Happy 1 Month Birthday!

I can't believe our little girl is 1 month old today!  We had a nice weekend at the Hales.  Kayla met a lot of people from down in Virginia Beach (but still seems to have so many people to meet.)  She went to her first birthday party (happy first birthday Brady), met her first of seven Great Grandparents, and met her cousin Evelyn.  She did pretty well considering on the car rides and yesterday we had her one month doctor's appointment.  Here are some important notes from the appointment.

Weight: 8 pounds 10 ounces (great weight gain since last time!)

Length: 22 inches (according to the nurse, like 95th percentile for length and 45th for weight...long and skinny!)

Head Circumference: 14.5 inches

Milestones (per Mommy and Daddy): Focusing on objects, tracking Mom and Dad around the room, ALMOST smiling on purpose!

The nurse practitioner said she is really strong, she practically stood on her own when the nurse held her up and she held her head perfectly still.  We already knew this as she is flipping herself over the front of the boppy.  She got her first (well second) shot and Mommy handled it quite well (as did Kayla!)  She has a mild umbilical granuloma which should heal itself otherwise they will try to use silver nitrate on it at her next appointment.  The nurse said she is doing great and was very impressed with her weight gain and strength!  We are such proud parents.

Here are some one month photos with my little monthly stickers from Justin's cousin Allison (thank you!)

P.S. I added a new link to our "potential" SmugMug page on the right.  It's still a work in progress but I'll be putting most photos on here instead of facebook.  Hopefully getting some professional shots done next week.

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Super hero or zero?

I still don't really feel like a mom.  That's kinda crazy isn't it?  My emotions are much more in check now that's for sure, but I still have some really bad days.  I find it amazing that one day I can feel like Super Mom and one day I can feel like the biggest, most horrible failure ever...

Those little gassy smiles and funny faces and big farts/poops that she lets out multiple times a day sure do make me smile though.

I love you Kayla Marie, even when you are screaming at me!

So excited for a weekend with my in-laws and getting to show off my little lady!

Aunt Lauren Visits/Valentine's Day

Sunday 2/13:

Meg and Samson decide not to come down since Samson had a hard night.  I think that Justin and Lauren and I spent most of the day just lounging around.  Kayla was pretty fussy, Aunt Lauren and I decided she was going through a growth spurt as she was SUPER hungry and seemed to be a little constipated.  Nothing to exciting happened that I remember this day!









Monday 2/14:

Happy Valentine's Day!  Daddy had to go to work today, so mommy, Kayla and Aunt Lauren took a nice walk outside as it was SO nice out, although a bit windy.  Aunt Meg came over after work to hang out and brought her homemade oreos which were delicious!  Dad came home and left to play volleyball while the girls hung out.  Lots of lounging around!





Tuesday 2/15:

Aunt Lauren has to leave today! :(  We got up and got ready for lunch with Aunt Meg.  More of Megan's co-workers admire me and I bring Aunt Meg a Valentine's day gift.  At lunch, we spent at least 5 minutes laughing hysterically at the funny noises and puffing Kayla does while she is sleeping.  An older couple near us is looking at us and just smiling as we are practically in tears!  Daddy comes home early (yay!) and Lauren, Dad, Mom and Kayla head to the airport to drop off Aunt Lauren.  Then, the three of us head to the UPS store for moving gear and Babies 'R Us to get some small supplies.




WE REALLY MISS YOU ALREADY AUNT LAUREN!!!

(This is by far my favorite picture of Kayla thus far!)

Everyone, Meet Kayla

Yesterday, Kayla and I had a day out.  It is extremely nice to get out of the house, and it makes my day go by a lot faster.  As soon as it gets a little bit nicer out, I think we are going to start regular walks, especially because she loves the car seat/stroller and the car rides.

Yesterday, I took her to my office to meet some of my co-workers and a few patients.  I had looked at the schedule in advance to make sure I tried to go when there was a patient of mine there and some patients I knew would be interested in meeting her!  Everyone oohed and aahed over her of course (I may be biased) and my boss, co-workers and patients kept telling me how great I look.  It's really nice to hear something nice about me instead of everything being about Kayla (as much as I'm ok with that!).  Again, I honestly fully contribute my weight loss and current body shape to breastfeeding.  It's not exactly like I want it yet and I can't wait to get back to working out or baby and me yoga to get my stomach at least a little bit back to how it was before.  After showing Kayla off at my office I took her to Justin's office.

He had gone to get pita's for us for lunch and we ate in this little room near his desk.  He sent out an email saying where we were if anyone wanted to meet/see Kayla.  It kinda felt like show and tell!  She was sleeping in her car seat so I was really hesitant to move her unless she woke up (which she didn't).  So all of the women in his office stopped by to meet her and tell us how beautiful she is and tell Justin that they aren't convinced he had anything to do with her (as many people have said she looks a lot like me - right now at least!)  After about an hour, Kayla and I headed home to finish her nap and wait for Justin to get home.  I love when it gets close to 5:15 pm!

Aunt Lauren (and maybe Brandon) come tomorrow.  Aunt Meg has big plans to have a Markowski/Hales girls night complete with little dippers from Pizza Hut - which she is apparently dying to try.

2 Weeks Old!

Kayla turned 2 weeks old this weekend.  We celebrated with a Packers superbowl win!!!  Aunt Meg came down to visit and babysit on Saturday to give Justin and I a little bit of a break.  It was nice to have lunch with my husband (and I'm sure he feels much better about almost having his wife back!)



I am starting to feel much better about this mothering thing.  On Saturday night, she was up every 2-3 hours to eat, which is abnormal for her as she's been sleeping 4-5 hours a couple of times each night.  And yesterday, she seemed to be hungrier than usual.  I am hoping she was just going through a growth spurt.  We took a family walk yesterday to say hi to the ladies in prenatal yoga and tried to cluster feed her a few times before bed so she would sleep longer.  She seemed to be extremely fussy last night during this attempt to cluster feed and she ate about 4 times in 4 hours, BUT she slept for 6+ hours last night, so maybe we'll stick with this.

Today, I am trying to get her on more of a scheduled routine, but we also have her two-week check up with the nurse practitioner/lactation consultant.  I need to ask her some things about feeding right now since we have been having a difficult time with one of my nipples (maybe TMI, but I'll try to remember to tell you about the vomiting blood 2 times at 2 and 3 days old.)  I also am much more concerned about her continued congestion which I feel is making her very uncomfortable and making it pretty difficult for her to feed and she is having a hard time breathing through her nose.

All-in-all, things are going better and I am very much enjoying her bubbly personality and funny faces.  I can't believe she is already two weeks old!  Hoping to get some more questions answered today!  I am also going to try to make a weekly photo page to take the place of belly shots (although I should continue those but breastfeeding has done wonders for my physical appearance!)  Stay tuned!

Holy Hormones, Batman!

This motherhood thing is way overwhelming for me.  I told Justin that it probably doesn't help that Kayla wasn't exactly planned and I didn't really feel ready to be a mom.  I know I don't really have a choice but I just think that fact is compounded with the fact that I feel like I'm trying my best and it doesn't seem to be good enough.  And then I feel like my relationship with my husband is slipping because I'm clearly not the woman he married.  It's this whole big nasty circle of feeling crappy.  Not to mention the pain in my "undercarriage" if you know what I mean.

Kayla has been pretty fussy the past few days.  We took her to the doctor yesterday because her breathing has been really labored and she's been spitting up a lot of mucus...or so we thought it was a lot.  Then the doctor told us to try saline nose drops to help clear it out.  This morning, she spit up more mucus (8 times in 2 hours) than I thought a little person her size could even produce!  Hopefully, this means the saline is helping clear everything up and she can get back to being our good little girl and not be as fussy.

I also think she has her days and nights reversed, which is making it very hard for mommy and daddy to get any sleep when she's up for 2-3 hours at night.  Not sure how to fix this.  We are trying to keep her up for longer during the day and keep it bright and do some tummy time to make her know day.  And we are keeping the lights off at bedtime and trying not to stimulate her as much.  Nothing seems to be working.  Hopefully this will get better.

In other news, as a physical therapist, I was SO pumped when Kayla was 8 days old and she "rolled" from her tummy to her back on her own.  I know it was likely a huge fluke as this is WAY too early for anything.  She sure is strong though.  Here's a photo my mom must have photoshopped that I just love.  (P.S. Aunt Meg made us a new header for our blog!)