Kimber | One Month

Weight: 10 pounds 15 ounces (92%)

Height: 22 inches (82%) 

{You had a cone head when you were born and shrunk to 20 3/4 inches by the next day} 

Holy macarole baby girl! I can't believe you're one month old!! Time is flying by! It seems like just yesterday we were chasing down your crazy furry brothers before heading to the hospital to meet you! It's only been a month with Kimber-- I can look back on my life without you but now I can't imagine life currently without you. You have brought so much joy, laughter, and love to our family. 

Feedings
You've been great at nursing from the very start and we feel very blessed that you do so well. I love our bonding time while you are nursing. Mommy has also been pumping to build up a supply for wehn I go back to work and to also have some on hand for daddy to help out with feedings. We've also been very blessed that you easily transition from breast to bottle and vice versa. For the most part you do a great job letting us know when it's time to eat (every 2 to 4 hours) and you will take your binkie to soothe yourself while we go through our little routine; diaper change then nursing. Most nights, Daddy gets up to change your diaper while Mommy gets ready to nurse you. This works out great and Mommy is very thankful Daddy is willing to get up and help out with his baby girl. He loves all bonding time he can get with you. It's nice that he is also able to feed you when Mommy is just too tired. After you've ate, you are the world's slowest burper!! It takes forever to work up a burp but once you do, life is good. Occassionaly you'll give us burp followed by lots of spit up. We're getting better at being more prepared for this! 

Sleeping
Mommy and Daddy are so very happy that you sleep so well!!!! Your first week home you were up every 2 to 3 hours, as we expected, but it wasn't too bad. You slept in your swing for those first couple weeks because that was the only way you would calm down and sleep. Daddy would also often cuddle with you {still does} to calm you and would fall asleep himself. We only let this happen a few times though because we didn't want to get in the habit of pulling you in our bed. For the past couple weeks we've been swaddling you up tight (and you eventually kick your feet free) and putting you in your cradle in our room. Sometimes you're wide awake when we put you down but you will talk, coo, grunt and sigh yourself to sleep. Thank goodness! Lately you've been sleeping 4 to 5 hours at a time at night and we are so happy you do. The day you turned one month old, you slept all the way through the night; a full seven hours!! During the day, you either sleep in your bouncer, on the couch or on a blanket on the floor; and when Daddy is home, you're sleeping on his chest. During the day you mostly put yourself to sleep. :) When you're sleeping, Mommy enjoys listening to you stretch and grunt and coo; it's seriously the cutest thing ever! When you wake up though, you make sure we know you're up; you scream, shriek and cry at the top of your lungs! 

 

In your swing...not sure how comfy this was

 

Not going to lie...Mommy loved pulling you into 

bed with me first thing in the morning for extra cuddles and snuggles

 

Sleeping in your bouncer like a champ!     

Clothes/Diapers
 I've finally started putting you in 0-3 month clothes. Even though you were so big at birth, you weren't really a "fat" baby. Just a big, long girl! Because of this you were in newborn clothes for quite some time and we can still wear a few of the "bigger" newborn outfits and onesies. 0-3 month clothes look huge on you but they're not as tight as the newborns. Regardless of what you're wearing, you're absolutely adorable! You have so many clothes in your closet I'm ready for you to wear!!

We kept you in newborn sized diapers for the first two weeks. Since then we've switched you over to 1's. We've made it to the diaper cake diapers so right now diaper changes consist of removing a rubber band, adding said rubber band to the rubber band ball Mommy made out of boredom, unrolling the diaper and then proceeding with the diaper change process. Daddy's Beer & Diaper party was a huge success and we'll be using those diapers for quite some time!

Milestones
You have proved to us how strong your head is from the very beginning! In the hospital you were lifting your head when you were laying on Mommy or Daddy's chest. Dr. Goodnight (your doctor) was impressed by this. We started tummy time at two weeks old and you did fantastic! You love tummy time and exploring the world around you! Soon you'll be holding your head up on your own! During tummy time, we've noticed you have a tendency to pull your legs under you and try to scoot; you'll be crawling before we know it! Also, we've gotten a few cute smiles out of you both when you're sleeping or looking at us. Mommy's friend, Jamie even got a little giggle out of you the other day. And boy, oh boy, are you aware of your tongue! That thing is always a going; your Daddy says your just tasting the air like a snake. You've been holding in your bink too! And if it's not too far away, you'll push it back in on your own too!

 First ever tummy time! You're a rockstar Baby Girl!

 Three Weeks Old!

 Almost 4 Weeks Old

 

Lifting your head and pulling your legs under you! 4 Weeks

 

You were six days old when Mommy caught this smile! 

Kimber Likes:

* Swing

* Bouncer

* Car Seat & Car Rides

* Tummy Time

* Lights and Fans

* Daddy

* Your Binkie

* Baths (50% of the time)

* Being Naked (if it's hot)

* Your Hands (You've discovered you can suck on your hands sometimes and you soothe yourself)

* Bows - So far you do a great job keeping your bows in and you look so darn cute in them

Kimber Dislikes:

* Gas - whether it be hiccups or a toot, you give us quite the shriek and maybe a few tears as you try to work it out. 

* Being Too Hot

* Being Hungry

* Bath Time (50% of the time)

* Mom taking pictures of me with the flash on

One Month Pictures

 I love all the faces you make!

 There you are with that dang tongue!

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting? LOL, your funny faces! 

You were so mad at something!

Other News:

You're quite the popular little girl! So many people have came to meet you and are still dying to meet you! You have some best friends in the making with your Cousin Colt (he squeals with delight when he sees you) and Emma S. (she got to meet you and was unhappy when her mom passed you off). I can't wait for you to meet more and more little people (and big people too)! 

Emma, Erika & Kimber!

Emma & Kimber...BFF's in the making!

The Arrival of Our Baby Girl

As I sit here and bounce my beautiful baby girl in her bouncer and watch her sleep I realize I've been putting off this post long enough. The post about our beautiful girl's arrival.

Sunday, September 15 and leading up to birth
I had been feeling weird all night and Daddy was at work. By morning I decided that a hot bath might help relieve some of the cramps I was feeling in my hips and back. Daddy got off shift and found me in the tub; he later told me he thought this was very odd and had an "oh $#!+" moment. I got out of the tub and decided to start thinking about getting ready for church. We had breakfast and as I sat on the couch relaxing a little the cramps turned to [more convincible] contractions. At first they were bearable and I thought they were just Braxton-Hicks so I went on with my day. As I was getting ready for church they became more frequent but I was convinced they were nothing...until Daddy made me start timing them. I then realized these bad boys were coming every 5 minutes but decided to go ahead and go to church anyway. The ride to church made the contractions come on even harder and closer together. As long as I was standing I was okay but sitting down was terrible. Daddy made me call the doctor's office and they made me go ahead and head to the hospital. Once we got to the hospital, they asked all the required questions, took my vitals, tracked the contractions; you know, the works. The contractions were definitely there and definitely strong! They made me sit in that dang bed and the contractions became more and more painful. Eventually, they let me walk around to see if I would progress any with dilation. I walked, and walked, and walked. The contractions seemed to go away. We went back to the room and they hooked me back up to track contractions which came back after about 15 minutes sitting in the bed. Sadly, I didn't progress any and after 5 hours at the hospital they decided to send me home, still in pain and still contracting. To say the least, I wasn't very happy and I don't think Daddy was either. Once home, I still had contractions for another 2 or 3 hours but refused to go back. Thankfully they wore off but this also meant you weren't going to make your arrival that day. Everyone predicted you would be here by the end of that week....they were wrong. I didn't feel any true contractions or anything but a stubborn, active baby the rest of the week. At my appointment, we scheduled to induce on Thursday, September 28th, hoping that scheduling it would make you come on her own. No luck there! I also hoped the full moon and storms we had would bring you into this world but again, no luck. On Monday, September 23rd, I got a call from the office telling me we needed to reschedule our induction date; our choices were Tuesday the 24th or that Saturday or Sunday. The weekend ahead was already busy and I was just miserable so I decided on Tuesday the 24th. Then I realized there was so much I needed to do at school and home and less than 24 hours to do it!!! Oh well, we were ready to meet our girl!

Tuesday, September 24th
We got up bright and early as we were to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. I took my shower, double checked my bags, ate a "light" breakfast and got ready to go to the hospital. Of course, the morning couldn't be perfect, your lovely brothers (the dogs, Maxx & Otis) decided to take a quick tour of the city and make us search for them before we left. Luckily they weren't too far and came right away to me hollering for them as Dad reached the end of the block in the car. I was half tempted to leave them on the loose but couldn't stand the thought of where they might be. Once we got the boys all settled, scolded and loved, we headed to the hospital.

They took me right to the delivery room and got me prepped. Then the waiting game began. They gave me pitocin around 7:30 a.m. and watched my progression. Still no contractions really though. Around 10, I think, Jaime came in and broke my water; shortly there after the contractions came on strong. I thought I could go walk around for a while to maybe relieve the contractions and help myself progress but I couldn't go anywhere without a trail of fluids behind me so I decided to stay in the delivery room. An hour or so after my water broke I couldn't stand the pain of the contractions anymore so they gave me my epidural. My anesthesiologist was amazing and Daddy was so supportive and held my hand the whole time because I'm scared to death of needles! Once I had the epidural, I relaxed a little and even slept for an hour or so. When they came in to see how I was progressing, I had dilated from a 6 to a 10, fully dilated and it was time to think about pushing!

As we started to think about pushing, Julie (my awesome nurse who we found out was from Ozawkie and friends with Daddy's best man in our wedding) realized my contractions were practically gone, and I certainly felt nothing. We had to turn the epidural down to bring my contractions back. Once we did that, they were still barely showing up on the monitor but with my hands on my stomach I could feel when I contracted. We decided I'd be telling Julie and Daddy when I was ready to push based on what I felt because the monitors weren't very helpful. I pushed for a "true hour" as they say and then it was time to make the big pushes.

At this point, I think I should mention that Daddy was so amazing through all of this! We didn't get to take any child birthing classes but our midwife trusted we'd be okay without them. Daddy had mentioned he wasn't going to "look" but instead be there for moral support but when it came time he was right there, holding my legs, telling me I was doing great, telling me how he could see her head full of hair and that everything he was watching was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. I couldn't believe how supportive and into the birthing process he was! Julie was also so amazingly supportive too! In between contractions we talked about all the people we knew and just how small of a world it was. This certainly helped me relax a little!

I'm not sure what time it was but sometime between 3:30 and 3:51 our midwife, Jaime, came in to take over the pushing and delivery. Your head was right where it needed to be and it took just one or two pushes to get your head out and the cord that was loosely around your neck off. The next push brought the rest of our beautiful girl into this world at 3:51 p.m. Daddy said the look on Jaime's face when you came out was priceless, a look of "that's a big baby!" They set you on my chest and I was instantly in love. Kimber Suzanne Newman was finally here; all 9 pounds 10 ounces and 22 inches of you!

 Love at first sight!

 Absolutely amazed at how beautiful you are!

 First scream! :)

 Daddy cutting the umbilical cord

Your weight! Our big girl!

 Footprints

 Daddy was immediately wrapped around your tiny fingers!

 Daddy, Mommy, Kimber and Jaime 

We loved our midwife!!

Daddy's first time holding his baby girl! This is the moment I fell in love with him all over again! 

Once we had some family time the vistitors started pouring in! Grandma Melanie, Grandpa Roger, Grandpa Dennis were first in the room. Not far behind were Great Uncle Dave, Great Aunt Shelly, "Aunt" Danielle, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Mandy, "Aunt" Bailee, "Uncle" Cody, "Aunt" Becki and Cousin Colt. We had so many people that were dying to meet you! They all stayed and enjoyed every precious minute with you until about 7 or so and then headed home. At that time, we got to head to our post-partum room and relax with our beautiful newborn. Mommy barely slept because I was so in love with you and couldn't get over how beautiful you are. I still have this problem; I love you so much and I love being a mommy! 

Our next couple days in the hospital were really pretty great. You were an incredibly healthy baby, you did great feeding and you were easily satisfied. Daddy changed your first diaper (and every diaper you had in the hospital)!

 

Daddy changing the first diaper

 

Our little doll! Love your cheeks!  

First family photo!

Because you were such a big girl, mommy couldn't keep up with your feedings at first and we had to send you to the nursery for supplementing on the second night. Mommy was heart broken and hated to be away from you but Daddy and I got some sleep and as soon as we woke up daddy went and broke you out of "baby jail" as he called it. That's the morning we got to go home! When we left the hospital you were down to 9 pounds 3.5 ounces but they told us you were just perfect still. 

 Going home! You hated the car seat at first but quickly calmed down.

Our first few days at home you had many visitors and everyone who saw you instantly fell in love. What's not to love about you? Mommy and Daddy were so happy to be home and loved everything you did. Mommy laughed at everything, even though it hurt, and Daddy cuddled with you every chance he got. You, Miss Kimber, changed our lives for the better! We love you to pieces and thank God for blessing us with such a wonderful miracle! We can't wait to watch you grow up but for now we will enjoy every minute with you, our tiny human!