Hi five anyone?

A lot of people get a kick out of watching Kaylyn sleep. When we swaddle her, we swaddler her under her arms because she likes to stretch out. And she often puts her hand out there (as in the bottom picture) and just leaves it there. Hive five anyone? We think this comes from all the time spent under the lights. But none of my kids have been big swaddlers. Kylee tolerated it, while Karla wouldn't. Kaylyn likes it as long as her arms are free. Funny girls.

PS I know I posted several posts today--be sure to see the videos posted under working out!

Funny sayings

The girls have said some things worth mentioning. While at Grandma Mann's house, Garth picked up Kaylyn "my baby." Karla heard and argued "no, my baby." Garth said "No I'm Uncle Garth--my baby." This went on for a few minutes when I said "Karla." Karla replied, "I know, I know, I'm not the momma." Can you tell what we've been working on at home?

Because Kaylyn was born early she has a lot of peach fuzz, so Karla asked "Why does the baby have fur?"

While waiting for daddy to get out of a meeting after church, we visited with another family waiting for their dad. Karla told them she was four. So they proceeded to tell their ages: 11, 14, and a much older mommy. Karla thought about it and then said "first I be four, then I will be your age (11), and your age (14), and I have to be their ages (11 and 14) before I can be your age (the momma at 38). I thought it was very insightful of her.

Karla is learning to problem solve. She is also not bashful about asking for help. Kylee on the other hand can be and will go without before asking. But Karla didn't have her shoes on while playing in the river. But their were prickly stickers between where I sat and the river. So Karla asked one of the daddy's at the ward party "will you please carry me to the water." He said "she asked so politely I couldn't say no."

I was doing some research for my mom, and I left a message "Please call me at ... this is Cassy Nef." Kylee then said "Not Cassy Nef--Mommy Nef, Mommy."

Karla had a couple of accidents, so she went on the timer: meaning I set the timer dor 30 minutes, and when it went off--she had to go sit on the potty. Well, I was canning while she was on the timer: and while she was on the potty another timer went off. You could hear Karla hollar "I'm still on the potty!!"

Relaxing Weekend

There has been flooding up at Camp Ensign (a church owned camp near here). So Todd went up with some of the scouts to help repair the ampatheater in time for girls camp. He had the oppertunity to see Aunt Vesta and Uncle Dale. They also got in several hours of fishing and goofing off. It was nice for him to get away and get up to the mountains.
Since he was gone, I spent the weekend at my mom's. Which was relaxing in a completely different way. Friday night Mom and I visited. We also watched a boring movie--which was not worth staying up for (usually we pick better shows). But it was fun just being together and relax. Saturday morning, we went to her ward summer party and showed off my girls. It was nice to just relax and visit with friends. The girls played in the river and on the playground. And there was lots of good food. We also went to Grandpa and Grandma Tingey's house and helped out with the yard work. It was fun to see many of my aunt, uncles, and cousins there.
For Father's Day we did stakes at Grandma's house. And I packed my camera for the weekend, then I left it at my mom's house!! So no pictures, sorry.

Working out

After having Kaylyn, my blood pressure has not gone down--atleast not without heavy medications. Beyond that, I am pre-diabetic. Exercize and a healthy diet can help alieviate these problems--so I exercize! I try to get one video done in between 11-2. And then I do two videos after the girls go to bed. And I am now trying to sneak in a second video in the afternoon, but I haven't had much success yet. Needless to say, this is my new hobby. Beyond facebook and blogging, I exercize, nurse, and try to keep up on the house and mommy stuff.

Todd has helped me to create quite the library, so it doesn't get old. I have hip hop standing abs, walk away the pounds, basic Tae Bo (I want to get my hands on the advanced workout), two yoga tapes, a pilotes workout, and two step areobics! It is nice to switch things up.

The other thing that makes this fun and switches it up is that the girls usually will work out with me for several minutes before running off and playing else where. I can't help but laugh at their antics, and I hope they are learning good habits so they don't have to deal with some of my health problems: which I am sure are in their genes. Here are a few videos I've been able to catch.

Canning Rhubarb Syrup

Todd had the oppertunity to get some rhubarb. This kind neighbor gave him a ton of rhubarb, and then we got to work.
Cooking it down.
I'm afraid I laid down for a quick nap while he was squeezing the juice out--so no pictures sorry.

Putting it into jars.

Here is the finished product!! 35 pints. I don't think we will have to can syrup next year.

Now this has nothing to do with canning, but I couldn't resist adding just one picture. Kylee wanted to make sure Kaylyn wasn't lonley. Other fun facts about Kaylyne are that at her two week appointment, Kaylyn weighed 6lb 2 oz. We are so excited she is growing. Because Kaylyn was born early, she had a lot of peach fuzz on her. Karla asked "why does the baby have fur?" We love all three of our cute girls!!

Kaylyn's First Bath

Uncle Garth finally holds Kaylyn, and now he too is clammering for his turn. He is one of the first to run pick up Kaylyn when she starts to cry. Last Sunday night, Kaylyn was crying and wanted to eat. I had just nursed her for an hour, so I was not in a hurry to feed her again. So Garth picked her up. Kaylyn started hunting for food and quit crying. Garth was so proud that he had made the baby stop crying. He often says "Shh, it's okay. Uncle Garth is here." It's cute to watch. He is a very protective uncle.

Grandma wanted to give Kaylyn her first bath. Kaylyn wasn't sure she liked it at first.

But as she relaxed and thought about it--she decided she liked sitting in that warm water.

Grandma gently soaped, and then dryed, and then lotioned, and dressed. Kaylyn was spoiled. And Grandma enjoyed it!


Grandma Mann has a very busy schedule, so we don't see her much during the week. By the time the weekend comes around, Grandma is saying she needs her baby fix!! She is thinking she likes the idea of making Sunday dinner together a more often occurance. She was so cute showing off her newest grandbaby to her sisters and mom.

Firsts

Kaylyn wasn't our first boy. But we did have a lot of firsts with her:

1. My first labor to go over 24 hours.
2. My first epideral (it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be--and I'm glad I did it.)
3. My first baby to be put up on my stomach as they cleaned her off.
4. Kaylyn was the first patient in KGH's new special care nursery.
5. Kaylyn was not the first baby to be put under the billy reuben lights, but she was my first baby to be put on an IV. She was also my first baby who didn't get to stay in my room.
6. Kaylyn was my daughter to not be released when I was, hense--I was the first border mommy to stay in the special care nursery.
7. And much to my mother's pleasure, Kaylyn is her first grandbaby to be born in the Tri-cities.
8. Kaylyn is also my first preeme baby.

Surprise visit from Aunt Dot

Grandma Mann with Kaylyn.

Grandma Mann is loving having her grandbaby born and living in the Tri-Cities. And this is a little dress Grandma got for her--so she has 3 preeme outfits that make her look like a girl. We've borrowed a few more outfits from her boy cousins.

And surprise!! Aunt Dot showed up last friday.

She says it was for Mom's birthday, but I have to wonder if Kaylyn didn't have a lot to do with it.

With Todd's mom going home Thursday night, it was so nice for Dot to show up Friday. It softened the blow--not that anyone can replace mom. We watched the new Emma Smith movie (I highly recommend it--although I didn't think I would until I saw it), and we watched Bride Wars. Mom, Dot, Kaylyn, and I went and got pedicures. These are really good for mom's feet since she is diabetic. And Kaylyn and I just sat on the sideline and enjoyed visiting, but we went all the same. And Dot held the baby lots and lots. But we also got Mom's CD player installed in her kitchen for her, the bunkbeds down and ready to go to Cyntha, fixed Mom's broken sprinkler, Dot did a Mary-Kay facial, and even got the house picked up before Monday. It was a great weekend!! Not that I did much of this. Todd and Mom did most of the work. And we couldn't have gotten it all done if Mom's hometeacher hadn't been such a huge help in getting the ply wood we needed from Home Depo to our house with his truck. Brother Baird is amazing!!

Grandma K's hug blankets

Todd's mom makes all the new grandbabies a blanket. Her philosphy is that she can't always be there, especially with some of us living so far away, but her blanket can wrap them up and give them a hug when she can't. When Karla had nightmeres I explained this to her as I wrapped her up in the blanket that Grandma K had made her. From then on out she called it her hug blanket. And the name has stuck!!

Here is Kaylyn's hug blanket. Mom said she saw the carebear material and just new this was for my new baby. We love carebears!!

This is Kylee with her hug blanket. Mom had made one in blue and one in pink for her-just in case. Although she was pretty sure this one was for her. It was a hard year the year Kylee was born, she didn't buy any new material for this blanket. It has scraps from her grandmother's material. How precious!!

This is Karla with her hug blanket. Grandma K got this material while I was living in Idaho. (I think she got it from her mom or grandma or aunt or something--it's starting to get far enough back that the details are slightly fuzzy. Maybe I'll ask mom and then update this.) But mom and I then talked about how I remember Ragedy Ann and Andy. Mom has some dolls Ragedy Ann and Andy dolls from her childhood that she has kept nice. And we swapped memories. So she saved this for when my first baby was born. Karla loves it!! Can you see it is slightly more worn than the carebear one?

Now this has nothing to do with hug blankets. But I think the picture is so precious--I had to include it somewhere. Todd with his three girls.


I put Kaylyn down out here with us--and Kylee proceeded to try and included Kaylyn in her game. Kylee is a concerned big sister. And is always checking on her baby sister or making sure she isn't left out. In the car last night, Kaylyn spit up, and Karla said "Mom, Katelyn spit up. But I cleaned it with her ducky blanket." What good big sisters. And yes, Karla calls her Katelyn.

New hair style

Kylee

Karla

The finished product.

Karla has such a hard time brushing her hair "Ouch. Ouch." So I have asked if she wanted her hair cut short. She liked the idea until she heard that she couldn't have pretty's. Well my mom suggested we cut their hair in hopes that it thickens up some. Also--their hair doesn't stay in their prettys. And they usually look pretty scraggly within 2 hours of doing their hair. Have you noticed in their pictures? With a new baby, I agreed that maybe we needed to do something low maintance. So we went to Monkey Dooz. I think their new styles turned out great. And the girls like it too.

Kaylyn's first week home

This is Todd's Grandpa Cook--He loves babies. He would have visited sooner if he hadn't been sick!!

Karla doesn't want to be left out.

This is Todd's Grandma Cook. We have loved living close enough to get to know them better. They are amazing people. Grandma Cook crocheted her traditional teddy bear blanket.

Kaylyn is a thumb sucker!! Her fists were always in front her face in her ultra sound. So I wonder how long she has been at this bad habit. But it is so cute to watch. We are trying to give her a pacifier (they are easier to lose when the time is right), but she is not having anything to do with them just yet.

Grandma K with Kaylyn. We spent our first weekend home at Grandma Mann's house, and then Grandma K came out to take care of us. She loved on the Girls. Trevor took the girls out to play often. Grandma K cleaned my house and left me with a freezer full of ready made meals. And She kept telling me to sit down and take a nap. She also loved on all us. We miss her help, but we miss her company more. Why does Rigby have to be so far from the Tri-cities?

Trevor was feeling a bit left out. He likes to sit on his mom lap--even still. He was a huge help too. He took the kids out to run in the sprinklers or play on the swings or throw rocks in the canal. He also helped his mom cook or clean some.

and he held the baby. The girls love their uncle Trevor. Although Kaylyn decided he wasn't much help when she was hungry!

This is Todd, Trevor, Karla, Kylee (and Grandma K not pictured) playing at the kiddy pull in Howard Amon park. The girls loved getting out for a while. I didn't dare get closer for fear Kaylyn would be splashed.

And here are the three sisters. The most asked question right now "is it my turn to hold the baby?" They love their sister. Here Karla is telling Kylee a secret. Too Cute!! This morning I put the baby down on a blanket, and Kylee sat and played around her and gave her toys, ect. Karla and Kylee frequently check on their baby sister too.

Grandma K said that pictures just don't do justice to how tiny Kaylyn is. She weighs 5lbs 3oz at her last doctor appointment. So we put Kaylyn down next to Kylee's doll. Can you tell which is which? And this outfit is a newborn outfit--it drowns her. Grandma Mann bought a premee outfit, Aunt Dot bought a premee outfit, and Karla and Kylee bought one to bring her home in. And then we borrowed a few premee outfits from my cousin. But this was taken before we had those.

After Kaylyn was born

Here you can see her IV on her right hand. And all her monitors.

Here she is under the lights (getting a diaper change). You can also see the IV in her arm--this time with a soft "board" to keep her from moving it.

Here is my baby girl all hooked up and under the lights.

You can see Kaylyn through the arm holes. Here she is sleeping waiting to see if we have to turn the lights back on or if she can do it on her own now.

Because of the IV and the monitors and the blood pressure cuff on her foot: we didn't both with clothes until we went to bring her home from the hospital. By then--she wasn't sure why we bothered. We just brought her home and stripped her--to have her sunbath.

After being born, they worked on getting my blood pressure down. And poor Kaylyn's sugars crashed. So she went on a IV. Then she had the jaundice and had to go under the lights. We would take her off, and it would go back up again. So we kept putting her back under the lights and back on the IV. She also had some digestive problems. She was gaggy, and would spit up formula even 3 hours after eating. So we nursed: one breast milk was less likly to be thrown up. But two, she gagged less by nursing, the nipples on the bottles just were to easy. So when I was released on Thursday and then at the last minute, Kaylyn's sugars crashed and her billy reuben went up--so she had to stay. So I stayed. Thursday night I slept on a doctor's couch. And I got 4 hours of sleep. I nursed every three hours. I got a little more sleep the next night. And they gave me a bed too. But I ended up sleeping more in the nursery--because I finally got to hold Kaylyn for more than just nursing. So I did. Plus my body didn't hurt quite as bad-another day away from the delivery. It was hard being there and not being a patient, but the staff at KGH was wonderful. And I have much to be grateful for. Saturday night at 5 pm, we started packing up and getting Kaylyn dressed. And Todd got to finally bring us home. We spent the night at my mom's house as a family--so my mom could take care of all us. She was wonderful. Then Sunday night, Todd's mom showed up. She has taken good care of us as well. She left we with a clean house and a freezer full of quick meals to help me with my first week on my own. And last night (Thursday night) she left for home as well. And then there were five.

Kaylyn's Birth

Daddy and Kaylyn

She weighed 5lb 14 oz

Baby Kaylyn

This was my first baby to be put on my tummy right after birth.

My blood pressure was high on Sunday, so the specialist sent me to the hospital to be observed. (We went to Kennewick General Hospital in Kennewick). We figured they'd send us home again, but we were thinking they would induce soon. But my blood pressure didn't come down enough, and Monday morning at 5 am they decided to induce. By 7:30 I was hooked up to the pit. I had magnesium to stop ceasures and bring my blood pressure down, Pit to induce labor, glucose to keep me hydrated and keep my sugars from crashing, antibotics because we didn't know my strep b: I was grateful they could put all my IV's in one hand. But we were always mixing cabels. I had a cuff on my arm that went off every 5 minutes to 30 minutes. I had my monitors to monitor contractions and baby's heart rate--we later moved to internal meters. We had my cathator. There were cords everywhere it seemed. Monday it seemed that I could doze through my contractions. It took me 6 hours to move from a 2 to a 3. Tuesday morning, we were tired of doing this laboring thing. But my contractions got to be quite strong. I moved from 25 on the monitor to having contractions at 95 strength. It hurt. I wasn't sure I could do this--and they checked me: I was a 4. So I had an epideral. I went from a 5 to a 9.1 in 20 minutes. Despite my epideral, it hurt. I was so glad I had the epideral. Todd didn't even object. And then my body started pushing the baby without any effort on my part. She was coming. She was born on the first push, at 11:23 am Tuesday May 26, 2009 (after 28-30 hours of labor depending on how you count it). And she was my very first baby that they put up on my tummy while they cleaned her up. Todd got to cut the umbillical cord. It's a girl. And she is so beautiful!! We love her so much.