A Sadie Update

Our little Sadie is a changing.

We were really scared about leaving her overnight when we had Kinsley.  We haven't really ever been away from her longer than a few hours and we were worried that she would feel betrayed by us when we saw her again.

Luckily she is the perfect personality to be a middle child and she accepted without much grief us leaving her with "Gamma" and "Ganpa" and "Arf Arf" in the middle of the night to go to the hospital.

AND she didn't even freak out on us or distance herself from us when we brought baby Kinsley home.

We love that she believes us no matter what.  We can say, "Not right now, we will get it in a minute" or "Hold on and you can have your ice cream" or "After dinner we will go outside" and even though she is in tears and sad she can't do or have what she wants right away she always says, "Okay."  We love that.

One thing that did change when baby came home was that Sadie's diapers became "Owie."  And so we bought her an Elmo toilet seat and an Elmo stool to step up on.  She loves "Elgo."  She loves her seat.  And she loved the idea of going potty on it, one day she will consistently...   The first few days of having it she insisted on telling Elgo night, night.  She kissed it.  And one time she tried to be alone in the bathroom and when I went in to check on her she was standing on the stool, singing to Elmo seat cover.

Sadie is 21 months old as of the 9th of this month.  She is rounding the corner to two and she is starting to show it.

She has never been super persistent on things she wants to do, she has never told us "no", or thrown a fit when something is not exactly how she is used to it being...until now.  Now we are starting to see a little more of her character.

Today she hit Novalee for the first time out of frustration..   It was sad and funny at the same time.  She immediately knew she did wrong and when Daddy told her no and put her on her first time out she puckered up her pouty lips and cried.   There is just something cute about her crumpled little pout face.

I like to read week by week updates on what to expect at each age in development and temperament for the kids.  Sadie's updates for a long time to come aren't very promising.  We are to expect stubbornness, willfulness, tantrums, crying bouts and many more lovely things.  Hopefully I don't lose sight of my sweet little Sadie during the months to come.

Yesterday coming home from church she was telling us her arm was owie.  We were trying to discover how she got her owie.  Finally I asked, "Did a baby in nursery hurt your arm and give you an owie?"  Sadie looks over at me through slitted eyes and says, "Yeah."  I said "Did you just tell your first lie?"  Sadie replied, "Yeah."   :)  And so it begins...

Here are some Sadie pictures.

 She has decided that crossing your arms in pictures is posing. 

 At Jared's baseball game.  She is lovely.

 I love how proper she is sitting on the couch.  :)

 Spaghetti night.  

  Dad didn't even want to mess with washing hands and just put her, plunk, into the sink, diaper and all.  

Please stay sweet Sadie because we kind of love that about you. 

A Kinsley Update

Kinsley is 2 and a half weeks old today.  Time has flown by.

I have zero complaints about her.  She isn't much of a spitter upper.  She doesn't need to be held ALL the time like Novalee and Sadie needed but she definitely has her moments.  She doesn't keep "me" up ALL night long, thankfully I have a great husband that takes her at least once a night when she decides it's hang out time instead of sleep time.

So far she has been my easiest baby which is awesome since she was my easiest pregnancy.

(Sometimes I think about if we will have more children.  I honestly don't know.  But I do know that I wonder sometimes if I really want to have another one, who might be difficult, when I could end on this really great note.)

We love her.  Though I have to admit that for the first little while Wes, and I struggled with remembering she was Kinsley and not Sadie.  I think it might be because she looked similar at first to Sadie but the more time we've spent with Kinsley the more we have discovered her own unique personality.

She loves the calm. (Which is kind of a given since she is a Crockett.)  She is a happy baby and already loves to smile, whether it's gas or not, we'll take it.  :)  She is pretty smart and has already started trying to reach out and touch things.  And I think she might have a little bit of my independent personality and willfulness.  Just this morning Wesley told me to hold her head but she doesn't really prefer that.  Most of the time she is craning her neck to see things or trying to hold up her head on her own.  And as I said before she doesn't need to be held all the time but can be perfectly content awake and out of our arms.

We still can't tell what the color of her eyes are.  They look brown sometimes, sometimes they have a hint of green (like today) and sometimes they just look really gray.  She is the first baby I wasn't able to tell the color of the eyes before leaving the hospital.  We will see...

Here are some stats.

When she was born she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz.
When she left the hospital she weighed 7 lbs 7 or 8 oz.
When she went in for her first doctors appointment
at five days old she weighed 8 lbs.
At 14 days old she weighed 8 lbs 14 oz.

I like that she is gaining weight well.  I love the chunky babies. :)

Here are some pictures. 

 Wesley is so handsome. 

 Years from now we are going to look back at these pictures and laugh about how young he looks even though he's 29 and that feels old now.

 

 She is such a pretty little thing.  She always seems to have her eyes wide open when she is awake watching everything. 

 Babies first "bathtime." Boy did she need it.

 Just a picture to remember her fluffy hair after bathtime.  

(Yes that is spit up.  All my babies seem to enjoy waiting until after their baths to spit up.)

 She is so small.

 At about a week old I realized that there weren't any pictures of Kinsley with me besides the ones at the hospital.  So I had Wes take this one really quickly.  It might have been better with a little more personal prep.  :)

 Let me set the scene for this above picture.  It is late.  The house is quiet.  It's Friday night, Wesley has just come home from dutifully going to 11 year old scout camp for the evening.  He had spent the whole afternoon rushing around getting ready for scout camp.  He has been helping me all week long as soon as he walks into the door from work with everything so that I can rest and recover before he has to go to work the next day.  He is tired.  He finally had a personal moment to rest and relax himself.  And instead of doing something for himself or going straight to bed, there is this moment.  He is softly talking to Kinsley, telling her that he loves her and that she is special.  She is falling asleep and he is lovingly holding her.  How sweet and precious this moment is.  Moments like this one make my heart melt and I realize that even though I thought I couldn't possibly love my husband more than I already do, I love him more than ever before.  

Baby at two weeks.

Now let me tell you a little secret on how to become my favorite person quickly and with little effort on your part.  All you have to say is, "Wow, Brandy, she looks so much like you!"  And I will hold you in affection forever. :)  

Yesterday at church so many people said that and it made me so happy!  

FINALLY, on the fourth try, one that looks like me from the beginning!  :)

Photos of Kinsley Alice

My talented friend, Kaylea Stoddard, took some beautiful pictures of Kinsley over the weekend.  (You can check out her other work here.)

I love them and am so happy that we got them done! 

 I wanted to share them with our friends and family.

We love our little Kinsley!

Welcome to the World Kinsley

As most know, we had our Kinsley!  She was born at 12:08pm, Friday, May 25th 2012.  She was a healthy 7 pounds, 14 oz (not the 8 and a half to 9 pounds one of the midwives predicted), she is extremely long at 21 inches and has a head circumference of 14 inches.  Her length makes her look super skinny and fragile.

She was born with tons of hair on her head AND all over her body.  She has it on her back, from her shoulders all the way down to her bum.  She has thick hair on her upper arms to her elbows.  The hair on her head couldn't even handle maintaining the boundaries of her scalp and grew from the sides of her scalp straight to her eyebrows, there is a thin layer of dark hair on her forehead, thick enough that there is a almost impossible to see PART on her forehead just over the right eyebrow.  AND she has old man hair on her ears, even MORE than Wesley grows on his own ears. :)   I have nicknamed her "Hairy Beast" but I'm not sure how dad feels about that.

We love her!

Our kids are currently into the X-Men and it was pretty fun when they came to the hospital yesterday to meet her to be able to compare her to several of their favorite X-Men heroes...The Beast, Wolverine and also Nightcrawler.

So here is the part where I wanted to share a little of the labor and delivery story.  You can skip it and just head to the pictures below if you don't want to read all of the "details."  I will try not to become too graphic.

I should start with a little history.  With the three kids previously I've had to be induced.  Except maybe Novalee.  I'm not sure what to call that labor because I cheated and took castor oil which put me into labor long enough to get me admitted into the hospital when my contractions slowed down and I THEN had to be induced using Pitocin.

All babies were overdue to some extent with Novalee being the least overcooked at one day and also the smallest baby weighing 7 pounds 5 oz.  Jared was 9 days overdue and weighed 9 pounds 6 oz and Sadie was either due on Aug 29 or Sept 8 (depending on which OB/GYN you talk to) and weighed 7 pounds 12 oz.  And so my babies range in size and I always wonder HOW long is too long to keep them cooking because I never really want to grow another 9+ pound baby again. :)

This time I really didn't want to be induced.  I really just want to go into labor naturally, not have pitocin and not get an epidural (that last part was cr-A-zy).

So I chose I midwife who was ALL about respecting the women's body and it's timing on when it will go into labor.

Well at about 33 weeks I was really starting to wonder if I was going to have Kinsley early or on time.  I was having pretty good braxton hicks contractions which was actually really exciting for me since with the other ones they only really started at the very end.

When I was at the point to have the doctor "check" me I was actually progressed further than with any child and the baby was lower.

Oh how I got my hopes up!  :)

Then weeks past with no progression AND my braxton hicks contractions started slowing down.  And I really started wondering what the heck was wrong with my body.

But I thought for sure at 40 weeks I would hear good news or they would "do" something (strip the membranes) to help the baby more eager to enter the world.  But as my sister put it, I kind of shot myself in the foot by choosing a midwife if I was hoping they would help the baby come sooner than 40 weeks.

Finally on May 24th I went in for my 41 week check.  I told them what I wanted and got it.  Here was my plan.  Strip my membrane and give me 24 hours to see if I could go into labor with just that encouragement and also set up an appointment for the following day to be induced if it didn't work.  So they did that.  I was scheduled for induction the 25th at 1:00pm.

Wes and I prepared that night for heading to the hospital the next day at 1:00pm.  I had been cramping since my doctors visit due to their "encouragement" but nothing else.  I kind of wondered though if we would make it to 1:00pm (hopeful feelings of the LONG overdue) and felt I needed to have EVERYTHING ready before going to bed.

At 3:15 I woke up having the strongest contraction I had yet had.  I thought I just needed to go to the bathroom since that seemed to be the reason for any contractions lately.  But was shocked and felt a little out of control when I realized I had a lot more "bloody show" than what I felt was normal after a membrane strip.  I'm really going to try and keep the grossness out of this.

I had false labor on Sunday morning due to castor oil (I know, I wanted natural but I got desperate, don't judge me).  :)  Anyways that I night I gently woke Wesley up and asked if he wanted to drive to my moms and see if my contractions would get stronger, we even hung out for a bit before going which was good since they stopped.

I can't help but feel there was a huge contrast the morning of May 25th.  I rushed into our bedroom, flicked on the overhead light (I'm sure Wes loved that) and said we need to go to the hospital NOW!  I explained my reasons.  There was no hanging out.  I kept having contractions which was exciting and also a little scary.  We got the kids in the car and started driving to my moms.

About this time Wes notice that EVERYTHING wasn't prepared beforehand and we were super low on gas.  Haha!  He says that was just classic.

I also started questioning whether or not I really should be heading to the hospital.  What if I was over reacting and what if this really wasn't it.  But about every four minutes my feelings were reconfirmed. :)

We got the kids to my moms, we were all pretty calm.  We decided we needed to get gas or we wouldn't make it.

 Labor at the gas station is interesting.

Of course for as long as you can you want to keep your pride and so I tried to be casual through the contractions while the gas station guy was around.

We made it to the hospital and we started walking to the emergency room when Wes thought perhaps we might want to grab the camera.  He ran back to the car with me urging him to hurry.  He looked all over and then realized that it was probably in one of the bags dropped off with the kids back 20 minutes away from the hospital.

I must have been crazy but I told him we couldn't have the baby without the camera and so we drove back to my moms.  :)

When we got to the hospital again of course I'm trying to stay calm.  The person at the desk asked, "What can we do for you?" with a knowing smile.  I said, "I think I might be in labor."

Up to triage I went.  They talked with us for a bit and had me dressed down.  I was still bleeding more than I felt was normal.  They checked me.  No progress from the office visit the night before AND they kept telling me some blood was normal after the membrane strip.  (But I still felt it was too much).

They had me on the monitor, I was definitely having contractions.  I was pretty discouraged that I they seriously hurt and still it didn't mean anything.

They were in a tricky spot.  It was now sometime close to 5am and I was scheduled to be induced at 1pm.  What to do with me?  So they offered that they could check to see if I could be induced early which I refused.

They then said I could walk for a couple of hours on that floor and be checked again at 7pm.

Wes and I did that.  My contractions started getting really, REALLY strong.  I hated that part.  We didn't know that the triage room was ours and so we were walking the halls with all our stuff.  My coat felt like Hell's fire on, carrying my purse was burdensome and all I kept trying to do was time my pace so I could have my contractions somewhere other than in front of the four nurses stations so I didn't embarrass myself too much.  Wes kept saying I think you should get checked again, I think you should get checked again...  But I was embarrassed that we were even there with no progression.  I had never really been in real labor before, what if I was just a wuss and there was again going to be no progression.  So I held out as long as possible.

I finally asked if I could use a bathroom and discovered the triage room was ours to use.  To our relief we could go back and put our stuff down.  I got to privately start crying because I was in so much pain.  I did at this point agree to have the nurse come back to check me.

She came and told me that regardless they were just going to keep me.  She said I looked to be more uncomfortable than last time she saw me.  Perhaps it had to do with me crying during each contraction and rocking on the bed. :)  Still unsure of myself, the midwife on duty came in and checked.  I had gone from a 2 dilation to 4 or 5 and from 50% effaced to I think she said 80 to 100% effaced.

You think I would have felt relief with that but my contractions didn't really allow for relief.  I was just glad to know I could stay.  At this point the no epidural option was long gone and I just wanted them to get the "orders" in, get me fluids, get me to my room and get me that epidural!

I was asked if I wanted a wheelchair to get to the room.  I refused wanting to keep my pride.  I should have accepted the chair I would have saved more of that quickly deteriorating  pride.  Every few minutes I had to stop and cry and scream and breath through a contraction in the hallway making a huge spectacle of myself.
I kept thinking what a huge wuss I was but it really hurt.  And while others can handle labor naturally and while I might be a wuss, I couldn't handle it.

I got my epidural at 8am.  HEAVEN!  They checked me again.  I was at a 6 and 100% effaced.  At this point my contractions slowed and became not as strong (a side effect of the epidural) but it was good.  They had to give me two doses of antibiotics which needed a four hour gap in between each dose.  As it was they were pushing it to the very end and were waiting for the last drop before they would let me push even though I had been feeling like I could for about 30 minutes before they finally let me.


I told them finally I couldn't wait any longer.  The midwife told me just to wait long enough for her to put her gown on.  With the help of the midwife and the nurse and Wesley (there wasn't time for the rest of the "team" to come in) we had our lovely Kinsley Alice Crockett at 12:08pm!

The midwife told me afterwards that she wasn't sure but there were signs that my placenta had started to detach from the uterus and that would have explained all the blood.  

Everything turned out great!

She was healthy and it is always amazing to me how just that first touch of your newborn creates an instant eternal love for them.

Baby's First Photo

 

All clean

 

 Wesley's first chance to hold her.

 Look at her hair!

  (Can you see the hair growing to her eyebrow?)  :)

 It was so good to see our other kids.  It felt like it had been forever even though it was only half a day.  

 Daddy with two of his girls.  

 The whole fam.  Sadie doesn't seem super excited.  :)

  

 Kinsley one day old.

 If Daddy looks tired it's because he is.  He stayed up a lot the first night to help Mommy.

 Please cross your fingers that we have a pacifier baby.

 After a whole day in the hospital we were both really ready to go.  

 Just home.

 Our girls showing their excitement about the baby.

 Headed to church today.

I'm grateful for good timing, healthy babies, understanding children and an amazing husband.