Family Photo Shoot

I fixed the Boo at the Zoo post for Kyle :-) Now you can read it..all is better. Here's a pic showing how the neighborhood is. It's our default picture taken at our family photo shoot. One of Kyle's sister's friends is a photographer and she came out in September just after Kayla was two months old and took some family pics for us. Here's the link to the shoot: http://audreyphotodesign.com/blog/?p=292

Kayla's 1st Halloween

Well it's Kayla's first Halloween. We didn't take her Trick or Treating. She and I just handed out candy to the hundreds of kids that swarm to our neighborhood every year for Halloween. We have a nice safe neighborhood, everyone's porch light automatically comes on at night because they are wired into photosensors and there are many houses close together so kids can score tons of candy. Half of the houses face each other with a sidewalk seperating them so kids don't have to cross the street either. I'm kinda new at this posting (Kyle typing) and I learned my lesson from the posting at Boo at the Zoo so here's a picture of Kayla and I without messing with the text.

Boo at the Zoo

Last weekend Carla, Kayla and I along with Kayla's Nana and Auntie Mindy all went to the Brookfield Zoo's Boo at the Zoo. It was fun to see all the other people there in costume's. Especially the large family all dressed up as a pack of pachyderms (elephants). Kayla was the only one dressed up among us. It was a little cold but a fun time was still had by all. We didn't get a picture of all of us but here's one that Mindy took.

Not so working mom

Life around here these last couple weeks has been a little strained to say the least. As you know, I was back to work at the beginning of the month. I would either work mornings 5am-11am or nights 5pm-11pm depending on what Kyle was working so that one of us was always home with the baby. It sounded like a great idea in theory. However, in actuality it was stressing everyone out and causing me to loose my mind. So for now it's been worked out, thanks to my wonderful parents, that I can stay home and focus on taking care of my family. As everyone who has them knows, taking care of little ones really is a 24/7 job in itself. I am just so thankful that I am able to have this opportunity now. I wasn't sure what the options were, I just knew that working as I was was not an option at all. It was entirely too stressful and tiring on all of us and left no room for error. It was tear home, pass the baby, and off the other person went. That was so not fun or healthy for our relationship. So for now, things are about to be so much better. I love you mom and dad.

Fun with Knight Rider

Well it was an eventfull last couple of days. Carla was sick both days so Kayla had to hang out with her dad all day both days. Luckily I was off work so it wasn't a problem. Carla tried not to be around Kayla too much and spent most of the two days sleeping. Kayla doesn't seem to be sick so we're glad for that and I'm feeling fine too so I think we dodged a bullet. Carla's working tonight, tomorrow night and Friday night so Kayla and I are just hanging out, watching Knight Rider.

Sleeping Beauty

Today Kayla felt the need to sleep..practically all day. Kyle had to work, so just Kayla and I were venturing off to visit my aunt and her family for my cousin's birthday. She slept on the way there, was awake for just a bit once we were there, and then has slept just about the entire rest of today! After the birthday lunch several of us went on a walking adventrue along the prairie path to Sonny Acres pumpkin farm fall festival. Mom and I took turns pushing Kayla in the stroller (mom did most of the pushing :-) ). She fell asleep as soon as we took off and litterally slept the whole walk there, all the time we were there, the entire walk back, and then continued to sleep the whole time I drove home. Guess she was tired? Or growing? She needs to grow, so if that's the case, I am all for the sleeping. Now if only she'd use those sleeping skills at night better...and since she did sleep all day, she'll probably be up most of tonight. Oh well. However, if that's going to be the case I am off to sleep now to try to get in a few good minutes at least...today's pic is not from today, but it isn't she an adorable sleeping tiger? I thought it was appropriate to the sleepy sleepy girl of today.

Three months already

These last three months since we've had our little one home and a part of our lives has been amazing..and stressful, and exhausting, and wonderful, and...you see what I mean. We can't believe how much she has changed our lives in her little bitty time on this planet. And what they say is true-the love you have for your child is like no other. She is such a perfect baby. Well, she still won't sleep through the night, but she will someday, hopefully sooner rather than later. We love to make her smile and laugh and see her cute little dimple (she just has one on her left side). Everyone comments on how precious she is. I think that they'll all comment on her looks her entire life..it's the red hair that does it. She gets that from her Daddy. And her big blue eyes. It should be illegal for babies to have such long eye lashes! I am totally envious. She has taken on a more laid back personality as of late and enjoys "playing" more on her own now as well, as much as a three month old baby "plays". Ok, I think I could go on and on so for now I am going to call it a night. I'll keep playing catch up when I can and then try to keep this updated as often as possible.

Happy Birthday!

Kayla Liberty Bell made her arrival in this world on July 14, 2008 at 12:29pm. She weighed 6 lbs and was 18 inches long. Kayla decided to be on her own time schedule, however, and came almost 4 weeks early. I had a natural delivery with her (no epideral!) and she seemed to be doing fine at first. Then later in the day they took her away and to our amazement she ended up admitted to the NICU, where she remained for the first 10 days of her little life. Little did we know that once she was admitted she would remain hostage for so long. The original diagnosis with tachypnoea, or rapid breathing. There was not much to be done about that though besides letting her little lungs settle down. She was hooked up to oxygen and had a feeding tube and whatnot and quickly her tachypnoea diminished and then all but went away. So you'd think that once she was better she'd be able to go home, right? Oh how wrong you are. Once admitted to the NICU, there are rules. Many rules. For us, there were four. 1. Have the tachypnoea go away. 2. Have all tubes out for 48 hours. 3. Eat 60 mls at each feeding. 4. Gain weight for 2 days. Well, as you see, the last three were all tied together. And for us, they proved quite a challenge. Our little one was not the eater. There was no way she was going to eat 60 mls at a feeding (2 oz). So that kept resulting in not gaining weight and also in having her feeding tube kept in. Oh were we frustrated and everyone knew it. She started gaining weight though and we just fed her what she would eat whenever she was hungry. She'd eat well every so often, just not consistently. She had her feeding tube out once, but then had to have it put back in when she didn't eat enough again. When she finally did get it out she had removed it herself and they decided just to leave it out and see what happens. On July 24 they finally let us go home. She'd gained the weight she needed, she'd had her tubes all out for over two days, and her tachypnoea was gone. She was eating 60 all the time, but we promised not to let her starve and to take her in for weight checks to make sure she was ok. It felt sooo good to get her home!

Off to the races...

Well here we go..a place to keep everyone updated on our lives. As soon as time permits, I'll start it off...everyone wants updates on the reason we created this blog-our little Kayla Liberty Bell.