around on her stomach and couldn't feel anything out of sorts.  He also said if she could keep the Pedialyte down, he really didn't think it could be any kind of obstruction or anything.  He said that he still thought it was a virus, but that it was irritating her digestive tract, and keeping her from tolerating the formula.  So, he gave us some samples of a formula without lactose, and wanted us to feed that to her throughout the weekend.  He told us to first start with 1/2 formula, 1/2 Pedialyte, and gradually ease into full feedings of formula.  He said that if she did ok throughout the weekend, on Monday or Tuesday, we could try her regular formula again.

We never had any problems again.  She was able to keep down the formula every time we fed her, and her diarrhea also cleared up.  By late Sunday night, we started to reintroduce her regular formula, and she was able to keep it down just fine.  Luckily she was able to stay hydrated enough with the Pedialyte, that we never had to take her to the hospital.  We would definitely like to stay healthy now!

Graduation Party

Today we went to Elgin for Sarah's (my cousin) graduation party.  We were excited for Kinley to get to meet a bunch of my family for the first time.  Todd came with us, and he and I sat in the back so I could keep Kinley happy.  She did fine on the way there.  I made sure and fed her right before we left, and she slept pretty much the whole way, which is what I expected.  She was starting to get hungry right as we got to Gary and Diane's house.  Of course she got swept up by Gran as soon as we walked up to the house.  Gran fed her a bottle, and then Sue gave her some pedialyte (she was still recovering from the stomach bug).  Shortly after that, Gran took Kinley in to change her diaper.  A few minutes later, she came out to get me, because Kinley was just screaming her head off.  I thought it was just because she didn't like the diaper change (which is typical), but Gran hadn't even gotten to change it yet.  She was screaming, and I couldn't get her to calm down at all.  John, my mom and I all worried she sounded like she was in pain, and we were getting more concerned that we couldn't get her calmed down.  I changed her diaper, and after about 15 or 20 minutes, finally got her to calm down enough that she fell asleep.  I sat on the couch and held her while everyone had started eating.  After my mom was finished eating she took Kinley, but I was pretty worried about her.
The rest of the afternoon, she was pretty fussy.  She would fall asleep, but didn't really want to be passed around much.  We managed to get a couple of pictures of her with Paw Paw (my grandpa) for the first time, but it was a rough afternoon.  I really hoped it was just her getting over the stomach bug.  We fed her again before we left, and she ate ok.  Once we got in the car, she was ok for a little bit, and then started crying again.  I was worried we were in for a long car ride of screaming, but she settled down after a few minutes, and slept the rest of the way back.  She had a dirty diaper after we got home that was different from her normal ones, so I wondered if she was a little constipated from the change in formula.
Sunday, we switched Kinley back to her regular formula, a little at a time, and she seemed to do ok, so we just kept feeding her that.  We'll see if she continues to be ok, or if we need to make more adjustments.

 Meeting Paw Paw for the first time

4 Generations