I can't believe my baby is 5-months!

I cannot believe Kennedi is already 5-months. Next month she will be half-a-year old. How did that happen?
Time really does just fly by.

Kennedi at 5-months:

*still only 11 lbs. She eats like crazy, so it blows me away! We have tried some rice cereal and some pureed fruits and she has sucked them down from the very first try.

*has started to roll from tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy.

*started grabbing toys and putting them in her mouth. She can't move much still, but if they are right near her she is able to get them.

*started grabbing her toys and eating them. I love it! It's one of my favorite things that my babies do.

*will only sleep on her side with her head turned up. I swear her neck has to get sore. Trevor calls her "little neck-cranker" and "round facer". They are endearing terms, haha

Kennedi is still behind developmentally since she was early, but I'm thinking she will catch-up quick just like Mckinlie did.

Dad's thoughts on Kennedi at 5-months:

Kennedis 5 months of life has gone fast. Shes has had a surgery already but She is though and recovered well. She has a very pretty smile and is pretty talkative. It's fun waking up to her talking in the mornings. She loves to look at herself in the mirror above her swing. My favorite thing is that she how easy going she is, just likes to hang out and enjoy life whether it's playing on the floor or being carried around while chasing mckinlie. 



She is such a happy and content baby. She is so sweet and always has a smile for us. I can't remember what life was like before adding her to our family. We couldn't be happier! I'm so excited for the next stages, they are my very favorite and I'm excited to see her start interacting more.

We love you, Kennedi!

Christmas 2012

This is the first year that Mckinlie is old enough to somewhat understand Christmas. We were so excited to celebrate with her.

We didn't really talk with her much about Santa, because we thought she wouldn't understand. Boy, were we wrong. One day, she saw a Santa on tv and said, "Santa! Ho,ho,ho!" . We have no idea where she picked it up from but it was so adorable. We tried to visit him at the mall and waited in that long long line. As soon as we got up there she freaked out and we didn't end up getting a picture with him. Sad days! 

We had our ward Christmas party & they had a cute photo booth there. That had to serve as our "Santa" picture for the year.

On Christmas Eve, we wanted to start some new traditions. We had a random dinner on the floor in front of a movie. Our dinner consisted of some of our favorite appetizers. Some of them we bought and some we made. We LOVED it and it's for sure a keeper.

Then we made cookies for Santa. I procrastinated and the only frosting left at the store was pink with pink sprinkles. Luckily Mckinlie was too young to notice or care. She sat on the counter and did awesome at spreading frosting on the cookies, and oh, eating them too.

   She always eats like this. I'm not sure where she got this from. We try to get her to use her fork, but it was
   too cute this time.

 I don't have many pictures of opening gifts but she got a cute doll set that has a pack-n-play, car seat, highchair, bouncer, etc. She loves it! She also got a little people car, pillow pet, clothes, etc. Her most favorite thing that morning was the cartons of goldfish snacks in her stocking. She had all of these new toys all around her and she just wanted to be left alone to eat her goldfish. She did get a wagon from Grandma & Grandpa and she was in heaven. She pulled it around the house all day with the dog and her dolls in it. She so badly wanted Kennedi to get in, too. She was so devastated that it had to go into the crawlspace and be put away that night. We can't wait to use it this next summer. Kennedi will be 1 and old enough to sit up in it. We can't wait!

Kennedi just hung around mostly. We didn't think she would be too into it this year, but she LOVED looking at everything. She got an exersaucer and it's been so nice. My arms get tired from holding her up because she loves to stand 24/7.

It was so much fun celebrating with the kids this year and will be even more fun next year when they are older!

Kennedi's Blessing

Our sweet Kennedi was blessed & given a name on December 2nd, 2012. She was just over 4-months-old. We wanted to do it in November, but we had her surgery that month so we postponed.

Sadly I only took 1 picture. I really have to be better at taking more. Trevor gave a beautiful blessing & it's exciting to think of all that's in store for this little girl. 

c

Zoo Visit with the Simister's

In November, we went to visit the zoo with some friends. We love our neighbors, the Simisters. 

Camille has 3 boys & she brought her two youngest. The kids stayed in the stroller all bundled up, but still had fun. I didn't take too many pictures, but I love the ones that I got quickly. We've taken Mckinlie 3 times so far in her little life, but I've taken kids a ton in my nannying years. I've never seen so many active animals, like we did this day. It was so fun! 

I let Mckinlie out of her stroller for a little while. Her poor little legs can't keep up & She was just getting ran over by all the people there. She mostly enjoyed all the animals in her cozy stroller, while eating her lunch. 

Kennedi just came along for the ride & enjoyed it

It was a fun, quick trip. We love having such awesome neighbors. It's been fun for sure as we didn't really have friends when we lived in Heber. We rented in a VERY well-to-do neighborhood and everyone was much much older. Camille is in the upper level of the house & takes my monitor to listen for Mckinlie during nap so I can run errands. It's SO nice to have someone to do that. She has a baby a few months older than Kennedi and we switch off with nap-time duty so the other can get out kid-free. Here's a little funny fact: Our kids all have presidential names with the exception of 1 who is a city. 

Their kids:  Jackson (Jaxon), Lincoln & Boston.

Our kids: Mckinlie & Kennedi

That makes me giggle. Our boy name is Carter. We seriously did not at all plan that and didn't realize that they were president names for awhile. If we ever have another girl, her name might have to be Reagan after our favorite president. 

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.