Our Family Maddness: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Kara...1 month old

1 Month Old

· Weight: 10 lbs.

· Keep my Mom up at night…A LOT!

· LOVE going on walks in my stroller

· My parents call me Kara-bean

· I spit up a lot, which grosses out my parents.

· I keep my eyes open a lot. They are currently BLUE.

Kara had her newborn pictures taken on Saturday, April 6th by our very good friend, Turkey. She did a fantastic job! We had so much fun trying to position Kara and keep her awake or asleep during the pictures.

Which is your favorite because I can't decide?

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Pictures of Kara

I can't tell you home many times a day Matt and I think we have the cutest little girl ever and how we got so lucky. It is fun spending time with her and seeing her grow.

We had some relaxing and lazy days of just hanging out and admiring her.

Moments we have captured so far:

Kara and Matt sleeping while I blog

Kara and Leili being compared next to each other.
Kara is 2 weeks old.
Leili is 6 months 3 weeks old.
Will get to watch them grow up together.

Snoozing in her swing.

Matt and Kara sleeping together.

Tummy time with Mom

Late night feeding and how cute,
Kara is that makes me love being up with her at night.

Time at the gym

Smiling...sort of.

First trip out of the house on April 2nd

I love when she cries. She is so cute.

We had some trouble with nursing at first, so we actually had to feed Kara by a spoon twice. Once when she was 5 hours old and once when she was 5 days old. We caught the adventure of feeding a newborn at 5 days old by spoon on video.

On our own at home

After so much help in the hospital, being home on our own was a little scary!

Breastfeeding, being sore, visitors wanting to come over, trying to get sleep, and silly hormones all added up to be some interesting times, but everything quite didn't matter after being able to hold Kara in our arms and snuggling with her.

The amount of time we waited for her to be in our lives makes those fun things mentioned above all small things that can be worked through.

So we have been to the pediatrician twice now as Kara is 18 days old. First on April 2nd when she was 5 days old and she weighed 7 lbs and 4 ounces. Second at her two week appointment on April 15th when she weighed 8 lbs and 9 ounces.

We have gone to our families homes at least once.
We have been on a couple walks to get out in the beautiful weather.
Kara has had her first photo shoot, which she was a trooper and Turkey took some fantastic pictures.
Matt has gone back to work and Kara and I survived.
I have only cried over 3 silly things...the best one is I wanted Matt to help me bathe Kara as I am not ready for a slippery baby yet and he almost didn't have time.
Matt is a Pro at sucking out her nose, something I don't like thinking of doing.
I do her laundry about every other day...It is amazing how many things she spits up on or decides to wet after her diaper is off.
I have put all her laundry away too, but she is now probably ready for 0-3 month clothing.
She has her own bank account set up now ready and waiting for deposit to be made for school, wedding, or mission.
I have taken her out to run errands by myself now twice, which is more cumbersome than I thought as her carrier weighs a ton with her in it.

Arlee came to visit on Monday April 1st, cause she couldn't come to the hospital.

Kisses from Arlee.

Lydia wasn't too happy that her parent were holding a baby.
Hopefully she will like Kara when they are older.

Kara looks like a baldy in this picture.

First bath at home. Was kinda interesting as she decided
once her diaper was off to give us a surprise.

Taking a nap with her dad.

Gracie and Katie came to visit.

Tifanie came to visit and brought us Chick-fil-a.
Which I probably will never eat again as I got sick and had to go to the ER the next day.

Matt's mom not knowing I am taking pictures of her.

KayLyn came to visit and was so giddy about holding Kara.

KayLyn and Kim

Kim didn't want to hold Kara, but Matt made her.

Amber Dawn was finally able to visit after getting over being sick.

Kasiah came to visit and give Kara a present.
She was good to hold her only for a few seconds and then she was done.

Tummy time with Dad.

So much fun with our little one and so many more fun times to come!

2 days in the hospital

After the delivery, my legs weren't quite functioning to ride in a wheel chair up to the recovery room, so I rode on a gurney for transport and got to hold the baby while we moved.

We arrived in our room around 10:30pm. Tired, exhausted, curious, disbelief, and so many other emotions, wrapped up into one.

Well, I finally got to eat! It was a sandwich, but it tasted fantastic and I also got to drink cold milk too! So rejuvenating. Little did I know how much I would need it. Now, I had eaten and it was the baby's turn...well we couldn't quite figure out the breastfeeding part, so we had to feed her small drops from a spoon. Very interesting...as she finally ate at 2 am.

Matt went with Kara to her first trip to the nursery for her vitals to be checked.

Cute little foot!

Kara got her first bath at 11:00 on Saturday, March 30th. They bathed her in our room so I could watch. Matt took pictures of course to document such a big occasion. :-)

All I can say is breastfeeding is NOT the easiest thing in the world...especially for a tired new mom, a brand new baby, and pressure to get the hang of it before you leave the hospital. Well, let just say we finally got the hang of it 5 hours before we left the hospital after multiple nurses' help, a lactation class, and a lactation specialist all relaying how to breast feed.

Another thing about the hospital is their lovely schedules. You finally fall asleep at 3 or 4 am, because you are so tired your body finally gives in and they come in around 6 am for rounds. I love having a conversation with the doctors at 6am about birth control. Stupidest subject to take about or comprehend at that time in the morning.

We had a lot of visitors on Saturday, March 30th starting at 11am to past 10pm...pretty much constantly. Matt and I were both exhausted and should have taken time for a nap! Saturday night with the baby was the worst night, the nurses couldn't keep her calm and kept thinking she was hungry, so I had my first experience with a fussy baby on no sleep and wondering what I was suppose to do. I tried to let Matt sleep as there was no point in both of us being up.

Matt's Mom

Matt's Dad

My parents

My Grandma

Chelsey and Hans

Kali. Shawn was also there but wouldn't smile for a picture.

Kristine and Trent

Turkey

Kristin...we missed taking David's picture.

I finally got the baby to calm down, by having her lay in bed with me. At 7am the nurses started coming in, along with the doctors, and pediatrician. So no sleep again! My nurse finally put a note outside my door, saying to leave us alone, and I got a much needed nap for 1 hour. Amazing how much that helped!

Matt's mom delivered Matt's Easter present for me, we had two visitors that day, but a lot more relaxed. We decided on the baby's name. Well actually, Matt made the final decision when he wrote our the information for the birth certificate, Kara Dianna. We ate our celebratory dinner a 6pm and then were out of the hospital by 7:30pm and on our way home.