Like Father Like Daughter

The moment Little P came out and I laid eyes on her, I could see she looked just like Hubby! People were saying how much she looked like KFC but I didn't see it. I have compared KFC's and Little P's pictures and you can see similarities but they look nothing alike to me. So a couple weeks ago, I was looking through some of Hubby's baby pictures. It really looked as if I was looking at my own child! They are TWINS! I have attempted to put together some pictures of them looking alike. The pictures of Hubby were taken with my camera in extremely low light and are super dark and blurry but you can see the resemblances!

Top left picture is of Hubby and the other 3 are Little P

Top picture is Hubby

MIL has said that Hubby was her most cuddliest baby. It is the same with P, she wants to be held all the time, is very loving and cuddly, and she sleeps best if she is as close to you as possible! She wants you face to face and at least one hand touching you to fall asleep. Hubby was a thumb sucker... from the moment P came out she has sucked her hands. I knew as soon as she lost the newborn death grip she would find her thumb. Sure enough, over the past couple days she has transitioned from sucking a few fingers, or her whole fist, to just her thumb! Ahhhhh, I do not want a thumb sucker! Way too hard to unbreak the habit and requires more dental work in the future. 

I wanted and tried so hard to have her and she comes out looking just like Hubby! Even though she doesn't look like me, I love her cute little face and her big chubby cheeks and I do love that she looks like the person I fell in love with and married! :)

Pumpkin Patch

I wasn't sure if we would make our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch this year. I really didn't want to go when I was 10 months pregnant and we were cutting it close after my due date. We did finally manage to get there the last day they were open. It was actually a nice time to go, not many people since the holiday was past and they didn't have out the loud music that is always being DJ'd there! A lot of the time KFC had most of the fun stuff to herself!

Train Ride

Big bouncy pillow. KFC had this whole thing to herself! She was doing cartwheels and big jumps. 

There was a stack of hay so I attempted to take their pictures.

Last for the day was the hay ride to get our pumpkin! KFC and I both picked out a little pumpkin to take home!

The First Month

I forgot how tiring it is to have a baby! I will be working backwards in my blogging timeline to get caught up on our life for the past couple months. Hopefully in my 'spare' time I will get caught up and it won't take a year to complete. :)

Little P is now 4 weeks old! I want to say how time has flown by, which it has, but it does feel like a whole month has gone by, if not more. She had her 1 month check up today at the doctors. You can tell by her chubby cheeks that she is doing well and is a healthy little girl! 

Height ~ 22 1/2 inches {94th percentile}

Weight ~ 9 lbs 8 oz {53rd percentile}

She has just started to become more than just a newborn. She has found her voice and likes to let you know when she is not happy. She is a very quiet baby, but she gets on these kicks where a scream or two lets you know she needs milk NOW! KFC started her colicky period at 5 weeks and we are now approaching this with Little P. She starts getting fussy around 6-7pm on most nights. Oh I pray she does not get as bad as KFC did!!! She has been smiling since around 2 weeks, but now she is really responding to our efforts to get her to smile! I can tell her vision is getting a little better. She is started to follow with her eyes more and seems to be able to see a small distance. She is a pretty good sleeper. Most nights she will do 5-6 hour stretches of sleep.

I attempted to take Little P's one month pictures. I refuse right now to go have them professionally taken. There are still a few more shots I would like to get but for the most part I am done with month one.

This is my favorite picture! I took so many shots to get them both looking at me! The easiest person to control was KFC and every time I said look at the camera, she did, I pressed the button and she would look away. This was the last shot I took before I was going to give up. So glad they both cooperated!

Well, we Finally made it to our first meeting this past Sunday! We had planned on going to our first meeting the Sunday after we came home, but something came up Every Single meeting! Hopefully now we are back on schedule. Little P did good. She got a little fussy right after we got there, but I held her and she stayed asleep the whole time. Since it was the first time we had been to the Hall, we had a lot of friends coming up to see her! We were the last to leave the Hall. I got lots of comments of 'look how big her cheeks are!', 'wow, she doesn't look like a newborn!', 'she sure looks healthy!'. Well yes, she got her huge cheeks from me, and no she is not really a newborn anymore, in 4 weeks babies grow a lot. KFC didn't have any want to pay attention to the meeting, all she wanted to do was stare at me and P the whole time! We will have to work on that. :)

But before we could make it to our first meeting, we made it to our first One Day Assembly! We, of course, were late, not too terribly bad but late. We told the brother we needed 4 seats, he asked top or bottom, we didn't care we were late, we would go where ever there were 4 seats. He left and came back to show us where he found us some seats and he put us right beside our friends!!! So much easier knowing the people on both sides of you! I didn't have to feel too bad each time I had to get up! :) And they were there to help with all the crap we had to bring. Little P was hungry by the time we got there, so I threw my stuff over the railing, grabbed P, and headed off the nursing mothers room. I have never been in one before and didn't know what to expect. Lets just say I was the only nursing mother in the nursing mothers room. It was packed and it reeked of smelly diapers! You were face to face with another mother at a skinny table. The sister in front of me was asking if I liked my nursing bra, how I dealt with the snaps on it, and did my baby get enough milk just by breast feeding. Hello, stop staring at me while I have my boob out. I only had to nurse twice, each time was painfully bad, but I guess it was better than walking back out to the car to nurse. P did have one poopy blowout, in which I had to text Hubby, during the assembly, to send KFC in to get the poopy clothes, cause I had no where to put them, for him to go put them in the car. Life with a 2 week old meant I was living day by day and not planning on future days. That week, I had a parent teacher conference with KFC's teacher, KFC had 2 early release days, and a family funeral that Friday. So when the Assembly came that Saturday, I realized we had nothing in the house to make for our lunch, so Hubby was sent out to find us something to eat. He found a Subway about a block away. By the time we ate, there was little time for anything else. I couldn't find anyone to take our picture, so all I got was one picture of KFC. Sad I missed a picture for P's first Assembly.

Hopefully soon, I will have up the birth of Little P and the end of my pregnancy :)

Updates

These past couple weeks have been a whirlwind. I'm attempting to catch up on all that has been going on around here.

KFC entered her second week of Kindergarten. So far this week she is loving school! She looks forward to going every day. Tuesday, I had an OB appointment which I had to get her out of school like 45 minutes early and she was MAD. "But I didn't finish snack time!" Her school as implemented a 'behavior chart' kinda thing. All students start are green, if you make bad choices you move down to yellow and red, but when you make good choices you move up to blue, purple, and aqua at the top. Most days KFC stays on green. One day she made it to blue, while yesterday she made it all the way up to aqua!!! I don't know what she did to get to this 'outstanding' level but I was happy! One boy in her class, according to her, is always in the time out chair and has been sent to the principals office on several occasions. I'm so glad that is not my child! :) She is coming home and singing to me all the new songs she is learning and all the new things the teacher has taught them. Funny how school can make her grasp things better than I could teach at home. The class visited the library for the first time this week and she was able to bring home a book! I found it amusing that she picked one called Why I was So Mad. This weeks homework consisted of writing all the letters of the alphabet upper and lower case on lined paper. This time she actually didn't put up too much of a fight to have to write! She had been taught the letters A though L during school when we did the assignment. It was amazing the difference in how much more clearly she was writing them. The rest of the alphabet needed some work but wow she is improving! KFC said the teacher split some of them off to the reading corner and was getting them to read some books. The teacher sent home that she was going to be evaluating their reading level this week. KFC said she was able to read the whole book! Yay! Since I was in a lot of pain earlier this week, Hubby took over making her lunch at night. He thought it would be cute to draw her a picture on her sandwich baggie. She loved it. This just 'inspired' him to keep on going! Win for me! I didn't think to start taking pictures of these drawings till the 3rd day. If he keeps it up, I might make a book out of all these baggie drawings!

ET came on TV this past week, and we have the movie, so KFC was curious to watch it. Here is day 3's drawing. I showed it to her before leaving for school, so just in case is scared the mess out of her, she didn't have to find out at lunch time. Her eyes got HUGE when I brought it out, but then she got a big smile on her face. 

Day 4 ~ Tinker Bell

{FYI - Hubby went out and bought colored Sharpies just for this endevour}

Last Thursday, I dropped KFC off to school and headed to town for my 32 week OB visit. I knew I was going to be early, and not wanting to go home for 30 minutes just to have to leave again, I went to hang out at my old job which is just a couple suites down from my OB. On the ride in, I noticed my back starting to hurt. My first thought is, Oh no ANOTHER kidney stone!??? Hubby thinks I am a total hypochondriac, so I brushed it off as I must have slept wrong. By the time I made it to my old job I KNEW it was kidney stone pain. The pain kept getting worse and worse as time went on. But my appointment was soon, I was already there, and I just wanted to get it over with so I could make it back home before the pain was unbearable and I had access to my Vicodin. I sat in the OB's waiting room crying and pushing on my back for 30 minutes!!! You would think if the front desk saw me in pain they would have hurried me along. Finally the nurse called me back, asked the usual... Are you in any pain today? Really lady, do I look happy! Told her I was having a kidney stone attack and was in terrible pain. Still thinking, oh she will tell the Dr and they will quickly get to me so I can make it home before I can't physically drive myself home. Uh nope, I think I stayed in the room for about 20 minutes before the Dr came in! I could hear her moving from patient to patient and never to me. By this time, I was severely sweating, about to throw up and could hardly move. Dr quickly did a her normal measure baby and listen to heartbeat. She had my urine tested and said I also had a UTI. Come to find out, I never had a UTI, just a lot of blood in the urine. She told me she was sending me straight to the hospital to be admitted to L&D for IV fluids and antibiotics. I called Hubby and told him to leave work NOW. The hospital parking was FULL! I think I found the last spot, but by the time Hubby got there, he was just driving around looking. After calling him to find out where he was, I pleaded with him to just use the valet because I didn't care how much it cost and I just needed him inside right NOW! The lady checking us in was SUPER slow and could never get out information right. If I could have talked through the pain, I probably would have yelled at her that having our phone number correct was not as important and getting me a nurse and doctor! Once the nurse came in, she took forever to get the baby's heartbeat to stay on the monitor. Again not important, I just left the OB where baby was fine. Then after 3 excruciating needle sticks to get my IV started, the nurse gave up and had to call in a specialist. Oh how I loved the specialist!!! She went straight for a vein with a smaller needle and it went right in, NO PAIN AT ALL! :) A week later and my arms are still bruised from the needle attempts. After 2 rounds of some kind of pain killer, I was still in pain. So they gave me morphine. And that only took the edge off. After about an hour after morphine my pain finally went away. They gave me 3 bags of IV fluids and got in a second round of antibiotics and we were finally able to go home at 8pm. Ahhh, so I thought. All weekend long I just felt like my 'UTI' was getting worse. The office was closed Monday for holiday, so I called first thing Tuesday morning. Went back to see the OB where they told me I did not have a UTI but this was all kidney stone related. I was so hoping a new antibiotics would cure me of this pain. She said she was referring me to the Urologist. I went home to more sever pain, but this time all the pain was near the 'exit'. Around 7pm pain was unbearable, so I laid in bed crying. It hurt to pee, so I held it for as long as I could. When I finally went, I felt something shoot out! And there was instant relief!!! I knew it was finally out! I was not about to let this stone get flushed away, so I didn't care that I was about to stick my hand in a toilet of urine! I looked and only saw a tiny piece of stone. I took it out thinking, this can't be all. In the past, I had severe pain and all that came out was a stone the size of sand! But I was determined there had to be more. I stuck my hand down the hole where you can't see anymore, and I felt a good size rock. No way this huge thing could be a kidney stone??? When I looked at it, I could see the crystals in it and knew this was the stone! When I went to the Urologist, he was SHOCKED to see that I had passed this size stone. He said he sees a lot this size but has NEVER seen someone pass it without the help of breaking it up first. He said, if they knew how big it was when it came out, they would have never let me attempt to pass it. It took exactly 10 weeks from the stone coming out of the kidney to it coming out of me! I'm so glad this stone showed just how much pain I had been in. I'm still not convinced I don't have another stone on my right side, but so far its nothing compared to this one!

Stone measured 3/4" long and 1/4" wide

In between having KFC in school and not being in pain, I am getting some of the things done on my list of 'Things to do before baby comes". One is this awesome car seat blanket! I made slits and holes in it for the buckles to go through. That way, baby can't kick off the blanket and I can still wrap her up without it being a safety hazard. I made it out of 2 different flannel pieces along with some batting insulation. This baby will be going through the entire winter so I knew this was one thing I wanted to make her before she got here. The tutorial was simple to follow and it came out prefect! Can't wait for her to use it! It is so soft and warm. 

I found one of KFC's babies that measured 21 inches, about the right height for a newborn, to use as my test dummy!

All wrapped up and ready to go

First Day of Kindergarten

We have made it through the first day of Kindergarten! We woke her up around 7:30am, she ate Goldfish for breakfast, got dressed, and then we were off to School! She was equipped with her new Book bag and Princess lunch box.

A while back I found a blog where a lady had made signs for the first day of each grade. I printed them all out. I plan on getting a picture of her holding these signs on her first day of each grade. In this year's picture, the sun was in her eyes so she is all squinty. After turning her so the sun was kinda behind her, all I got was this picture... looks like she is doing the pee-pee dance. Why? I don't know, because she did not need to pee. Oh well :)

She told us the night before that she did not want us to walk her in to school because she knew where her room was and could walk in herself. She is NEVER been one to 'need' us to be with her, she is Independent all the way! Hubby said if that's what she wants then to let her. After waiting in the super long carpool line that morning, we got up to the parking lot and I asked her one more time if she wanted us to walk her in. NOW, she changes her mind. Guess she saw all the other parents walking their kids in. I was already a complete mess. No make-up and still crying, I sent Hubby to walk her in. Her school doesn't allow parents to actually go in the classroom with the student. Hubby stopped at the door, expecting to give her one last hug and say goodbye, but no, she didn't care, she marched right in the classroom without a care to say bye.

The first day was only a half day, so Hubby stayed home from work till after we picked her back up. We waited 45 minutes in the carpool lane to get her! She was so cute sitting there waiting for us to get there. She looked so little! When she saw our car, her face lit up and she jumped up to tell her teacher which one our car was. We asked her about her day, and all she said was 'I can't remember'! But throughout the day, I was able to pull more information out of her. She said she liked her first day! She liked the playground because it has a bar and beam for her to play on. She likes her classroom because it has a Spongebob CD player. She said they had storytime and sang a funny song. She liked the lunchroom too. She saw other kids had gotten chocolate milk with their school lunch and she wanted some too. I sent some lunch money with her today so she can get a chocolate milk with her packed lunch! 

The teacher has made them a Kindergarten notebook which keeps info for the parents, a section for any money, space for papers or notes we need to give to the teacher, and a section of their homework for the week. She has it all listed out for the entire week and said she doesn't care what day we do each assignment just that is all has to be done by Friday. I have made the rule that when she comes home from school, she will do that days assigned work before she can watch tv or play. Yesterday's assignment was horrible!!! She HATES to write and she was supposed to write her name on lined paper 5 times. After many mistakes, and only writing her name 1 1/2 times, she completely flipped out. I sent her to her room for a time out, gave her her blanket, and told her when she was ready she could come out and finish it. She stayed in there was around 30 min. I checked on her and I think she had dozed off for a while. Which was exactly what she needed - Rest time! She came out still complaining, but she finally made up her mind and just did it. After an hour and 10 min, she was finally done! Sigh

I have started her a school notebook that will keep all her school related stuff from Kindergarten up till grade 12. I created a questionnaire that will ask her about the same questions for each year. Can't wait to see how her answers will change from year to year. I also printed out pages for her hand print and foot print. And plenty of room in between each year for any special papers or artwork she has done. 

Goodbye Preschool ~ Hello Kindergarten

Wednesday, KFC spent her last day at Preschool. It was hardest on me for her to leave since she has been going there for a little over 2 years. The teacher 'knew' KFC and all her quirks and I felt both her and KFC had developed a relationship over these past couple years. I don't do well with last days or even first days, so I knew this day was not going to be a good one. I had planned to drop KFC off at the door so I wouldn't have to go inside and get too emotional. I was so happy to see a sister pulling in behind me to drop off her load of kids too. I was just going to let KFC follow them inside and I slip away. That's exactly how it happened. KFC went right in with her friends and I got in the car and cried all the way down the road. Since I knew the pick-up would be even more traumatic for me, I had already told Hubby that he would have to come and pick her up. Too many hugs, goodbyes, and cleaning out KFC's cubby was not what I was looking forward to. 

I had decided as a thank-you gift for KFC's teacher, I would make her a stepping stone with the school name on it, KFC's hand print and her name, along with the year. That way it was something the teacher could look back on years later and remember KFC. It turned out really cool and KFC had fun adding her hand print and the little green stones.

Hubby called me that morning saying a power pole had been knocked down in front of his work and that the power wouldn't be restored for the remainder of the day. This worked out perfectly since KFC wouldn't have to sit at his work for the next 3 hours and I didn't feel so guilty making Hubby take off work to get her. 

JT was so nice and made a little going away party for KFC at the preschool. I'm so thankful cause there would have been no way that I could have pulled it off. And she graciously took pictures for me.

Her last "Circle Time"

Hugging her teacher

Final walk out the door :*/

Since Hubby had the rest of the afternoon off, he took KFC to 2 different parks! He has so much  more energy than I do!! They arrived back home around 3:30pm. We all quickly got baths and got ready to meet KFC Kindergarten teacher. That's right, saying Goodbye to preschool and meeting her new Kindergarten teacher in the same day!!!

Our time slot to meet the teacher was scheduled for 5:30pm. We found the room and went in to find her seat with her name on it. She looked so cute sitting at her tiny desk. She walked around the room checking out everything, and went up to a few of her classmates and introduced herself. The teacher gave her little power point presentation, explained a few things and our time was up. I don't know how I am going to make it through her first day of school but I only have 3 more days to figure it out. 

28 Weeks

Baby Stats:

Baby should be a little over 2 lbs now. I feel like she is an octopus because she moves around so much. I will feel a kick over here, then over there, then somewhere else! From the 3D ultrasound we just had, she is a contortionist... she was completely bent in half. Some days she seems to sleep a lot while others she is moving constantly all day. 

Mommy Stats:

This past OB visit I didn't gain any weight since the last visit! Yay! The past couple weeks I haven't been able to eat very much at each meal. I guess since she is pushing up on my stomach, I get full very fast! I have been more tired the past couple weeks. Maybe her growth spurt has made my body work harder. I have now started the stage of uncomfortable-ness when I sleep.  I am completely fine during the day, but when I try to sleep, my lower back is in pain, if I lay on my back I feel like I can't breath, and to turn over feels like I am lifting 100 lbs on my belly. 

This week at my OB visit, it was very uneventful. Dr. measured my belly - measuring on time, we listened to the heartbeat - sounded good, my blood pressure is staying really low, and I didn't gain any weight. My body this pregnancy is doing so much better than with KFC. So far I haven't had any new stretchmarks. My old ones from KFC are really visible now that my belly is stretched but at least they are silvery and not bright red looking claw marks. I also, had my glucose test this week to check for gestational diabetes. I haven't gotten the results back, so hopefully if I hear nothing back that means I passed! I have now entered into the next phase of the OB schedule where I go back every 2 weeks instead of 4. Just means this pregnancy is getting closer to the end! :(  

We also went to have a 3D ultrasound done. With KFC I did her 3D at 28 weeks. So now that I'm at 28 weeks, I called to make an appointment for next week and the lady told me that they were running a special that day and the next for half off any package! That meant I could get the package that I wanted for $40 cheaper than I would have spent on a lower package!!! When I called we had just gotten home, and was about 3:30pm and she said the only appointment time she had was 5:45pm. So I quickly called Hubby to let him know and I packed up me and KFC and headed out to pick up a friend on the way to meet Hubby. The ultrasound place was near the airport. I thought we were making great time until we were dead stopped on the highway! Ugh, I didn't want to be late and it take away from my quick 20 minute appointment! After many side roads to avoid traffic we just ended up in more traffic and we were 10 minutes late! The lady was so super nice and there wasn't anyone scheduled till 6:30pm so she took us on back. Started the ultrasound and oh look, the baby is facing my back!! Couldn't get a single shot of her face!!! Lady told us to go eat and come back to see if she had moved. I ate, had some on Hubby spicy wing sauce, and jiggled her the entire time. Went back in, and she had turned 'a little'! Still no way we were going to see her face. :( The lady is allowing us to come back in 3 weeks to try again for free. 

Besides her facing my back, she was 100% breach! Lady said that being breach is one reason for us not being able to see her face. Not seeing her face is sad for me, but being breach just scares me! By this time KFC was head down and stayed that way the remainder of the time. The baby's head was about where my rib cage is and her butt was bellow my belly button. She was completely folded in half with her feet up at her head the whole time! Now how is that comfortable!? But I guess she liked it because she had one hand on her head and the other hand holding her foot. I'm glad I get to go back in 3 weeks so I can make sure exactly what position she is in! While the lady was in 2D, we were able to see her yawning / drinking. While I want to see what her face looks like, my other favorite part is to just see what she is doing in there. Its so neat to see what she's up to and her personality. 

Here is her hand up at the side of her head.

Here, she is holding her foot

Here is both of her feet and that one hand holding her foot.

Again confirming her Girl parts!