Playing dress-up!

Mommy + Kinsley + cute baby girl clothes + digital camera + Mac computer = dress-up time!

Lucky #7

Kinsley is 7+ weeks and 7+ lbs!

This past weekend was a milestone weekend for us! On Friday, Kinsley had a ped appt and her weekly weight check...and our 7-week-old broke the 7 lb mark, at 7 lb 3.8 oz to be exact! We are just now getting her close to what the doctors suspected would have been her birth weight had we made it longer in the pregnancy. I am so proud of her! She is tracking a good 2 - 2.5 lbs behind her baby friends that were born around the same time as her but at full term, so that's right about where we expect her to be...and she's doing great! I did confirm with the pediatrician that developmentally, she is doing really, really well...but I have to keep reminding myself that her development is based on her gestational age, not her actual age...in other words, developmentally, she is that of a "2 week old," not a 7 week old...tracking back about 5 weeks. And even though that's the case, in the words of our pediatrician: "this baby is firing on all cylinders"...of course, that made me feel good! She's lifting her head all the time, pushing against anything with her legs to "propel herself" up or forward, constantly active and moving, starting to find her smile (see previous blog posting), her grunting is turning into more baby-like sounds, and we are moving from 2 oz of food per feeding to 3 oz...but we are still feeding every 3 hours, even at night. :)

So to celebrate our good doctor appt on Friday, we met up with my mom and dad for lunch at CPK...Kinsley's first restaurant outing! This was big for me too as we had to feed her while there (bottle, I am not one of those breastfeeding-in-public-kind-of-gals) and change her for the first time in a public restroom - good thing we were in a clean, newer restaurant! After lunch, it was off to so a little outdoor shopping on a beautiful Friday with mom at The Forum...I think I had a teeny, tiny little pre-Mother's Day shopping spree for myself. Needed to find some summer clothes that fit a little less snug than my regular "pre-baby" clothes do right now...ahhh, the joy of carrying a little baby weight as we near the summer months - the word "bikini" just plain scares me.

I capped Friday with dinner on the patio at Aomi with Philip and Kinsley...and have I mentioned that this entire time Kinsley was a PERFECT ANGEL??? She was incredible...she is proving time and time again that she loves to be outdoors, loves to be in her car seat & stroller, and loves to be out of the house to go on a walk or a car ride. It is funny to see people's reactions when they peek in and see her...they all think that she is "sooo tiny," always asking how old she is. I always jump to her defense, telling them she was just a little early. And maybe it's just me, but I just don't see her as tiny anymore...to me, she's getting to be a big girl, but then again, I am her mom. And it's been fun chatting here and there with other mom's that I run into at the store...like there's some new common bond that we have because of our strollers - or should I say, what's in our strollers. :)

The rest of the weekend, we tried to continue on Friday's success, also going out to La Parilla Saturday for our 2nd family dinner outing...we did go at 5:30 to beat the crazy crowds, but still, we went. Sunday was time with both sets of grandparents. It was a great weekend. Just one more step in getting some aspect of normalcy back into our lives after spending pretty much the first 6 weeks of her life caged up here at the house since she was premature...it was nice to get out. I could get used to this. After weeks of being in NICU and having to "stay at home," I feel like we are finally having the "maternity leave" that we expected to have. I can't believe how fast it's gone...

Content in her car seat...loves being in the car and in her stroller...and would you just look at those cheeks?

Kinsley falling asleep with a full tummy as mommy and daddy get ready to leave to go have dinner with her Friday night.

Smiling Herself to Sleep

So our little one is 7 weeks old today! But since she's technically only 2 weeks (her adjusted age), she's just really starting to get the hang of "smiling" for us as she falls asleep...and I finally got it on camera!

I think she's getting sleepy...(and don't you love her bib? It was the first thing I bought for Phil when I found out we were having a girl!)

A big smile as she's going...

going...

going...

going...

Gone!

Almost 7 weeks old!

Kinsley is definitely developing her own little personality, and she is constantly entertaining us with her many facial expressions! She's also got some reddish tint now growing in with the blonde peach-fuzz on her head...we think she's gonna have that beautiful Irish strawberry-blonde hair! Stay tuned - we'll know once her hair starts growing in more...which could take a while! As we approach her 7-week-old mark this Thursday (well, "adjusted age" she's actually at the 2-week mark...crazy), here are a few random photos of the little one!

Philip test-driving the Baby Bjorn!

Face #1.

Face #2.

Face #3.

She's-a-growin'! Look at those long limbs!

Too funny...it's like she just realized that Hunter is right next to her. This face was priceless!

Playtime on her new mat!

Love these little feet with the Georgia G's.

Our little girl on this big mat!

Bath time!!! One of our favorite times of day! And she is SUCH a good baby when it comes to baths...I think she just likes being clean!

Meeting her new friend Leighton Grace (born 2 weeks apart)!

Hanging with mommy outside on the back porch.

Our little sleeping beauty.

Ped Appt Update

So, since my previous blog where I mentioned that we had a so-so check-up at the pediatrician, we have had some good news! We went for a re-check on Friday where Kinsley had gained 5 oz in 3 days on the new formula, and her jaundice levels went from 12 to 7! Then, at our appt this morning, more good news: our baby girl now weighs a whopping 6 lbs 12.8 oz, is now 19.5" long (2" since birth), and the jaundice is GONE!!! Such good news considering that her lowest weight after birth was 4 lbs 11 oz. Our baby girl is growing! We are now sticking with a dual formula / breastmilk diet that seems to be working! This was also big for me today as this was my first time venturing out alone with her. I definitely drove a little slower than normal. And lucky for me, she really likes being in the car! I am so ready to take her places other than the doctor's office - just a few more weeks until we can go shopping and out to eat around large crowds. She hits her 6-week mark on Thursday and we are both going to the OB to visit Dr. Marshall (who delivered her) for my 6-week post-partum check-up. Hopefully, I get the go ahead to begin being active again since I feel like I am recovering well from my c-section! And yes, Thursday also means I am halfway through maternity leave. :-( Time flies...

What's in a Name?

So, I have changed the title of our blog from The Stanford's to this new title that really portrays what I feel about our life now. I thought these very words when I was rocking Kinsley last night in her room...Life Is Good. Yep, the phrase from the t-shirts and bumper stickers. Those three simple words always make me smile. We have been thrown a few curve balls lately, but we have been truly BLESSED and I am so thankful for that. I have learned that it's not my plans or our plans, but God's plans. Our journey thus far in pregnancy and parenthood was & is unique, and hopefully we can help others that may go through something similar in the future (just as so many people, most of whom had been through their own childbirth challenges, were there for us over the past several weeks). Parenting is hard stuff. But then again, nothing easy was ever worth doing, right? So here's to the journey ahead...I pray that we always have a reason to say that Life Is Good.

Finally To Term!

Our 5-week-old baby girl is finally 40 weeks...hmmm, something's wrong with that math. But finally, our original due date of April 15th has come and almost gone...what a hurdle to get over, both mentally for me & Philip, and physically for Kinsley. She is finally, technically supposed to be outside of my belly now. March 11th seems like ages ago.

We had our weekly ped appt Tuesday that didn't go as well as we would have hoped...no, not terrible, but Kinsley hadn't gained any weight since her appt last week, and her jaundice levels went up. So for the past several days, we have been trying a new routine...a new strictly-formula diet (formula that smells oddly similar to mashed potatoes, so my new nickname for her is "small fry") and lots of time in front of the windows soaking in the daylight to get some vitamin D from the sunshine. Hopefully we have a better re-check of her weight and jaundice levels tomorrow!

One of her many faces she gives us!

Window time (and me ready for our pool to be open in the background once this pollen - yuck - is gone)!

More window time...jaundice levels please go down!

And look who is always right next to her.

Girl's Best Friend

"Man's best friend?" I think not...Hunter has a new priority now. He is constantly by her side through feedings, crying spells, and naps. He cannot WAIT for the stroller walks, soon to come once this pollen (ugh, cough) is gone! For anyone who was wondering how our perfect pup of almost 8 years is doing with the new addition, these photos tell the story. :)

Happy Easter!

We never thought that we would have our little girl with us this Easter, but here we are with our early little blessing from God on a beautiful Easter Sunday!

Kinsley's Cousins Turn 1!

Lilly and Alex, Kinsley's cousins, turned 1 and we got to be with them as they celebrated! This time next year, our little peanut will be turning 1 as well!

Kinsley's First Photo Shoot!

Before we were discharged from the hospital last week, we decided to roll the dice and see if we could get some good shots of Kinsley by the "Our365" photo crew that takes newborn photos at Northside...and WOW, am I glad that we did! It meant so much to take these beautiful shots of our healthy baby girl before leaving the NICU, a place where for 2 weeks we had taken countless photos of her with tubes in her mouth and nose. Now free'd from her monitors and breathing & eating tubes, Kinsley was a natural in front of the camera...I am so glad that we did this!