Another party....

Seems like we go to one every weekend!!! Reagan Weaver's 4th birthday party was on Saturday. We drove down to Pearland to celebrate. It was cold!! After Jordana finally got comfortable enough to go play, she had a blast. First she played on Abby's little slide. She stood at the top and surveyed her kingdom. Then she discovered the 'rock wall'. We have this piece for our playground, but have not installed it because we thought Jordana was not ready. Well..she is now. She conquered that thing in less than 10 minutes and never fell once. I stood behind her in case she did fall...but she didn't need my help! I guess Randy will have to install the rock wall for Christmas!!!

I took of pix of Randy and Kara in a rare moment. Moments when Kara is not screaming are few. We seem to go on a 2 day cycle. She sleeps all day, has an ok night, then is miserable the next day. She screams for hours at night and then sleeps ok at night. Then the cycle begins again. Today is her sleep day. She's already slept through a feeding. We don't wake her to feed her because she is so deprived of sleep, she has huge bags under her eyes!! Of course she will only sleep really well if she is being snuggled. Put her in the bouncer or basinette or swing and she will only sleep 30 minutes. Randy and I still nap during the day when we can.

I NOT take a nap!!!

Things haven't changed much...still little sleep, lots of crying. We've changed formulas so now Kara is eating less with each feeding. I don't know if the new formula is heavier, making her eat less. The crying spells are now only at night and there is some more wakefullness during the day. Some nights are good (in bed by 10:30), others not so much (in bed at 12, waking 2 to 3 times at night). We made it 2 hours at Chapman's party on Saturday before the crying started. Jordana had fun sitting on Brennan's giraffe. We got a chance to catch up with old friends.
Sunday after lunch, I suggested to Jordana that we go upstairs to read a story (code words for naptime). Usually if I convince her to read a story, I can put her down for a nap without a problem, as it is the natural progression of things. As we walked up the stairs she started whining...NO I NOT take a nap. Did I say anything about a nap? I'm being outsmarted by a 2½ year old. We got upstairs and I let her go into the game room while I sent an email. I didn't turn on the tv or anything. 10 minutes later, as I came out of my office, Jordana was passed out on the couch with a handful of stickers. She had snuggled with a extra pillow that has been lying around. No nap huh?

Halloween

Halloween was a success. Jordana loved it so much, she asked to go trick or treating very day for 3 days!! We stopped at the Kerth's cul-de-sec party first and then Randy took Jordana around our neighboorhood while Kara and I gave out candy.

Fussy time...not fun time...

Anyone who says the first few weeks of a babies life is like a honeymoon is a LIAR!!!! Kara's fussy time starts around 8pm and usually ends around midnight.....except the night Randy went out of town and she cried until 2am (last night). I spend the whole day in and out of bed sleeping on and off until 1:30. I am not a happy camper. feel like I have tried everything. I don't want to create bad habits, like requiring me to rock her to sleep, or using the bouncy seat or the swing. Jordana was a horrible sleeper until she was 7 months old. I was a zombie and borderline depressed. I don't want to go there again. Jordana has been thankfully) sleeping thru these loud nights. Her only issue right now is potty training. She desperately wants to wear undies, cries when we don't allow her to (when she is sleeping), but won't tell us she needs o go potty until it is too late. We will be staying in this weekend and going potty every 30 minutes. I hope the crash course will work!!

Too tired for words

The past 2 weeks have been a blur. Kara has her days and nights mixed up and she is having pooping problems. She has not had an 'unassisted' poop since last Sunday. She likes to poop at 1AM, so we have to wake up to help her along. Otherwise, I am afraid she will hurt herself.....not to mention the 2 hours of crying that could go with it. She is still sleeping her best between 6am and noon....so I usually don't roll out of bed on the weekdays until 11am. We are going to try to get her into the md this week for a weight check and to see about this problem. I have no idea how long it could last. I am still not feeling 100% either, constant lower back pain has been slowing me down. Maybe my OB will have an answer for me when I see him tomorrow.

Here is a conversation I had with Jordana the other day:

Me: Jordana why do you have to touch everything? (after she brings me an open bottle of Mylicon drops, that was closed before she touched it)
Jordana: I don't know.
Me: You are impossible!
Jordana: I NOT IMPOSSIBLE...I Jordana Kerth!!!

She's finally here...

We welcomed Kara Paige Kerth into the world on 10/13 at 10:20 am. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long.

My labor started on Sunday but really started to intensify around 5pm. We ate dinner and put Jordana to bed and called my father-in-law to come over. By 1 AM I was admitted to the hospital. I quickly got my fluids and my epidural. Of course my doctor was on vacation, so the covering doc came in around 6am to check things out. He had am surgery and they started pitocin after he finished since my contractions seemed to slow down. Once the pitocin started, we were moving!! I pushed for about 10 or 15 minutes and there she was!! Since they had stopped my epidural so I could push, I actually felt her being born (and because she was so big). With Jordana, I guess I was too numb or she was too small. It was a strange feeling. I was so tired. When I got to my own room I slept for about an hour and was woken up by the worst contraction I had ever felt. Since I didn't have my epidural, and I didn't know that I was still getting pitocin....I was pissed. I called the nurse for some pain pills. I really didn't want them because they make me sick and I had alredy thrown up once from the epidural. I had a phenergan shot earlier and it helped me. The nursery brought Kara in and I sent them away. The pain was so bad I was shaking violently. I cried myself to sleep.

I really wanted to breastfeed Kara, since I was unable to do it for Jordana. Once again, the lactation consultant never showed up at the hospital. I knew I had a few days to decide. The first night we were home, Kara slept from 11pm to 5am. The second night, 12 pm to 6am. I have decided not to breastfeed because she is sleeping so well.. I know it is selfish, but Jordana kept me awake for 7 months. I was a zombie and had to take anti-depressants. I really don't want to go through that again!! Of course the minute I made that decision...my milk came in. Boy does it hurt.

Jordana seems to be taking it well. She stared hugging and kissing Kara right away. Whenever Kara cries, she says "it's ok baby". The only problem is there have been some incidents of un explainable crying. The past 2 nights, Jordana has become beligerent and when we try to sit down to dinner, she starts crying for no reason. Randy and I are at a loss. She refuses to listen to us, to the point where what she is doing might be dangerous (standing on kitchen chair) or completely disrespectful (yelling back at us). And when we confront her, she startes blubbering. It breaks my heart and I want to cry with her, but there is just no reason for it. We only hope it is because she is still suffering from strep and may be hurting. We have a birthday party tomorrow, so we'll see how she handles that.

Jordana and the corn on the cob....

Randy made corn on the cob with dinner the other night. He sliced off a bit for Jordana. During dinner (which we have made huge leaps and bounds with dinner time behavior), Jordana saw us eating off the cob...and she insisted she try it. Sure, why not? The first bite was unsuccessful...Jordana didn't use enough force. A few minutes later she tried again...and got a good bite. She wanted more so we gave her the cob that was left over. Jordana went to town on it for like 10 minutes, saying "I did it" all the way.

We were cracking up!!

So we are still waiting for baby to arrive, but at least now we have cable!! Just in time for me to watch the tear jerker CSI season premier last night. I know the hormones pushed along the tears, but I cried alot. It was a good farewell to Gary...he will be missed. I know he screwed up so hopefully he can get his life back on track! Today, we are awaiting Comcast's arrival again because we are still having trouble with the HD DVR box. After our cable was restored yeserday (which took all of 2 ½ minutes to do), the HD box would not boot. After calling Comcast, I took it down to trade it out and got a brand new Cisco HD DVR. It worked great....until I tried to watch a premium channel. After 4 different calls to Comcast, they finally agreed to send someone out today. Still waiting....Luckily we were able to get the premiums in other rooms, and we caught up on Entourage last night. LOVE that show!!!