Florida!

The annual charity golf tournament for Noah (Kai's middle name is Noah after him) was a fantastic excuse to visit Al & Cindy in Florida and have them meet Kai. They are perfect hosts and even went so far as to accommodate us with a pack n play for Kai. Plus, who doesn't love putting the kid to bed and then relaxing poolside (monitor in hand)?


Aaaaaaaand, we're new at this. Next time we travel we'll take pictures of something other than Kai. Until then, enjoy this picture of Cindy and Kai specifically designed to make Aunt Gayle jealous. But then, we also were in charge of her husband and son for the weekend, so who really was jealous is up for debate.


We got to meet LINCOLN! Alli and Paul had us over for dinner in their home in Fort Myers at the end of our trip. We threw some food together and rushed through a quick evening baby-style. He's adorable and they are fantabulous parents. Now, if I could only finagle a master bath for myself and assign Jon the "other bathroom," my life might be so sweet! Thanks, Al!

At the end of the trip we took two nights to be a family on vacation. Kai was good natured and flexible, as usual. He was a bit indifferent about the ocean, but he did like trying to eat insects out of the sand.

For future reference, I'm drawing up a formal sign up sheet for grown-up time. The mid-afternoon swap for free time was awesome. I posted to Facebook from the tiki bar and Jon drank Miller Lite (I know...) in the cabana we rented on the beach, while the other hung with Kai.





Oh, and apparently my child is a saint; no one around us on either flight had any trouble with him. I'm pretty sure the boob gets some credit on this one!

First Video of Kai "Crawling"

Sorry about the quality. My Droid apparently had something on the lens.

We're starting to pack for Florida on Friday morning, I'll have lots to share after that.

Pictures!

We had Louisa Podlich of Louisa Marion Photography (she's on Facebook) take some shots of Kai several weeks ago. We ended up with a lot of really great shots! I used to babysit Louisa back in the day, so it was nice to reconnect. You can see the rest of the shots by following this link: http://louisapodlich.smugmug.com/Portraits/Kai-Noah/11148364_33Jro#781310112_UUKfb

We've settled into a pretty solid routine. Kai's a pretty mellow kid. He's eating a few new foods lately including mango, yogurt and cottage cheese. He's mastering the sippy cup. He's just about to sit independently, but doesn't seem too anxious to crawl. He's been in daycare at the Mansoors for several weeks now, and they're really great with him. There are no other kids in their home right now though, so we're hoping that changes soon. He's still with my mom two days a week, too. We're starting ECFE tomorrow, so that will get him some time with other little kids once a week.

We've been going to physical therapy for his torticollis (the muscle on one side of his neck is tighter/shorter than the other). As a result of the torticollis, one side of the back of his head is a bit flat and one side bulges, and it's also created a little bit of asymmetry in his face. The specialist said it could get better with time now that he's spending less time on his back, but if we are going to address it, we need to do it now because treatment isn't effective after 12 months and the course is usually 3 months. So, we're getting the helmet.

Here's a picture from the scan that they use to make it.

It was a tough call to make. A little flat spot on his head isn't a big deal, but I talked with someone who opted out and regretted it later. If he's miserable in it, we'll quit, but maybe he won't mind it.

We're headed to Peoria for Easter. Kai hasn't seen grandma and grandpa since November, so we're looking forward to that. AND, we're going to Florida to see Al & Cindy and Alli and Paul in May! I'm looking forward to digging his little toes into the sand.

For Grandma Bev and Grandpa Harry

Baby's Best Friend

First Foods!

This whole experience seems to be picking up momentum...Kai has had his first taste of "solid" food, just a bit shy of six months old. I spent an afternoon a couple of weeks ago making apples, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes and butternut squash into little single serving cubes for him, so that is working pretty well. He's game for a couple of bites and then starts resisting and arching his back- I'm sure it's just early, but I better not be raising a picky eater.

Kai is getting more playful by the second. Jon is all over this age, too. I'm not sure who does more squealing and giggling, but the two of them seem to have a really good time together. Jon is NOT timid about making up songs, making faces, all of it, and Kai lights up when he sees him. Ugh, getting all emotional.

We went up to Sugarloaf this weekend with the family. It was a lot easier than in the past because he is good to stay awake for longer periods of time so we aren't tiptoeing around him sleeping in the cabin all the time. We just kept him up until 9 or 10 and then one of us went to bed early with him. We're back up on MLK weekend and we're hoping that it's warm enough to have him stay in one of the cabins. Hopefully we can use the monitor from C2 to C3 so he can keep on his regular
schedule, and we can keep on ours (staying up late at SL!).

With the help of my dad and an old IRA that Jon had, we've put some money aside for Kai for school. My dad plans to make an annual contribution- and we intend to continue adding, but he's got enough to pay for a semester's worth of books by 2027. Seriously, though, if tuition continues to rise like it has in the last 10 years, I don't know how we will afford college- or even expect our kids to want to take on those loans.

Here's a video of Kai's first bites of food. And me being bossy. Slow down! Clean him up! Take a break! It's a wonder I let Jon do anything at all.

We're Adjusting...

He's getting so big, probably around 17 pounds, and so strong. He's rolling and scooting in his crib. He laughs a lot. He's sleeping like a champ at night, still just getting up to eat every 3-6 hours. He's just a generally good natured kid.

Kai, Jon and I went to see the MNRG Allstars slaughter the Hammer City Rollergirls a couple of weeks ago. Kai wore his skull t-shirt and was mighty stylin. We met Greg and Daisy's (MNRG volunteers) baby girl Harmony who was only 5 weeks at the bout. Kai was totally mellow all night- until he fell asleep just shy of the end of the bout. He seemed enamoured by the lights and sounds...and his dad's cheering! I think we'll probably only bring him occasionally. Don't get me wrong, there was still a little bit of PBR involved, but it's definitely a different experience with a baby and a diaper bag.

We also brought a bunch of people up to Sugarloaf with us this last weekend. It was great to be able to integrate our family and friends...especially when it involved, "Here, why don't you take the baby for a while?" Everyone was really helpful with Kai. Jon and I assigned ourselves each a night to take him to bed early so the other could stay up late. We ate too much and drank some good bourbon. We didn't get to Taboo, but there was some thorough enjoyment of Gordon Lightfoot and the XM 90's channel to make up for any lost laughs.

Tonight we have a sitter for the first time in like two months (Thanks, Jolene). We're having drinks at the Turf, grabbing a bite to eat and going to see the Coen Brothers' most recent release, A Serious Man. I CAN'T WAIT. Love the kid, just miss the time alone with my husband!

Photo credit: Sam Stoltz

Talking

Kai has found his voice. And so, apparently, has Jon.

Gurgling, laughing, rolling, bouncin and pooping WAY less

Well, it's been a trip. If I am completely honest about the first two month of having a baby at home, I'm not very nice. It was exhausting. We have challenged the limits of our patience. How do twin babies survive?! We are pretty responsive, and we have followed some of the tenets of attachment parenting and seriously- killer.

And then, all of the sudden, we have this happy little kid that laughs and smiles and coos and play UPRIGHT in an exersaucer. It's insane. And he sleeps 12 HOURS a night waking briefly to eat. It's 5 am now, and unfortunately I don't always wake only briefly for our midnight feedings. So, I'll keep up better as the momentum of milestones picks up a bit. Here are some pictures of the last few months. I'll try to post a video of him "talking" too.

Update from 4 month appointment: Kai is meeting all of his milestones- rolled over for the first time yesterday!  He's 26 inches long, 16 pounds.  75 percentile for everything.

Delivery

4:45 am on Saturday July 11th, my water broke. It was a lot less dramatic sensation than I thought, there was no gush, no honey-this-is-it moment. The contents of the toilet were cloudy and it didn't feel like urine. And it just kind of kept coming slowly. A few minutes passed and I woke Jon and said the magic words, "I think my water broke."

We arrived at the hospital within the hour. Because I'm group B strep positive (google it) it was pretty important for me to get to the hospital immediately and start a regiment of antibiotics to protect the baby against related complications. And then we waited. And waited. And waited for labor to start. After a couple of hours we got a little more proactive, walking the hospital, sitting on the birthing ball hoping gravity and using my core muscles would help, and even pumping. All day Saturday as the midwives shifts changed they came in with to monitor my vitals - they had varying limitations on how long they wanted to let me go before the evil Pitocin would be introduced, but I never imagined I'd have to worry about it, something like 80% of women go into labor within 24 hours of ruptured membranes. On Saturday night they offered me an antihistamine and some narcotic, I think Morphine, to make sure I got a good night of rest. I took the antihistamine, but skipped the Morphine.






























I got a few hours of sleep. On Sunday morning the midwife, Rebecca, was mysteriously absent. We would come to find out later that she was kind of pushing the envelope letting me go to see if I would go into labor. Around 2pm we had "the talk" about Pitocin. If we were going to have to induce, we didn't want to get too much later into the night- so that I would have the energy to labor well. So, at 4pm, 36 hours after my water broke, they induced me.

Giving birth was the most physically challenging thing I have ever done, but the physical and emotional exhaustion that followed, along with hormones and adrenaline, quickly hazed my memories key hours of the event.

Mostly, I was really inside myself. Hours of trying to get my body to work efficiently with what the pitocin was doing to me were punctuated by milestones in labor. The first few contractions were scary. I knew they would get worse, more intense, closer together, but I couldn't think how I would survive the ones I was experiencing. I closed myself in the bathroom for a bit to try to right myself.

And then I just did it. It hurt. It really hurt. And I occasionally had a few seconds of a break between contractions to say something salty or tell people to leave me alone. Jon bathed me in ice water and coached me on my sounds and kept me focused. MM cheered me on (without sounding cheery), supported Jon however she could and documented the events for us.

When I got to 7 cm, we moved the caravan of stuff from our room to the waterbirth room. The tub was soothing, but not as dramatically different as I had anticipated. I was probably more comfortable laboring on the toilet. I had hoped to deliver in the tub, it seemed a gentler birth for baby, but the monitors became cumbersome and it became difficult for the midwife to keep good track of Kai's heartrate.

So, out from the tub, loaded up on the bed and ready to go back to my room, I heard someone say that they will need a clinician. I didn't know what that meant, but I guessed maybe a doctor. The midwife said the baby was in distress and started having me change positions to get Kai to respond with a more favorable heartrate. The position changes hurt. Jon was right in my face, looking at me intently, trying to distract me. I was thinking that a c-section was in my future.




Some time passed and then then it was time to push. I don't know how many times I pushed...not more than a few and at 2:21am, he was born. I heard someone say that the clinician was no longer needed, the baby was fine. I never really had the time or energy to react or be afraid of how Kai was. I didn't even have the context to know when to be concerned. But when they pulled him up on my chest he was blue. Blue like...BLUE. And I just couldn't believe he was okay, but they rubbed him and he cried and he was fine.

I pulled him to my breast and he tried to latch right away. The position was all wrong and we were both tired, but he knew what he was supposed to do. I held him as I delivered the placenta (no one ever talks about that, but it's like delivering a preemie twin...not pleasant.).


MM, Jon, Kai and I hung around for a while, maybe a couple of hours? And then Jon took MM home and I took a bath while Kai got his. We spent a little while working on feeding and then we slept.