Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Back to work...

Well, I started back to work yesterday. I've made it two full days so far. I wish I could say that I was glad to be back after all, but I'm not. Its nothing against my job at all. I love the people I work with, but I miss my baby so much when I'm gone. I hate leaving in the morning and going all day without spending time with her. I never thought I'd want to be a stay-at-home-mom before, but I would love to do that now. I love nursing and I would still want to do that part-time maybe, but I want to see Kinley sit up for the first time, laugh for the first time, start talking, and every other "first" that I'm afraid I'm going to miss when I'm at work. Its crazy how much a baby changes you. People constantly tell you how much your life is going to change with a baby, but not how much you are going to change. I never really even think about our life before. It feels like she's always been here and everything seems so routine with her. But I can see that I'm different now. I am perfectly content to sit at home all day and play with Kinley. I want to take pictures of everything. I'd rather shop in the baby department at Dillard's than the handbags (and if you know me, then you know I love handbags). Hopefully, it will get better.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Prayer Request & Praise

I have a prayer request that I want to share with everyone who reads my blog. I don't know this person, but I found her blog through another person's blog. Her name is Kelly and her baby's name is Harper. Kelly delivered Harper on Friday, but the baby isn't doing very well. I don't really know many details. I know that this family lives in Northwest Arkansas and that the baby was transferred to a children's hospital in Tulsa. She is in critical condition last I read.

Now for the praise...after hearing about this girl and her baby, it hit me that things with Kinley could have easily gone another direction. We are so lucky that she was born healthy and is still healthy so far. God is so amazing and I am so thankful to him for blessing me with such a beautiful and healthy little girl. I hope I never take her or her health for granted!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Watch her grow...birth to 10 weeks

I've compiled pictures from birth through today (10 weeks old) to see how much she's grown. I started taking the weekly pictures at 4 weeks, but apparently never took a 6 weeks pic because I have been unable to find it.

Not even a day old
3 weeks old

4 weeks old

5 weeks old

7 weeks old

8 weeks old

9 weeks old

10 weeks old

10 weeks old...finally wearing 3 month clothes

Kinley is now 10 weeks old, but I forgot to take her picture on Wednesday. So we took it today when she was actually 10 weeks and 2 days old. She is finally starting to wear 3 month sized clothing. Actually she's worn one so far. Otherwise she's still wearing newborn clothes. But she's getting close to being able to wear more of her 3 month clothes. So today I'm washing a bunch of them in hopes she will be wearing them soon.

Yesterday we went shopping with my best friend, Amanda. She is getting married in July and she was looking for outfits for her engagement pictures. But when we left the mall, it was so cold that I couldn't get home fast enough. We stayed in the rest of the night and haven't left yet today either. We've been playing on the floor a lot today and we also took a nap on the couch this morning.

Kinley has been smiling so much lately. I got a good video of her last night smiling big time! Sometimes you have to really work to get her to smile and other times she seems to smile just when you look at her. She seems to enjoy a lot of her toys more. She'll focus on one thing or color and she will sometimes try to reach out and touch it. She will stare up at her mobile in her pack'n'play and just smile at it for awhile. I don't know why it is so entertaining to her.

I just wanted to share a few recent photos:

Her 10 weeks (and 2 days) old pic with the teddy bear from her Uncle Jarod & Aunt Lindsay
Another pose for 10 weeks

Last night after shopping...this is the first 3 month sized outfit she's been able to wear

Sitting in her bumbo

Looking at her daddy

The first shoes she ever wore sitting by my shoes

Playing on the floor at my parents' house


Daddy time

Monday, January 12, 2009

Portraits

I have this grand plan to take Kinley to get portraits every month for the first year of her life. The only problem with this is that I always love so many of them that I want to buy too many. I am going to have to have some more self-control in the coming months. We didn't take her for her 1st session until she was actually 6 weeks old and we used a lot of those for Christmas presents. I took her today for her 2 month session. She usually gets cranky after a few shots and we end up having to take quite a few with her sleeping. They are so sweet, though. I wanted to share some of my favorites from the 2 sessions here. Some are also above in the new header collage. Enjoy!















Friday, January 9, 2009

smiles, shots, and swings...

Our little angel is 2 months old now! She is growing like a little weed and she gets prettier every day. Her little personality is so precious. She's sweet and loving. She can have quite a temper, though, when she's hungry, cold, or sleepy. She LOVES to watch ceiling fans whether they're moving or not. She likes to be warm and loves to cuddle.

She has now been sleeping through the night for almost 2 weeks now. She usually sleeps about 7 to 9 hours every night. We are so thankful for this new development and we are aware that this doesn't usally happen this early or with so much consistancy.

She had her 2 month check-up yesterday. It is official...the pediatrician says she's "perfect". Its not just us. She finally made it onto the growth charts. She is in 10th percentile, but that's ok. She's started out small and she has me for a mom (I tower at an amazing height of 4' 10"). She weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz (her birth weight was 5 lbs. 10 oz.). She was 21 and 1/8 inches long (her birth height was 19.5 inches). She had to get 5 shots yesterday! But she was such a good girl. She didn't even cry with the first one. She started crying with the 2nd one and with each one after that. She was holding on to my fingers with her little hands and I admit that I cried, too. I think I cried more than her. I don't like seeing her hurting or hearing her cry in pain. She pretty much slept on and off the rest of the day. We got her a swing 2 days ago and she loves that. She spent alot of time in it yesterday evening.

We had a little playtime on the floor yesterday before her appointment and she was adorable! She immediately started smiling when she looked up and saw the fan. She seemed to really enjoy laying on her blanket looking around and playing with toys. She's so much more aware now and she has big, bright, beautiful eyes!

Here she is playing on the floor
She was looking right at the camera like a little model

She was so happy

Look at that face!!!
Laying on the floor before her warm bath...you can see her bandaids from her shots


Her poor legs
She was ready for bathtime

In her swing after her bath

Playing on her mat a few days ago

I just thought this was cute the way she was sleeping

How beautiful is she???

She was 8 weeks old on New Year's Eve

She wasn't too happy for her 9 weeks picture