3 Weeks Old

Here is a picture of our baby girl today, at 3 weeks old. I didn't think much of her being 3 weeks old today until I went to my friend Cyleste's house to see her 3 day old baby and wow, I can't believe how big Mckinley looked compared to her. I guess it's hard for me to see because I get to stare at her all day long every day, but she really is growing up! Darn it.

Isn't she adorable?

Life is going along well, except for the before mentioned breastfeeding woes. And the fact that Mckinley decided she doesn't like her bed. Still working on that one...

We were finally able to give her a real bath and it went over a lot better than the sponge baths. She doesn't look too happy in this picture but it is a lot better than the screaming she used to do during her sponge baths.

I have a small obsession with kids when they are getting their hair shampooed. They just look so funny. I think it's so cute.

My awesome sister-in-law Shellee had her 22nd birthday on Tuesday. No one in our family can blow out birthday candles without the help of Brynlee and Haley. :)

I love this picture. Mckinley sure loves her daddy.

Mckinley loves to hold on to something while she eats.

See what I mean? She's got a tight grip!!! It's so cute.

Last night Mckinley watched her dad play softball for the first time. It's crazy to think that next year when we go she will be walking around...

Life is awesome. I love not going to work! I'm glad I'm taking 12 weeks instead of 6 because my leave would already be half over if I was just taking 6. We are soaking up every minute we have with this sweet girl. Brandon loves her WAAAAY more than he loves me. And I'm okay with that...for right now anyway. I love her a lot too....just wish I could figure out how to keep feeding her and let myself heal at the same time. Hmmm....

Mckinley's 1 Week Pictures

A huge thanks to my friend Ashli who took pictures of Mckinley when she was a week and a day old. I got them back today and had a really hard time picking just a few to post. They are so cute. We love them!!!

She put her hands like this totally on her own. So cute!

Again, we did not help her pose for this picture.

Ahhh, the joys of week one. I had it really easy the first week after I delivered. It has gotten a little harder since then... This little girl just decided she doesn't like to sleep in her bed. And she's not quiet about it! I also have a few breast feeding woes which we won't get into here, and some crazy back muscle spasms in the middle of the night that have me crying like a baby.

Here's to hoping we can reverse things back to the easy life again.

What's Been Happenin'

This post may seem like it has a lot of pictures in it, but my May folder has 218 pictures so far and the month is only half over, so trust me, it could be worse.

Just a cute picture of Mckinley to get us started....


Oh wait, and another one. This is the first time we'd seen her in a hat and oh my gosh, it just melted my heart. She is so stinking cute.


Despite having a newborn around, we have still done quite a few things lately. Brandon's sister Tara flew in for a trip from New Mexico. The night before she went back home we all got together and had a little creme brulee party. Thanks to whoever did all the work. It was awesome to just show up and eat it.

On Thursday Brandon played softball again. All he had to miss was the one week we were in the hospital waiting to meet our baby. He could have even gone that night...had we only known Mckinley's plan. Anyway, so he played softball and during the game his dad got hit with the ball right in the side of the head, well, right on his ear. He had to get 36 stitches in his ear. As far as we know, there isn't any permanent damage, but it was still pretty scary.

On Saturday we took Mckinley over to our friend Ashli's house to get her pictures taken. Here she is with her hoody ready to head out.

On the way home from Michael and Ashli's, we stopped on the side of the road to check out some other babies. This guy that lives by them has a ton of animals.

The cute baby goat.

Baby lambs. I think they thought we had food. They came running up to us and practically tried to jump through the fence.

When I said he had a lot of animals, I wasn't kidding. This guy even has a kangaroo!!!

It's nice and lets you pet it.

This weekend Mckinley got to meet a few more family members. My brother Mark hadn't seen her yet. And here she is with her great Grandma Bishop. Grandma told me she is great grandchild #85 on the Bishop side.

My little sister Amy drove down from Rexburg just to meet Mckinley.

We took Mckinley out on a little walk. Twice. We are loving our car seat and stroller combo.

My big sister Kristen turned 30 on Sunday. We celebrated together at a family dinner.

Life with Mckinley in it can be described in one word: AWESOME. She is such a good baby and we just can't get enough of her. She has been sleeping really good at night. She's eating really well. And she spends a lot of time awake just looking at the world around her. I have had an amazing recovery and I feel like a million bucks. Brandon and I both feel like we are living in a dream. We have wanted a baby for so long and it's a thousand times better than we ever imagined it could be.

Update

Just a quick update. And a promise. The promise first. We promise we won't just blog about Mckinley from here on out. Of course right now, there isn't much else going on except hanging out with her, but in the future, we promise we will blog about other stuff as well.

And now the update. The last 4 days at home with this little angel have been heaven. We cannot get enough of her. She is so sweet and has been a good baby so far.

A couple things she likes to do: sleep in our bed with us. The little stinker knows how to get her way. But we've only had her in there for an hour or two at a time, not the whole night ever. She also likes to pee when we take her diaper off. Once it squirted up on to Brandon's hand.


A couple things she doesn't like to do: be bathed. Have her diaper changed. Get her clothes changed. We try to make those things happen quickly.


Here's me and Bran on Monday morning getting ready to take her to her doctor check up. Everything looked well and she weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz.


She's had lots of awake time and it is so fun to be with her and watch her look around at everything. She is so stinking cute. These pictures don't do her justice. (so if you haven't come over to visit, come on by!)

Here's a picture from this morning. Man, we just love her.

PS. Her middle name is May. A couple people have asked so I guess I never wrote that down anywhere.

We're Home

Sorry peeps, I can't believe I never mentioned how big she was. Mckinley was 7 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long. A perfect size!
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We came home last night and had our first night at home. Mckinley actually did well, a lot better than me. I was so nervous and freaked out about everything that I couldn't get to sleep, even though she was sleeping. I fed her a few times and then I finally ended up putting her in bed with me and we both slept great together.

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Leaving the hospital. I just put on the same outfit I came in, my maternity jeans and shirt. It was weird to see how differently they fit.. Weird in a very good way.

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We had some pretty awesome balloons and a welcome home sign from some of Brandon's family. Thanks guys! The sign in our room was awesome too. It said Happy Mother's Day Mom. It fell down in the middle of the night and totally freaked us out.

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Thanks to everyone who came to visit us in the hospital. Don't feel bad if you didn't make it, we accept visitors at home too!

Eye Candy

Anyone up for some Mckinley-flavored eye candy? Well, ready or not, here it is.
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Today has been quite different than yesterday. I got a lot of good sleep last night and finally got a shower in this morning. It feels great.
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Pre-shower family picture.

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Kristen has spent the last 2 nights here in my room with me so Brandon could get some good sleep at home in bed. What a trooper!

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Brandon can not get enough of his daughter!!! It is so stinking cute.

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It's no different story with me.

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Who are we kidding? EVERYONE is in love with her.

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Yesterday, day 1, was FILLED with non stop visitors and a perfect happy sleeping baby. Today, day 2, was exactly opposite. This room has been DEAD and Mckinley has been crying a LOT today and last night.
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I tricked her in to holding her own binki in her mouth. It worked for at least a few minutes.

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Ahh, I finally showered and it felt so good.

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One day Mckinley will be big enough to take pictures of us so we don't have to do the self portrait thing, but for now, we're still going strong.

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Here she is again with her eyes open.

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Up until just a few minutes ago, this is how I found the other 2 members of my family.

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I know I still haven't told the whole birth story, and I may never get around to it. So here's the short story.

The hospital was supposed to call us between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning on Thursday to come in and get induced. They wasted no time and woke us up with a call at 5:28. We got ready as quick as we could and made it to the hospital by about 6:20 a.m.

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Got all checked in and changed and finally got the pitocin started at 8 in the morning. Brandon thought we might have a baby around lunch time. I was hoping for something before late afternoon.

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Nothing happened for about 4 hours, I was having contractions, at first I couldn't even feel them, then I started to at least be able to recognize them, but they weren't painful. The doctor came in and broke my water around 12:30 I think. Some of you know I had a LOT of fluid in my belly and let me just tell you, it made for some crazy times over the next few hours.

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Anyway, breaking my water did make the contractions pick up. They started getting pretty painful. Once I couldn't talk through them, I had the epidural. Here's where the story gets long and boring. Basically over the next TEN hours or so, the following happened. Sometimes the epidural took care of the pain. Sometimes it didn't. Sometimes the contractions were good and consistent, sometimes not. Sometimes Mckinley's heart rate was good, sometimes not. So we fought all these things and tried to get everything right, but I was dilating super slow and there was nothing we could do until I got to a 10.

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There was talk of a C-section. We didn't have to go that route though. Finally at midnight I started pushing. Pushed for an hour and then got a little episiotomy and she came right out. And the rest is history. What am I forgetting? Probably a lot. Oh well. It's better than nothing. Please excuse any typos you see. :)

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Oh, I guess I should say that we are very lucky and grateful that nothing was wrong with Mckinley. She didn't have to go to the NICU for anything. She has been breastfeeding pretty good which I know is a huge blessing as well. We are so grateful to have her here and to be experiencing this miracle we've been waiting for so long for.

Three is Better than Two

Mckinley finally decided to enter the world. I'll give more details later when I'm not so darn tired.


We went to the hospital to be induced at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 6th and she was born at 1:06 a.m. today, Friday, May 7th. She REALLY loved being on the inside...

We are so in love with her.



Kristen and Brandon helped me get through it all.

She's had lots of wide awake time and she's still only 14 hours old.