"That way, o-tay"

These are Leo's new favorite words.  Yes, he has become a chatterbox.  We understand most of what he says, though some of it still sounds like Russian gibberish.  He has started to say "otay" at the end of every request, as if he's learned that that's the word we use to say yes, so if he says it then his request will be approved.  It's pretty cute.  He repeats EVERYTHING we say, which means Mommy has to be very careful what she says sometimes...

Last week, Byron and I were wondering when imagination begins to flourish in a child, and I can now positively state that Leo has hit that stage.  We're at my mom's house right now, and she picked up a little kitchen play set for him (which he totally totally loves).  He has spent hours playing with all the parts of the kitchen, particularly a blender which he then brings around to pour us drinks.  One strawberry daiquiri please! But his favorite part of the kitchen is a little plastic phone.  He'll hold it up to his ear and walk around having conversations with imaginary people.  The other day he was walking around saying "Hi......love you too.....bye bye."  Repeatedly.  It was pretty awesome. 

Speaking of my mom's - we are here in lovely Potosi Missouri for a bit while Byron continues the job hunt.  He graduated from the Notre Dame MBA program at the end of May.  We spent two weeks in Chicago at Byron's parents house, and after here we might head down to Florida.  Who knows.  Leo is enjoying all the attention from family, and we are enjoying the generosity of meals and a place to sleep. :) 

As for little Miss Mikaela, she is getting big in a rush (she's already 14 pounds! and almost 13 weeks old!) and she rolled over for the first time last week.  She smiles alot, "agoo"s and "aga"s alot, and is already starting into the pre-teething drool stage.  Nothing more fun than having two children who drool alot.  She's continuing to be a great sleeper, thank god.  Now if she'd stop leaking through her clothes several times a day, life would be peachy!  She's even starting to find her own thumb every once in a while, which is a fantastic development for a child that has no interest in a pacifier.

Gotta go, Leo says we have to "go that way otay!", wherever that way is.....

6 Weeks and 2 Years

Little Miss Mikaela is 6 weeks old now, which is hard to believe.  She's proven to be a pretty happy girl so far - sleeps well, eats well, all the usual baby earmarks of excellence.  And just in time for Mother's Day, she has started to smile at us.  She'll smile back at me when she's in the right mood, and I saw her smile up at the animals dangling above her changing table.  I haven't managed to get a picture of it yet, but I'm trying.  She's currently going through the standard newborn acne period - good thing she won't remember us calling her pizza face. 
And she's getting big - at her 1 month check-up she was a few ounces shy of 11 pounds.  And she's a couple inches taller and her head growth is good too, so she's in about the 75th percentile in every category.  Now if only she were happier to hang out with Daddy, everything would be peachy. 

Mister Leo has actually been more of a challenge these days than Mikaela - this kid now has tantrums and meltdowns at the drop of a hat.  Could be his age (turns 2 next week!!!), could be sibling jealousy, could be he is intentionally trying to drive us crazy.  Whatever it is, it's been really challenging to deal with.  He has become especially attached to Daddy (since they do more fun stuff together these days  - both intentionally to give him attention but also as a side effect of nicer weather), so whenever Byron leaves to go to school, Leo gets very upset.  Hopefully this will pass soon, because all his wailing is driving us crazy.  Though I imagine the drama and activity of moving (to an as of yet undetermined location) after graduation means we won't see the end of his emotional roller coaster any time soon.  He's getting more articulate every day, starting to speak in phrases, so maybe he'll at least start using words instead of wails to express whatever the problem is...

Bare Bottom Pics

Christine Sweet, the wife of one of Byron's classmates, is a photographer looking to break into newborn photography.  She took these beautiful pictures of Miss Mikaela last weekend - and I'm really excited to finally share them with you! Here are a few of my faves, check out the entire collection on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickclickchic/sets/72157626368710767/

Settling In

Our little girl is a week and a half old now, and we're settling into the new normal at home.  Just like her birth was the opposite of Leo's, her adjustment to life outside the womb has been opposite to his.  She is a super sleepy girl - most nights start with a 3 to 4 hour uninterrupted chunk of sleep, with just a few more brief wake-ups the rest of the night.  I can honestly (and surprisingly) say that I feel pretty well rested.  And she is sleeping most of the day still - and can drift off to sleep on her own without nursing.  She doesn't cry much, is happy to lay in her bassinet and look around when awake, and is generally super easy.  It's basically a miracle.  :)  Especially for a second child, we are very appreciative of how easy she is.  Leo actually gets more time and attention from me now than he did the last few months, now that I don't have pregnancy exhaustion and size holding me back. 

While I do love the fact that she is a relaxed, easy baby, I am looking forward to her waking up a bit more soon.  I'm ready to see her smile (while not asleep) and play. 

Leo is taking to her pretty well so far - he tries to help rock her bassinet (but too vigorously), or shove her head back onto my chest when she's already finished breastfeeding.  When she cries he usually says "baby cry" but mostly he just ignores her. 

A funny thing I've noticed is how big Leo seems to me after handling her.  I mean, he's a big toddler, but once you spend a few hours handling a newborn (so light!) then Leo seems enormous.  And heavy.  Very heavy.  But on the other hand, I appreciate it so much more when he can do things like help us dress him.  After dressing a squirming newborn, simple things like Leo helping to push his arms into the sleeves of a shirt are much appreciated.  And a silent newborn makes his happy (and effusive) speech even more enjoyable.  Each of them makes me appreciate the other all the more.

I'm sure we'll have plenty of challenging days ahead, sleepless nights and sibling fights, but for the moment, things are blissfully easier than expected.  Now please excuse me while I go knock on wood.

I'll keep posting pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickclickchic/

Presenting Mikaela Green Kern

She's here at last!  Last night was crazy, and not at all the birth I expected.  I had some decent but very sporadic contractions all day, but nothing consistent.  We were scheduled to come in to the hospital at 8:30pm to start me on a low dose of Pitocin (a labor induction drug) with the hopes that since I was already a little bit dilated and softened, a low dose administered overnight while I slept would get things going.  I was even prescribed a sleeping pill. 

So we checked in, and by the time everything was all hooked up with about 10:45.  The nurses said we probably wouldn't see any action for a while, so we decided Byron should head back home for the night (we only live 5 minutes away) and get some sleep, and be ready to be called back in as soon as things started to happen.  The nurses assured me they wouldn't be unecessarily waking me up all night, and strapped on the fetal heartrate and contraction monitors and left me to sleep. 

I dozed on and off for about two hours before I started to get some pretty decent contractions, but I was able to breathe/moan my way through them as I laid on my side.  At about 3 am they started to get really strong, and I started to wish I hadn't sent Byron home.  But I figured I would wait a little while longer before calling the nurses back in (I had long intense contractions with Leo for hours, so I had no reason to think this wouldn't be the case again).  Well by 3:15, each contraction came with an urge to push, which I tried to ignore, thinking I just needed to relax a bit (it couldn't possibly be time to push already, right?).  Finally at 3:30, I just HAD to get up out of the bed, and had a contraction as I sat up that sent a gush of liquid down my leg.  For some reason, I was sure I had just peed on myself.  Ha. Turns out it was my water breaking.

I scooted into the bathroom, and the moment I sat down on the toilet I was overwhelmed by the need to push.  Now I've heard other women say before that they feel a strong urge to push, but with Leo it was never that intense - I pushed with him because they said I was ready.  Not so this time.  There was nothing in this world that could have stopped me.  For some reason (grogginess maybe?), I still wasn't convinced I was pushing out a baby - but 15 seconds later her head was out, and I reached down and grabbed her and pushed one more time and pulled her up onto my lap. She cried for about 5 seconds, them tucked in next to me.

After hyperventilating for a few seconds, I remembered there was a nurse call button next to me, and whacked it.  And then sat there, by myself on the toilet, still hyperventilating, and looking at the baby on my lap.  The nurse showed up about 15 seconds later, and with a very shocked look on her face, said "Oh.  You had a baby."  About 5 other nurses appeared about of nowhere, and limped me back to the bed, cleaned up and checked over the baby, and summoned the on-call doctor to check me over and deliver the placenta. 

And oh yeah, called Byron to tell him to come back in because his wife just had the baby.  Craziness.

Despite the wild delivery, she started to nurse right away (and vigorously).  And nursed well all morning before spending the vast majority of this afternoon asleep.  She's officially 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and 21 inches long.  When I asked one of the nurses about whether they could see any of my increasing contractions on their monitor, she said that because I was laying on my side, it didn't show up as strongly as it should.  So they had no idea how close I was.

So somehow, I had an unattended, self-delivered birth in the middle of a hospital.  It sucks that Byron missed it, but it's still much better than lingering on for 3 days.  I'll take 4 hours of intensity over Leo's 53 hours anytime. 

Still waiting

 I was hoping to have exciting baby Kern arrival news to share with you, but we're still waiting.  She was due March 15th, and here we are five days later.  Boo. Not even last night's supermoon drew her out.  I've had plenty of sporadic contractions, and lots of discomfort, but nothing substantial so far. We're headed back to the midwife's office tomorrow for the standard post-due ultrasound (to make sure there's enough amniotic fluid in there) and non-stress test to monitor heart rate and all that. We'll probably discuss setting a date for induction late next week assuming we get that far.

In the meantime, we can only wait.  My mom came up from Missouri for the last week, with the intention of watching Leo while we were at the hospital and all that.  No dice there, and she had to drive home this morning, but she became Leo's new best friend while she was here (I think every other word out of his mouth was "Graaammaaaww"). We hit up every playground in town, and even got to play outside a bit when some freakishly good weather hit for a few days. They had tons and tons of playtime and giggles, and Leo was pretty inconsolable (for about 5 minutes) when she drove off this morning. 

 Happily, Byron's mom is on her was over from Chicago at this moment to be on hand for Leo-watching for a while, so he gets a new Gram to play with.  Hopefully this girl shows up soon!  In the meantime, pictures of Leo will have to suffice.

Almost an Outtie!

My belly button never popped out with Leo.  You'd think a kid that turned out to be a whopping 9 pounds 5 ounces would cause a girl's belly button to pop, but no.  And it may sound weird, but it's just one of this little things I always kinda wanted to happen. 
And now here I am, at 36 weeks with little Kernel #2, and I have almost popped!  There's still a slight indentation, but it's getting shallower by the day.  Ergo, baby girl is getting bigger and bigger, though hopefully (please God) not getting up to Leo's birth weight (or 95th percentile head size...)
All seems to be progressing well with the pregnancy - lots and lots of vigorous movement, plenty of Braxton-Hicks contractions, still lots of hiccups, you know - all the usual things.  We've got a stack of cute (and oh-so-tiny) basic clothes all washed and folded, and a little sleeper/rocker/bassinet thing for daytime downstairs naps.  We're ready to rock!