Remedial Athletics

Today is Kyla's one month birthday...it is hard for me to believe that she was born a WHOLE month ago...some days it feels like yesterday and some days it feels like she has been here a whole heck of a lot longer...

I have a couple of activities to document....

1. Homemade pickles.
Our garden has shown the ability to grow inordinate amounts of a few specific vegetables, namely, spaghetti squash, giant zucchini, yellow squash, and kale (which I will never be able to eat again due to consuming a large amount of kale soup in my first trimester, during which I was always nauseous, so now, thinking about kale makes me slightly ill). Anyways, one of the very crafty and creative girls in our small group made homemade pickles last week, and Mark and I pretty much ate the whole jar ourselves. SO we decided we should make our own!
And hence, (with a recipe from www.annies-eats.com-link on the side) pickles!



They are a success, albeit a rather garlic-y success!

2. Remedial Running
After much encouragement from my hubby, I went for a run this morning and did yoga yesterday, hence the title of this post. I have truly begun remedial athletics. I am reminded of my sophomore year in college, when I ate an Olive's cookie every day and was surprised when my pants somehow "shrunk" in the wash...I pretty much feel like I'm starting from there. My glory days of yoga are a distant memory and it is sort of a miracle that I can still touch my toes. I am starting to do the following yoga video again as it is an AWESOME at home workout-hands down best yoga video out there. I just have to remind myself not to be discouraged when I fall over in my living room and start laughing at myself; usually Phoenix mocks me from her seat on the couch:



I also went for a big 2 mile run this morning, Phoenix dragged me the first half, and I dragged her the second half. Pretty fair exchange. Had to dust off the old running shoes.



4. Baby K.
So when I started this post, she was sleeping peacefully in her crib and I was going to proudly post pics of her and call it "successful sleep training," however, right now she is screaming from her crib and I'm about to go down and try to calm her down, so saying "successful sleep training" seems a bit hypocritical, so I will console us all with cute pics of her:







Anyways, I go back to work in 1 (!) week and can't decide if I'm thrilled or crushed. I have very much liked being home, but in talking with a few other residents, we wish we somehow could space out maternity leave-take a day here, a day there, so I get to have more time with her later in life. But alas, that doesn't quite work and so I will await the arrival of my mom and gma who are going to come next week to ease the transition to daycare...

Will probably have more thoughts the closer I get!

New Blog!

So after an accidental changing of my old template and then losing that old style, I had to resort to coming up with a new design. Not so much because I didn't like the old one but due to my lack of computer skills.

So! Don't think you're at the wrong blog because of the new colors...let me know what you think!

And here's a funny pic of Kyla for your trouble:

Will Sleep Anywhere but my Crib

Blargh.
That's my thoughts on sleep training. So of course, there are as many theories out there about sleeping and babies as there are babies and each one claims to be the PERFECT solution for your crying, not sleeping baby. In the interest of speaking on this matter, I read the two diametrically opposed books: "Happiest Baby on the Block" and "Babywise." If the two authors ever met and tried to discuss baby-rearing, I have no doubt it would result in a mud fight with hair-pulling. Strangely enough, a similar thing occurs between parents who espouse one method or another...you are guaranteed an argument between someone if you bring up these two books and state yourself STAUNCHLY behind one or the other in a large group of parents. Relatively entertaining.
But the truth is, I think you gotta go with what works for your life and baby which could be one, the other, a combination, something in the middle. This being said, we are in the midst of trying to help Baby K sleep in a predictable schedule in her crib. Mostly because she is going to be heading to daycare in a week in a half and for me to be feeding/working, a good solid schedule will be VERY helpful. She did great (relatively speaking!) last night in her crib, but today, as evidenced by the following photos, seems completely willing to sleep ANYWHERE but her crib.



Also, note that she has almost completely wiggled out of a very snug velcro swaddle. Quite the escape artist!




Oh well, we'll keep trucking!
Also am in the midst of trying to get myself a bit back in shape...I had initially thought about documenting a "reverse bump" photo series, but decided it was a bit too depressing for me. I have done yoga once (!) only and will eventually try to get myself running, but right now the combo of too hot and feeling too slow are getting me down. So I'll keep walking for a bit longer...

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.