Change

So it seems that things in life are constantly changing. This change is not necessarily a bad thing and honestly, most recently they have all been extremely great occurrences. However, with every change comes a new sense of fear and an understanding that the unknown factor has grown by leaps and bounds.

One of my family's newest changes has come in the form of a little tiny bundle of a baby. Killien entered our family environment almost 2 weeks ago and has been such a blessing. He has, however, added an interesting addition of work that has been overwhelming at times. Byron had the first 10 days of Killien's life off of work, but Wednesday morning he had toreturn to work and it became apparent that it is much easier to attend to just 1 child instead of 2. Byron has been having to work late (as well as be out late to fix the car) leaving me with 2 kids by myself until about 8 or 9 pm the past 2 days. For this reason I did not get a shower for about 2 days straight.

My little peanut is also growing up which has brought its own challenges as well. She has figured out that she can get out of her big girl bed which has made nap time non existent for the past several days. I am so sick of grumpy guss Maddie.I wanted to beat her yesterday, but instead resisted the urge and just finally left her to her room for about 1 1/2 hours. It is hard to watch her constantly for an hour to make sure she stays in bed when I have another little one crying in the other room. Hopefully this gets easier. I hate seeing her put up such a fight when she is obviously so tired.

Finally, to top it all off is the transition that our entire family is about to be making. My husband and I have made the decision to leave the traditional military life (though he may still enter a National Guard unit). We have been talking and planning for this for a while, but there were several things that could not be done until others had fallen into place. We are now both actively searching for employment opportunities with the hopes that only one of us will have to work while the other goes to school and is able to be more actively involved in the kids lives leaving them in child care less often. Things now feel very official as Byron has begun ACAP and is no longer set to go to NTC with his unit. Such a blessing, but definitely a dose of reality that has let us know we have to make sure we are set for this transition.

It is scary facing all of this, while exciting at the same time. There is a lot of unknown that we are facing at this point in time and we are tasked with caring for these two precious babies while having to deal with it all. Talk about scary, daunting, etc. While I look forward to a life that leaves my husband getting to see our babies grow up, the military is also the only thing we have ever known in our marriage or even relationship as we have always been preparing for it or in it.
I just ask that all of you who are reading will keep our family in your prayers as we begin this journey of transition. We look forward to getting moved closer to all of you as we miss the fellowship of our relationships with each of you. Thank you for your prayers in advance.

He's here... Finally!!!

So finally at 38 weeks and 5 days my contractions decided to get regular and stronger :). He was waiting for the final letter of his name to be finished for his room. I finished getting it painted at about the same time I decided it was time to head to the hospital. We got admitted to the hospital at about 10:45pm (I was 5 cm dilated and 75% effaced, -2 station) At 11:45pm my doctor came in and was surprised to find me happily chatting with the nurse and my husband in between contractions.
She checked me and I was 7 cm and completely effaced. She said she thought things would go quickly if she broke my water. I agreed and labored down for a bit less then an hour. At about 12:42 am she told me I could bear down with my next contraction but not to over do it and push as I was about 9 1/2cm. So I bore down for the next minute and half with about 2 more contractions and at 12:44 am my beautiful 6lb 11oz and 18in long little boy was born on January 10, 2010.
I was once again able to reach down after head and shoulders were delivered and finish delivering him by bringing him out and to my chest.

He is absolutely amazing and I still can't believe how quickly and smoothly it went. I was blessed with no hemorrhaging this time around absolutely no tearing. It has been a great couple of days getting to know my beautiful Killien Christopher.

Your letter is done... now you can come!

So for weeks now it has seemed that my son would be making his appearance any day. I have been having contractions like crazy and last Monday at my 38 week appointment I was informed that I was 4cm dilated, 50% effaced, and at -3 station. Pretty much half way there and definitely a sure sign that little Killien would soon be making his appearance. That night in fact I had horrible contractions throughout the night and thought for sure that by the next evening we would be at the hospital. Tuesday was full of contractions, they even got really consistent being only 9 minutes apart for several hours and then suddenly back to completely irregular and no cause for concern. Aaaaahhhhhh! The frustration.

Well for weeks we have pretty much been ready for the arrival of this new little guy. Bassinet/ pack and play set up in our room, diapers, pump, clothes bought and washed, his room ready.... well. His room has been completely finished except for one little item... an L for the letters of his name. On his wall I have hanging K I L I E N. The second L in his name could not be placed on the wall as Walmart did not have anymore. I have gone in regularly over the past couple of weeks waiting for a new shipment of L's, but each time have been unsuccessful. Well today, FINALLY, there was one L in the little slot (Thank God we got there before someone else took it). I brought it home and just finished painting it to match his chocolate brown and sage green themed room. I am waiting for it to dry before hanging it up, but I just wanted to let my little guy know....



Your L is done and your room can now be completed. You are welcome to make your appearance at any time.

P.S. for those reading, I'm knocking on wood right now, but contractions have been about 5-9 minutes apart for almost an hour. We'll see if my theory is correct soon enough.