Koda's First Christmas

WHEW! This past week or so has been over the top hectic! We moved into our new house, hosted our first Ugly Christmas Sweater party, and had Koda's first Christmas! Although he's too young to realize what was happening, we started a couple of Christmas traditions (like baking cookies for Santa!) that we're sure he will be VERY excited about next year! He received a TON of gifts that he had no idea what to do with (but he will very soon, I'm sure!) except his mirrors...he LOVES the mirrors! Here's a couple pics!

We went to a 'Winter Wonderland'. It was a gorgeous pathway with all kinds of Christmas decorations and lights! Koda didn't care for it but mommy and daddy had fun! His hat says 'My First Christmas'

'What the heck are you doing to me mom?!' I LOVE getting these kind of pictures where he fits into ridiculously small items. I know it won't last long so I'm enjoying it while I can! Even though he'll probably hate me for it when he's older ;)

Our little Family on Christmas Eve

Koda's first Christmas! This little outfit was one of his gifts and I just couldn't wait to put it on him! 

Hope all of you enjoyed your Christmas!

Introducing Mr.Grumples

My little munchkin is growing, growing, growing! It seems like every day he is becoming more alert and social. He has even started smiling and laughing! Not belly laughs just yet, but we will get there! His smile makes my day, every day!

He also has a knack for making funny faces. We will sit together for 30 minutes at a time taking picture after picture of all his silly faces! Most of the time he puts on a grumpy face which is why he has earned himself a new nickname. I give you....Mr. Grumples!

Only one week to go and my little man will already be 2 months old! Can't wait to share more of what's been going on with this guy lately! =]

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!

Belly Progression (and a couple fun extras!)

I can see the finish line!! Dakota's estimated due date is just SIXTEEN days away! These last couple of weeks aren't going to go by nearly as fast as I'd like them to, but soon, I'll have my baby boy in my arms! I thought it would be fun to take a look  back at the past 9 months and watch how much my little bear-and my belly!- have grown.

A few days after we found out we were expecting a little DQ!
(I should probably also explain that DQ is somewhat of an abbreviation of our last name)

11 weeks and the very beginnings of a  'Koda Bump'

13 Weeks (excuse my appearance)
I remember looking at this photo and thinking how HUGE my belly looked-HAHA!

19 Weeks
Thought I was about as big as I was going to get here. 

This one was taken somewhere in the early 20-week range. I'm guessing around 21 or 22 weeks

26 Weeks

32 Weeks


37 Weeks
Really looking like I'm about to POP now! (Which I am...and SOON....hopefully!)

And just for fun, Zach and I decided to paint Koda a couple of early Halloween costumes! 
First up, my friend Nickie's design- A cute little pumpkin!


And now for Daddy's design, Zach decided to make Koda -The Punisher!


Hope you enjoyed this little trip down Memory Lane with me! Hopefully within my next couple of posts , there will be actual pictures of my sweet little man's face, instead of my big 'ol belly!

Pregnancy: 36 Weeks and Growth Restriction Update

Tomorrow marks 37 Weeks for us! We've finally hit FULL TERM!! Dakota can now make his appearance ANY TIME!! Hopefully sooner rather than later, considering, I have been having contractions on and off for about 22 and 1/2 hours now! He just needs to hurry up and get here! My mother in law and I finished up his nursery today so it will be waiting for him when we get released from the hospital. He can't come soon enough!

Now for the update on the possible 'growth restriction'. We have a perfectly healthy baby! He's just a lot smaller than the average baby! I am so relieved! Right now most babies weigh around 6 lbs or more. Our little guy is currently 5 lbs, but totally healthy and extremely active. They are going to continue to monitor me closely with twice a week non stress tests and (given that i'm still pregnant) we will have a follow up ultrasound in a couple of weeks to check on his growth. If he hasn't grown enough for the Dr's liking, they will go ahead and induce labor, but if he grows enough so that the Dr's feel comfortable, they will let me continue to carry him until I go into labor on my own. HOPEFULLY, we won't have to wait that long and I'll already be holding my sweet baby in my arms by the time the follow up ultrasound rolls around.

How far along? 37 Weeks tomorrow

Total weight gain: 29 lbs

Maternity clothes? jeans and the biggest shirts I can find!  

Stretch Marks? nope!

Sleep: lots of tossing and turning and bathroom breaks!

Best moment this week: getting confirmation that Koda is healthy!!

Miss Anything? feta cheese!

 Movement? still dancing all the time.

Food cravings?: Feta cheese (obviously) and bad food!! (as in fast food!...not sure why!)

Anything making you queasy or sick: nah

Gender: boy!

Labor Signs: frequent contractions

Symptoms: back pain, swelling, fatigue

Belly Button in or out? flat!

Wedding rings on or off? on (sometimes they won't come off!)

Mood: relieved and excited!

 Looking forward to: Koda's arrival!

Pregnancy: 35 Weeks and POSSIBLE growth restriction

This week was uneventful up until yesterday. I had my 36 week check up and my midwife noticed I was measuring small (27 cm when I should be around 36) so she sent us up to labor and delivery where they did a non-stress test (monitored the baby's movements for about 20 minutes) and all of that was normal, but then they did an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid levels to see if that was why I was measuring small. The midwife that we saw said that if the fluid level was low then they would have to induce labor but if not, growth restriction would be a possibility. She told us that if the baby measured small (under the 10th percentile) that they would induce labor. So after checking fluid levels, which turned out to be completely normal, we were off to radiology for another ultrasound to check the baby's measurements. When they measure the baby they take 4 measurements. One around the head, one across the top of the head, one around the belly, and another down the length of the femur bone. When they measured his head, it was a completely normal size, in the 50th percentile. However, when they measured his belly and femur, they measured significantly smaller, below the 10th percentile. After a LOT of waiting, the charge nurse from labor and delivery came to speak to us. She was the one who let us know about the measurement situation. She told us that they weren't going to induce labor but on Monday she is sending us to the high risk pregnancy specialists. They will run another non-stress test on the baby and then later in the week do another ultrasound. The difference between this ultrasound and the one we had in radiology is that the high risk equipment is a lot better and that instead of a technician doing the ultrasound, it will be an actual doctor. So, as of then, we will be able to FINALLY get some answers as to what exactly is going on with our little bear and what their plan of action is. At this point, I'm assuming that everything will be perfectly ok and that little man is as perfect as ever! I will post again when we know more. As for right now, here's my weekly update.

How far along? 36 Weeks

Total weight gain: 25 + lbs

Maternity clothes? SQUEEZING into my maternity jeans and tops.   

Stretch Marks? nope!

Sleep: lots of tossing and turning

Best moment this week: seeing Koda's face on ultrasound (he looks EXACTLY like Zach) 

Miss Anything? being comfortable lol!

 Movement? not quite as active as usual but he's still pretty busy in there. 

Food cravings?: nothing really...haven't been very hungry lately....WEIRD

Anything making you queasy or sick: i feel queasy a lot lately...not sure why

Gender: boy!

Labor Signs: braxton hicks

Symptoms: back pain

Belly Button in or out? flat!

Wedding rings on or off? on

Mood: a little anxious

Looking forward to: getting answers