Big Relief!

Practicing her boxing moves, ignore the spit up. :)

Her new sweatshirt. They didn't have a girl's one, so I added bows to this one.

As many of you know, for the past couple of months we've been wondering if Alan, my brother, and uncle would keep their jobs because the company they work for is being bought out. After many delays in the process, we finally know that they all got to keep their jobs! Praise the Lord! I hope I can say the same for friends that work there also.

Kinslie had her 1 month appointment last week. She weighed 9 lbs 14.5 oz and was 21 3/4 inches long. She was in the 75th percentile for everything. She is getting quite chunky. I'm starting to switch her over to formula, as I only have 2 weeks left at home. I gave her the first bottle of it yesterday, and she didn't have any problems with it. I'm not sure she really noticed. She has also been doing much better about sleeping at night. Lately she's been waking up around 2 or 3, and 6. Not bad! I can handle that when I go back to work. Last night she went to bed around midnight (because she napped from 7:30-10:30) and slept until 4:30. She went 6 hours without eating, but she sure was hungry when she woke up.

Kinslie's newborn pictures

Wow, you would think with all this time at home I would remember to update the blog. Yeah...not so much. Kinslie is going to be 4 weeks old tomorrow, I can't believe time goes by so quickly. I had so many plans to get things done while at home, but I'm having too much fun cuddling with Kinslie to get those accomplished. They'll still be there later.

We had her newborn pictures taken last weekend at JC Penneys. I thought they did a pretty good job, especially since they were a half hour behind which meant it was time for her to eat when we got called back. Oh, and the fact that she kept dirtying her diaper right before they called us. (Did you know that JC Penney's does not have a changing table in the upstairs women's restroom? However they do have one in the men's. Doesn't make much sense, and not many dad's have used it b/c it wouldn't even lay flat without someone holding it down.)

Kinslie is growing like a weed, I'm excited for her one month appointment next week so I can find out how much she weighs. She's been having trouble sleeping well because she is congested and keeps clearing her throat. She is the noisiest baby I've ever heard sleep. I called the doctor today and they told me to use saline drops to see if it will help clean out her nose. We'll see if it works, I sure hope so.

Kinslie Grace

Kinslie Grace made her appearance on Saturday, August 29 at 8:27 in the morning. She decided to make it on her own terms rather than us saying when she would arrive. We planned on being induced Friday night, but I started having contractions Friday afternoon. We just waited to go to the hospital at our scheduled time. They said they couldn't induce me because my contractions were too close together, so we would just wait it out. I was in quite a lot of pain until about 2:00 when they gave me an epidural. After that, everything was fine and dandy and I really didn't feel any pain until she was born. She weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long.

We came home Sunday afternoon, but have had to go back to the hospital every day to have a bilirubin test to check for risk of jaundice. Her scores have went up everyday, but the finally stopped climbing today. And we don't have to go back tomorrow. YAY!!! She also had to go to the pediatrician today for her 1 week appointment. She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight. She now weighs 7 lbs 5 oz, after going down to 6 lbs 13 oz on Monday.

The pediatrician gave her permission to start tummy time...I don't think this is the exercise she was speaking of.

I looked at the guessing results, and it looks like grandma Becky is the winner. She had emailed me her guesses. Although, Becky Futrell was close behind. It wouldn've been a tie with the amount of closest answers but Grandma Becky won by guessing her middle name. Good job!

Better do this before it's too late...

Well, I've been meaning to put up a post for a baby guessing contest. Sorry, mine is not going to be as fun as Becky's, as there is not a prize. Just the satisfaction of knowing you were the closest!

Little Koller will be arriving soon and she wants you to guess the following:

Date of birth:
Time:
Length:
Weight:
Name: (And Kaitlen..no posting the original name, just in case!)
Does Daddy pass out?:
Does Aunt Kaitlen make it to the hospital in time?:

Just post a reply with your information.

For those of you who are curious, I went to the doctor yesterday and I'm barely starting to dialate. Although I was very nervous after meet-the-teacher night on Monday. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, but I was having contractions after coming home from working 12+ hours. I finally fell asleep around midnight, so it must not have been too bad. Another annoying side effect of being this far along and going back to work is my marshmallow feet. I reached down to itch my foot earlier this week and couldn't find my ankle. :( The doctor says to put them up as much as possible and try to lay down for 20 minutes 2 times during the day (yeah right when I'm teaching 1st grade and trying to get the kids started in a routine!).

I am so excited to have the substitute that I have lined up. She came to meet-the-teacher night on Monday and was with me all day today to help get the school year started. She's also planning on coming the rest of this week...all without pay. What a great person, it will be so much better for the kids to already know her when I leave.

Well, that's all for now...Happy Guessing!

29 days and counting...

Another busy weekend down, now to stay home until baby Koller wants to make her appearance. My sister and sister-in-law had a baby shower for me this weekend. We got lots of cute things including a Jeep all-terrain walker, a grandma's-special crocheted heart blanket, hooded towels, and lots of clothes. It barely fit in the car coming home.

Last night we went to Alan's 10 year high school reunion and it was nice to actually know some of his classmates. It seems so weird to go to a high school reunion for a class of around 40, I think about 20 of them were there. Then we went to Kaitlen and Shaun's house to chat with them, Shaun's parents, and Sara and Jason. I definitely stayed up too late.

After church today we enjoyed Pizza Hut buffet and went to Wichita to see his cousin in the rehab hospital. He thinks he has about 2 weeks left there and is supposed to get his new wheelchair this week. He tried for the customized version with a suspension lift, but insurance says no. Too bad, as long as you're in a wheel chair, might as well have it all "souped" up.

Now, onto Cracker Barrell for some good food and good fun!

Slow down summer

Where has the summer gone? I only have 2 weeks and a couple days until school starts again. Scary thought! The good news is that I will only work a couple weeks, then I'll have 6 more off after the baby comes. We had our child birth class on Saturday. It was not a whole lot of fun, but we did learn some stuff. We also got the tour of the baby floor. This is helpful knowing where to go when the time comes. I'm not really excited about moving to at least 3 rooms while I'm there (triage, delivery, and post pardom), but I guess this system is more efficient if there are a lot of babies making their presence. There was one alterior motive to the class...for Alan to wear the empathy belly. Too bad he only had it on for a half hour. See pictures below.

I got the curtains and valences up in the baby's room and have washed most of the newborn and 0/3 month clothes. It's amazing how many she now has. I'm still working on cleaning out my stuff and rearranging to make everything fit. It's a good thing that room is the biggest in the house. At most, 6 weeks to go! Below are pictures from my baby shower last weekend and a few other random pics.

Burp rags I made

This started out to be a purse, but ended up being a diaper basket

The pink camo cake

Busy Weekend

As I'm sitting here typing, I finally have my feet propped up to hopefully make the swelling in my feet go away. (No Cherie, they're not as big as your cankles, that's what I'm hoping to avoid.) This weekend has been very busy, and I don't think the coming weekends are going to be any better. On Saturday, my sister, aunt, and sister-in-law had a baby shower for me and the chubby little girl inside of me. There was a good turnout (thanks to all who came) and I'm now wondering if the baby's room is going to be big enough. I guess I should weed out some of my stuff so she'll have plenty of room. After all, I still have 2 more showers. She got lots of cute outfits and some much needed supplies like diapers, wipes, and bath time goodies. I'll post some pics once someone...hmmm hmmm Kaitlen...emails them to me.

I left with Alan's mom and sister after the shower to go to camp Menoscah with the Eden church group. It's located south of Hutchinson, and I don't believe it could have gotten any hotter or more humid. After an evening of watching several recreational games that people were playing, I decided to try to go to bed. Well, I tried alright, for about an hour and a half. Laying in a tent without air moving and becoming drenched in sweat, I finally fell asleep...then Alan came to bed and I woke up. I went to the bath house to go to the bathroom and then came back for another hour of laying awake. I did finally get about 3 hours of sleep between another bathroom break and the air matress deflating 2 times. Let's just say I was not wide awake for church this morning...which I sweated all the way through. We left right after church and I soaked up the AC. My toes have never been as swollen as they were when I got in the car.

As much as my experience wasn't the greatest, Alan had a good time. Before I got there yesterday, he caught a 25 pound carp (I guess that's big, at least that's what they told me) by hand. Supposedly the old camp record was 8 pounds. Of course, I'm not sure I can believe the whole story, because I have yet to see pictures. :) There were several witnesses, so I guess maybe it's true. He spent the evening playing horseshoes, cards, and dominoes.

After camp we went to Wichita and ate at Chili's. We also went to see his cousin, Chris, in the rehab hospital where he's recovering from a motorcycle accident. He looks much better and is working on getting upper body strength so he can transfer himself from his bed to his wheelchair. He is also thinking that some of the feeling is coming back in his legs. I hope this is true and that he's going to prove the doctors wrong that said he won't ever walk again.

Well that's enough rambling, I have another appointment this week so maybe I'll update later in the week. Stay cool...cause I'm going to stay inside for quite some time.