Yoga Master

Within minutes of Kathryn's birth, she struck the Lotus position in order to relax and unwind post-delivery. She's very smart - as we expected - but all the nurses were in awe.

Siblings

Gus came to the hospital yesterday afternoon for his first visit with Baby Kip. It was fascinating to watch him take it all in. He actually sat and held her for several minutes. It's rare for him to sit still for that long unless we're reading. He even made cooing noises (like he does with his stuffed animals) and was extremely gentle with her. He's going to be a great big brother!!

Checking to make sure she has all her body parts....
Ears, check.Nose, check.Mouth....um, let's see...

Holding hands:)So, for those of you who care, here's our story:

On Tuesday, I had contractions most of the day, starting around 7 am. They were easy and about 10 minutes apart until around 3 pm when they started getting more intense . I called Scott just to let him know that things were progressing. We had a normal evening... dinner.... bedtime for Gus, etc. I laid on the couch for a while to see if things would continue or slow down. Around 9, the contractions started getting closer together so we packed Gus up and took him to our neighbor's (Thanks, Reardons!). It all felt a little surreal.

Having done this once before it wasn't as intense as I remembered. I helped pack our bags, cleaned and straightened up the house and timed contractions, all at the same time. We finally decided to head to Women's East around 11, and I seriously wasn't sure if we'd get to stay or not, but once we got here, they found out I was already 7 cm dilated, so they stuck us in a room as fast as possible and got everything started. I was Group B strep positive again, like with Gus, so they had to do antibiotics. I decided this time to get an epidural, but they couldn't start that until the antibiotics were done....and let me tell you, it seemed like they were never going to be done!! So, I labored for about 1 1/2 hours before the epidural (around 1:30) and then was ready to push at 2. It was definitely a completely different experience from last time when I went all natural. I suppose there are pros and cons to both and I'm really glad I've done it both ways!

Anyway, Kip was born at 2:26 am (on her grandfather Papa Gus' birthday!) with the cord wrapped around her neck. They had to cut it before she could be completely delivered. She was very quiet at first and they had to work on getting her oxygen levels up while the midwife stitched me up. After that there were a few hours of nurses checking in and her first bath (which she HATED!). We caught a couple hours sleep here and there. My parents got here yesterday afternoon, and our neighbors brought Gus by. He has definitely been enjoying his time with Oma and Opa:)

Last night, Kip's routine bloodwork showed an elevated level of a protein that could mean a possible infection as a result of my Group B Strep. Because my labor went so quickly, I didn't get all the antibiotics that I really needed, so there is a chance I passed it on to Kip. So they came and took her away in the middle of the night to the special care nursery to start her on antibiotics. It is pretty crazy to have the identical thing happen to both of our kids! Gus' case was a little worse: he did develop a fever and some fast breathing episodes. So far Kip has had no infection symptoms, but is being treated for a mild case of jaundice. She has a IV in her head (which looks so much worse that it actually is) and has to sit under the "grow lights" as I call them with a little mask on. But overall, this experience has been nothing compared to the one with Gus because we know everything to expect. She is even in the exact same bed that he was in at the nursery!!

She is getting more alert and fiesty each time we go to see her. I'm actually feeling a little sorry for her nurse:) She is very vocal about her dislikes (being undressed, sitting under the lights, etc). I am guiltily enjoying getting to really rest and nap, which is one blessing out of all of this!

So, we're very, very thankful to the Lord to have our little girl here. She is beautiful. We love her so much already and will be glad when we can take her home with us to start this new phase of life with 2 kids! Please join us in praying that she'd be released soon.

Good Morning!

While all of you were sleeping, we were hard at work! Weighing in at 6 lbs. 5 oz, towering 19 and 1/4 inches and born at 2:26 a.m., introducing Kathryn Persis (Kip) Noll! The girls are doing just fine. Kip looks like her brother, don't you think?

Waiting....

Well, our daughter is now officially running late....which is not really so surprising considering I'm her mother:) While we are waiting, we've been keeping busy.

Scott surprised me by signing me up for a floral decorating class at a florist here in St. Elmo. It was really fun and I'm proud of my masterpiece!

It has turned cold here and Gus has enjoyed his walks outside in his new hat and gloves. (Note the white paint on his face, a reminder of our house project, which is now completed!! More on that later.)

It's also peak fall color down here now, so the other day we took a hike at the Nature Center. It's been fun to try and spend some quality one-on-one time with him before he has to share his Mama!

One quick funny story:

We put down a new rug in Gus' room yesterday and it was still smelling a bit "new" last night, so we left his door open to cut down on his VOC exposure. Usually he sleeps with his door closed and hasn't seemed to figure out how to let himself out in the morning, so he's usually still in bed when we come in to get him. Well, last night at 3:00, I heard our door handle jiggling and there he was, out of bed with a couple toys in hand. I took him back to bed and went to look in the den/playroom. I don't know how long he had been up, but he had definitely been playing!! His cars were out and so were some of his "art" supplies. I'm not quite sure how he managed to do all that in the pitch black dark, but I found it hilarious.....until he was still awake in his room an hour later! Needless to say, he is now down for an early nap:)

House of Dust

We haven't posted in a while. Our house has been rearranged due to a little remodeling project that has turned into a medium-sized remodeling project, so the computer hasn't been as easy to use. Everything we had in our den is now scattered throughout the rest of the house, Scott is now dressing up in the attic, there is a fine layer of dust in most every room and the house smells of paint, new wood and drywall. Oh well. It's something we've been wanting to do since we moved in five years ago. We feel like we've been patient until now and with Kip on the way (nothing stirring yet) we decided to go for it. Once the project is finished (please let it be before we bring a newborn home from the hospital!) our bedroom closet will be twice as big, Gus' bathroom will have a linen closet, and our den will have new walls and windows, a refinished ceiling, and new carpet. Hopefully, it will someday be able to serve as a bedroom for one of the kids. For now, we are learning to live in moderate chaos and becoming used to living on "contractor time," which means things don't always go the way we expect or happen quite as fast. Thankfully our guys are better than most, though! Hopefully, we'll have some before and after pictures to post soon! Hmmm...now where did we put that memory card adapter?

Picnic

We had a picnic dinner at Cloudland Canyon last Sunday. It was gorgeous! This beautiful fall weather has been such a relief after weeks of rain.

Admiring the scenery.

Pre-dinner hors d'oeuvres.

Gus spent much of his time picking up some of the largest acorns I've ever seen.

Dinner is served.

Sunset.

Possibly our last group photo as a family of 3!

"Tweet"

Gus decided to usurp one of the cats' toys for his own last week. For whatever reason, he chose to name this little mouse "Tweet" and they have been inseparable ever since. This is officially the first time that he has named one of his toys by himself. It is fun to see his little imagination growing. We're glad that Tweet is part of the family. For one thing, Tweet is easy to bring along b/c he is so small. Another bonus: should Gus lose Tweet, we'll just go to PetsMart and pick up another 3-pack.

Trucks

This weekend, it's been doing nothing but, you guessed it, raining.....so here's a post about last weekend. We went on Saturday morning to an event called "Touch A Truck" that our neighbor told us about (Thanks, Cindy!!). It's basically a huge collection of trucks, just like the ones we've been reading about in Gus' many, many truck books. So last Saturday, he got to see them all for real and play with some wheel-related toys. It was a HUGE hit with our little trucker. I've labeled the various trucks, in case you're not as up on your truck names as we are:)

Pushing a wagon in his hard hat.

Playing on the car mat.

Concrete mixer (a highlight!)

Driving the concrete mixer. Those things are huge!

Tiny red car?


Up close, trucks have REALLY big wheels!


A satisfied customer:)

Cherry picker.

Golf cart.

Waiting for the HYBRID bus. Go CARTA!

Awed by the wheels again.

Street sweeper.

Riding lawnmower.

Tractor.

Mama's car....

It's been raining here for what feels like weeks....so, I've been inventing things to do with Gus to get him out of the house. Yesterday morning, we went to the mall (of all places!) and just walked around for a while. And then later, we went to the aquarium for an hour with Scott after work. Anyway, we've been in the car a lot.

And sometimes when it's really wet here, my car gets wet inside and starts to get a really musty, nasty smell to it. I was commenting about it to Gus yesterday as we were driving. He thought about it for a while and then said, "Mama's car needs a clean diaper."

That's one for the quote book:)

Quote of the Week

So we've been meaning to do this for a while. Gus is talking so much these days that we have plenty of fodder for a Quote of the Week post. Well, you know how the blog goes; we just don't post very often so things have been stacking up. Here's some of the quotes we can remember. We'll try to stick to one a week from now on.

While "reading" a book by himself the other day, he looked up at the clock and yelled, "Clock! Stop clocking!" I guess he doesn't like the "tick-tock" noise.

I picked up Go Dog, Go the other day and he said, "By P.D. Eastman" (the author).

Gus tends to get Amy up most mornings...and since I don't respond to the monitor I continue sleeping! Apparently she tries to keep Gus and Kanba (one of our cats) quiet while I am still in bed. Now, whenever Kanba meows Gus shouts, "Kanba! Be quiet!"

In When I Get Bigger, there is a picture with Little Critter and a radio. Today he exclaimed, "The radio that plays Michael Jackson music."

"Listen to Michael Jackson?" Gus's requests for Michael Jackson music is secondary only to "Big Rock Candy Mountain," a song about hobos from the O' Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack.

"Let Gus out?" is often how he greets Amy first thing in the morning. Other times, he'll say, "Did ya wake up?"

Do you know the lyrics to the Farmer in the Dell song? They are here if you really want to know. Anyway, Gus has added a verse that says, "The farmer takes another wife. The farmer takes another wife. Hi ho the merry-o, the farmer takes another wife."

Amy checked out a book at the library called, "My First Spanish Truck Board Book." He is really into monster cars these days and there is one pictured in the book. He's been going around today talking about his toy "monstruoso." We'll keep working on his pronunciation.

We have been letting him pull the plug in the bathtub after his baths. A month or so ago, while watching the water go down the drain he said, "See you water! Have a good day!"

Glancing at his dinner plate tonight, he apparently wasn't satisfied with what we had provided. He immediately said, "I need some chocolate!"

"Hey fatty! How ya doin' fatty?" I know. This one has danger written all over it. Hopefully he will continue to say this only to Kanba and not to anyone else.

"You need to share!" He often says this when we tell him to share, or he wants someone else to share. We can thank his Uncle Jim for that one.

There are several chicken processing plants in Chattanooga and we often get a tractor-trailer full of chickens passing by. Once when one drove by, he said, "Pee-yew. Stinky chickens!"

While singing Mary Had a Little Lamb a few weeks back, Gus added a verse: "Mary had a parking lot." His love of cars knows no bounds.

"It's cool in here." For some reason, Gus thinks our dining room is the coolest room in the house.

Whenever we have to take Gus away from something he is enjoying, he often whines, "We'll be riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight bacK."

If Gus sees me with my shirt off, he exclaims, "Naked Dada! Naked Dada!"

If I leave and am gone for any length of time, Gus will greet me with, "Dada came home from work."

"Go mow the grass? Go owside and mow the grass?" Gus wants to be outside pushing his lawnmower about 10 of the 11 hours of the day that he is awake.

Gus can be a lot of work, but man does he bring a lot of joy, too. We love you Gus!

2 cents

I've been doing a little dabbling in "couponing" these last few months. It takes A LOT of time and I'm not really sure how much I personally have been saving.....but I am pretty proud of my latest purchase. Yesterday, I walked out of CVS with: foundation, blush, baby shampoo, and 2 four packs of razor refills (originally $9.99 each), and I paid a grand total of $0.02 for it all! How's that for beating the system:)