My child

I guess after seven years of working night shift I should not be surprised that my child is a night owl. He loves to wake up at midnight, stay fussy until around 4am, sleep for 2 hours, and then ready to party by six. When I have visitors over during the day he sleeps so calm and peaceful making me look like a liar. Little stinker!

Bringing Home Baby

Definitely way harder than I imagined. I had no idea that a person could survive only sleeping a max of three hours at a time.(I don't think we even got that!) I was very sore from the labor and delivery process. I kinda had to be "put back together" if you know what I mean, so getting around was very difficult. My milk took forever to come in and Kemper was having latching on problems and becoming Jaundice, so we have had to see a lactation specialist a couple of times. My hormones were in crazy gear and I was very tearful, but my wonderful husband has helped me through it all and continues to do so. Also when we were in the hospital we received some unexpected disappointing news, Baby Kemper has failed all his hearing screens. These "screens" are a pass fail test done to all the children in Texas because hearing loss is the number one birth defect, so now the state of Texas has required the test be done on all newborns. Granted this test does not prove or say that Kemper is deaf or has some sort of hearing problem ,but we must do further testing and see ENT and Audiologists to to rule it out. We have been told not to worry that it could be that little Kemper still has fluid in his ears and may take awhile to dry out. So now all we can to is pray and wait and remember that no matter what happens he is the most PERFECT WONDERFUL baby boy to us!

Our Family has grown by TWO FEET!!

Kemper James was born April 7, 7lbs 3oz 20 inches. It was a pretty fast first born delivery from what I have heard. I went into the Labor and delivery at 4:30pm and he was born at 11:39pm, so seven hours not too bad! Although I had been having contractions 10-30 minutes apart the two days prior and had a feeling he would be here on the 7th. In fact I called the Dr. and asked if she could see me because I was afraid that I was dilating all this time and that if my water broke I would not have time to make it to the hospital. My mom went with me to my appointment at 3pm (Kemper was at work) and the Dr. said that had not dilated anymore than the last time she had checked, but advised me that he will probably make his appearance soon and not to stray to far from the hospital. The only thing is we live about 25 minutes away and the traffic on a weekday 4-6pm is horrible, so mom and I decided that we would go to the mall and walk around and wait for the traffic to die down. As soon as we pulled out of the parking lot and got on the road I started having contractions that were two minutes apart. I knew these were the real ones because I was gripping the handles on the car door for dear life! We went back to the hospital and my mom helped me through my contractions for an hour until Kemper could get there, Damn Tollway! I finally got an epidural Hallelujah!! after two hours of the most intense pain. ( I must admit very similar to kidney stone pain). Forty five minutes after the epidural when I was finally getting comfortable I went from 3cm dilated to 10 cm dilated and the Dr. said it was time to push. We were so shocked because usually epidurals slow down your dilation. Kemper's mother was driving all the way from San Angelo and I really wanted her to be there, and thankfully she made it just in time to see her grandson born. It was an amazing experience and I can't believe it has come and gone. I had the best coaches My husband, my mother, mother-in-law and my two sisters, yes all of them! I had to have them all, I even told the nurses that the Dr. said it was OK (little white lie) but my Dr. ended up be OK with it and they got to stay.

38 weeks!!

This entry is a little late but I went into labor that same day and I didn't get a chance to post it, so I thought I might as well post it now.

How far along? 38 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 30lbs (I didn't know you could have a 30lb baby!)
Maternity clothes? almost like wearing sheets and tents
Stretch marks? none! Thanks mom for the good genes!
Sleep: get up to pee 3-4 times a night, sooo not good
Best moment this week: his furniture came in!
Movement: I will be giving birth to the Karate kid
Food cravings: still milk lemonade and ice cream
Gender: If it's a girl she better like blue!
Labor Signs: Contractions 10-30 minutes apart for two days ( told not to go to hospital until they are steady five minutes apart!)
Belly Button in or out? in but stretched to the max
What I miss: breathing normally
What I am looking forward to: outside baby
Weekly Wisdom: Worry about it tomorrow
Milestones: made it 38 weeks without embarrassing myself by tooting in public!

The man and woman behind the bump...

Here are some of our Maternity pictures taken at 35 weeks. We were fortunate to have the same photographer that did our wedding pictures take these at a park near our home.

All dogs go to Heaven

Sadly yesterday my family's dog, Sadie passed away. She was a sweet miniature schnauzer who lived a long 13 years. We will miss you little Say-Say.

Lucky

My Nephew Nolan is now 11 months old and loves music and dancing, he even has a favorite song Lucky, by Jason Mraz. He gets totally mesmerized by this song when it is on and stops whatever he is doing. The other day I was watching him while my sister went to get her hair cut and he began to get fussy so I found the song on Demand TV and instantly his mood changed, it was so cute. In the end of the video he catches me video taping him and he starts saying "bebe", because that's what he calls himself and he wanted to see himself on the video.

* Pause music at bottom *