Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Everything seems truly brighter when you can share the holidays with the ones you love. I am very blessed and should be thankful more than just one day a year for all the wonderful people in my life.

I am thankful to have such a loving wonderful husband that would do any and everything for his family. I don't think Matt knows how to tell anyone "no" he is more than willing to help out when he can and truly wants to do it. I am extremely grateful for what he did for me today. I have never gone Black Friday shopping and until we have more kids that need want lots of presents I don't foresee it anytime soon. BUT Matt has! I bought my mom a Christmas tree for her birthday and I bought the wrong one. The sad part is I knew she wanted color lights, but when I went to get the tree I double checked to make sure I bought the one with clear lights- dumb me! So Matt saved the day by going at 5:30 this morning to exchange it and thank goodness he did... there were only 2 of the trees she wanted left. I love everything about him.. even when he purposely messes up the carpet right after I vacuum because he knows it will drive me nuts!

I am thankful to have Hadley in my life. I know every child is a blessing and I believe it. Migraine, tiredness, stress.. she can fix them all! I love watching her grow everyday and seeing her personality develop. I am thankful for every moment with her and cherish them. I know everyone says they grow up fast, but I didn't realize how fast until having Hadley. She may only be 4 1/2 months old but she has already changed my life forever.

I am thankful for my mom. I cannot tell you how much she has done for me and my family. I am thankful for all the things she has taught me, for the patience she has had with me and the understanding she has shown me. I don't think she knows how to take a break or relax. She constantly gives and gives. She is an amazing single mom that raised 2 kids and countless animals :-) I have lived almost half my life with only my mom and these past 12 1/2 years have held some of the biggest events of my life. She has made every single one of those moments amazing for me. She is a mom (grandma) in every sense of the word. We have most definitely had our arguments and disagreements, but it is because we are so close. I love that we are so close. I am thankful that no matter what she will always forgive me when I am sarcastic, moody, and just being difficult.

I am thankful for my brother. Now ask me this 15 years ago when he was giving me Tabasco laced pieces of Juicy Fruit gum and I might have said otherwise. He has made me who I am. I am a tougher, strong-minded and willed person because of him. We have had our ups and downs, too, like most families, but my brother stepped into the "father" role when he needed to. I am thankful that I was the only senior Bearkadette that got to bring my whole family to BK Ball so I would have someone to dance with during the father daughter dance. I am thankful my brother would drive down from college to be at my dance competitions and "big" high school events.  I am thankful for all the things he has done in my life.

I am thankful for my sister. Yes, sister. I am thankful for Stacy and everything she has done for me in the past 11 years. She is an amazing friend who would do anything for you anytime of day. She is more than a friend, she is my sister. We have so much in common and have some of the same struggles. She is the easiest person to talk to and I am thankful for the many conversations we have had. I am thankful she is in my life as much as she is even while working full time, running marathons for charity, raising money for charity all while being such a good friend to everyone else in her life. Friendships take work, just like any other relationship, and I am thankful she works to stay my friend even when I am not always the best of friend to her.

I am thankful for my extended family and friends. I am thankful that my in-laws are amazing people that care about me just as though I am their own daughter. I am thankful for my friends who would do anything for me and even if we don't talk all the time, (or practically live at each others houses like we use to) I could just pick up the phone and know they would be there for me.

I am thankful that it is 2 a.m. and I have a husband that will make me coffee and fold laundry while I sit at the desk doing work on one computer and while it is processing- type this blog on the other. I am thankful for the two puppies enjoying our bed right now. I am thankful that all the Christmas decorations are up and the house is clean and Hadley sleeps through the night!

I look forward to the many many more Thanksgiving's in our families future, but for now I am going to try to be more thankful every single day.

4 Month Stats (2 weeks late.. again)

I am starting to see a trend in my posting habits. At least I am staying consistent on posting her stats 2 weeks late!

Diapers: Size 2. Sooo I didn't realize when I bought 2 giant economy size boxes of Pampers that I bought the wrong kind. Apparently there are different styles and the ones I bought are smaller than the other size 2 Pampers.. I'll learn eventually. I am hoping I can exchange one of the boxes because she will be in size 3 very soon. Good thing there are neighbors on the street that can benefit from my mistake!

Eating: She has actually become a little bit of a picky eater. Most of the time it is between 5-6 oz every feeding 5x a day. She is eating rice cereal or oatmeal everyday, once a day, and just this weekend we started adding other baby food. Matt fed her pears and she seemed to kind of like them?!?! I am sure it will just take some getting use to food. She opens her mouth for the spoon and sometimes grabs it from you.

Sleeping: Thank you Lord for blessing us with a great sleeper so far! I hear that your kids will make a liar out of you every time and although I am not superstitious (knock on wood) I will just leave it at that!

Laughing: She is currently in her Astroworld (aka exersaucer) laughing and squealing.. best noise ever!

Clothes: She wears some 3-6 months clothes, but mostly 6-9 months! I cleaned out her closet and drawers a couple of weekends ago and this is all the clothes she has outgrown.. wow they aren't lying when they say they grow up fast!

What is new lately: Hadley loves faces and piggy noises (random I know). She will reach for your face and touch/grab whatever she can get a hold of. During tummy time she holds herself up with her hands and looks around. She can roll from tummy to back. Sometimes you put her on her tummy she will roll right away and then other times she acts like she doesn't know how to roll over. She is getting closer to rolling from back to tummy. She lays on her side a lot, but then cannot figure out how to get all the way over without my help. She prefers to stand up - all the time! She likes it when she is laying down and I hold her hands and pull her to sitting then standing.. that will make her smile every time!

4 Month Favorites: Still her Giraffe stuffed animal (I broke it so I need to get a replacement), baths, Astroworld, funny faces, her hands, fans and being outside!

She had her 4 month checkup and shots and she is just perfect (their words not mine - although I completely agree)

Height: 25.75" - 90th percentile

Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz - 70th percentile

Head: 15.75" - 22nd percentile

In this picture she is taking a nap on her way home from the Dr. appointment

Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Oh I forgot to add this to the "What's new" section.. she can read :-)

What is better than a bedtime story with Daddy?!

Like Victoria said "What a special moment for your family" she was so right!



She is mommy's little helper! Yes, I do exists.. I am usually just the one behind the camera

A few of my favorite things

When I am overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed... I really see how blessed I am! Since this is my blog I have every right to brag. I truly believe I have the greatest husband (he is my favorite so far ;-) inside joke between me and Matt-I swear!)

This is what he surprised me with this morning along with making me breakfast:

Starbucks, trashy magazine, and flowers are just a few of my favorite things! Thank you Matt for knowing just how to cheer me up! He will never read this though because I am pretty sure he couldn't get to this blog if his life depended on it ;-) 

Many First for Hadley

This month has been a very busy month for the Kannady family. The next couple of weeks/weekends look about the same... our first weekend without plans is November 20th and I would really like to keep it that way! We shouldn't complain that we have so much to do and wonderful friends and family to be around - it is just all very exhausting and definitely wearing on Matt and me both.

This October held many first for Hadley

• Coo/Giggles
• Road trip and first overnight stay
• Rice Cereal
• Halloween
• No more Swaddle

Cooing

She has really started “talking” to us. She reacts to your facial expressions and will let you know how she feels about them. I love her smile so much and when we get her up first thing in the morning she stretches, huffs and puffs, and then when she finally opens her eyes and looks at you - SMILES and coo’s and lets out a little giggle! She is loving all the neighbor girls (who love her) and she will smile and flirt with them. She still doesn’t like cameras and I don’t understand this.. she has grown up with one in her face. J The second we get it out to record the cute funny thing she is doing she stops what she is doing and gives it the death stare.

Road trip

We went to Grandbury, Texas for Justin and Jamie’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and the town is so quaint. We were really worried at how she would do on the 5-6 hour ride up there. She did surprisingly well. It is unbelievable how much stuff I packed and planned for. I am pretty sure I had enough supplies, clothes, diapers to stay for a month, but out of all it I forgot a long sleeved footed pajama (jams) for her. This is the one thing we really really needed! We were in an old house and it was the cutest little house! There was so much history and knick-knacks all around. At night it was much cooler outside and the house was very drafty. Although Hadley still sleeps swaddled, she un-swaddles herself every night. (I am just too scared to stop the swaddling completely because I am afraid she won’t sleep through the night!) Anyways, back to the point I woke up at night freezing.. so if I am cold everyone else must be ice cubes. I looked at her monitor (yes, I packed it up and brought it even though she was in the room right by us) and it said 62 degrees. I got up and checked on her and of course she was un-swaddled and her little arms and hands were freezing! I wrapped her up and held her for a little bit to warm her up, but it wasn’t working. So against my belief (I am just afraid we will roll over on her or something) I put her in bed with us. I woke Matt up to tell him she was there and then reminded him about every 5 minutes she was there. He would start to move and I would be like watch out for Hadley and he finally said I KNOW! You have told me literally 10 times she is in our bed. I didn’t sleep very well the rest of the night, but she was warm and cozy so that is all that mattered!

She slept through the night both nights and did really good through the dinners. This was another thing I was extremely worried about. The dinners were planned around her nighttime feeding and bath. She is on a really good schedule so I didn’t know how she would do after we bathed and fed her earlier than normal and then put her in her car seat all decked out in bows and frilly dresses. She again did really well! I am a proud mom! She slept through dinner completely the second night and the first night she just woke up right before we were leaving to go back to the house.

The drive home went as well as the drive up there. We actually didn’t even get out of the car this time to feed her. When Matt stopped in Waco to fill up on gas and road trip snacks I fed her in the car. She slept most of the time or played with her little duck, lion, or giraffe the rest of the time. The last 20 minutes in the car on 290 she pretty much cried and squealed but I don’t blame her… we were all over the car ride!

Rice Cereal
Click here to read the story on why we started rice cereal. We have videos of this event and I will post them when I get a chance.

Halloween
This was Hadley's first Halloween. We live in a cul-de-sac with 14 kids so to say this is a BIG holiday for out street is truly an understatement! We have had a block party for the past couple of years with food, snacks, sweets and plenty of trick or treaters! This year we went out a little earlier because we knew we would only be out there for a couple of hours because of Hadley's bed time. This is one thing that is hard to change about her schedule. (I am totally okay with it though.) She is in bed between 7:30 - 8 and our bedtime routine starts at 6:30-7 with bath, bottle, snuggle and bed! We had fun with all the kids and they all love Matt (aka Mack, Max)! They think he is the funniest thing on earth and even when he insulted one of the kids by calling him Justin Bieber they still were laughing at him and encouraging his bad jokes :-)

Click here to view pics from today/tonight.

Un-swaddle
I know this sounds silly, BUT to me this is a milestone. She no longer sleeps with her arms swaddled. I wrap up her legs with the swaddle blanket just to keep them warm. She is getting so big and even more squirmy! She set off her movement alarm 4x this weekend. I knew she was okay, but of course I still jump out of bed and run like crazy into her room. I usually just pull her out of the corner and slide her back down! I love the monitor and even if it goes off every night I can sleep much better knowing it is on.

The last couple of weeks or so..

Quite a bit has happened since my last post:

Back to work
Hadley's 3 month stats
Justin and Jamie get married!
Pregnancy

Click on each title to read the post.

It is unfortunate because I really have enjoyed blogging, but have not had any time to do so! I want to keep up with it at least weekly and that has seemed impossible lately. I have started Quick Weight Loss to help me lose this pregnancy + weight and part of the program is to come in 3x a week.. I laughed at them and told them that would be IMPOSSIBLE so I go every Wednesday and Saturday. I'll keep you updated on my progress, so far I am down 6 1/2lbs and that was on Saturday after 5 days. I am hoping to keep the loss at about 5lbs a week.. if that is the case I should be at my goal weight by Christmas! I am also hoping to set aside time on the weekends to blog. It is hard though because all I want to do is cuddle with her if she is awake and then when she is in bed I am trying to get ready for the next day and am EXHAUSTED. This working full time and raising a baby is very difficult. The days I have been home with her I have broke down and called my mom to come over. It is not fair for me to give her 50% and give work 50%. Last Wednesday was awful. I cannot even tell you how many times I cried. Work was insane and Hadley was so fussy that day and then Matt called to say he needed Oreo balls for a bake sale for the next day.. lets just say even with my mom coming and saving the day we both got about 4 hours sleep that night trying to get everything done.

Maybe things will start to calm down.. I can hope and dream :-)

Pregnancy

NO, I am not pregnant! I bet that is what you were thinking though ;-)

This post is about my pregnancy with Hadley. I wish I would have started this blog during that time, but I didn't. I have a pregnancy calendar I kept up with and a scrapbook I made while on bed rest. My overall pregnancy with Hadley was amazing! I remember when I found out I was pregnant (many of you already know this story but here it is again).

Taking the test

It was technically November 14th BUT it was November 13th when I really really thought I could be pregnant. November 13 is my dad's birthday. It was a Friday and I had an appointment to take Zoe to the vet. I took her in the morning and then went and bought flowers and a pregnancy test. I wanted to go put the flowers out in the morning since it was getting dark early. When I was there I talked to my dad like I always did and prayed like I always do there. I prayed for the gift of a child that day.

I keep track of EVERYTHING and remember too many details, dates, and random things. I knew I was a couple days late, but of course I was thinking don't get your hopes up just wait to take the test. So I decided I wouldn't even worry about taking the test until Saturday. Friday night my mom, Matt and I went to Pappasitos for dinner. I didn't order a margarita and my mom looked at me with this weird smile like your not telling me something... I didn't know but in my heart couldn't stop thinking about being pregnant. We got home that night and I was so tired so I went to bed, but in the middle of the night I couldn't take it any longer and took the test.. it was +! I danced with Koda and Zoe in the guest bathroom before I busted in our room and woke Matt up! I told myself I'll tell him in the morning, but the second I went to get back into bed that plan was out the window!

Ultrasounds

Our first appointment was at 6 weeks. We had an ultrasound and I had never felt anxiety like I felt that morning. My blood pressure was thru the roof and I could literally feel my heart beating out of my chest! Matt was there and was for most all my appointments (until the very end when you go every week), so that made me feel better. I remember when we saw the little heartbeat Matt squeezed my hand and we were smiling soo big! We had to do blood work after the ultrasound and I can still remember us sitting on the bench just smiling like we won the lottery (to us we had) and staring at our baby's first picture. We were lucky to have ultrasounds very often. I don't know how people use to do it with out ultrasounds!


Growing Belly I can remember wanting a baby bump so bad! I think I just felt like it would make things real. Well lets just say once I lose the weight I will show you the picture of my belly the night before she was born. Wow.. I honestly didn't think it could get that big! However it was worth EVERY stretch mark and pound I put on (all 55.. yikes)!
 



Here is a timeline I put together of the big moments during my pregnancy with Hadley. (These pics are all from the digital scrapbook I made for her.. I am not so talented with real scrapbooking!)

This video was taken a couple weeks before she was born.. she was on the move!

Complications or lack there of


 

I didn't have a lot of sickness in the beginning, just nauseous a handful of times and only got sick a couple of times. I considered myself very lucky and I also contribute this lack of sickness to the excessive weight gain. I was very VERY tired in the beginning and remember Matt begging me to come out on New Years Eve to visit with the neighbors. The thought of getting up was tiring enough!



I just know you wanted to see
this.. sad when your flip-flops
are too small :-/



The only complication I had was PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) basically pre pre-Eclamsia. I was extremely swollen with high blood pressure and I had the protein spilling over. I spent my 25th birthday in the hospital (they brought me a cake) with them running test and doing an 1 1/2 long ultrasound taking every possible measurement they could. In case they decided to deliver her early they wanted to make sure she was ready. I was one day short of 37 weeks which is when a baby is considered full term. They decided that they would release me that night and put me on bed rest. I was on bed rest for a week and although if someone told me right now to go on bed rest I would be so happy, back then laying down or doing anything really was miserable! Also, the anxiousness of meeting your baby is so extreme laying down is not good because that is all you think about. They induced a week later and the induction went great! I was so worried it would end in a c-section but thankfully it didn't!

I loved being pregnant! I miss it so much, but am definitely not ready for baby #2. Matt and I have different opinions on when we should add to our family, but we both agree that right now we just can't get enough of her:

3 Month Stats (2 weeks late)

Diapers: Size 2 all the time now. We were trying to finish using the size 1's during the day and size 2 at night, but she was busting through them!

Eating: 6 oz every feeding 5x a day. Her schedule is 7-10-1-4-7. (Elsa is great about keeping her on her schedule) Started rice cereal! (See below for more detail)

Sleeping: Through the night starting since 8 weeks! There have been a couple nights that she woke up at 5:30 starving and once at 3:30. So we started with rice cereal at her night feedings. All the moms that I talked to said to start it, but since this is my first child I am trying to follow the rules and our pedi strongly recommends waiting till 4 months. I called Dr. Torn and talked to her about what was going on and she said go ahead and start it. We video taped the first one and it went bad.. very bad! I ended up strongly telling Matt to turn it off. Hadley does not like rice cereal. She is getting use to it and it does make her sleep 12 hours like she use to.

First rice cereal without crying

Crying: Only when she is really hungry and tired. Most people laugh at her cry because it is pretty pitiful. It is not a high-pitched cry, but more of a frown with sad noises coming out!

Smiling/Cooing: Oh she is a BIG flirt! She talks to us and coos all the time. We have many conversations just using the vowel a and o. She hoots like and owl and scares Koda!

3 Month Favorites: Giraffe stuffed animal, baths, ocean play mat, funny faces, her hands, fans and walks outside!