Update on my girls

So, it has been way too long since I actually came on here and updated what has been going on in our lives. So here we go...

Jana is now 16 1/2 months old. She has a motor on her! She doesn't stop unless she's strapped in the high chair or sleeping. She walks everywhere, but gets nervous in busy places. She has found a new love: the park and slides. She discovered the other day how to climb up to the platform and then go down the slide. Way too cute.

She's also a chatter box. She has such an amazing vocabulary. Some of her new things to say that knock me over when I hear them are: (today in the car when she was playing with her new toy the twins gave her) "Nonononono, no in box," "I do it," "Da-a-ddy, " "Move dog," and "hot." She knows feet, toes, ears, mouth, and occasionally eye, but only if she can poke you in the eye.

She has finally started giving kisses. Grandpa Bill (my dad) was the first to receive a Jana kiss. Over time she has begun to give us kisses, but her three favorite things to kiss remain to be her toys, Kara, and the dog.

Kara is growing like a weed. My sister in law saw her this weekend and hasn't seen her since the weekend after she was born; she couldn't believe how big she is getting. She's fully into 3 mo clothes for length, but they are too big around her. She's a great sleeper like her big sister, but has a hard time going down during the day. We have discovered that she fusses herself to sleep. She is much more of a crier than Jana ever was, which gets a bit frustrating, but then she looks at us with her beautiful blue-green eyes and we forget about the crying (until it starts again).

J is home for the summer and it is nice to have him around. We are doing really well. We are doing great working as a team and have worked hard to have fun with the girls as a family. He's such an amazing man and I fall in love with him all over again when I watch him interact with the girls.

I'm doing pretty well. I'm going to be doing much better when I get more sleep now that all my stupid reports are done. I do have the senior papers to read, but at least I can check one thing off my to do list. I started running last week. I feel rather pathetic, but it's a start. We have been doing a 3.3 mile route, but I think we need to vary it up a bit before we get bored with it.

I have decided that I want to get back into doing triathlons. I have decided that if we can afford it, I want to get a bike in the next few weeks and do a triathlon in September.

Okay, what you all actually came here for: pics.

Jana's just checking on baby Kara.


Lounging in the rocker on the deck at Jacob's and Anya's house.

Jana and Daddy playing on the swings at the park downtown.



Mommy and Jana playing on the big toy.



Making goofy faces while in the stroller.


Poor Kara, this is her view in the stroller right now.


Dadda, Jana, and the dog exploring at the park.


Jana wasn't so sure about her new pool, so we were playing in it in the family room.


Kara hanging out in her bouncer.


"Ahh, finally a chance to stretch out. Can someone make sure I don't get stepped on though?"


Little Miss Bad Ass, wearing daddy's hat.


Jana LOVES slides. Can you tell?


And she loves the swing!


My little nudist. She loves going around without clothes now.

Awful about updating

I know I've been so bad about updating this sight. There never seem to be enough hours in the day.

Here is a new pic of the girls. We were trying to get a pic of the girls together for Kara's announcement and thought we could get Jana to sit still if we put on one of her Baby Einstein DVDs. She did sit still, but she looks like a zombie, so we're obviously not using this picture for Kara's announcement.

Kara Mae's Birth Story

On Tuesday, May 22nd, I had one of my usual doctor’s appointments. I was 37 weeks and 3 days – exactly three weeks longer than I carried Jana. It had been a busy day; Mom, Jana and I had gone to Costoc, Winco (warehouse-type grocery store), cleaned out the fridge and cleaned out most of the pantry. I had felt kind of yucky all day, but just figured it was one of my not-so-good days.

I had a doctor’s appointment at 3:50, so I headed off while my mom stayed at the house because Jana was napping. I was 3 cm dilated, which wasn’t much more than I was the week before, so I was a little disappointed. She said that my water sac was bulging from contractions, so she ordered me to the hospital for a Non-stress Test.

I went home to get J, who had ridden to work that day and we headed to the hospital, with bags packed, just to be hopeful. They observed me for an hour and a half and my contractions were between 6 and 7 minutes apart and only mildly painful. So, they sent us home.

It was nice to come home. My mom had fixed us dinner and we were able to put Jana to bed. At 2:00 am, in my dream, I had a contraction that hurt. I immediately woke and realized that was a real contraction and I wasn’t dreaming. I felt a little trickle, trickle and had an “oh crap” moment. I was on the couch, which wouldn’t react too well to my water breaking while I was on it. I ran to the bathroom and whoosh! There went my water, and boy-howdy, they weren’t joking when they said I had extra fluid.

I grabbed the towels from the half bathroom downstairs and ran upstairs to wake Jeremy, leaking more fluid all the way. I tried not to scare him, and wanted to gently wake him up, so I gently shook him. I told him that my water broke as he was waking up. He jumped up, saying “Oh yeah!” He quickly flipped on the light and started emailing off his lesson plans for the day, while I changed my clothes and continued to make a mess.

The contractions started soon after and were immediately two minutes apart and quite painful. About five or six contractions later, I got this heavy feeling and knew the need to push was not far away. This was about the time that J figured out that we needed to leave NOW.

After a quick stop into the guestroom to give my mom the news and a monitor for Jana, we were off on our 20 minute drive to the hospital. My contractions were wildly erratic; one would be 90 seconds apart and lasting 30 seconds and another would be three minutes apart, lasting 90 seconds. I knew that pushing was not far away. I desperately wanted to scream at J to hurry up, but I knew if he was speeding, we’d get pulled over.

We arrived at the hospital a few minutes before three. Frighteningly enough, a car pulled in after us and two of my students got out. Anyway, J dropped me off because he saw a parking spot about 100 feet away. She buzzed me in and asked what she could do for me. I replied, “My water broke and my contractions are two minutes apart. I’m going to have this baby soon.” She looked a little panicked and started asking my name and for me to sign forms. She quickly sent us upstairs. We got upstairs and had to wait for a nurse to come get us. I was starting to freak out because I was in some serious pain. We skipped triage (again) and did the patient history as we walked down the hall, stopping twice when I couldn’t walk anymore because of a contraction.

We got into a room and I got changed. She asked for a urine sample and I told her, “No way. If I try to pee, I’m going to end up pushing.” I immediately told them that I wanted an epidural and they told me they would see what they could do because the anesthesiologist was in an emergency C –section. I got on the bed and within a few minutes, I was complaining that I needed to push. They immediately got an IV nurse in there when I told them in took them 2 ½ hours to get an IV in with Jana. I was only at 6 cm at this time. They kept telling me not to push, but I couldn’t help it. She told me that pushing wouldn’t do any good because I wasn’t dilated yet… unless I quickly skipped ahead. She decided to check me again and I was already 9+ cm. She quickly started calling for help as with the next contraction, I felt the head crown. (Side note: I quickly realized that I did have some of the epidural with Jana because I could feel EVERYTHING!) She was trying to get me to not push and had J press the call button and tell them we needed someone now and that they needed a NICU nurse for an unassisted delivery. With the next contraction, I had to push again and I could tell that the head was out. (TMI: Holy cow, that kid was flailing about – apparently unhappy about being half-way out.) I couldn’t wait for the next contraction because of all the kicking and with two more pushes, the baby arrived. They put her on my chest and I couldn’t believe it was over. J finally had to ask, “What do we have here?” and they told us a girl. J’s first thought was, “Oh shoot, we don’t have a name.” Next thing I know (which was apparently about 5 minutes later), an ER doctor arrived to deliver the placenta and all that glorious stuff. By the way, I was shocked that the contractions continued after she was born; I don’t remember that from last time.

At 3:28 am, she was born, weighing 8 lbs, 3 ounces and 19 ½ inches long. I was shocked to see how big she was because she seems so small.

So after about an hour of being very distracted, we narrowed it down to Allison Kathleen, Kara Kathleen, and Kara Mae. We both agreed that we liked Kara Mae the best.

It was a wild ride and I sure would have loved to enjoy an epidural.

Pictures of the last two weeks

Kara Mae just a few minutes old. You can tell I had to work a little harder for this one, a lot more pain and it was 3 in the morning.



Daddy's first kiss.



Sisters meeting for the first time when Kara was just a few hours old.


Sisters face to face.


Arriving home.




Mama and Kara taking a snooze the evening we came home.


Jana's not so sure about Kara hanging out with Mama.



Sleepy girl.


Holding onto Dada' s thumb - knows her way straight to his heart!



Jana's favorite place to stand - rocking Kara in the bouncer.



Jana started throwing fits and we couldn't figure out what was going on... and then we saw that pic. Can you see her molar? She got all 4 one-year molars and is now working on two bottom teeth too.



Family pic. (Note to self: Don't use "How big is Jana?" as an attention getting technique for a pic.)


Kara Mae hanging out in the bouncer.



Sharing blankie with Baby Sis.


Big Girl! Chillin' on her scooter with her feet up and talking on the phone.


Hanging out with Mama and Baby Sis.



It must be Jana's nap time because it's safe for me to hangout on the floor! :-)



That's my baby sis!



Sleepy head.



Hanging out on Grandma and Grandpa's patio on a warm day.



Great Grandpa and his two girls.

My girls

Here are some pics of my two girls.

The first two are of the girls, both at 10 days old, both wearing the same onesie. It is so amazing to me to see the difference in sizes between the two.


Here's Jana at 1o days old, probably weighing around 6 lbs.



Here's Kara at 10 days old, weighing around 8 lbs, 5 oz.


Here's a close up of Jana at about two weeks old.


Here's a close up of Kara at about two weeks old.



It will be interesting to see if the girls start to look more alike as they grow up, but right now Jana really looks like J and Kara looks like me. However, Jana has my eyes and Kara has J's.