8 months in review...

June 2011 was my last update?! Oh where do I begin?? I have trouble remembering to wake up everyday so this might not be an easy task. Let's start from present time and work backwards.

Maddison: Maddison is a big Kindergartner now! In fact, on Friday she was awarded Student of the Month for the first time!! We are so proud of her. To celebrate we took her to Peter Piper with the family and got her ice cream after. She's reading really well now and writes me little love notes all the time, it's so sweet. This Wednesday we are taking a field trip with her class to a stuffed bear factory where the kids will see how stuffed animals are made and they get ot bring one home, so it should be really fun. I volunteer at her school once a week which has been so fun. It almost makes me want to be a teacher. Almost! It really is rewarding though and every week I have new kids calling me "Mom" and holding my hand in the lunch line. Last week little Mason looked so disappointed when he fiddled with my wedding ring and said "So you're already married?" It was the cutest thing.

Maddison is taking a break from dance class. The school we had her at is in it's beginning year so things aren't exactly organized. It was a lot for her in the beginning anyway with school being full-day kinder. She wants to try cheerleading and basketball now so as soon as I find somethingthat fits into our schedule she will be starting something new. All in all shes a happy, healthy, smart little ray of sunshine as always!

Kylie: Kylie is now 17 months old! She's such a big girl now. She's very active and a bitmischievous. In fact, just before this she dumped all the water out of the humidifier in her room and completed soaked herself. She loves being outside and giggling at all the funny things her sister does. She's so smart, she surprises me every day with the little things she knows and understands. Yesterday I asked her where her shoes were not expecting any kind of answer but instead she yelled "Shoes!" and ran over to the stairs where she had dropped her hot pink checkered boat shoes and brought them too me. Little things like this tell me she's just not a baby anymore. I love watching her grow and learn but sometimes I wish she'd slow down a bit! She's talking so much lately. She says:

thank you (dan do),

here you go (he go),

ni-night,

hello/hi,

bye-bye,

doggie,

DADDY! (her fave!),

Mommy,

Maddi,

Siss (sissy),

shoes,

kitty,

ut-oh,

up,

down,

out (outside),

Papa,

Gamma (on her terms),

poo-poo (one I personally dread hearing)

and apple....though it's never about an actual apple so I'm not sure what it actually means.

Other than a bout of croup last week and a mysterious round of hives we are currently fighting off she's a happy healthy little toddler!

Marc: I can't remember when Marc finished his remodel but I don't think it was before my last update, SO, that's done. He did so well. If you have no clue what I'm taking about, he was put in charge of his store's remodel. A 13 week complete store overhaul that added a grocery department to his store and brought his out-dated store up-to-date with the newer Targets. It's like a mini Super Target, but I actually like it better. It seems to have nicer home accessories. Anyhow, he did an amazing job! I'm so proud of all his hard work. I wish I could explain in better detail what exactly he did but I'd be here all day. Shortly after he went through a series of interviews to become a Business Partner. He is currently signed off as a District Facilities Manager and as soon as there is an opening he will start in his new position.

He also is the proud owner of a new car! He had test driven a couple new cars but just wasn't sure. Then, on the way to get the brakes fixed on the Mustang, his transmission went out! There's 'yer sign! He had to drive backward from Yuma all the way home because it was the only gear it would shift into. We both laughed the whole way home and then piled into the truck to go buy that Mazda he liked so much. Even though the dealership had to come tow it away, they still honored half the trade-in value they had already agreed upon so it worked out pretty well! Goodbye Mustang Sally!

Me: Well, my Bands of Blossoms is now "Desert Blooms Baby Boutique". I have a shop on etsy (view here http://www.etsy.com/shop/desertbloomsbaby) which has been growing rapidly the past two months. The birthday outfit I made for Kylie's first birthday has been a huge hit so I've sold quite a few of those as well as different variations of it. My "Flower Footies" are now called "Baby Barefoot Sandals" and those have also been doing well. I have items for sale in a local playland/store called "Koko Bee's Playhouse" (http://www.kokobeesplayhouse.com/) and I've had 7 or 8 online inquiries about wholesale pricing. I have an agreement with the shop owner of Zandy Zoo's children's boutique in Nederland, TX so hopefully soon I'll have some items in her shop! It's crazy how things have picked up this year. I opened my etsy shop in July of 2011 and finished out the year with 10 official sales. I sold more than that on etsy but because I didn't know what I was doing all my custom orders went through private e-mail and direct PayPal invoices so I didn't get credit for them on etsy. So in reality I probably had 16-20 orders or so on etsy and only a few through Facebook. Just this month I have 16 orders on etsy and 2 on Facebook! My craft desk has turned into an entire craft room and I have a huge 50x30 US map littered with red pins to the places I've shipped! It's so fun looking at the map and seeing all the states where at least one person is wearing something I created. This definitely wasn't my childhood dream of nursing but it's definitely a fun new challenge!

I'll end this 8 month recap with a collage that best depicts the highlights and holidays from August through February.

Bands of Blossoms

Exciting news!! I started making "Bloombands and Flower Footies" for Kylie and Maddison. Everywhere we go, people ask where I bought them so Margie and Marc talked me into creating a "business", so, I am now introducing "Bands of Blossoms". You can find me on Facebook! :) And actual update on the family will come soon!

Holi-Daze

With a brand new baby in the house, the holiday's flew by in a huge blur. Here are some photos from all the festivities. Maddison was sick for Thanksgiving, so her and I were not able to join in on the fun, and Marc's not much of a photographer so we don't have any photos to share. Click on any of the photos to enlarge in a separate screen.

The Christmas Party at our house. Tons of fun!

Our Christmas.

We have no photos of Kylie's presents from Santa, but she made out pretty good too!

10-13-10

The girls got to model for a friend's bow business, Ribbons By Lace, and these were used in her business poster :) These were taken 10-13-10 when Kylie was 11 days old, Maddison is 4.5. Maddison is wearing her flower girl dress and bow from our wedding. Lacey, the owner, made Kylie a matching headband since she was part of the wedding also! :)

(Click to enlarge)

Finally, pictures!

Photo's from Kylie's Birth Day!

Click on the photo to enlarge in a separate screen.

Kylie is here!

Kylie Makena Strick came into the world on 10.2.10 at 4:43pm weighing 6lb 3 oz and 19inches.

This is coming a little bit late, and will be a bit long, but the day after my last post was quite eventful! Friday Oct 1st, Maddison and I were just about to head out to run a bunch of errands to prepare for the following week's induction. We got into the car, I said goodbye to my mom on the phone, turned around to back out of the drive-way noticing Maddison was already falling alseep, when suddenly I realized I really hadn't felt Kylie much at all that day. Next to me sat a full glass of ice water, so I downed it which usually perks her right up and had no response. So I sat there in the truck for about 10 minutes poking and prodding her with still no response. She is usually extremely active on her own and anytime I gave her a nudge she would normally nudge me right back, so this was just not normal. I called my doctor and headed in to L&D for some monitoring. After about 10 minutes on the monitors the nurse barged in and said the doctor was going to induce me that night because the baby's heart rate had a big dip and since she was already expected to have IUGR they needed her out asap. Marc was already on his way from work and heard the nurse over the phone so he sped over to pick up Maddison and go home and get everything ready. My doctor was off that weekend, so the call was made by the on-call physician Dr. Walter through the same clinic. My doctor had promised me that as long as it wasn't between 10pm and 4am he would be there to deliver even if it was his weekend off. I decided not to say anything to the nurses about it since by then it didn't matter who caught her, it only mattered that she was OK. At 8pm, my doctor walked through the door as promised to check on me anyway! It was like Mommy kissing a skinned knee to know he was following through on his promise! Such a huge relief! This was 4 hours on the monitors at that point, and she had a few more dips but nothing too serious, so they decided to start me on pitocin at 11pm on a very slow drip in hopes I could rest through the night.

Now, if you are not into reading Birth Stories, now is probably where you should stop and just look at the pictures. If you're into that sort of thing (like I am!) here goes:

At 6:30am they got "aggressive" with the induction and started upping the pitocin by 2mL every hour or so. I say "aggressive" because with Maddison it was increased by 5mL every 15-30 minutes! At 11:30am my doctor came and broke my water and told me that since I planned on getting an epidural, now would be the best time to get it since the contractions would start becoming more intense. Apparently I thought I had something to prove because I declined saying I wanted to experience more pain than I had last time since the epidural was basically rammed down my throat each time they came in to increase the pit until I finally caved in just to shut them up. My mistake! I labored for 4 hours, still refusing to ask for it, until Marc finally asked if I needed it yet. Since he offered, and since I was already breathing back the urge to push with each contraction, I accepted! By that time there was a wait, and I was number 3 in line for the anesthesiologist. Like I said, my mistake! At 2:30pm that wonderful man came in and got me feeling comfortable again. I was checked, and was at 4-5cm, completely effaced, and completely discouraged. I could not believe after 8 hours of pitocin (technically 15.5 hours of pitocin) and 4 hours of the worst pain I have ever experienced I was only at a 4! I was sure they would check me and say, "Wow! You're ready to go!" so I was honestly very disappointed in my lack of pain tolerance. 50 minutes later, the nurse came in at my doctor's request to check me. Again, this is his weekend off and time's a tickin'. I was starting to feel bad for the guy and was going to tell him not to worry about it, but lo and behold I was ready to go! In trying to be a hero and prove to myself that I could handle some pain, I had tensed myself up so badly that I had stalled the progression. Dr. Rathee arrived around 4pm and we joked about beating my record of 14 minutes. We aimed for 12. We got 43! She was stuck on my pelvic bone AND she was sunnyside up so I definitely had my work cut out for me, but she is worth it! She had pretty massive bruising on her forehead from my pelvic bone as you can see in the pictures, and she still has a dent on her nose but perfect in every other way! She scored 9/9 on her Apgars, and had the doctor a little surprised that she never developed jaundice being that badly bruised. We were very homesick and missing Maddison so we even came home a day early. The first night home was ROUGH. She screamed from 11pm-3am when I finally caved and gave her some formula. She zonked for 2 hours. I supplemented with formula the next 4-5 feedings and then tried pumping to see if she had been getting anything for the last 2 days - not a drop! Poor thing was starving, so we continued on formula until my milk came in and now she's a happy healthy breastfed baby!

On Tuesday Oct 5, she had her first visit to the pediatrician. She was down to 5lb 12oz and 18.4" long. Not suprised about the 7oz weight loss drop since she starved the first 48 hours of her life, but the doctor wasn't too concerned and said she should be back up by the following week (Today). Her 8" shrink in height is due to her head going back to it's normal shape, so really that's what her real length was.

As of today, she is back up to 6lb 2.5oz and 18.5" long. She is gaining her weight back perfectly and even grew a little. She had her second NBS done today (heel prick) and even had a visit to SmashBurger!

So, we are all doing well, Maddison just adores her. It took her a day to be able to touch her, but now she loves to hold her, hug her, kiss her, play pat-a-cake, this little piggy - you name it. She's a great big sister and a great Mommy's helper too! We are all still adjusting to the new addition and the lack of sleep. Marc took 2 weeks off of work, so he will go back next Monday and I am a little nervous about getting Maddison off to school on time but I am sure we will figure it out! We are still trying to introduce Kylie to everyone, breastfeeding isn't exactly the most convenient thing, so if we have not seen you yet it's only because we are not coordinated enough to just throw a blanket over us yet. But we will figure that out too! Pics to come next!

Not so wonderful news...

I've been having my normal NST and BPP's every week. I missed last weeks, but the week before that I asked if they could give me an EFW (estimated fetal weight), but since it wasn't on the order from the doctor they couldn't. Well I haven't noticed any belly growth and barely any weight gain in the last 2 weeks, so I asked my doctor on Tuesday if he could add EFW to the order, which he did. 2 weeks ago at 35 weeks gestation she measured in the 40th percentile for growth. Not terrible considering Marc and I are not the largest people on earth! At this point the baby should be gaining about a half a pound per week. Yesterday I was told she has dropped to the 11th percentile and my doctor told me to prepare to have the induction talk at Tuesday's appointment. This is pretty disappointing for me as I was really looking forward to a better (more natural) birth experience this time around. For those who don't know about my last, there were no health complications, but upon being admitted I was strapped to continuous monitoring, IV fluids, and other than a trip to the bathroom I was to stay in bed. This lasted 14 hours. By the time I had delivered I was blown up like a parade balloon which is pretty uncomfortable! This time around I had planned on a hep-lok and oral fluids for as long as I was allowed and was planning on an active upright labor. I'm not sure how much of this will change now, but I'll find out Tuesday. I'm really hoping that although I'll have to have pitocin, I can still go without IV fluids for a while and will be able to at least walk around. But even if I have to be stuck in bed for another 14 hours strapped to continuous monitoring and blown up like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade balloon, this is by far what's best for baby since the concern is that my placenta is shutting down. Despite my birth plan desires, the goal isn't to have an amazing birth experience, it's to have a healthy baby so how that goal is achieved really isn't the concern anymore! Well, I will know more on Tuesday afternoon so I will update as soon as I find out. Unless they decide to induce that night!