Kennedis surgery

My sweet baby finally had her surgery to fix her breathing.
She has Laryngomalacia. The best way I can explain it, is that she has floppy tissue that partially blocks her airway and makes her breathing noisy.

We went on November 9th for her surgery at Primary Children's. We had to go in super early in the morning, as she couldn't eat from midnight on. The poor thing did not at all understand why we were not feeding her when she was so hungry. I felt so bad. Grandma Heber came to stay the night before with Mckinlie.

Waiting to be admitted:

They prepped her for surgery and did a quick-check. They checked her throat with a tongue depressor and she latched onto that thing and sucked like crazy. When no food came out of it, she flipped. She was so starving. Poor thing was exhausted, hungry and in a new environment but was still so good. She is really the most complacent baby ever. Kennedi has the super easy-going personality of her dad.


They dressed her in her little gown and we had to carry her down the hall. We got to the doors and had to hand her over to the Dr. I felt so sad that we had to just leave her and knowing she had to be put under and go under the knife, but the Dr was so loving with her that I was comforted.

We waited in the waiting room, had snacks, surfed the internet and kept watching for the Dr to walk down the hall. They called our names and they explained what they did, showed us pictures of the inside of her throat while the actual surgery was being done, and told us how she did. The Dr said that he really didn't think that she was full-term when they induced me. He said that she had a hard-time breathing while putting her under, and something about her acting like a preemie in that way. That def didn't make me feel better about agreeing to be induced. But at the same time, we didn't know how my pancreatitis would effect her if there were another flair-up, so it was really a toss-up.

They let one parent go in for awhile to comfort her and then the other can join when you get put in your room. I followed them to her hospital crib & my heart was so broken. The poor thing was all bundled up with wires everywhere. She screamed a lot while I rocked her & they said it was from waking up and still being drugged up.

Poor thing had some issues with not having enough oxygen and had to have the mask for the first day. The day of the surgery was so rough and she hardly took a break from crying.

Trevor went home to stay with Mckinlie & send Grandma home. I stayed until  6pm and then we switched. I had a migraine and was worn-out from rocking my constantly screaming baby for 6 hours. I had my share of hospital stays in the past year, so he stayed overnight with her and I took Mckinlie home.

The next day, her pain was managed, her oxygen was great & she was MUCH happier. It had snowed and the roads were so bad so Trevor bundled her up and took Trax home that runs right in front of the hospital.

Kennedi's breathing is better, but is still there. Most people are curious, but super nice about her breathing. We have had a few people during church that look back at us multiple times and give us looks. Sorry, I know it can be a little distracting but she's not going to stop breathing by you looking back here a million times. I even had someone tell me that she needed to have that noise checked out because she was obviously sick and we should be taking care of that. Yup, we just let our poor baby suffer and don't take care of her AT ALL. *sigh*

This whole process has made us super grateful for our healthy children. This was just a small set-back and we are lucky that it's not anything more serious. It has made me more empathetic to families with sick kids. I saw a lot while we were at Primary Children's and it broke my heart.

We love you, Kennedi!

BFFs

I'm so glad that we had the prompting to have Kennedi when we did. Mckinlie is loving being a big sister & they are already so close. As soon as Kennedi gets a little older, they will have so much fun playing. I really can't wait. 

Mckinlie loves to play with Kennedi. I think Kennedi must feel the same way ;)

She constantly asks me to put the baby in her doll stroller and her lego wagon so that she can push her around. It's adorable and Kennedi just goes with the flow. While Mckinlie runs around playing, Kennedi will lay on the floor and watch her. If Mckinlie notices, she'll go over and show her some toys and pat her back. Kennedi grins SO big when she sees sister coming. Lately, Mckinlie has been really into shoving her fake food into Kennedi's mouth and making eating sounds. The first time that happened, I thought that Kennedi would be annoyed and cry, but she LOVED it and couldn't stop smiling through her mouth-full of plastic cupcake. 

Mckinlie loves to bring toys over, pry Kennedi's fingers open and put a toy in her hand. 

Sometimes I'll ask Mckinlie to hold her sister while I do something and she will happily stretch out her arms and hold her while she watches a movie. It's so cute. 

I love to watch them interact together all day & look forward to watching them become the best of friends. 

Hello, Dr Bean!

It was time for another round of Dr visits. The girls go to my pediatrician that I had growing up. We love her!
She moved from Cottonwood to the South Jordan office, which is less than 10 minutes from our house.

We had Mckinlie's 18-month visit & Kennedi's 2-month visit. Here are the stats:


Mckinlie (18-months):  32.5 inches Tall & 22.10 lbs.

Kennedi: (2-months) :    22.0 inches Tall & 8.13 lbs.

Mckinlie is the the 50% percentile for everything. The Dr was shocked by how intelligent she was and how much she knew. The Dr brings in a book each time & reads it to Mckinlie and gives it to her as a gift. Mckinlie made the Dr read it to her a few extra times. She also made her look in her kitty's ears with the light. That also had to be done multiple times ;) The Dr bribed her to lay still on the table by giving her cheddar bunnies that I had brought. Worked like a charm!

Kennedi will be on the lower end for awhile, since she was born smaller. She is only 8 pounds, but growing           well and on-track. We were worried about the sounds that she constantly makes, and I was so sure that it was reflux. The Dr thinks it could be a little more than that, so she referred us to an ENT Dr at the Primary Children's extension in Riverton. She is getting in with them asap. After we get that figured out, she would like to meet with us again about putting a helmet on Kennedi. The poor girl's head is a little misshaped. She will rock that helmet and be the cutest helmet-wearing baby on the planet!

  

Shots were after, and well...Mckinlie's face says it all & Kennedi had never cried so hard. So sad!

  

I also talked to Dr Bean, since she was my Dr for years and years, about my pancreatitis. I asked her for some suggestions since no other Dr that I have had, has cared to figure much out. She referred me to a Dr that she knew of that apparently is a genius. He is full, but she is calling him for a favor and getting me in.
Again, we love her. She is so loving to our kids & kissed Mckinlie over & over as she was checking her out. She takes plenty of time to check the kids out and explain things to us.

After, we went to lunch with Dad and enjoyed our day. Thanks Dad, for coming with us to help. I have NO idea how I would've done it without him.

General Conference 2012

We invited Uncle Tyler & Cousin Bella to watch the Sunday session of Conference with us.

On Saturday I prepared by making the girls some "Conference baskets". They consisted of a few healthier snacks, crayons, markers, a stuffed animal & some church books. I had it perfectly planned out in my mind. They were going to both sit quietly at the kid table in front of the tv to color and have snacks. They also were going to keep their snacks on the blanket in the living room. Yeah, right. I should just know by now that kids=chaos and that is just going to be my life now.
That doesn't mean I'll quit hoping and organizing, though. ;)

Bella is used to being the big sister that gets to boss the little sister around. Mckinlie is used to being the big bossy sister, too. Bella was bugged that Mckinlie was getting into her stuff and Mckinlie thought of everything as hers that Bella had. They annoyed each other a little, but mostly had lots of fun. We didn't hear much of conference and I ended up with squeeze fruit in my carpet. All that aside, it was worth it to see them have enjoy each other so much and we can't wait for cousin Bella to come over again. Hopefully by then we can teach Mckinlie to share. Wishful thinking, much?

Our house IS the zoo

Okay, Okay. Maybe calling our house "a zoo" is a little dramatic. Adjusting to 2 kids hasn't been that bad. In fact, going a lot smoother than we ever could have hoped.
In August, we took Mckinlie to the zoo. Kennedi tagged along in the stroller and slept the whole time, of course                                                                                              

                                                   

Mckinlie LOVED it. I can only imagine that she will love it even more next year. She left worn out and took an awesome nap. Kennedi will be 1 during our annual visit next year and they'll both be a blast!

Sisterly Love

I was so anxious for Trevor to bring Mckinlie to the hospital to meet Kennedi. From the second that I got that positive on the pregnancy test, I was full of worry about how it was going to effect Mckinlie.

I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Mckinlie walked in the room and was in love with her sister from the very moment that she saw her. She wanted to hold her every chance that she got. It was adorable & something that I will never forget. I will forever be grateful that we were able to give that gift to her. 

It changed her life forever...in the best way possible. 

Mckinlie is overly helpful and hardly gave Kennedi the chance to breathe. She observes what we do with her and does exactly the same thing. We bought her a baby and had Kennedi give it to her as a welcome gift. Mckinlie has to carry it around everywhere. She burps it, feeds it a bottle, swaddles it, rocks it and sings rock-a-bye-baby to it. 

We love seeing our girls together and can't remember the times before they were together. It's going to be a blast watching them grow-up and be so close. It's not always easy, but their age difference is going to great for them. My sister & I are 4-years-apart and were always at different stages, so Mckinlie is super lucky to have a close sister. I'll have to remind her of that when she gets a little older ;)

And this is what our backseat looked like as we left the hospital. Crazy! 

Our Family Grows-Welcome Kennedi!

                                                   

 Kennedi Grace Edwards

July 25th, 2012 

5lbs. 9 oz. 181/2 inches 

Mckinlie came 4-weeks early on her own, and I guess Kennedi didn't want to be shown up by her sister. 

When I was about 35-weeks pregnant, I had a random flair-up of pancreatitis. I hadn't had issues since December so it was totally out-of-the-blue. My OB was worried that it may happen again before I delivered, so he came to visit me while I was hospitalized and asked me to come in as soon as I was released and talk to him about a possible induction. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that. 

When I went into his office, I was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. We talked about the pros and cons & set a date for that next Wednesday with the possibility that she may even come before then on her own. That was on a Friday. For the following 6 days, we were on edge for sure. I had never got into labor on my own, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The day before my induction was the 24th of July and we almost didn't go to Heber like we do every year. We decided to brave it and get out one last time as a family of 3.

The next morning, we took pictures of us & our only child one last time. It was bittersweet for sure. 

Aunt Jill & Cousin Sydni came to stay with Mckinlie and off we went! We got to the hospital at about 8am & were put straight into the room. I wanted to have an enjoyable birth experience like I had with M, so I got my epidural right away. My Dr showed up & checked me and I had progressed to 5 CM since he had seen me last. I for sure wouldn't have made it to my due-date. He broke my water at about 9:30 am. The epidural made me sleepy and so I napped while Trevor worked on his laptop. They kept checking me and I was progressing SO slow. It was around 11:30 and I decided to send Trevor home to give Jill the carseat so that they could leave. Right as he was getting up to go, they came in to check me and I was at a 10 and ready to push! Good thing he hadn't left yet. They set-up and my OB started coaching me through pushing. (I LOVED him. He really was my favorite Dr that I've had so far. If anyone needs an OB I highly recommend Dr Stephen Dinger in the Granger Medical Riverton Clinic. He's gotta be close to 70 so by the time I have my next baby he'll likely be retired). I pushed for only 14 minutes & our little baby was here!

She was just like her sister in that she didn't really cry, just looked around. They were worried that she had swallowed something so they let us see her for a minute and took her to the nursery for the first hour. Trevor left to get Mckinlie and I was wheeled to my recovery room. Another mom in the hall was shocked that I had just literally had a baby and couldn't believe it because I was so "put together". I literally could have a million babies because my labor & deliveries are so ridiculously relaxing, easy & a fun experience. I have loved both times and looked forward to it. Hopefully I don't jinx myself by saying that. 

Welcome Kennedi Grace! We are so glad that you have joined our family & you are the most perfect addition. It's hard to believe that we are now the parents of two beautiful girls.