Playing Catch-Up: Kollyn Months 0 - 7

I'm terrible about blogging....Really terrible. Though I don't feel too bad about it because I've been so focused on Kollyn and her growing and budding personality. Because of this, this post is going to be really long. I plan on blogging at least once a month (I'd like to do it once a week but that's definitely not going to happen) about that month's biggest happenings.

Kollyn has grown so much in the last 7 months. She has two teeth, one (the bottom left) she cut on her 6 month birthday, and her second (bottom right) was 2 weeks later (to the day) when she was 6.5 months old. She is very much her Daddy's girl. She loves to talk, is very loud, and is getting more and more social everyday. She hates being left alone in a room and now that she is crawling all over the place, if we leave her in a room she quickly follows us where ever we are. She is such a quick learner and loves to play, smile, and pull hair. She likes laughing but her giggles are hard to come by, unless it's David. He can get her laughs from her whenever he wants and I love that they have such a special bond. She is into everything and basically has no fear. The vacuum intrigues her, she eyes the stairs with the eye of a mountain climber, and is constantly trying to see how far she can push her boundaries.

She is probably the world's best kid. We are so lucky to have her. I keep thinking that she is the perfect baby for us, especially since we weren't planning on having children this soon after we got married and we were really scared that on top of having a surprise baby we'd have a high needs baby. Our prayers there were definitely answered. She sleeps through the night, has been since 6 weeks, likes to play by herself even though she likes having someone in the room with her, and is just so happy pretty much all the time.

She is always making the funniest faces. This face was when she was two weeks old. I was so lucky to capture it on camera because she hasn't made it since. But she definitely has her wide range of emotions and crazy faces. She's a ham, but very seldom actually makes her faces for the camera. We are lucky to get them at all.

She loves her cousins. She loves spending time with them, playing with them, reading with them, and laughing with them. She loves being held by them and being shown new things. These are just a few of the many pictures I have of her with her cousins. 

This is her meeting her new cousin Owen for the first time. She was enthralled and loved watching him. It was weird to look at him and think that she use to be that size. She's grown so much!

It was very special to me that I was able to take some pictures of my first child with my grandparents. They have been so supportive of me through everything and I am glad I have pictures of her with them. Especially since at the beginning of May, my dear Nana passed away. She had suffered from many health problems for much of the time I knew her, yet most days she seemed very happy and tried to put on a brave face. I am so glad that I was able to get some pictures of her with Kollyn so I will have those memories and be able to show Kollyn that her Great-Grandma Nana loved her and was so happy she was here.

 I especially love this one of Nana and Gramps looking down at her and her looking up at them.

Kollyn loves her Daddy. I wasn't able to breastfeed, probably won't be able to with any of my kids, and thankfully David was so willing to help take care of her, feed her, get up with her in the night. He has been the most amazing father that I could ask for to Kollyn. I believe that he really needed that bonding time that comes with feeding (the unexpected pregnancy was very hard on both of us, but I believe it was harder on him because he wasn't experiencing it like I was). I believe that he was able to develop that connection that he has with her because he was able to do those middle of the night feeding sessions and getting to experience that closeness with her. 

I love how excited she gets when he comes home from work. She smiles the minute she sees him, she watches the door like a hawk (she seems to know when it's almost time for him to get home), and when I say "Who's that?" She starts crawling toward the door as fast as she can. She loves him so much. He can get her to giggle and laugh like no one else can. She's definitely a Daddy's girl. Here are some of my favorite pictures of my two loves.

During our failed attempt at co-sleeping. She's too much of a wiggler to make it happen, but they sure did love snuggling together and sleeping a lot.

The look on her face makes me so happy. She literally stared at him like that all through dinner one night. She loves having him as her Dad.

They love playing in the water together. She loves to sit and watch things going on around her from the safety of Dad's lap.

He loves feeding her, whether it's a bottle or actual food. And she loves having him feed her.

I had a hard time at the beginning of her life and suffered from pretty intense postpartum depression. I'm not afraid to admit it (at least not now), and I'm glad that David had the courage to go above me and talk to my doctor. I needed a lot of help and wasn't willing to admit it. I've been on medication for it and it has really helped a ton, like a total night and day difference. I was feeling very upset because I didn't feel that immediate connection and bond that you hear about when I first saw Kollyn. It took me a couple months to get that warm fuzzy "glow" that you expect when you have a baby. Now, I love doing things with her and we are best buddies. :)

A little blurry but we had the same face in this picture

Kollyn has had a lot of fun experiencing new things. She gets to one milestone and can't wait to get to the next. She hits them all right on time, or early, and is growing so fast and I love it. I'm one of those strange moms I guess, the ones that can't wait for their kids to grow up. I am loving each new stage. Sometimes I think back to the baby she was and wish for those snuggles, but I love watching her grow, develop, and show her personality more and more everyday.

Kollyn's first Christmas!

She use to love being snuggled and would fall asleep almost instantly. Now she doesn't care for it so much unless it's David doing it.

She loves to be outside and go on walks in her stroller. She is a total outdoor girl and would play outside all day if we let her.

She does really well in the car. She use to hate it but seems to have learned that car seats aren't so bad and that car rides can be fun.

She loves to smile and laugh. These smiles are kind of illusive, I only have a few pictures of them, but I love how big she smiles and how her face crinkles up sometimes when she does.

She loves to move. She has been bouncing from birth basically, and the arms of anyone would held her for a while would get really sore, so my sister Melissa let us borrow their Jumperoo. It has been a lifesaver! She could bounce in there for hours. A few times she's even bounced herself to sleep in there!

The day she learned to sit up for longer than a minute without falling over, May 17 2014. She was 5.5 months old. 

We went to the zoo on Memorial Day with some new friends of ours (they have a little girl not much older than Kollyn) and Kollyn seemed to really enjoy it. She liked looking at the animals, meeting another baby friend, and chewing on the fan they gave us.

Kollyn's first selfie! ;)

Sharing David's shoelace with her baby friend. One of David's friends from Texas (where we are for the summer because of David's internship) had a baby about 2 months ago. When Kollyn first met her, she was so excited and tried to crawl over to her and share the shoelace with the baby. It was really cute.

Once we found out which toys she liked, we used them to motivate her to sit up. She didn't like to sit up because she wasn't moving around. So we enticed her with toys and she has become a regular pro.

June 15 2014, exactly 6.5 months old, Kollyn learned to crawl. All she needed was incentive and that came in the form of David's shiny, red, Xbox controller. She would  crawl after it when we put it just out of her reach. Once she learned how, it only took a couple days to get to the point where she wasn't falling on her stomach every 2 feet. She is going all over the place now.

And it isn't just David's controller that entices her. She loves following mine across the room too.

She wanted to work out with Dad.

Another controller picture.

We love our little family, and we've had some pretty fun adventures together. When Kollyn was about 4 months old, David's grandfather (Grandpa Cunningham) passed away. It wasn't long after David had hurt his knee (at the airport he fell on the escalator trying to get back to my nephew who, totally out of character, didn't want to go down once we had gotten on) and he had needed to drop out of the semester so he could focus on physical therapy and healing, and because he couldn't actually sit for that long with his knee bent. We decided it was best for us to the go to Arizona for the funeral and left the day we found out when the funeral was, since it was the next day. We stayed with a friend of mine in Las Vegas (thanks to Sara, Jacob, and Vince for letting us crash at your house!) and finished the trip up. We made it to the church just in time for the funeral. Kollyn did amazing in the car. She slept a lot, played with her toys, and was overall a happy baby.

On the way back up from the funeral, we went to the Hoover Dam (to celebrate Kollyn's 4 month birthday) and had a lot of fun walking around with her in the Ergo baby carrier (thanks for the recommendation Carlee!). We didn't stay for long, but we did have a good time there.

Kollyn's blessing was on December 29, 2013. She was almost a month old. We did it at my parent's ward in Midway, Utah. We did it then because that was when David's parents were in town for the holidays and we wanted them to be a part of it. It was a really special experience. She wore a dress and booties my parents had brought home with them from Estonia just for her. It was very special hearing David bless our little girl with the things every parent hopes their children will have: health, happiness, and a good life. Then we had friends and family over to my parent's house for lunch.

When Kollyn was 4.5 months old, we decided to try starting her on solid foods. Her first experience was oatmeal and she seemed to really like it. She had already had a small amount of mashed potatoes (from dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house, they're David's grandparents) and really enjoyed them. She did really well and learned how to use the spoon quit quickly. We didn't get heavy into feeding her solids until after we moved to Texas when she was 5 months old. As of now she's had squash, peas, carrots, pears, peaches, apples, mangos, baby yogurt, bread, mashed potatoes, bananas, and chicken. She's liked all of them except the squash and bananas. She likes bananas but definitely not as much as the other stuff. Mangos are her absolute favorite.

Her face after trying squash....She wasn't a huge fan.

She loves to swim. She loves the water and bathtime. She cries when we take her out of the pool or the bath. She's a natural water baby and I definitely plan on getting her into swimming lessons as soon as possible. :) And I may or may not push her towards playing water polo (but I definitely will).

This last week, June 29 - July 6, we went up to Lake Powell for my family reunion. It was a long drive (about 22 hours) but we had a lot of fun. It was our way of celebrating our 2 year anniversary (June 29) and Kollyn's 7 month mark (June 30). She had a lot of fun. She got to play with her cousins, go swimming in the lake, and ride on a boat for the first time.

Riding on the houseboat to get to the spot we were going to dock. Another rare Kollyn smile.

She loved swimming, once she got use to the water since it was a little colder than bath water and the swimming pool we go to in Katy.

She had a lot of fun riding on the boat. She would be crying, then instantly quiet down when the boat started going. She loved to watch the people behind the boat either wakeboard or tube and seemed afraid for them because after the first few tubing runs, she would grab our arm and not let go until the end of the run.

She loved playing in the sand. The waves scared her at first, then made her laugh. She had a lot of fun playing with Dad and watching the sand slid out from under her with each wave.

The last 7 months have been eventful, from moving 2 times (once to Orem and once to Texas, and another move back to Orem in about a month) and watching Kollyn grow to watching her get shots and learning how to be parents. It's definitely a learning experience, but we are so lucky to have this little lady in our lives and I promise to do better about blogging our adventures. She is the cutest kid and I'm excited to share her with everyone. :)

If you made it to the end, good for you! Thanks for reading all that! I promise I'll do better!

Kollyn Marie

I feel like I'm a person who really only blogs when there is something exciting to blog about, and maybe now I'll be more of a blogger because I'm now going to have a lot of things to blog about.

On Saturday November 30, at 3:24 AM, we welcomed Kollyn Marie to our family after about 12 hours of being in the hospital and almost 24 hours of actual labor.

On Friday November 29, I woke up around 6 with intense cramping and realized I was bleeding. I woke David up and, since we were at my parents house because we celebrate Thanksgiving the day after to allow all my siblings to come, we packed up and drove back down to the hospital in American Fork. I was checked (only dilated to 1 cm which I had been for the past three weeks), given some medication for the contraction pains, and then sent home. The nurse told me to monitor the contractions, since I'd finally started feeling them and being able to time them, and come back when they got more intense.

We called my parents, told them about it, and told them that we weren't going to be coming up to dinner because we wanted to stay close to the hospital, just in case anything happened. My mom then called my sister Melissa who lives in Lehi and asked if we could do dinner at their house so David and I could join them and still be close to the hospital. We're lucky to have such supportive family members!

David and I went home from the hospital and decided to try and take a nap, since we'd woken up earlier than we'd originally planned. I didn't really nap, mostly just closed my eyes and timed the contractions. They weren't very regular and didn't seem to be increasing in intensity but I wasn't sure if that was because of the pain medication they'd given me, or if they weren't getting more intense. I had times all over the place, from 2 minutes apart to 11 minutes apart so I was thinking, I might be in labor, but it's just early labor and the nurse said that could last for days so I wasn't very concerned.

At around 1 we headed up to my sister's house. The contractions felt like they were getting more intense but I wasn't sure if that was because the pain medicine was wearing off or if they actually were getting more intense. Each time I had one hit, I'd grab David's hand and squeeze through the pain. Doing that made the pain a lot more bearable, and it gave me hope that I'd be able to go unmedicated through the labor and delivery. My doctor and I had discussed it because I have scoliosis and the way my back was curved, he wasn't sure the epidural would really be as effective in reducing the pain as it would be if my back was straight.

All through dinner the contractions kept coming and each time I would reach over and grab David's hand, my sisters would watch me, ask if it was a contraction, and then ask me if they were getting more intense, how long it had been, and seem to get more and more excited as they seemed to get more painful. I was feeling really hot, really achy, and really tired by the end of dinner so I laid down on the couch, not able to sleep but glad to close my eyes. We left around 5 to go back home because the pain was getting more intense and I was feeling really hot. On our way home David asked if I wanted to go back to the hospital and see if they could give me some more medication so I could sleep through the night. I wasn't sure but as the exit neared another contraction hit that was really painful, so I decided we could give it a try.

We went back to the hospital at 5:30 and the nurse checked me. I was dilated to 3 cm so she decided to ask the doctor who was on call for my OB's office, Dr. Cloward, what she wanted to do. She decided to admit me at 6:30 pm. The contractions were close together and more intense, but having a warm bath helped me deal with the pain for a little while. Dr. Cloward came in at 8:30 to break my water and after that, the contraction pain became exponentially worse. My parents came and helped by bringing things up from our apartment and being there when the pain got really bad. David was so supportive, constantly telling me that I could do it, that I was doing so great, he held my hand while I went through the contractions, and put pressure on my back and pushed on my knees to help relieve the pain and pressure from my lower back as the contractions came and went.

At about 9:30 I was in so much pain I knew I needed the epidural because I knew I needed to sleep but the contraction pain was going to keep me from doing that. After David and I talked about it, I decided I wanted the epidural and David, after double checking to make sure that it was really what I wanted, went to find the anesthesiologist. Almost immediately the nurse and anesthesiologist came in and started getting set up. They told me it would take them 10 minutes to set up, 10 minutes to put the epidural in, and 10 minutes for it to kick in. I was excited about having only a half hour of the pain to deal with. Unfortunately, because of how my back is curved, it took an hour and a half for him to get the epidural in. The pain in my lower back during the contractions was almost unbearable, and at about 10:30 I passed out from how much pain I was in, only to wake up a half hour later when he said that he was done.

The relief was almost instantaneous. The tears that had been tears of pain were now tears of relief. I had made it about 5 hours in the hospital without the epidural and that made me feel pretty good, but I was so happy to have a relief from the pain. I was finally able to sleep and I did, until about 2 am on November 30. At that point I woke up, threw up for about two minutes, and then was getting ready to go back to sleep when the nurse said that usually when you throw up it means you're ready to push so they checked me again, and sure enough, I was at 10 cm.

They had paged Dr. Lind, my doctor, and he had said he was on his way, even though he wasn't on call that night. He got there at about 2 am, just as I was getting ready to push. The nurse told me what to do and had David on one side holding my knee up to my chest and my mom on the other side.

Then, after a little more than an hour, she said that I was really close and went to get the doctor. He came in with a few more nurses, from the nursery, and a respiratory specialist, since when they broke my water they found meconium in it. Luckily there were no problems from that.

And so, at 3:24 am, after a little over an hour of pushing, we caught the first glimpse of our little girl. It's amazing that feeling right after having a baby. It's an intense relief from the pressure, but it's so surreal. It's hard to think that the reason for all the little flutterings and flips is right there now, you can see them and hold them now. It's also crazy to think that this little person is half you, half someone else, and that they depend on you for absolutely everything.

Our little angel was 7 pounds 8 ounces, 19.5 inches long, and just gorgeous. I said she looked more like David but I keep hearing people say she looks like me. I don't really see that.

It's a weird feeling, being a parent, especially since the timing wasn't what we had originally planned on, but it's been rewarding so far.

I'm lucky that my parents live close because we were able to spend the first week there. The extra help was awesome! It made it a little bit easier to adjust to the new responsibilities, and it was nice since David had a huge project due that next week that he needed to work on every day. Having the help from my mom and dad was invaluable. 

Also the help from my sisters. Their advice was great. Laura told us her method to helping babies sleep through the night and since we started trying it, Kollyn wakes up once in the night instead of the five that she woke up the first time that had me on the phone to my mom in tears because I didn't know what to do. Since then, nights have been easier, and it's been nice having David around. He doesn't wake me up at night though...not sure how I feel about that.

And now, just some overload of cuteness for those of you who actually made it through all those words. :)

Grammy and Kollyn. Kollyn loved spending time with Grammy last week.

And Kollyn with her Poppa. Yet another one of Poppa's sugar-pies.

She got spoiled with cuddles and love all week.

The stocking that Grammy and Poppa bought her for Christmas. We tried to get her inside it to take an adorable picture, but she's a little bit too big for it. :) That's ok. It kind of looks like she's in it, right?

We are loving having her here. Yeah, it's been a bit of an adjustment, but it's been fun too. We're learning new things everyday, how to get her to sleep in her own bed instead of in bed with us, how to help calm her down when she she's just crying, and all kinds of other things. We're excited to keep learning about this little lady!