Cuteness and cuddlin' ain't never been extinct.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Six Days
We're six days into this whole parenting thing and I can say with a fair amount of confidence that we haven't yet done anything to really mess up our daughter's life or future. Go us. Norah still doesn't do very much. She spends a good deal of time lifting her arms up above her head and raising her up knees to her tummy. She also constantly changes the pace of her breathing, hiccups, and squeaks as she moves around. As I write this, she's flailing about on the couch beside me and grunting. Wait, now she stopped and appears to be sleeping. Apparently grunting that hard can be exhausting.
Dad and Jody came to visit this past weekend. They had a few days to kill between Grace's graduation from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a conference Jody is attending in DC this week. With Norah having only been alive for three days when they arrived, their visit was, of course, the first time she'd met any of her grandparents. We were very glad to have them here and thoroughly enjoyed their company. Seeing them each hold their first grandchild was, understandably, quite moving and memorable.
The first picture there shows Jody holding Norah whilst sporting a fancy new quilt made for her by my grams Kole. It matches the quilt that grams made for Sarah and I when we were married. How thoughtful and wonderful she is...
Sarah's mom comes to visit on the 17th. Justin and Carrie come in late July. My mom is coming sometime between now and September? Who else wants to come to the 'Shire for a visit? It's a lovely state in the summer.
The monotony of the NFL off-season has recently been broken in our house as we've been watching quite a few Nascar races and the playoffs for Lord Stanley's Cup. I'd forgotten what a totally BA sport hockey is. Watching all of these playoffs games makes me miss the summers I spent playing roller hockey in the church and high school parking lots back home. Ah, youth.
I realized the other day that I haven't offered up a "this is what I'm listening to this month" playlist on this blog like I had intended to do with every month this year. So it goes. I've never really been one for following through on long-term goals, anyway. The future is for suckers. Live in the now, you know?
But, for those of you who may be wondering, I've pretty much exclusively been listening to the new mewithoutYou album for the past month. The album is called "it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright" and has a lot of lyrics about fruits, vegetables, farming, and animals that are all actually metaphors for Jesus and stuff. Do yourself a favor and check it out: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou
Here are some more pictures of the adorableness:
God is good.
Stay Gold!
MMK
Dad and Jody came to visit this past weekend. They had a few days to kill between Grace's graduation from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a conference Jody is attending in DC this week. With Norah having only been alive for three days when they arrived, their visit was, of course, the first time she'd met any of her grandparents. We were very glad to have them here and thoroughly enjoyed their company. Seeing them each hold their first grandchild was, understandably, quite moving and memorable.
The first picture there shows Jody holding Norah whilst sporting a fancy new quilt made for her by my grams Kole. It matches the quilt that grams made for Sarah and I when we were married. How thoughtful and wonderful she is...
Sarah's mom comes to visit on the 17th. Justin and Carrie come in late July. My mom is coming sometime between now and September? Who else wants to come to the 'Shire for a visit? It's a lovely state in the summer.
The monotony of the NFL off-season has recently been broken in our house as we've been watching quite a few Nascar races and the playoffs for Lord Stanley's Cup. I'd forgotten what a totally BA sport hockey is. Watching all of these playoffs games makes me miss the summers I spent playing roller hockey in the church and high school parking lots back home. Ah, youth.
I realized the other day that I haven't offered up a "this is what I'm listening to this month" playlist on this blog like I had intended to do with every month this year. So it goes. I've never really been one for following through on long-term goals, anyway. The future is for suckers. Live in the now, you know?
But, for those of you who may be wondering, I've pretty much exclusively been listening to the new mewithoutYou album for the past month. The album is called "it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright" and has a lot of lyrics about fruits, vegetables, farming, and animals that are all actually metaphors for Jesus and stuff. Do yourself a favor and check it out: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou
Here are some more pictures of the adorableness:
God is good.
Stay Gold!
MMK
Thursday, May 7, 2009
How it Happened...
So here's the story of how Norah was born. I'm sure some of you have been wondering.
We were at home on Tuesday night just watching TV and hanging out. Sarah had been having some cramping and mild contractions for a couple of days, but started to have some fairly intense contractions around 10pm on Tuesday night and told me that it might be time for us to go to the hospital. We'd already packed up a bag with clothes and things to take with us, so we left fairly quickly after that. We got to the hospital around 10:30pm and got Sarah checked in and examined within about half of an hour. She was five centimeters dilated (which is considered "active labor) when she was checked in, so they took us to our room and set her up for the process of working through her labor. Our intention was to have a water birth with Norah, and we were lucky that there was no one else using the water birthing room when we arrived. It is the nicest and biggest room in the birthing center at the hospital, and having it to ourselves made the process of labor seem less overwhelming or impossible.
Over the course of the next nine hours, Sarah dealt with her labor, increasing contractions, and fought off exhaustion. Since she went into labor about the time of night she'd normally be going to bed, she didn't have a chance to sleep or rest much before hand. As you can probably imagine, being in labor isn't really conducive to sleeping, either. By 8:30am on Wednesday morning when Norah was born, we'd been up for 24 hours straight.
Like I said before, Sarah was in labor for about nine hours starting at 11pm on Tuesday night. Of those nine hours, she spent about four hours in the jacuzzi, one or two hours in the shower, and a couple of hours in bed or squatting on an exercise ball. While using the jacuzzi or shower during the laboring process are not techniques that are specifically unique to water-birthing, they fit well with our hopes for the birth and, perhaps more importantly, seemed to really help Sarah deal with the contractions she was enduring. I didn't do much, for the most part, but just tried to help with my presence, some encouraging words, and some light-touch massage. There's not much for a partner to do during the laboring/birthing process except to be a go-fer and do what he or she is told. So it goes.
Anyway, the midwife came in to check Sarah's dilation at 8am on Wednesday morning. Sarah was 8 centimeters dilated, but her water still hadn't broken. We decided to have the midwife break her water as they began to fill the rather large water birthing tub with warm water. The tub generally takes 20-25 minutes to fill, so we thought we'd have plenty of time to get it filled and Sarah into it before she really had to start pushing. While it was a good plan, it didn't really work out once the midwife broke her water. Sarah's amniotic sack and fluid was acting as a buffer and keeping Norah's head from dropping fully down onto the cervix. Once Sarah's water was broken, though, Norah dropped right down and started putting pressure on the cervix to the point that it dilated the final two centimeters in a matter of minutes. Sarah's contractions were markedly more intense immediately after the midwife broke her water, and Sarah began to push the baby out just three or four minutes later. There wasn't time to get her into the water, so she delivered the baby while lying on her side in bed. She only had to push for about 20-30 minutes before Norah was out completely at 8:30am on Wednesday.
Sarah used no pain medication and did not have an epidural at any point in the process. She delivered Norah as naturally as possible and did a wonderful job. I can't remember a time in my life when I've been more proud of anyone than I was of Sarah while Norah was being born.
Norah was 7lbs and 11oz when she was born, and 20 inches long. She's got "fair skin" according to one of the nurses, and hair that is lighter in color than I expected it to be. I thought she'd look more like Sarah (with dark hair and eyes, and olive skin), but maybe not? Who knows... I guess we'll see.
And just so everyone is clear... She's pretty much totally awesome.
We were at home on Tuesday night just watching TV and hanging out. Sarah had been having some cramping and mild contractions for a couple of days, but started to have some fairly intense contractions around 10pm on Tuesday night and told me that it might be time for us to go to the hospital. We'd already packed up a bag with clothes and things to take with us, so we left fairly quickly after that. We got to the hospital around 10:30pm and got Sarah checked in and examined within about half of an hour. She was five centimeters dilated (which is considered "active labor) when she was checked in, so they took us to our room and set her up for the process of working through her labor. Our intention was to have a water birth with Norah, and we were lucky that there was no one else using the water birthing room when we arrived. It is the nicest and biggest room in the birthing center at the hospital, and having it to ourselves made the process of labor seem less overwhelming or impossible.
Over the course of the next nine hours, Sarah dealt with her labor, increasing contractions, and fought off exhaustion. Since she went into labor about the time of night she'd normally be going to bed, she didn't have a chance to sleep or rest much before hand. As you can probably imagine, being in labor isn't really conducive to sleeping, either. By 8:30am on Wednesday morning when Norah was born, we'd been up for 24 hours straight.
Like I said before, Sarah was in labor for about nine hours starting at 11pm on Tuesday night. Of those nine hours, she spent about four hours in the jacuzzi, one or two hours in the shower, and a couple of hours in bed or squatting on an exercise ball. While using the jacuzzi or shower during the laboring process are not techniques that are specifically unique to water-birthing, they fit well with our hopes for the birth and, perhaps more importantly, seemed to really help Sarah deal with the contractions she was enduring. I didn't do much, for the most part, but just tried to help with my presence, some encouraging words, and some light-touch massage. There's not much for a partner to do during the laboring/birthing process except to be a go-fer and do what he or she is told. So it goes.
Anyway, the midwife came in to check Sarah's dilation at 8am on Wednesday morning. Sarah was 8 centimeters dilated, but her water still hadn't broken. We decided to have the midwife break her water as they began to fill the rather large water birthing tub with warm water. The tub generally takes 20-25 minutes to fill, so we thought we'd have plenty of time to get it filled and Sarah into it before she really had to start pushing. While it was a good plan, it didn't really work out once the midwife broke her water. Sarah's amniotic sack and fluid was acting as a buffer and keeping Norah's head from dropping fully down onto the cervix. Once Sarah's water was broken, though, Norah dropped right down and started putting pressure on the cervix to the point that it dilated the final two centimeters in a matter of minutes. Sarah's contractions were markedly more intense immediately after the midwife broke her water, and Sarah began to push the baby out just three or four minutes later. There wasn't time to get her into the water, so she delivered the baby while lying on her side in bed. She only had to push for about 20-30 minutes before Norah was out completely at 8:30am on Wednesday.
Sarah used no pain medication and did not have an epidural at any point in the process. She delivered Norah as naturally as possible and did a wonderful job. I can't remember a time in my life when I've been more proud of anyone than I was of Sarah while Norah was being born.
Norah was 7lbs and 11oz when she was born, and 20 inches long. She's got "fair skin" according to one of the nurses, and hair that is lighter in color than I expected it to be. I thought she'd look more like Sarah (with dark hair and eyes, and olive skin), but maybe not? Who knows... I guess we'll see.
And just so everyone is clear... She's pretty much totally awesome.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Norah Ruth Kole
Our daughter was born at 8:30am this morning after about nine hours of labor. It's been a long day with a lot of emotions and very little sleep. There is a lot that I could describe and write here, but I don't have the energy for that tonight. These pictures will have to suffice for tonight (and maybe tomorrow). Enjoy, everyone.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Forgive me, I'm hormonal.
Ramblings... (20 thoughts I need to get off my chest):
1. God is true, but "Christian" definitions and views of who He is may not be. Therefore, there is value in constantly challenging faith and beliefs.
2. Judgment is included in God's job description, not mine...or anyone else's.
3. Having a "godly" conversation doesn't mean God's name has to appear in every other sentence.
4. Just because my faith (and life) looks different from other "Christians" doesn't mean I still need to be converted.
5. Pregnancy is not an illness. Get this, it is actually quite natural!
6. If I had a dollar for each time someone told me to get as much sleep and rest right now as I can, I'd be a millionaire.
7. Likewise, if I had a dollar for each time someone told me the waiting is worth all the joy this baby will bring to our lives, I'd be a billionaire.
8. If I had a dollar for each time someone asked me how I was feeling...I'd be more than a trillionaire.
9. Who do I need to talk to about receiving payment for the three previous rants?
10. I have a supportive and caring husband, I hope I quit taking that for granted.
11. Elizabeth and Sarah have been such a huge part of my support system here in New Hampshire. They are both compassionate, caring, honest, fun, and genuine. In addition, they both have had babies in the last year - they get it. I will be forever grateful to both of them.
12. I semi-want to delete my Facebook account.
13. I miss being close to Amy.
14. I think the next date Marshall and I go on will be to see Transformers 2 (June 24)...I CAN'T WAIT! WOOOT!
15. Sometimes, when comments are made about the gender of our baby (example: "I know without a doubt the baby is a ..."), I want to respond with, "Well, actually the doctors think our baby is a hermaphrodite." I'm evil, I know.
16. My mom has been so great throughout this whole pregnancy deal. I know the distance has been difficult for both of us. She is a great listener (I don't know how many of my rants she has listened to...without complaint). She's given me my space when I need it, but is always willing to share her knowledge and experiences if I ASK for it. I love her, and I am so thankful she'll be here to visit soon.
17. I believe the rights Marshall and I are given as a heterosexual couple should be extended to same-sex couples. And yes, I think God wants the same.
18. Chewing ice is my new favorite pass time.
19. I feel like my BA in Health Promotion is worthless. Jobs I find appealing generally require a masters or a crap ton of experience - both of which I DON'T have...sigh. I'm not sure I'll ever be a career woman, and I think I might be more okay with this than I realize.
20. Sometimes it just feels good to rant in a blog - to no one in particular.
SLK
1. God is true, but "Christian" definitions and views of who He is may not be. Therefore, there is value in constantly challenging faith and beliefs.
2. Judgment is included in God's job description, not mine...or anyone else's.
3. Having a "godly" conversation doesn't mean God's name has to appear in every other sentence.
4. Just because my faith (and life) looks different from other "Christians" doesn't mean I still need to be converted.
5. Pregnancy is not an illness. Get this, it is actually quite natural!
6. If I had a dollar for each time someone told me to get as much sleep and rest right now as I can, I'd be a millionaire.
7. Likewise, if I had a dollar for each time someone told me the waiting is worth all the joy this baby will bring to our lives, I'd be a billionaire.
8. If I had a dollar for each time someone asked me how I was feeling...I'd be more than a trillionaire.
9. Who do I need to talk to about receiving payment for the three previous rants?
10. I have a supportive and caring husband, I hope I quit taking that for granted.
11. Elizabeth and Sarah have been such a huge part of my support system here in New Hampshire. They are both compassionate, caring, honest, fun, and genuine. In addition, they both have had babies in the last year - they get it. I will be forever grateful to both of them.
12. I semi-want to delete my Facebook account.
13. I miss being close to Amy.
14. I think the next date Marshall and I go on will be to see Transformers 2 (June 24)...I CAN'T WAIT! WOOOT!
15. Sometimes, when comments are made about the gender of our baby (example: "I know without a doubt the baby is a ..."), I want to respond with, "Well, actually the doctors think our baby is a hermaphrodite." I'm evil, I know.
16. My mom has been so great throughout this whole pregnancy deal. I know the distance has been difficult for both of us. She is a great listener (I don't know how many of my rants she has listened to...without complaint). She's given me my space when I need it, but is always willing to share her knowledge and experiences if I ASK for it. I love her, and I am so thankful she'll be here to visit soon.
17. I believe the rights Marshall and I are given as a heterosexual couple should be extended to same-sex couples. And yes, I think God wants the same.
18. Chewing ice is my new favorite pass time.
19. I feel like my BA in Health Promotion is worthless. Jobs I find appealing generally require a masters or a crap ton of experience - both of which I DON'T have...sigh. I'm not sure I'll ever be a career woman, and I think I might be more okay with this than I realize.
20. Sometimes it just feels good to rant in a blog - to no one in particular.
SLK
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