Kipton's tootsies... adorable huh!

We've absolutely LOVED having our new little addition in our home! His birth was one of the most amazing things that Jared and I have ever experienced... right up there with when our sweet Kylie was born. I'll blog about that soon.Transitioning Kylie into the role of a big sister has been more challenging than we ever anticipated though. I made the mistake of thinking that because Kylie is enthralled with babies and loves to help that thing would go smoothly and she'd adjust quickly. I think things started to go downhill when after Kylie got to meet the baby she had an absolute meltdown/tantrum when grandma held the baby. Oh the tantrums! She's never had them before but they've been something awful this week along with the blatant disobedience.They've improved as time goes on but the first few days were horrible as far as her behavior. I know it must be hard on her. She of course is in love with her little brother but she has her moments. We asked her today if she wants another baby and she said "no!". We let her help as much as possible and she loves to get his diapers, to hold him and to fetch his binky for him. But it's been a rough transition for her. I think she'll do better as soon as Kipton is old enough to interact with her a bit. Bottom line... she loves him A LOT. But she's struggling with not being the one and only object of our affection anymore.

Speak of Kylie, after baths yesterday morning she and I were in her room picking out an outfit to wear for the day. She was running around and I didn't even entirely see what happened but she ran behind me and went sailing into the bookshelf in her room. She was crying so hard and after holding her a bit I looked at her face and she had split her eyelid open and there was blood. We knew it wasn't bad enough to need stitches but it looked like it might be enough to need glue on it so Jared ran her over to our family doctor (can I just say that I love having our family doc's office literally three minutes from our house!). They didn't end up doing anything but better safe than sorry. We probably wouldn't have gone over there if the cut had been anywhere else on her body but I'd hate for her to have had a scar on her face if there had been something we could have done about it. Poor kiddo!

Kipton has been doing great. I absolutely love when they are this tiny and their limbs are all curled up still. I told Jared that I wished he could stay this size for six months! I'm starting to get the hang of the breast feeding thing (when I'm not dying in pain) and surprised myself that I actually enjoy it. I try to do as many feedings as I can but it still hurts A LOT so we give him a bottle at times (maybe around 25% of the time) until I can recover enough to try again. Thankfully he latches on great but seems to fall asleep on the job a lot, despite my best efforts to keep him awake. I'm looking forward to when it's not painful. I am nervous for when Jared goes back to work next week. Keeping tabs on Kylie while trying to sit down and feed the little guy will be interesting for sure.

Gift From God

Introducing our son in all his sweetness...

Kipton Maxwell *lastname*
Born January 23rd 2:16 am
6 lbs 15 oz
19.5 inches long

Tis Due

Today is my "due" date so I suppose this day deserves a post. Nothing exciting has been happening. We keep telling this little peanut that he is now officially baked and can come any time now! Kylie sure seems to know what is going on and loves to pat my tummy anytime anyone mentions her baby brother. I'm still feeling great, still running errands, keeping the household running and whatnot. I kinda of had a hunch I'd go over my due date.

Both Jared and Kylie came to my appointment today and according to our doc my cervix is soft, I'm effaced 80% and I'm now 1.5 cm dilated. I was happy to hear that I've dilated slightly more than previously. Neither us, nor our doctor want to go more than a week overdue. So we've scheduled an induction at Jord.an Valley next Thursday morning, January 28th if he doesn't decide to come earlier. I was (am) hoping to skip the whole "induction" thing but it isn't the end of the world if it comes to that. I do find it odd that a few weeks ago I felt contractions pretty much all day, and then absolutely nothing since. So D-Day is one week from today unless he decides otherwise.

We are excited to finally meet this little guy! I know Kylie will think she's hit the jackpot to have her own little baby to love and coo over!

Battle Wounds

I was just looking through some pictures I downloaded recently and these are from two months ago when Kylie accidentally flew into our banister. She sure is a cutie even with a black eye! Poor kiddo. From what I remember it looked much worse a few days later... these pics were from the day after the "incident".

Progression

Disclaimer: Preggo pictures posted. If you are one of my friends through the infertility/adoption world you may want to skip this post if you want. If not...... here ya go.

Okay you asked for it.
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Looking back at some pictures has been fun. I think I can say I've been one of those lucky ones that didn't really show much at all until I was 16-ish/20-ish weeks along. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was around week 24 that people who didn't get the memo that we were expecting figured it out. Even my big red coat can't hide this bowling ball of a belly any longer. I'm pretty much expecting him to be a week late since nothing exciting seems to be happening and life is going on as normal. I feel so blessed to experience this and hope it's not the last time.

Week 16

Week 21

Week30.5

Week 38.5

Sleep Peacefully Sweet Jocelyn

It's been an interesting week. I'm generally still feeling great but I've just been heartbroken for a friend of mine and her family.

I have a good friend in my ward who was excited and expecting a little girl after having three little boys. She was due within days of myself so it's been fun to compare our pregnancies and to know we'd have our little ones born most likely within a week of each other. I was excited for both of us, looking forward to milestones, their little quirks and I imagined us spending time together on Sundays in the church hallway calming our fussy little ones. Unlike her other pregnancies this baby was breech so she was scheduled to have a C-section early this week. This past Saturday I heard the bombshell that she had gone in to have the baby checked Friday night because she hadn't felt her move in awhile.

They weren't able to find a heartbeat.

She was born sleeping the next morning.

I'm just heartbroken for my friend and for what should have been. Knowing they were supposed to be born so close together in age makes it so hard. Babies just aren't supposed to die three days before they are supposed to be born. It does make me paranoid about all the "what if"s that can go wrong. I really do feel assurance that everything will be okay with the remainder of this pregnancy and our son, but why not the same for little Jocelyn? She was just as loved and anticipated as our little boy is.

I am so glad to know that families can be together forever.

Nelmo and printers

I know, I know.... exciting title.

The other day I found a great deal on diapers and stocked up (as in I probably have enough diapers to last until Kylie is potty trained which I hope is sooner than later). These happen to have Elmo on them and oh how Kylie loves them. I'll tell her go get a diaper and she'll say "nelmo!". I tried to put a non-elmo diaper on her today and whooeeeeee.... how she pitched a fit over that. I heard nothing but nelmo! nelmo! nelmo! until I had found the appropriate diaper :).

Our old printer has been slowly dying over the past six months and so Jared bought us a new one a few weeks ago. He ended up getting an inexpensive Ca.non mp560 that he had found great reviews about. It wasn't expensive, he found a deal around Christmas and got it for $85. Jared finally downloaded the software onto my laptop and I tried printing a 4 x 6 photo on some of the photography paper that came as samples with the printer. Our old printer could barely print color anything, let alone photos so I was curious how it would do.

I surly didn't have my hopes up but I have to say I've been so impressed! They look just as nice if not better than the prints I usually get done at Wal.greens. I had no idea that you could get prints of that quality on an inexpenive home printer. Shows how much I know! The software made it so easy and literally just three clicks and out spouted a nice looking picture! I'm excited to buy some photo paper and to be able to print photos from home. The jury is still out on how cost effective it is since I wonder how many prints I can make before the ink cartridges need replacing. I haven't been able to find any information about that when I've looked online. I have a hunch it will still end up being cheaper to order them from the store when I need to fill up the photo albums, but it will be so nice to be able to print out a picture if I need it for a craft or some other immediate need. Very excited about that!

I had another appointment this past Tuesday. According to the doc I am 1 cm dilated, am 70% effaced and the baby is really, really low. I woke up last Monday at 4 am having contraction that lasted pretty much all day. I was having around 8-12 an hour but they were very short, just five to ten seconds long. Of course that was the day Jared had headed a few hours south to go ice fishing! By seven pm they stopped entirely and I haven't had another one since. When I mentioned it to the doc she told me that they had had 17 deliveries (a lot for them) that day and something must have been up with the barometric pressure!

Did I mention what a cutie Kylie is? In case you forgot you can check for yourself :).