First Grade

Carissa was supposed to have first grade orientation on Monday, and then her first full day was supposed to be Tuesday. Well, that didn't work out for us. Carissa got a fever on Sunday, and she had to miss her orientation and her first day of school. Kira and I went to the first grade orientation by ourselves, so that we could get all the information we would need. So, Carissa's first day ended up being on Wednesday and she said that it was good. Even now Carissa still isn't fully back to being healthy, but she was at least well enough to make to school for 3 day. Gabe got sick a couple of days ago, and I'm hoping that he will be better by tomorrow. Otherwise, he may end up missing his first day of kindergarten. He starts on Monday.

ATVs and Camping

Yesterday we drove up to the campsite where my Dad, Josh, and Alyssa where staying so that Gabe and Carissa could ride their ATVs and then spend the night camping. Ben, Kira, and I all stayed up there until dinner time and then we drove home for the night. So, Kira had her first trip to the mountains at 10 days old, and apparently the mountain made her very sleepy. Kira slept basically all day long between the driving and just hanging out at camp. Good news was that she still slept last night too, and today she is back to being awake during the day. Gabe and Carissa both had a great time driving around on their ATVs, and getting firewood.

Kira

Kira has been a wonderful baby so far. She is rarely fussy unless she has a really good reason, which is usually being hungry. At 3 days old she slept for 6 hours at night and only woke up, because I woke her up. That night I woke up wet from milk and just aching, I checked Kira and she was good sleeping. I tried to rest and just wait for her, but finally I woke her up to eat. Pretty much every night she sleeps mostly in 4-5 hour stretches between feedings. During the day she sleeps quite a bit too, and when she is awake she generally just looks around at everything. After having a "high needs," colicky baby 6 1/2 years ago Kira is the complete opposite. And, because of having that experience first Ben and I truly appreciate how lucky we are to have such a happy/easy baby this time. Kira also likes to suck on her fingers when she finds them, and she will take a binky once in a while.

Gabe is 5

Gabriel turned 5 years old on Monday. The first thing he said that morning after being woke up by being told Happy Birthday was that he couldn't be 5 yet because he was the same size as he was yesterday, and he was supposed to be bigger. That day we went to the splash park in Riverton that Codi told us about. We brought a picnic lunch and Carissa and Gabe ran around and played in the water. We didn't stay for too long though, because it was pretty hot and sunny. Kira was only 5 days old and I didn't want to have her in the heat too long.



Then Gabe picked to go to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner; and Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Brandon, Angela, and Uncle Josh all joined us for dinner. Gabe made sure that he told the waiter that it was his birthday, so that they would sing to him and he could get dressed up. We went there for Carissa's birthday 6 months earlier so he remembered what they did for her birthday.

After dinner, we all went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to open presents and have cake. Gabe said that it was a very good birthday.

Kira's First Doctor's Appointment

Because Kira and I didn't stay in the hospital as long as we could have, our family doctor wanted me to bring Kira in on Saturday for a color and weight check. The doctor thought that her color was great, and there was no reason to worry about jaundice. Also, Kira's weight was good. She was almost back to her birth weight. Next check up is scheduled for when Kira is 2 1/2 weeks old.

Kira Lynae

Kira was born at 12:27am on August 11, 2010. She weighed 8 lbs. 11oz. and was 22 inches long and very healthy. We were scheduled for an induction on August 11 if Kira didn't come before that, and as things worked out she did come before I was induced but she still came on the 11th. I decided that Kira liked the idea of weighing 8 lbs. 11 oz. and being born on 8-11.

The morning of the 10th I started having stomach cramps and nausea along with contracts. I didn't do much around the house and I kept waiting for some sign that it was either time for the hospital or that I was just sick. Well, I never got any sign that said for sure either way, so we decided to go to the hospital and get checked out. We got to the hospital, and I was at 3 cm, I was at 2 1/2cm just a few days earlier. Then Ben and I walked around the hospital in circles, because the contracts came more often if I was up and about than just sitting around. The nurse checked me again and said that I was still at 3 cm, and we would probably go home. But, she wanted to monitor me a little longer and talk with the doctor. We were there for over 2 hours before she came back in and gave us our options. We could go home and then come back later that evening when labor got worse, but then we would risk me not getting all of the antibiotics that I needed before the birth. Or, we could just stay and get petocin to get things moving faster. We had already left the kids with my mom, had everything packed and at the hospital just in case, and no matter what we would be back in the morning for an induction. We decided to stay, so at about 7pm I got my IV started with antibiotics and petocin.

I had decided to try again to have an unmedicated birth this time. I tried with Carissa and made it 12 hours including 2 hours of petocin before I got an epidural. A med. student came in and broke my water at about 9, and they came in about every 30 minutes or so to up the petocin dosage. Once my water broke I went up to 4 cm. Then at 11pm I was still at 4 cm and petocin was increased again, and labor went from painful but manageable to absolutely horrible. I figured since I was still only at 4 cm it would still be awhile, and I decided I wanted an epidural. It took 15-20 of horrible labor before the anesthesiologist got there and got the epidural started. Some of the contractions were right on top of each other and the were very strong. The epidural gave me great pain relief, and the nurse waited for it to numb me up a little before doing the catheter. As soon as the catheter was done, she checked and said that I was ready to push. Ben and I were shocked, I went from 4cm to 10cm in about an hour. The nurse told me that was why I was in so much pain. They called the doctor and got everything ready, and then Kira was born about an hour after I got the epidural started. I was never completely numb and I got the feeling back in my legs and was able to move them a lot sooner than previous births. I even managed to get in the wheelchair with a little bit of help when we were ready to move to our room.

40 weeks

I've made it to my due date, but no baby yet. Hopefully, Kira will still decide to come on her own soon. I've had lots of pre-labor signs, but no labor yet. And, she has definitely dropped down quite a bit. I'm just trying to stay on top of things around the house while waiting, so that it will be a little nicer coming home from the hospital.