4 months 1 week and 5 days old!!

Mackenzie went to see Santa today! She did so great, she didn't cry or fuss at all, I'm so proud of her!

Mackenzie had her four month well baby check-up on the fourth of this month and she had to get more shots. She did pretty well with them, she cried for a couple of minutes until I was trying to get a fuzzy out of her fingers and she started laughing!! She has ticklish hands, lol! She weighed in at 13 lbs 12 oz and was 25.5 inches long! She's in the 90th percentile for height and the 50th for weight.

Mackenzie laughed for the first time on October first, a few days before Rob had to leave for his mission. I was changing her diaper which had exploded and I started gagging because the smell was so bad and all of a sudden she started laughing!!

I started her on peas last week and she hated them but I started her on green beans yesterday. She took a few bites and didn't really like them. They were really runny and she kept spitting them out so I mixed a little rice cereal with the green beans and she loved it!!

There is so much going on here, I could go on and on about Mackenzie but I need to get some laundry and dishes done so I can get to bed. Here are a bunch of pictures of Mackenzie that I've taken just in the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

2 Months and One Week old!

<(Our Family at Schwetzingen Palace)

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted a blog. Our little princess has been keeping me pretty busy!

Mackenzie had her two month well baby check-up last week and got her first shots. That wasn't much fun. She was crabby and slept most of the day. She weighed in at 10 lbs 10 oz, and measured 23 inches long. She's in the 75Th percentile for her height! When Rob took her in to get her shots ( I was too chicken to go in with her ) they gave her the polio vaccine which is a gel she took orally, Rob said she was smiling the whole time! When they stuck her with the needle I heard her start screaming all the way out in the waiting room. My poor baby has been poked and prodded by so many doctors! We had to take her to the ER a few weeks ago because she had a fever of 100.8. (Any fever over 100.3 in a baby younger than 8 weeks needs to be seen by a doctor) They drew blood which took three tries and took urine with a catheter which took two tries, and they never figured out why she had a fever.

Mackenzie is laying here now, copying me as I stick my tongue out at her. I love seeing her smile and watching her discover new things every day, but when she gets mad she's just like her daddy, as stubborn as a mule! She has recently discovered that she can suck on her fingers but she hasn't figured out that she needs to pull her thumb out of her fist to suck on it, which is fine with me since I would much rather break her from the pacifier instead of thumb sucking! She's also learning to grab onto things with her hand and gets really mad when she pulls out her pacifier and can't figure out how to get it back in her mouth. She pulls on her clothes and blankets for amusement and even thinks it's fun to pull on my hair, which Rob thinks is hilarious. She's been trying to learn how to roll over but hasn't quite figured out how to get her arm under her. She loves sitting up watching what's going on but still can't balance on her own even though she tries and usually ends up getting a close up view of her toes. She also likes laying in the pack 'n play and "talking" to Tigger or the other baby in the mirror. She also likes watching the fish in our aquarium so we have the pack n' play right in front of the aquarium for her. I'm certainly happy she has discovered how to entertain herself for short amounts of time so I can have a little time to keep the house clean while Rob is at work. She doesn't really nap much during the day so I don't really get much done, but that's fine with me as long as she continues sleeping for about 6 hours at night!

Zeus has done surprisingly well with not getting all of the attention anymore. He was really confused for the first couple of weeks and would sleep with his head under the bed anytime she would cry. When she wakes up at night he usually comes over to make sure I'm awake, then goes into her room to check on her and then goes back to bed in our room. I have no doubt that they are going to be the best of friends when she gets older. She's probably going to drive him nuts when she starts crawling though, and I can't wait to see how he reacts the first time she crawls over to him.

Well, I guess that's about all for now. I'll try to keep posting updates whenever I get a little time. Here are some pictures!! Enjoy!

Mackenzie Rae Jackson

Mackenzie Rae Jackson was born on July 3rd at 7:29 pm. She weighed 8 pounds and was 20.5 inches long.

Labor lasted about 15 hours. I woke up with bad back pains around 4 am, jumped in the shower and then told Rob that he'd better call work and tell them he wasn't coming in. I got my bag and Mackenzie's bag ready, cleaned up the house a little bit so Zeus wouldn't get into anything and we left for the hospital. We got into labor and delivery and they hooked me up to the monitors. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart and I was about 3cm dilated. They told us to go walk around and get breakfast and come back in two hours or if my water broke come back right away. We went back around 9:30, they put me back on the monitors and the contractions were still only about 4 minutes apart, but getting stronger. They told us to go walk around some more and come back after we got the admission papers done and figured out which room I would be staying in. By the time we got done with that and got back to L&D I was really starting to get uncomfortable. They put me on the monitors again and then I went to get into the birthing tub. Sitting in the tub was pretty relaxing and it did help with some of the pain, but my back was hurting so bad that I felt better when I was up and moving around. I got out of the tub and went back to the delivery room where I paced and rocked until the contractions got too bad for me to stand through. I laid down and they put me back on the monitors. I could not get comfortable at all, I was ready for it to be over! I was about 6 cm dilated when I couldn't take it anymore and finally decided to get the epidural. I asked for the epidural around 2 and had to wait an hour for blood test results to come back. I was finally able to get the epidural around 3, I was so relieved! The epidural took away the pain, but it didn't take away the pressure, which was fine with me because my back didn't hurt anymore so I could concentrate more on breathing through the contractions. By 5 I was about 8 cm dilated and my water finally broke during a contraction and things started moving a lot faster after that. The midwife told me I could start pushing whenever I felt the urge. Sometime between 6 and 7 I was finally 10 cm dilated and ready to push with each contraction. However, I wasn't able to time my pushing with the contractions because of the epidural so they had to turn it off, which was fine with me because that's what I had wanted from the start, even though I was in a lot of pain and was crying for them to turn it back on at the time, I'm happy I was at least able to have something go my way through delivery. The back pain came back and I was so exhausted that I was having a difficult time pushing so I decided to turn around to face the head of the bed to take the pressure off of my back. I pushed for about an hour or so and Mackenzie Rae Jackson was finally born at 7:29 pm!

On Friday morning a pediatrician from Ramstein came in to tell me that Mackenzie's white blood cell count came back slightly elevated and they were going to send her over to the NICU at Landstuhl to do some more tests because they were not able to give her antibiotics at St. Johannis if she had needed them. I called Rob to tell him what was going on and he rushed back to the hospital as fast as he could. Around 3 the ambulance came to pick up Mackenzie and I. We got over to the NICU and they hooked Mackenzie up to all the monitors and did a bunch of blood tests. All of which came back normal except her billirubin levels were elevated which is nothing serious. They kept her for monitoring until 9 and sent us over to the pediatric unit so I could stay with her overnight. The next morning they did a couple more tests and when those all came back normal we were able to finally go home!

Here are some pictures of Mackenzie's first week!

37 weeks!

We had our first appointment at St. Johannis yesterday! Everything went wonderfully! My new doctor is really nice. I had a little difficulty understanding him because of his accent but I sort of expected that since he is German. He did an ultrasound to check the baby and took a bunch of measurements. When he was measuring the baby's leg he said that the baby has nice long legs. He looked at the babys heart, brain and spine and everything looked fine. He tried to get a good look at the baby's face but couldn't really get a good picture because the baby wouldn't move and is really cramped right now. He did a 3D ultrasound to try and get a good picture for us but the machine kept cutting away part of the baby's face because it was too close to it. I'm finally at the point where I have an appointment every week so hopefully we'll get a better picture next week. If not, then it's no big deal because we only have two more weeks until we get to look at our baby face to face. Oh, I almost forgot, the dr also measured the baby to see how much s/he is weighing. The measurements he took show that the baby is weighing in at just over 6 lbs right now, which means that s/he will probably weigh right around 7 lbs at birth! That is such a relief for me, I was so worried the baby was going to be close to 9 lbs like Rob! I was also a little worried that we were going to have too many newborn sizes for the baby that s/he wouldn't be able to wear, and now I'm wondering if we will have enough. But, we have enough clothes to get us through the first week so if we need more smaller sizes we'll just go buy more if we need them.
So what's keeping our little one busy while waiting it out until D-day? Practice, practice, practice. Our baby is simulating breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, sucking on his or her thumb, blinking, and pivoting from side to side (one day I feel the tushy on the left side, another day it has swung around to the right side). All these are skills needed for his or her next gig — starring as newborn. Here's an interesting fact: our baby's head (which, by the way, is still growing) will, at birth, be the same size circumference as his or her hips, abdomen, and shoulders. And guess what's making an impression (literally) these days on those shoulders and hips: fat — causing little dimples in those cute elbows and knees, shoulders and hip, and creases and folds in the neck and wrists. As for Rob and I, we're both as ready as we'll ever be to meet our little bundle of joy!
That's about all for this week! Don't forget to leave us a comment!
Love,
Kayla, Rob and Baby

Week 36!

I can't believe it!! Only 3 more weeks and our baby will finally be here in our arms (unless s/he is like daddy and decides to show up ten days late, yikes! I don't think I'd make it that much longer).

Our appointment went well this week. I'm still measuring right with my due date! Rob finally got to hear the baby's heartbeat again. He hasn't been able to hear it since the 20 week ultrasound. That was our last appointment at the base hospital! I've finally talked Rob into letting me switch to an off base, German hospital which I've heard a lot of wonderful things about! I got my insurance all switched over and I have my first appointment with my new dr. next tuesday morning. The dr. does a 3D ultrasound at every appointment so we'll get to see our precious baby again! We'll also find out about how much the baby will weigh at birth. If they're not too busy after our appointment on tuesday we'll go over to Labor & Delivery for a quick tour and also check out the postpartum rooms. I was not at all impressed with the base hospital. L&D wasn't too bad, but the postpartum rooms were really small and the showers were down the hall from the room. From what I've heard about St. Johannis, their Labor & Delivery rooms are really nice, they have birthing pools in most of the rooms, and the postpartum rooms are nice too. I really like the fact that they have birthing pools at St. Johannis because I don't want to have an epidural and I'm going to try to go without any pain meds at all. I've heard that the water really helps a lot with the pain. I should have more info about the hospital after our appointment on tuesday.

This week is the last week we need to worry about pre-term labor, and so far everything seems to be going wonderfully! I've had a few contractions here and there, but nothing to really be concerned about. The baby now weighs about 6 pounds and measures slightly more than 20 inches in length. Growth will experience a slowdown now, both so our baby will be able to fit the narrow passageway to the outside and also so he or she can store up all the energy needed for delivery. By now, many of our baby's systems are pretty mature, at least in baby terms — and just about ready for life on the outside. Blood circulation, for instance, has been perfected and our baby's immune system has matured enough to protect him or her from infections outside the womb. Other systems, however, still need a few finishing touches. Once such notable example: digestion — which actually won't be fully mature until sometime after birth. Why's that? Inside his or her little gestational cocoon, our baby has relied on the umbilical cord for nutrition, meaning that the digestive system — though developed — hasn't been operational. So our baby will take the first year or two to bring that system up to speed. As for me, I'm definitely looking the part of a nearly full-term pregnant woman, and walking the part as well! Yep, the wonderful penguin waddle which Rob certainly enjoys making fun of! I'm moving a lot slower these days, but it's all for good cause. The reason for the waddle? Just those pesky pregnancy hormones causing the connective tissue to soften and loosen. And that's particularly important now that we're nearing D-day (delivery day). Our baby needs to squeeze through the pelvic bones, so it's a good thing that they're more flexible now. The downside to all this joint flexibility (besides the resemblance I now bear to our feathered friends down south) is discomfort in my pelvis and hip. Add the pressure from our baby's head (burrowing deeper and deeper into the pelvis now) and heavier uterus weighing me down, and it's no wonder it's a pain to walk around these days.

I suppose that's about all for this week! Hope you're all doing well!

Love,

Kayla, Rob and Baby

Week 35!!

Well, I finally have a little time to post a quick blog. Everything is going great here! We just had the baby shower last weekend, we got lots of great gifts and had a lot of fun! We did a co-ed bbq shower. It was fun, easy and cheap! The guys played a bean bag toss game while the women socialized and played our own games.

I have my 36 week check up next monday. At my 32 week check up the dr. measured my belly and said that I'm measuring with my due date again so we didn't get to have an ultrasound. The baby and I are both doing great. I'm starting to get to that uncomfortable stage where I'm just ready to be done being pregnant. I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't so humid here. I have a hard time staying on my feet or sitting at the computer too long because my ankles start to swell up like balloons. My dr told me to drink plenty of water and rest with my feet up for two hours a day. It does help, but I've had a hard time resting for two whole hours; I always feel like there's something that's not getting done.

At about 20 inches and five and a half pounds (but with about five more weeks to grow), most of our baby's growth over the next month or so before we meet will be in weight (with a gain of anywhere from one pound to several), not height (baby's pretty much reached the in utero limit in that department). Accordingly, fat continues to accumulate at a rapid pace these days (on baby, not just on my hips). Back in the middle of my pregnancy, our baby's weight was made up of only two percent fat; now that percentage has soared to closer to 15 percent (and will increase to 30 percent at term). Which means our baby's once skinny arms and legs are now quite plump…and irresistibly, squeezably soft. Also continuing to grow at an amazing pace is our baby's brain power. Luckily, the part that surrounds that amazing brain — the skull — remains soft. And for good reason: A soft skull will allow our baby to squeeze more easily through the birth canal. (Mother Nature was really thinking this one through — imagine trying to push out a rock-hard head…ouch!)

Here are some pictures from the baby shower!

Beverly (in the next picture) made the cake, and was the hostess for the shower!

The object of the game was to grab as many clothespins as they could, using only their hands while holding the baby.

Even the guys had fun participating in this game! They had to cut a piece of string to guess how big my belly is! Most of the guys guessed way too big!

That's about all for now. I'll try to post again next week after my appointment. We love and miss you all!

30 weeks!

Wow, I can't believe we only have 10 weeks left until we have this little bundle in our arms!! I've been so busy lately that I had to look at the calendar for the first time to double check how far along I am!

At my 28 week appointment I had to do the 1 hour glucose test and I had to get my rhogam shot (ouch!). My dr. measured my belly again and said that I'm still measuring big so we might end up moving my due day up to June! Hopefully she will do another ultrasound at my next appointment so I know just how big this baby is! I feel like my belly is getting bigger by the day, but I still feel fantastic, aside from the leg cramps I have every morning when I wake up. This little one certainly enjoys jabbing me in the ribs when I sit too far forward, and really enjoys pushing on my ribs while I'm eating, and also thinks it's fun to push on my bladder when I really gotta go. We also signed up for childbirth classes which we start this thursday and we go every thursday for the next four weeks.

Last tuesday I had to go do the three hour glucose tolerance test because my numbers from the one hour test came back elevated. I haven't heard anything from my dr. which usually means that all of the results came back normal. Unless she forgot to call or just didn't get around to it. I really hope that everything is normal! The glucose tolerance test is to check for gestational diabetes, just in case you didn't know.

I guess that's about all for now. We love and miss you all very much! Don't forget to leave a comment!