Kayda's First Christmas!

Considering Kayda isn't even a month old, this Christmas was pretty relaxing.  She is a pretty easy baby.  Since I'm writing this years later, I really don't know why I did black and white.  She had a beautiful complexion!  At the time our Christmases tended to be brunch at Baba's house, gift exchange with Mommy's family, and then a gift exchange with Daddy's family.  You got to see most everyone on that day!

Bringing Kayda Home and the first week

With the snow storm the day before I was incredibly anxious to get home.  We were discharged from the hospital around 5pm, not even 24 hours after you were born.  Driving with a new baby is incredibly stressful, driving with a new baby in the slush is even more so.  I probably got on Daddy's nerves pretty badly considering I was crazy paranoid that something would happen.  Fortunately, we made it home without any mishaps.

 I bought a "coming home" outfit.  It was a size newborn, tights, the dress, a little sweater.  It was all HUGE!  Regardless I dressed you up, just to bury you in cozy blankets for the drive home.

 Since people didn't get to see you at the hospital we had visitors after you were brought home.

 Peyton was a little curious.

 Kayda has three "angel kisses", they are the red marks on each eye lid and across her forehead.  They become more pronounced when she cries.  They are actually just sensitive capillaries.  She should out grown them.

 Kayda is not a hard baby, during the day.  The first night home was a challenge.  Daddy and I had no clue what to do.  I could just NOT get you to sleep.  I ended up having Grandma G come help me after that first night, I was so exhausted and overwhelmed.

 I've changed diapers before.  I babysat plenty of times.  They were always on older babies though.  Changing the diaper of a newborn, with a healing umbilical cord is pretty intimidating.

Of course, we had to go show her off at Daddy's work.  She was super cooperative since she isn't a fussy baby. 

 Kayda is quite happy to be in anyone's arms.  She has four grandparents that all love to snuggle her.

 Kayda has some long, skinny fingers!

With the oldest cousin!  Nathan is such a sweetie!

Bringing Kayda Home

***Yes I know that some of these pictures are not oriented correctly.  No matter how many times I reload them , oriented the right way the program keeps flipping them.  It's going to be a common theme with these older pictures it seem***

The day after Kayda was born we pushed to go home... HARD.  The snow and ice was making me really anxious and I didn't want to stay another night at the hospital.  So we took her home that evening, not even 24 hours old.  

 We put her in her little newborn dress for the special occasion... which was absolutely giant on her.

 The ride home was so stressful.  Between the roads being slick, being in a car (not an suv) and driving the first time with an infant... Everything is scary with your first baby.

 Of course people came to visit as soon as they were able.  Papa H.

 Aunt Anna, Uncle Scott and Peyton.

 Papa G.

 Grandma H

 Grandma G of course, they were pretty familiar with each other by then.

The first diaper change at home.  Holy cow I cannot express how hard it is to adjust to having a baby.  No matter what you do they do not want to sleep unless you are holding them.  The first night home was TERRIBLE.  Daddy and I were so absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed by the next morning.  Fortunately we got some help from Grandma G the next night.  I did not expect it to be so difficult.

Kayda is here!

Kayda was due to come November 13th.  Once the due date passed I had to go in for regular check ups.  There would be non-stress tests where they hooked up machines to listen to her heartbeat and to check for contractions. They would have me drink juice to get her going and then I'd sit... and sit... and sit.  The last one we had to go to ended up being on Thanksgiving.  It ended up taking a ridiculous amount of time, I'm pretty sure they forgot about us for a while.  

The morning of November 27th came, it was two weeks past due.  They really don't want the baby in the womb longer than that.  So I went in for my appointment that morning, we packed everything we needed planning to be induced that day.   She was coming out no matter what.  We went in, everything was fine and I was given a choice, wait until tomorrow when my OB could be there, or go ahead and induce that day.  We had been prepared and planned for that day so opted to do that.  

I wrote this story before, when Kayda turned two.  Since I'm writing this when she is almost 11 now I think I'll mostly copy and paste!  It's obviously repetitive but I'd rather be accurate!

"They started the meds at 11:00 in the morning (turns out I was having contractions I couldn't feel every 12 minutes), they broke my water at 12:45 but things didn't really start getting going until 1:30 when I actually started to feel the contractions.  I got an epidural about an hour or so after that because I was only about 3 cm and didn't know how long it would take. 

It was the day of the big ice storm so Grandma Peggy couldn't make it down to see us, Grandma G was there, Grandpa G and Uncle Justin came down to visit and left before the roads got too bad. Grandpa Mike had to park at the bottom of the hill and hiked across the overpass to the hospital to come visit (he brought McDonald's for Daddy, it fell in the snow but Daddy still ate it!). Grandpa Mike should have stayed a little longer than he did and he would've gotten to meet you, it would've been better than the 3 hour drive home!!! Grandma G was with us the whole time.  

It was time for the nurses to change shifts right as I started pushing at 11:18pm.  Since the nurses were in the middle of a shift change and first time moms usually push for a long time Daddy held one of my legs while Grandma G held the other so I could keep pushing while they changed nurses. 

By now the epidural was starting to wear off to be that pins and needles numb feeling so I could kind of feel the contractions. By the time our nurse had gotten the other up to speed they came over to check me and she was crowning, we were ready to call the doctor. I could feel enough that when the nurse was tapping me saying "push down here" I was able to comply.  Since people were stranded at the hospital and the nurse that had been there didn't think she could get home we had several sets of nurses in the room when she was born at 11:48pm.  The nurse that had been with me all day had specifically asked if she could stay to see the baby. 

Kayda weighed 8lbs 10oz and was 19.5 inches long.  They set her on my stomach for Daddy to cut the umbilical cord.  Then Daddy went over to video tape her being measured and weighed.  By that time I was feeling really tired, I kind of felt like I was in a tunnel and all I wanted to do was go to sleep.  It turns out I had a lot of small tears that needed to be stitched up.  The tears made my blood pressure go down extremely low.  Dr. Duncan had to stop stitching so they could lay me back and prop up my legs to get the blood up where it's needed most.  It took a few minutes but I felt better.  Though I was still very tired.  This gave Daddy a scare for sure! We didn't name her right away, we waited until the next morning when I was a little more alert (Daddy was pretty tired by now too). Kayda spent her first night in her Grandma G's arms in the rocking chair, with the exception of when she needed to eat."

 I'm fairly certain this picture was as my blood pressure was starting to drop and I was getting so tired.

 First bath!  The nurse was washing her.  Some of the meconium (the baby poo that builds up while they're in the womb" was coming out so she went to wash it.  She kept scrubbing at one particular spot only to discover that it was a birthmark on her bum.

 Thank goodness for Grandma.  Daddy slept, I slept and Grandma snuggled Kayda all night.

 In the morning Papa G and Uncle Justin came down to visit.  The roads were still pretty icy so Grandma and Papa H waited until we got home.