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.