Cousin Love

Oh these sweet little boys. I happened upon these pictures from my sis-in-law's camera the other day and had to share them because now these sweet cousins are miles apart. 

They sure love each other!

 They were playing at grandma and grandpa's in the water. And it is serious business. 

 I wish I knew what had happened to get the reaction on their faces. 

Love this chubby face!

We miss you Benson!

Family Pictures...The Outtakes

A few Sundays ago we were dressed up for Nate's little brother's farewell and decided to take advantage of our little family and took some pictures. Thanks to Nate's sister Heidi for taking the time. Let's just say it was quite the adventure and Emmett had a hard time sitting down for them. There was way too much going on. 

Here are some of our favorites...

Trying to smile and be happy as Emmett is walking off my lap. And don't know why Nate has Kamryn in a choke hold. 

 Pure Joy in this picture. 

And he's off!

Our Little Kay Kay

It sure has been the journey so far with our brand new little girl. She has been tough. But little by little we are figuring her out more and enjoying the moments. Her smiles and coos make it all worth it!

 And there are moments like these where you just giggle. I have to be careful putting her down for a nap with bows in her hair. She has monkey arms that get loose from her swaddle and they end up doing all kinds of damage. 

A couple of weeks ago we had newborn pictures taken. They turned out so cute and I was so happy with them. A much better experience than what we had with Emmett. 

The only down side was sitting in a very toasty room (95 degrees) so she would be comfortable getting her pictures taken. Let's just say Nate had a hard time with it.

 But he was a good sport about it all. 

 A few pictures of our sweet little girl...

Can't wait to see what you will be like! One thing is for sure, you are quite the DIVA!

Our Growing Emmett

This little guy is turning quickly from a little baby to a little boy. I can't say this enough but it is so much fun watching him grow but it breaks my heart at the same time. 

He loves to be outside and is most happy when he is. Nate brought home this mega giant pool one day and they both had a lot of fun playing in it until it popped. 

So we ended up getting a smaller one and Emmett loves it. 

 He also loves going to the park. This is his new way of sitting in the stroller because apparently baby sister makes it hard to see. 

Emmett loves his daddy and giggles and smiles every time he sees him. Face-timing is his favorite. 

 Besides walking every where these days, Emmett is also eating everything. He mostly enjoys eating whatever anyone will feed him. It must have been some whip-cream this time. 

Oh Emmett, how we love you and love watching you grow!!

How We Spend Our Time

I am not going to lie, some days are like a circus at our house. Each day goes by in a blink of an eye and Nate and I get more and more sleep deprived. Having two babies at different ages under the age of 1 is quite the challenge, but we wouldn't trade our blessings for anything! We are quickly forgetting what it is like to have "time." Time to just sit and relax, time to sleep, time to go out with each other, time to eat without feeling rushed, time to use the bathroom, time to take a shower..(the list could go on and on). But we are learning that our favorite "time" is taking care of and enjoying our babies. There is a lot of screaming every day (and it's not just from Nate and I), but we have been so blessed. 

We are learning very quickly how to manage our time and take care of our little cuties. There are many moments where both babies need attention and there aren't enough hands to go around. We are learning very quickly how to improvise on the spot. Here are some things we've learned about "time" over the past few weeks:

Nate was holding Kamryn one of many times and Emmett wanted to be with them while I was getting ready, so we tried sitting him in the bobby and he actually stayed there for a few minutes.

 Then there was a time where I was trying to pump and both babies started to cry. We have learned that a lot of our time is spent holding both.

 And feeding time around our house can get quite interesting...

 We are trying to teach Emmett to be a big boy and hold his own bottle when we have little Kamryn to feed. Some"times" it becomes a bit comical. 

Then there was a time when we all needed to desperately get out of the house and decided to go to the park. This process can take a good hour to 2 hours to get everyone ready. We rushed and got the babies fed and ourselves ready and as we are walking out of the door we realized we hadn't eaten. So we decided we would pick up something quick through the drive through. We pull up and right as we roll down the window both babies are crying something fierce. We drove all the way to the park that way and right when we stop the car...this is what happens. We have learned that we can't depend on our time schedule, it's all decided by these babies. 

When this girl is awake, it looks a little something like this. The majority of the time she cries (but she is doing a bit better day by day).  

And one of my least favorite times is when I decided to allow Nate the opportunity to play in his softball league one night. It was my first time alone with both babies and I thought, no problem, I can do this because Emmett will go to sleep in about an hour. Boy was I wrong. I have never seen Emmett scream and cry so much and Kamryn started in on it too. It was hard. Then in the midst of their screaming I get a phone call from Nate and he says something like, "Do you want to hear the good news first or the bad news?" The good news...he scored a run. The bad news..he thought he might have torn his ACL again and was headed to the ER. Let's just say I wasn't very happy. Within a few hours after thinking how in the world was I going to be able to handle it all, we found out he only dislocated his knee cap and pulled his hamstring. Thank goodness. We were blessed.

(This is actually a pretty decent picture of his knee. It ended up turning really purple and getting very swollen. It's just plain disgusting now.)

But most of all our favorite time is spent raising our babies and loving every moment. We are kept sane knowing that over time things will get easier. Our babies will grow out of these stages and we will miss them. Nate and I have quickly learned to laugh through many moments or else we would probably cry. And it's been such a blessing having family close by to help us out, especially since I am still in recovery mode. 

Introducing...

Kamryn Kay

Born Tuesday 6/18/13 at 3:26am

6lbs, 7oz

20 inches long

We can't believe she is finally here! It's been quite the journey, that's for sure. She made quite the entrance into the world!

My doctor decided to induce me on Monday June 17th at 39 weeks. He said that I was probably ready and he was also leaving town and I wanted him to deliver our little baby girl. So early Monday morning Nate and I headed to the hospital at 5:00am hoping to meet our girl that day. They put me on Pitocin right away. My contractions weren't too bad and I was able to  deal with them most of the morning and into the afternoon. Progress was super slow and it took me 8 hours to dilate from a 1 to a 2. At 1:30pm the doctor broke my water and I thought I was going to die after that. My contractions were super bad and it took the anesthesiologist about and hour and a half to give me an epidural. (A few tears were probably shed but I felt so much better after the pain relief). 

We were hoping that things would go more quickly after that but we were wrong. Into the early evening my epidural wasn't quite working like I would have liked and I got another dose which worked pretty quickly. Then around midnight (still no baby), I was getting the worst contractions and the anesthesiologist wasn't able to  relieve my pain until after 3 more doses of the epidural. Let's just say those 2 hours were horrible and I was so tired and exhausted by this point in time. Also I was dilated to a 9+, but within a four hour period not doing anything else. The doctor came in again and after checking me found out that I just happened to have a narrow pubic arch. Which pretty much meant the baby might not fit. He gave us the option of doing a C-Section, but also said we could try so I wouldn't have to have a hard recovery after the C-Section. We decided to go forward with what we were doing so I could have a a better recovery and take care of our 2 babies. Unfortunately I wasn't dilated all the way and I had to try pushing anyways. Which just so happened to make me tear pretty bad. After pushing for about an hour (yeah, I am exhausted at this point since it's 22+ hours of labor), the doctor pulled out the vacuum and miraculously little Kamryn finally came! The cord just so happened to be wrapped around her little neck and it was tied in a knot! A bit traumatic. 

We were so happy she was finally here but very nervous at the same time because she was completely white and not moving. The nurses rushed her off to the NICU to get her going on oxygen and I had to stay in the room for another hour so the doctor could stitch up my 3rd degree tear. He also mentioned that my recovery would probably take 6-8 weeks because of the tear and would be a little rougher than a C-Section. Great. Little did we know that my body was just not made to have babies this way. It was a blessing I got induced early so she was still so small and actually fit. 

The next few hours were pretty much a blur. It seemed like an eternity to be able to finally see our little Kamryn. It wasn't our favorite thing going to the NICU and not being able to hold her. But she still looked perfect to us. Because the vacuum had to be used she had a pretty bad cone head and a horrible hematoma. It was so sad to see her like that. The nurses could hardly move her because it would hurt her so bad. She was breathing on her own but still couldn't regulate her temperature and eat yet. 

 Later into the day we finally got to hold her! It was a perfect dream and she was so tiny. Her bruising even had gone down quite a bit and her head was looking so much better.  

The next day she was able to be released from the NICU and be with us in our room. We know she recovered so quickly because of all the prayers and thoughts sent our way!

 Late Thursday night we were able to be released from the hospital. Her biliruben count was quite high so over the course of the next few days we had to take her into the hospital to get it checked. We also got to take home an awesome biliblanket and she became a little glow bug for 24 hours. Her jaundice has gone down and her color looks so good now. 

 She is such a great baby. So content. Except when she is hungry. She has quite the pair of lungs on her. But she actually sleeps a lot. Something Emmett never did. It's pretty weird but I do enjoy it since my recovery is going very slow .

 But I have to say the hardest part of all of this crazy adventure was not being near Emmett. It kind of broke my heart. I was a complete basket case for the first little bit at home. He was in good hands but we missed him like crazy. Thank goodness he is back at home with us now and we are a happy family of four!! 

Little E man is so funny around Kay Kay. He starts to dance when she cries really loud. At least it's music to someone's ears. He also giggles and smiles at her when she makes noises. But we have to be super careful because he wants to poke out her eyes and pull her hair most of the time. Just a little glimpse into what life is going to be like. We love it!

Oh and did I mention I have one of the greatest hubbies in the world?! He has been so wonderful to me and has pretty much done everything for me, our little babies, and the house. I am going to be so sad when he goes back to work on Monday. Love that man!

Getting Ready....

It's almost time for this baby girl to arrive. I have been working hard on getting everything checked off on my "To Do" List. I know Nate sure enjoys my list!

Some of the things have been really silly but I feel that they are important to get done. I've pretty much deep-cleaned my whole house, made freezer meals, baby proofed the majority of the house for our little monkey boy, got my hair done, caught up on journals, packed the hospital bag...

...and finally finished baby girl's room/nursery. It was definitely done on a budget and if I had more energy I would have done a lot more to it. But alas, this will have to do. 

Ta Da! The finished room! I was really excited to make it girly. It's a bit cramped with all the furniture but we made it work. The curtains are my favorite thing about this room. I didn't have the energy to make them but I did find them on Amazon for an awesome price! And instead of having to buy 4 panels I only bought 2 and tied them back.

 This is the dresser (well the top of it at least). I had extra fabric from the pillows I made and learned how to make these cute fabric flowers and couldn't resist putting them on a lamp. 

 The pillows. They were really fun to make. The white flower ones are made out of felt. And in the corner are two pictures of ballerinas from my bedroom growing up. I inherited them from my grandma. I loved them growing up, even if I never did dance. 

 Last but not least...the butterfly mobile. Gotta love Pinterest for this one! Super easy and fun to make. I love how dainty it turned out. 

Thanks to my awesome brother and sis-in-law for lending us the crib. If this was a house we loved, I would have definitely painted, especially the awesome dark trim and closet doors. I also have a few more things going up on the walls but I am in no rush. 

Okay baby girl! We are as ready as we can be!