http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin recent pleonast.com entries by user kisforkristin en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=599583 We've had a delightful couple weeks with Emma. She is very interested in toys (especially ladybug toys), and just this week she started rolling over! She can roll from her tummy to her back pretty consistently, but just today she rolled from tummy to back to tummy to back. She'll also lay on her back and turn herself in circles, and has started to draw her knees under her in an attempt to crawl. At play group, all the kids are older, so I think she is trying to do what they can do. She also loves "diaper free time". We put her on a towel without her diaper and let her play. She kicks her feet out and flails her arms in joy. Its adorable. Last Sunday, we were singing at services and she reached for Aarron to hold her. It was an endearing moment for him, as he is still her favorite person in the whole world! She has done it twice since then. We're both doing our paper routes. It has gotten pretty easy during nice weather, but it is a bit miserable during the heavy rains a... 2008-11-15 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=588661 The past few weeks have been full of some very fun changes in Emma's abilities. I'm still getting used to how quickly she grows - one day she can't do something and the next day she suddenly can! It sure keeps me on my toes! Last week she started grabbing at her toys, and just last night she started actually holding one. Perhaps my favorite development this week is the appearance of the full belly laugh. Monday morning Aarron was playing with her and she started cracking up. For 5 minutes she laughed and laughed with him. We started going to a baby storytime at the library, and a play group for 0-18 month kiddos. She was the youngest at the playgroup, but she seemed fascinated by the older kids and what they could do. I've discovered that Costco is no longer a quick stop. Yesterday we went and she decided sitting in her carrier was keeping her from enjoying the full scope of the Costco shopping experience. I held her in my arms as we walked through and mutually drooled over all the... 2008-10-17 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=583033 A month has passed and what a month it has been!We moved this week! We've talked about moving on and off for several months now. Its was really difficult at our old place because we were so far away from people.The quiet was driving me crazy. And to take Emma on walks I'd have to load her in the car, drive into town, unload her, walk, then repeat the loading process to get home. I am currently buried in boxes, but we love our new home. Its an old house in the more historic part of anacortes. With 3BR, it is the largest place we've lived! We hope to stay put until we're ready to buy. So, here are 10 things I'm excited about: -a separate laundry area! No more washer/dryer in my closet or at a coin-op laundry facility. Pretty important when cloth diapering! -my desk can be somewhere other than the bedroom or living room. -the vacuum is no longer serving as a living room fixture. It has a home in the laundry area. -aarron's bike is no longer inside the house!! -i have more room for se... 2008-10-03 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=574824 Sorry for the delay...our internet connection is terrible, so I had to load all our pictures on a portable drive and take them over to my parents' house to load them. Emma is now almost 7 weeks. She is full of smiles and makes this really cute sound that is not quite a full laugh. We call it her "happy noise". Her Daddy's girl tendency is becoming stronger - she smiles biggest for him, falls asleep easiest for him, and often protests strongly if he gets home and doesn't hold her right away. It's absolutely adorable and warms my heart every day. *Sigh* For all of you who have been praying for us regarding her kidney issue: She had a test at Seattle Children's Hospital last week. Unfortunately, the test showed that urine is refluxing back into her kidneys. She will need to be on antibiotics for several years while we wait to see if it resolves itself (many children do). If it doesn't, or if she gets urinary tract infections, we will have to look at minor surgery options. It ... 2008-09-13 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=566214 Emma is almost 4 weeks old and I can't believe how fast time is going! She changes daily in so many small ways. This week has brought more smiles and adorable noises. Her personality is coming out more and she is starting to fill out a bit. Motherhood is better than I imagined and it's harder at the same time. It's so hard to know what is "normal". Just when I think we've conquered a challenge, things change again. I struggle to trust my instincts because it is all so new and unfamiliar. The physical demands of mothering pale in comparison to the emotional weight of responsibility that I feel. In my moments of doubt and fear I am reminded of God's faithfulness. He loves her more than I do. Every day I pray for wisdom to care for her needs properly. Aarron's parents and his sister and brother-in-law came to visit last weekend. I'm glad they got to see her as a newborn! We're going to Oregon over Labor Day weekend to visit all our friends and family there. We're looking forwar... 2008-08-23 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=560144 I can't believe she's already over a week old. We're getting used to having her around and I'm getting used to very broken sleep. We were able to go to Bible study last night...she did better than I expected and it was nice to get out of the house. Tomorrow we're meeting with a lactation consultant to work out a few wrinkles in our nursing techniques.Hopefully it will help make that area a little easier. Emma had a checkup on Tuesday and is doing great. God has been so good! 2008-08-07 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=557825 Her Grand Entrance: Emma’s entrance began with a stop and start early labor that was from Saturday through Monday morning. Finally Monday morning at around 3am, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. Michelle (our midwife) came over around 7:30am and I was excited to find out I was already 5 1/2 cm dilated. Woohoo! By 2pm, however, my labor had started to stall as my contractions spaced out. Excitement turned to disappointment to find after so many hours of labor, I was only at 6cm. Michelle felt that we needed to rest and then decide what to do. She and Jess (her assistant) left for 2 hours and we tried to nap. After about an hour, my contractions had intensified back to 2 minutes apart. At around 7pm I was checked again and was still only at 6cm. We decided to break my water in an attempt to get things moving effectively. It worked! After that, the contractions intensified and seemed to be coming in waves one after another. These contractions were obviously doing their job!! At 9... 2008-08-02 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=557209 Here are a couple pictures of our precious little one. She gets cuter by the minute! I was going to try to post the "full story", but alas! Emma just woke up and needs me. *Contented Sigh* I love being a Mommy. I'll try to get to it later....emphasis on try. 2008-07-31 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=556610 Our precious baby girl was born Monday, July 28th at 11:55pm. She was 8lbs, 12oz and a long 22 1/4 inches. I will post the whole story later, but the summary is that we had a fantastic home birth experience. Aarron was an incredible coach, and we had a fantastic midwife/doctor. Emma was born safe and healthy. Unfortunately, I had some serious postpartum hemmorhaging and a 3rd degree tear that my midwife felt needed to be dealt with at the hospital, where I was taken by ambulance. I am so tired right now. There is much to say, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm going to join my sleepy husband and baby in bed.... Thank you for all your prayers!! 2008-07-30 http://www.pleonast.com/user/kisforkristin?l=5&entryID=555355 Finally! I'm in labor!! I actually went into early labor yesterday morning around 2am. When we called the midwife around 8am, she advised we either try to get things moving so I didn't get too tired in the early stage or try to slow it down enough to get a little sleep. She was concerned because I hadn't been able to sleep that night. So we opted to try and nap. The nap was great, but unfortunately my labor stalled and contractions pretty much went away. It was incredibly (pause for contraction...wow that one was intense) disappointing. Thanks to the loving efforts of my husband, I was able to find a comfortable position to sleep in. I woke at 3am with strong contractions about 10 minutes apart. They quickly progressed to 4-6 minutes apart. We'll wait until they are consistently under 5 minutes apart before we call the midwife again, but things are definitely progressing! Since I am still relatively coherent between contractions, I wanted to give you an update. You won't hear from m... 2008-07-27