More Family!

Two weekends ago Tommy and Renee came to meet Baby K :-) They were champs in that they suffered through some MISERABLE hot weather and no AC...it was actually the weekend of their visit and the image of all of us sweating profusely that pushed us over the edge.

Despite, the hot weather, we got some cute pics of the little stinker. Of note, the cute little green onesie is now out of commission due to a poop-splosion that resulted in poop all over Kyla AND me. Sweet.


Group Shot!


Kyla is checking out grandpa.


Tommy and Renee


Yup, I'm cute.


Who doesn't smile after a big fart?

More photos later!!

The Penningtons to Visit! (And I'm two weeks old!)

We have had an eventful last week or so...Baby K took her first trip to the pediatrician and is putting on weight! She is now 7 lbs. 4 ounces so she is eating like a champ. She is not however, completely figuring out the whole day/night thing so Mark and I are trying to be patient.

We also finally installed AC in our house because with almost two straight weeks of temps close to 100 it was becoming TOO HOT! The AC has been an experience...we live in this old remodel with patchwork everything which has meant that we have had three visits from the AC guys and still AC not working upstairs...bleh. But we'll keep trying!

These past couple days our great friends from DC-Matt and Cherish came out to visit. They were a huge help and I was able to get out of the house to do some errands (work dictations, medical license application, health insurance stuff...) and leave little Baby K with them which was great. Not only is Cherish an art student/professional photographer, she also was a preschool teacher so she was GREAT with the baby and I am anxiously awaiting some pics that she took of Kyla and of the newly expanded Parrett family.

I'm going to post a couple of my pics, but be aware, the better photos are going to be showing up shortly. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the future because I know my pics aren't going to be as good!!



Cheri and Kyla have a crying face-off....


I'm awake!


Matt, discovering his inner Baby-Whisperer.


P-dog watching the baby.


Blowing raspberries...


I love cherish!

The next post will hopefully be slightly more timely, but if you have specific requests, let me know I'm happy to oblige!

I'm 1 Week Old!


This is what happens during tummy time.


This is Kyla showing whose boss.


These are Dad's feet. Look closely.

See! Same feet! Minus the hairy toes...


Yup, she's going to be a Daddy's girl.

Ann came to visit as well and was a big help-doing grocery shopping and making us a big pot of chicken noodle soup. Kyla likes her too :-)

Eye Candy.

This is mostly going to be eye candy posts, aka super cute photos taken by Jana of the few days that my half of the family was here to meet Kyla. Mark and I are in the midst of learning the joys of being awake at all sorts of hours, I'm understanding the joys (this is a bit sarcastic) of learning how to breastfeed and we are marveling in the new member of our family. What a huge blessing.



Phoenix has now met Baby Kyla and is currently in a state of depression. Hopefully this will improve.


Grandma and Baby K


The ladies, (including Phoenix).


Grandma and Grandpa


Hi Baby!





Yeah, we see this a lot.




Just about the right size...




I'd say that went well.


Meet Uncle Judd (aka Uncle Doorknob). Ask Judd for details.


Auntie Laurie.


Group Shot!




Meet the Parrett Family!!

Hope you enjoyed the photo montage, I'm sure we'll be posting more in the future :-)
Thanks for everyone's well wishes, prayers, meals and all that good stuff, we feel so blessed and lucky to have so many people excited about Baby Kyla's arrival. She is excited too :-)

A Baby Story

Hahaha, couldn't resist the classic TLC show, which I inevitably cry during despite the fact that delivering babies is actually my job. I usually make it through most without crying, but it happens!

Here's the lowdown on the whole birth thing....
there was a lot of this.
waiting.
waiting.
working lots of hours.
doing surgeries.
running around and hoping that I would go into labor.
and more of this
waiting.
And still, no sign of labor! Sure the occasional braxton-hicks, but not much else! There came to a point when I was covering labor and delivery at one of the hospitals and EVERY SINGLE patient who was laboring and having babies was a lower gestational age than me! What a funny spot to be in!
So we waited a bit more...I begin to toy with the idea of induction as my due date approached, but decided there wasn't good reason to go before my due date so we waited some more, and started putting me on the induction schedule for after my due date...My colleagues were incredibly patient with scheduling and coverages and such and finally, after a few full nights on L&D so I couldn't come in, I got the call that Wednesday night was the night!
Mark and I stopped by our small group before heading into the hospital...woohoo! The big night was finally here!


This is me in the obligate photo in my hospital gown, looking like I think labor might be fun. Should have known better....

I'm going to give a brief play-by-play, but if you're not interested in the medical stuff, feel free to skip this section and start again at the next photo...
I got one dose of the cervical ripening agent and then started doing some good labor on my own with no meds...made change to about 4cm and at this point was VERY excited about an epidural, and honestly was underwhelmed by what an epidural felt like going in...much easier than expected. Ask Mark what he thought of the epidural....After the epidural went in, we started Pitocin and this is where the fun began. Turns out I was pretty ready and SUPER small doses of Pit were enough to send me into some scary-long contractions, which always mess with baby. We spent most of the next day turning off, turning on, and trying to get adequate contractions. Then I got to 7 cm.
7 cm and me hung out for a REALLY long time. Almost long enough that at around 7pm if I hadn't changed, we were likely headed to the back for a c/s because when you don't change, there is usually a darn good reason.
BUT! Surprise! CHANGE! Through all of this I learned the lesson that the little button that comes with the epidural should be PUSHED regularly and the relief is much better. Just goes to show what I actually know!
Then we busted a move to complete, I pushed for about 45 minutes and out came a BABY!!!



Throughout this whole time, the doc taking care of me was great. The whole experience of being on the other side was VERY different and for me to be able to relax and trust her completely so I could just be a patient was really really great. Besides the great nurses that I had who took such good care of me.

Baby's birth was such a big wonderful release-but she was a pooper, so had to get suctioned a bit and then was handed back to us. I cried like a baby as soon as she came out and could not believe the strange feeling of not being pregnant anymore...

Here's the vital stats:
Apgars: 7,9
Weight: 6 lbs 11 oz
Length: 20 inches




She's pretty dang cute. The whole delivery thing went well and was pretty quick clean-up, ladies, ask me why if you are interested, but everyone probably doesn't want those details...:-)

Baby Kyla met her grandparents who had secretly flown out and were eagerly awaiting her arrival...



We moved to our new room and tried to sleep a bit...
Mark gave Kyla her first bath the next morning (with only a little bit of help) He also successfully changed his FIRST diaper!




I think she'll be a daddy's girl.


Hi Peanut!


She's a bit of a snuggler.

We had a couple more visitors come to see her, Mark's sister Laurie flew in, my bro Judd and his gf Jana came in, and then we went home!



All in all, a pretty dang successful trip to the hospital.

Story Behind the Name

Hi Friends! So I'm back with the big news! We had a baby :-)
I'm going to post a few blogs in succession so you won't have to wade through one big blog.
I figure the best place to start is to explain the name and then I'll do birth, and such.




Mark and I had a lot of searching for names, but one of the main criteria we had was that we wanted a name to mean something. One of the pastor's who we knew in DC had a big emphasis on this with his own kids-picking names that he could explain to them and had significance. We see this a lot in Scripture-especially with re-naming of people typically to address either big changes in identity.

When we first found out we were pregnant and it was a little girl (Surprise!) we did some reading and came across the passage that is on our blog Isaiah 44:1-5....with this in mind, we wanted a name that had to do with water, because the Spirit here is likened to water poured out over Jacob's descendants that brings blessings. So! We searched and searched and came across the name Kyla, which is Gaelic and means "strait of water, beautiful." This just about fit perfectly. We poked around for a few other names, but this is the one that made the most sense. We wanted Kyla to know that she is a blessing from the Lord and through the Spirit can bring blessings to others just like water brings new life to the land... (and be beautiful ;-)

Kaye is my middle name and my mom's middle name and I was happy to carry on the tradition!

So that is a bit of a story behind the name.