Lotsa Firsts

Several "firsts" for Kendall have taken place lately, so I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you. Enjoy!

~ Best Katelyn quote from our first night home: "Is Kendall Jean gonna eat dinner wiff us?"

~ First babysitters: I had the luxury of grocery shopping at the most leisurely pace I've experienced in what feels like several months. Gramma Kathy and Papa stayed home with the girls last week while I tackled our lengthy Target list.

~ First girls night out: Kendall came with me to Bunco this week (basically an excuse to get a bunch of college friends together to catch up over some appetizers and wine :) She fit right in with all the girls and got to meet lots of new faces.

~ Kendall got her first at-home sponge bath at one week old. She tolerated it pretty well, except when she got a little too chilly. It was a family affair, as you'll see :)

Katelyn loved holding Kendall's hand to help her "we-lax" :)

Look how peaceful this little girl is after her spa experience...

~ First double-digit weight reading: Kendall went to the doctor for her "two-week" check-up (at three weeks old) on August 29 and she weighed in at 10 pounds even - up from 8 pounds 6 ounces just 12 days earlier. We've got an eater on our hands ;)

~ First dinner out as a family of four: When Kendall was 10 days old, we ventured out to a little BBQ place for dinner. We were so proud of our bravery and were enjoying a relatively low-key dinner. Then Kendall decided she was hungry too - and let the whole restaurant know it. I took her to the car to feed her and then we came back. A couple minutes later, she burped and her whole dinner came up. All. Over. The. Place. We cleaned up and left after that. A for effort; C for execution. But at least it was a memorable first dinner out!

~ Kendall had her first meeting of some wonderful family members on Monday. On their way through the Twin Cities, Great Grandma Verla, Great Aunt Ronda, Great Uncle Joel, and Great Great Aunt Roberta (I think that's right) stopped by for a visit.

Gigi with her great granddaughters :)

Aunt Ronda snuggling with Kendall.

Aunt Roberta got a turn too.

Katelyn and Gigi had fun playing catch! We loved seeing you all!

This one may surprise you like it did me and I hesitate to even write about it as it may just be a fluke this early on... but Kendall had her first 7-hour stretch of sleep on Saturday night. Yes, 7 hours - from 9:30 pm to 4:30 am. Then the following two nights each included a 6-hour stretch. Considering her weight gain, the doctor said it was okay to let her sleep knowing that she'll wake up when she's hungry and needs to eat. Thank you for the refreshing surprise, baby girl!! 

We also all survived our first week on our own - just us girls. Katelyn is getting adjusted to being home  with me and no longer attending school. Kendall is getting used to life outside the womb. And I'm getting adjusted to being a stay-at-home-mom. And Michael is getting the hang of dealing with all of us girls!! (Bless his heart!) We all have much to learn, but we're taking one day at a time and enjoying the sweet moments that each day undoubtedly brings. 

Wishing you all a safe and memorable Labor Day weekend!

The First Two Weeks

For the last two weeks, I've been spoiled. Spoiled by the fact that Michael took two weeks off work as we navigated the new waters of being a family of four. And spoiled by my parents who came back to help on Monday and Tuesday of this week when Michael went back to work. After the birth, I found out pretty quickly that (physically) I couldn't exactly jump right back into life. I needed to rest, recover, and take it easy... and of course, snuggle this little bunny...

 Thankfully, I had the luxury of doing all of those things last week and it paid off as I'm feeling really good now. Every morning, Michael and Katelyn enjoyed a different daddy/daughter activity while Kendall and I rested at home. It was so nice and quite frankly, I'm not sure how new moms (especially those with a toddler already at home) get by without any help. I feel very fortunate. A million thank yous, Michael, Mom, and Dad!

Katelyn and Michael went swimming one day and the next day went to the Children's Museum...

The following day called for a trip to the Minnesota Zoo...

We also enjoyed time as a family as we are getting to know Kendall and she's getting to know us. Here are some snapshots of what's been filling our days since bringing her home...

Kendall had her newborn check-up on Thursday, August 16. The hope is that newborns are back to their birth weight by the time they're 10 days old. Kendall weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz. for the check-up, which is almost a half-pound bigger than her birth weight of 7 lbs. 15 oz. This girl likes to eat :)

We love hearing Kendall's sleepy little grunts and noises. When she cries, Katelyn says to us, "My baby sister is cryin'. Why is she cryin'?" She will also go over to Kendall and say in a very motherly tone, "Ohh, it's okay, honey. It's okay." So. Stinkin'. Sweet.

When Katelyn notices that Kendall is awake, she announces, "His eyes are open!" or "Her awake now!" Yes, she refers to Kendall as a "he" sometimes. Working on that ;)

We've been doing a lot of admiring of her 10 little fingers and her 10 tiny toes. Along with lots of smooches on her "getting chubbier" cheeks!

Papa and Gramma Kathy enjoyed some snuggle time too!

Katelyn is always very interested in where Kendall is and what she's doing. She's also a big helper. Whenever I say that I'm changing Kendall's diaper, Katelyn says, "Can I get a diaper for her?" She also asks, "Can I hold baby Kendall?" at least once a day. 

While we were in the hospital, we had some special friends stop by to meet Kendall. Here are some pictures of her very first visitors...

My dear friend from college, Katie, and 1 day-old Kendall.

Our friends Matt, Shelly, and their boys came to visit (and brought us Blizzards - mmm!)

Katelyn and Dane, whom she utterly adores (if you can't tell by that smile).

Matt and Kendall

We have more to report in upcoming posts, but that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Kendall's Birth Story

Just like her big sister, Kendall Jean entered the world on her own and just in the nick of time prior to a scheduled induction on August 8 at 7:30 am. Apparently these girls know how to move once they're made aware of the alternative ;) Here's the timeline of how things went down prior to Kendall's arrival...

The last belly picture. Taken on August 1 - a week before her debut.

Monday, August 6

10:30 am - Katelyn and I went swimming with some friends. Yes, I went "swimming"... at nine months pregnant... which probably looked more like whale watching, but it was so much fun for Kate. This summer, I tried my best to not limit her activities just because I was big, slow, and uncomfortable! Plus, I thought just maybe, being in the pool would take some of the pressure off my joints and get things progressing from the 3 cm I'd been at for the previous two weeks. 

4:15 pm - I noticed some contractions with regularity but they weren't painful.

5:30 pm - Michael got home from work and I mentioned that we might want to start timing the contractions and make arrangements for my friend and neighbor Kelly to come over and stay with Katelyn until my parents could drive up from Iowa.

6:15 pm - Placed a call to my OB to get a read on whether or not we should go to the hospital and they suggested we at least get checked out. In the back of my mind I thought we might end up being sent home because these contractions were not near the intensity or frequency I had with Katelyn. Well, as I've said countless times, this pregnancy - and now delivery - have been so very different than Katelyn's, so I should've been up for anything!

7:20 pm - Arrived at the hospital. Once we got to the maternal assessment center, I was measuring between 4 and 5 centimeters dilated, but the contractions were not necessarily happening regularly or with much intensity. The nurse said there was a 90% chance we would be admitted that night.

8:30 pm - We were admitted and I was hooked up to an IV. Michael and I were wondering if we'd have an August 6 or August 7 baby (Katelyn's birth story was 6.5 hours from first contractions to her arrival). The nurse checked my progress again and I was at 5 cm.

9:15 pm - S-l-o-w-l-y walked around the Labor and Delivery floor to hopefully get things progressing.

10:00 pm - The walk did the opposite of what we had hoped! The contractions were actually slowing down (nooo!), so we had a feeling August 7 would be the birthdate.

Tuesday, August 7

11:00 pm - 6:30 am - I basically stalled out at 5 cm overnight. Michael and I didn't sleep very well - if at all - that night. I was constantly trying to get comfortable with a giant fetal monitor strapped on my belly and IV's hooked up. And let's face it, good sleep just doesn't happen when you're 9 months pregnant! Poor Michael was basically sleeping upright in a chair!

7:00 am - I was started on a small dose of Pitocin to get things progressing.

8:30 am - The small amount of Pitocin was initiating some stronger and more frequent contractions, but they were still manageable. I could tell it wouldn't be long until they weren't tolerable though, so the nurse suggested that if an epidural was in my plan, she should call the anesthesiologist. I was 6 cm at this point.

9:00 am - The anesthesiologist administered the epidural. I sat as still as possible because I wanted this to work. And it did. Like a charm. Thank you, Doc.

9:50 am - Continued to progress and dilate, but my water had not broken yet. My OB broke my water and things happened very quickly after that.

10:05 am - 10 cm and the baby's head is "in sight." In sight?!?!? Oh my...

10:05 - 10:15 am - The nurse paged my OB to return to our room immediately for delivery. My doctor was shocked by how quickly the baby descended and was poised to enter the world.

10:16 - 10:27 am - Pushed through 4 contractions at a total of 11 minutes time. (In stark contrast to Katelyn's delivery where I pushed for 2 hours.)

10:27 am - OUR BABY IS HERE!! The doctor asked Michael if he wanted to announce the sex. He stood there looking for something that would confirm our strong convictions that I was carrying a boy. And I mean we were convinced. And so many of our friends, family, and neighbors were too. Even one of the nurses insisted it would be a boy based on how round my belly was. I told several people that if it was a girl, I would fall off the bed. Michael announced - "It's... it's... it's a GIRL!!!" - Oh my gosh! We were both beyond surprised, but over the moon for the gift of another sweet baby girl.

She was for sure the biggest surprise of our lives. In fact, while I was tossing and turning the night before, I began to have feelings of "It's too bad, we won't really be surprised  - we know it's a boy and we'll miss out on the real surprise factor." God had other plans. And He was surely snickering, "Gotcha!!" at 10:27 am. It was a wonderful, beautiful, and an indescribably fulfilling experience. And for the record, I didn't fall off the bed but was close ;)

About Kendall's name - Since we were certain we'd have a boy, we had to revisit our girl name list and whittle our top 8 picks down to just one. This took awhile - like 3 hours or so. We just stared at "her" and asked, "Does she look like a ___?" which ruled out several names and solidified others. It came down to two names and we just really love the name Kendall and we think the name suits her perfectly. We like the way the name sounds with our family and think it's a nice complement to Katelyn. Her middle name is Jean, which is my middle name. It's also both of my grandma's middle names - Verla Jean and Mairlys Jean. Isn't that cool? We love that we're carrying that name through another generation.

The entire experience of bringing Kendall into the world was incredible. Everything went smoothly and  swiftly (in the end anyway!) and the ultimate gift is sweeter than we ever imagined. We thank God for all that He did to bring Kendall into our lives.

The Best Surprise Ever

SHE'S HERE! Yep, SHE! Our months of waiting and wondering who would be joining our family came to a sweet culmination on Tuesday morning. It was hands-down the best surprise we've ever experienced.

Kendall Jean Mlakar

August 7, 2012

10:27 am

7 lbs. 15 oz.

21 in.

She truly is a gift directly from the hand of God.

We are so very thankful for all of your well-wishes and messages of congratulations. What a way to enter the world: Kendall is already surrounded by so many wonderful family members and friends! 

With more love than we dreamed possible for our sweet Kendall, but running a major deficit in the sleep department, we'll leave you with some of her first pictures for now. More about Kendall, big sister Katelyn, our growing family, and Kendall's birth story to come. Until then, enjoy the photos!

This post is officially sealed with a kiss. Muah!! 

Patiently Waiting

Have you ever seen a soon-to-be-sibling simultaneously practicing and contemplating the imminent new role? Have a looksie...

This Kodak moment was taken yesterday afternoon and it... melts. my. heart.

As for any baby updates, we're still waiting, waiting, anticipating. And at least trying to be patient in the process :) 

I am scheduled for an induction on Wednesday morning of this week. Aside from the fact that I'm extremely uncomfortable (which I never felt even in the final days with Katelyn), my doctor thinks the baby is going to be big and doesn't want to risk any trouble related to his/her size and the delivery. I'm not thrilled about the prospect of being induced as I'd rather this little one come on his/her own, so we're hoping he/she pulls a Katelyn and decides to arrive a couple hours prior to the scheduled eviction induction. Thank you in advance for any thoughts and prayers that might help make this a reality :)

Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support, love, and encouragement throughout this pregnancy and the life changes ahead - it means more to us than you know. And with that, Team Mlakar will be back in touch when we have the newest member of our roster to introduce to you!