Dakota is 1 month old!

It seems like I start off every post with 'I can't believe it!'....but I truly cannot believe that my baby is already a month old! Everyone says 'it goes by fast' but until you're living it, you cannot appreciate just how quickly time flies. I feel like yesterday I was just finding out that I was pregnant, and here we are today, and he's already been here for an entire month! Within this whirlwind of a month, a lot has changed. Mommy and Daddy aren't looking as rested these days (wonder why?!) and our house has been taken over by Babies R Us!...diapers, wipes, and toys, oh my!...Not that I am complaining, by ANY means! We are truly blessed that we have more than enough for our sweet baby boy. Our family and friends have been so generous! It seems like every time we check the mail we have more stuff for Koda (okay- mommy ;P ) to enjoy, because, let's get real. He doesn't care what he's wearing, but mommy just loves to see him in all those cute little outfits! Koda has been doing a lot of changing himself this month! He doesn't look very different...still on the tiny side, but he has become so alert and has even started giving us a big grin every now and then! He has also made himself a night time schedule. He usually only wakes up about 3 times a night now - HALLELUJAH! During the day he doesn't sleep near as much as he did at first. He likes to lay in mommy's lap and look around. We play patty-cake together and I tell him the 'little piggies' story on his toes but his FAVORITE thing to do is make silly faces! He has a ton of them and they make mommy laugh every time! We also go spend time with friends. Koda's best friend's name is Rilee. He will be 3 months old on the 24th. They like to lay on the play gym together and look at the toys that dangle from the top...oh, and, kick each other in the face! He also has a girlie friend named Emily who is just 8 days older than him. He will also be meeting my God daughter (and his future wife ;] ) very soon! She turned 3 months old on the 14th. As of right now him and his friends don't do much interacting, but I'm sure that will be changing very shortly- they grow so fast! Here's a few pictures of our little man and also some of him and his friends!

1 month!

 hahaha!

 Koda and Emily

 Koda and Rilee

 He loves to stick out his tongue! 

 The sweetest smile in the whole world

another one with that tongue out!-silly boy!

Dakota Lane Has Arrived!-Birth Story

After a very long 9 months, our precious baby boy has arrived! On October 19,2012 at 8:40 am, Dakota Lane came into the world weighing 5 lbs 15 oz and was 20 in long! My birth story started in the ultrasound room of the clinic with my high-risk Dr checking on Koda's growth. While he had gained weight and looked healthy and normal, he was still under the 10th percentile and the Dr wanted to make sure that there wasn't something wrong that he wasn't able to see on the ultrasound, so he decided to induce my labor. He checked the schedule and labor and delivery were all booked for the next two days, so he asked me if I would be ok with being induced that day. Without hesitation my answer was YES! I was so ready to meet my handsome little man and my mom and mother in law were already in town awaiting Koda's arrival. We didn't even go home (we already had our 'go' bags in the car) We went straight upstairs to labor and delivery where they immediately took me back, started my IV and admitted me! At first they gave me plain fluids and then around 2:30 they started my pitocin. I started REALLY feeling the contractions a few hours later. The nurse had told me that they would give me some pain medicine through my iv until I could get my epidural (at 4 cm) but that I might want to hold off for a while because the first dose would be the strongest and help the most. After a while of trying to breathe through the contractions-which really REALLY hurt-I went ahead and got the pain medicine. Once they administered the medicine, I immediately went to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up, I could feel the contractions again and they were only getting stronger so I got another dose and went back to sleep. Again, when I woke up the contractions were back and getting stronger. They checked my progress and I was finally at 4-almost 5 cm so they said I could get my epidural. While they were administering the epidural, I heard a loud POP and my leg kicked out like someone was checking the reflexes in my knee. I got kind of worried because I heard one of the Dr's say "shit!"....He told me that sometime after delivery I would most likely get a really bad migraine but there was something they would do for me to help but I'd have to wait 24 hours. They went back in and tried the epidural again and this time, it worked! My contractions went away quickly and I fell back asleep. When I woke up I started feeling a lot of pressure. My midwife came in to check my progress and she said that it was time to push! She left the room for a while and FINALLY my nurse came in and told me that on my next contraction we would start to push! Eight minutes later I was holding my beautiful baby boy in my arms! We snuggled for a while and then they took him over to the warmer to get his weight/height and give him his first bath and then when they brought him back to me, I got to feed him for the first time, which was something I had been looking forward to for my entire pregnancy. A few hours later, they moved me into another room and right around that time, the headache that the epidural doctor had warned me about hit and it hit HARD! Another doctor came in to talk to me about what was going on and explained that I had a 'spinal headache' which had been caused by a 'wet tap' when I was getting my epidural (that was the loud pop and kick). To fix the spinal headache they would wait 24 hours from the time my epidural was administered and then give me a 'blood patch'. This procedure is where they would give me another epidural but instead of the medicine they give you during a normal epidural, they would inject me with 20 cc's of my own blood and this would lessen/take away the spinal headache. In the meantime, I was to lay completely flat on my back, as this was the only way my head would not feel like it was absolutely about to explode! After a long while, I was able to get my blood patch which helped a lot but didn't take away the headache completely, however, I was able to function again without my head being in excruciating pain. (a couple days later the headache was completely gone) I don't regret the epidural at all though! The headache was a lot less painful than birth would have been without the epidural! After 2 nights in the hospital, we were able to take our little man home! Life has certainly changed a lot since he's been here, but for the better! While we get a lot less sleep, our hearts are forever full. Please help me welcome my wonderful baby boy, Dakota Lane!