First of many lessons for the mamma!

I'll get right to it! Life with Kayla is always a joy no matter WHAT is going on. It is saddening when she is having a hard time. For most of February and March we tried to help our miserable baby. Here were her symptoms:
Lack of sleep - She got to the point that she would only sleep a maximum of 3 hours of sleep a night and MAYBE an hour at a time during the day. She was being startled awake constantly and when trying to get her to sleep it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1-2 hours. Most the time I had to nurse her to sleep while lying down so I didn't have to move her.

Odd feedings- After we visited the ER about 2 months ago I changed my feeding methods from timed feedings to demand feedings. She was fussy enough that I thought maybe she needed more to eat. At the beginning of March I went more natural and started feeding on a relaxed timed schedule. That seemed to help but was not solving the problems.

Overall crankiness - We were to the point that we had to be standing, bouncing up and down, and holding her at almost all times. We ate in shifts so one of us could always be holding her. She was either always eating, sleeping in our arms, or crying.

Poor little thing.

So we had her four month appointment about 10 days ago and that changed everything. She is in the 75th percentile for height (24.75 in). 50th percentile for head circumference, and then they weighed her. She had gained only 6 oz since her 2 month apt and was weighing in at 11.4oz and was in the 10th percentile if not lower!! I knew she was a little thin but we thought it was just because she was long and lean! Kayla's pediatrician was very concerned so I explained what we had been experiencing the past 6 weeks.

She immediately asked if I knew how much Kayla was eating. I thought she was getting at least 5 oz per feeding! The doctor asked me to pump before each feeding so I could gage how much Kayla was eating. To my horror she was only getting 1.2 to 2 oz per feeding! No wonder she has been so miserable! She has been so hungry this entire time!

As soon as we returned home from her appointment, I pumped and fed her some formula and she ate 7oz!! Instantly she as happier, more playful, she is laughing more, smiling more, and we can put her on the floor to play and she loves it! I have never been able to wrap her up and just put her to bed. I had to ALWAYS rock her to sleep and now we can just lay her down and most the time she can sooth herself to sleep. What an immediate change we experienced.

Since then she has been a milk monster! For whatever reason my milk production did not increase as she has grown so she was use to being satisfied but not full! I am still pumping to help my milk increase (I am now pumping 3-4oz per feeding) and then supplementing with formula if she needs more.

I felt horrid when I found out that this whole time she has just been hungry! We were thinking that maybe her reflux was just really bad or maybe she had a milk allergy or that she had colic! It was nice to know that there was a more simple solution.

We had a followup appointment this last Thursday (a week after her 4 month apt.) and she has gained a whole pound! So she is now in the 25th percentile. Much better but she still has a way to go. She is sleeping much better and is only waking up once a night which I hope we can get her to sleep through the night here soon.

All is well though because we are doing 10 times better than we were 2 weeks ago! It is a huge blessing. Thank goodness for doctors. We have our little girl back. She plays lots more now, sleeps better, and is overall much happier!

Hard lesson learned but I am glad we figured it out!

 She LOVES watching March Madness!

 The first feeding after we found out she was so hungry. The hands went up and held her own bottle!

 Our happy little girl is back!

She is such a trooper - 4 month shots!

Spring is around the corner!

We have not been up to much these days. Mostly working lots and watching Kayla grow! As always I have lots of pictures so I hope to remember a little more on what has been happening around here as I post these pictures! Here is to a picture overload!! (You know I can not help myself!)

 Uncle D loves Kayla so much!

 Our little date Valentines night! Oh and I have so many

picts as of late because Michael bought me a new camera

for Valentines! LOVE IT AND LOVE HIM!!

 She loves the blanky by her face!

 It's so hard to be this cute! Love having her at work with me!

 Her hands are like this all. the. time. !!

 Love love love love love her smile!

 We like to visit daddy at work!

 She loves the shower but it sure puts her to sleep!

Grandma has had 2 surgery's on her legs the past two weeks so

Kayla kept her company and took naps with her while she

was recovering.

 Lesson learned: Don't wait too long to put new outfits on...
this was first time!

 We took our first walk the other day (the weather has warmed up)
and she quite enjoyed it! She did sleep through most of it!

So cute all bundled up!!

 I waited a very long time to put this on her! LOVE!!

We had a reunion with the couples from our birthing class.
It was a ton of fun! As you can see, the boys can't keep
their eyes to themselves already!

There is so much love for this little girl!

Happy Febuary!

I'll let the pictures tell whats been going on!

Kayla has enjoyed being bundled once again!

LOVES sleeping on her belly in a ball!

We have gone to a couple Pine Creek basketball games and Kayla

does awesome! She loves the noise and people around her!

We have finally had some cold days and we love this

outfit on her!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

We often find one of her arms out of its sleeve when

she gets up in the morning!

She has started liking the TV. I think it is the light flashing!

Good or bad? I don't know... It makes her happy which is

good in my book.

Kalya found her fists at the first of the month!

Oh and we hit her big 2 month mark!

(Three months is knocking at the door!)

Oh my goodness oh my goodness!

There is so much to blog about I don't know how to write about it all without boring you all so I will just quickly highlight a few things! Sorry this is a very disorganized post!

- The holidays were awesome! Filled with lots of family time and good food!

- Some women say they don't leave the house much after having a baby but I did just the opposite! We have been everywhere! I just wanted to slow down a little and relax after the first 4-6 weeks or so! We have finally been doing that and it is wonderful!

- Michael and I left Kayla with my parents for our first date when she was three weeks old. We went to a movie so we were not gone too long. I HATE leaving her lol.

-Kayla is growing so fast! I know everyone says that about their little ones but it really does happen! A little about Kayla....
         - She loves the shower
         - She started smiling on Christmas eve and began cooing pretty good about 2 weeks ago!
         - She is 9 weeks this weekend and weighs 10lb 14oz and is 23 in long.
         - Kayla is a GREAT baby! She gives us very little problems. We are blessed more that we could have ever of asked for!
         - She has been in size 1 diapers for a week and is officially in 0-3 month clothes.
         - She is nice and lean and long! The only chubby thing on her are her cheeks! She is our little cream puff!
         - She looks a LOT like her mamma but has some great features from her daddy! We think she has her daddy's smile and dimples!
         - She has been sleeping for about 6 hours a night since she was about 2 weeks old. She now will sleep for up to 8 hours a night!
         - She has a love hate relationship with her car seat. Sometimes she is just fine and will sleep forever and sometimes she hates it and will scream so hard that she loses her voice, sweats, and can't breathe! We think she think we leave her because when she sees us she is okay!
         - Her sweet hands are very ofen up by her face juse like when she was born!
         - Her favorite position is on our shoulder so she can see everything!
         - She has always had a strong neck and holds her head up great! She just started pushing herself up with her arms too!
         - She is very prim and propper with her hands while she is sleeping or is relaxed! Her hands and fingers are most often spread out!
         - She does not like to be swaddled! She likes to have the room to spread out as she pleases!


- Michael and I were released from primary and scouts! It was bitter sweet because we really loved our kids! Michael was very excited to be put in Young Men's though! He is not an advisor to the Teachers!

- I went back to work at my dads office the second week in January. It has been very hard to go back but I am so thankful that for now I am able to take Kayla with me! I am doing a bunch of back office stuff which allows me to still be with her and work at the same time!

- Michael and I just celebrated our 4th anniversary! It has been a wonderful four years and we were blessed to have out little Kayla with us this year!

- My grandpa Wagner passed away just before New Years. He had a few bouts with cancer the past 8 years and the past 3 years have been the hardest. He has been in and out of hospitals and rehab centers. He had surgery about 3 years ago and had a lot of complications from that surgery. One thing after another kept going wrong and his body just could not recover. I am thankful that he is no longer hurting and has been reunited with family and friends who are on the other side!

Sorry I still need to download lots of pictures onto the computer so those will come soon! Now that I feel somewhat caught up, I will try and post more often!

Blessing Day

Our little Kayla was blessed into the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints on Sunday December 4th! It was so nice to have family and friends come to her blessing. Thank you to all those who came and supported us! I had waited a long time to see Michael bless our little one and it was a wonderful, special, experience. After the blessing we went to my parents house where more friends and family were able to meet Kayla. Not too much so say about this day that pictures can not say. So here they are!

Oh... some have asked so I will just say now that no I did not make her dress. I have had my eye on it for the past 4 years and so when I found out it was a little girl I was so excited that I could buy it! I got it from a booth in a store in Utah called Quilted Bear... BEST STORE EVER by the way! I did make her hair thing though! :)

Newborn pictures

A good friend from high school is starting up a photography business and took pictures of Kayla when she was one week old. She did an AMAZING job capturing everything we will want to remember of our little Kayla! They turned out better than I could have ever imagined! Here they are!

Kayla's Story

For those of you who are interested, here is Kayla's birth story. I'll try to keep it as simple and to the point as possible!

I was going to be induced on Friday November 18th at 8am. Michael and I got up VERY early in order to get all done that we hoped to including a priesthood blessing for me, getting ready for the day, packing last minute items, and tidying up the house ONE last time! I received a phone call from the hospital at 7am and the nurse told me that they were so busy that they did not have enough room for me to come in so we may need to reschedule if some rooms did not lighten up.

I will be honest in saying that I was ticked and very sad that I may have to wait longer to see me little girl! I had waited what felt like forever for this day to come and now it was going to be delayed?! After calming myself and saying many little prayers I knew that it was all in the Lords hands and it was all going to happen when it needed to.

At 10am I received the good news that they were able to get  me in at noon! Thank heavens! First of many prayers that were answered over the next few days! We arrived nervous, excited, and ready to go just after noon and got all checked in and settled into our room. My mom and little sister Madi arrive just before one and got all settled in as well. Madi was going to be my scribe/record keeper/photographer which she did a great job! My mom of course was there to be whatever Mike and I needed her to be!

At one my doctor checked me (I was dilated to a 3 still) and broke my water then I was started on the pitocin! I was able to take the contractions for a few hours, felt that I had experienced the contractions enough, and received my epidural at 4! WOW!!! What a difference! I guess I was way lucky because the epidural worked perfectly!!!!!! I was also surprised at how little pain I felt while receiving the epidural! It was a family friend who administered it and he was for sure the hero of the day! Thank you Steve Harline!!! I was then checked again and was already dilated to 5cm! Things were going along great!

Now when I was feeling every contraction (being as close together as a minute apart and some lasting up to 2 minutes long), Mike put a movie in to help distract me which worked well. I was having a lot of back labor and was very thankful that I had my rice bag with me because that helped relieve a lot of the pain. I was also extremely blessed to have an AMAZING coach by my side the entire time. He was so good in letting me know when contractions were coming and when they were almost done. He rubbed my back and just knew all that I needed! Sometimes I was not sure how he knew what to do because I never told him what to do, he just did it! Well once I was feeling blissful and the epidural kicked in, I once again was able to talk to those around me and enjoy the rest of the journey.

We watched another movie over the next few hours, talked, laughed, my family all got dinner, and I enjoyed a few snacks such as popsicles, juice, jello, and a sucker. At seven the nurse checked me again and we were all hoping that I would at least be to 7cm, that was all we wanted. Much to our surprise I was fully dilated!!! WOOHOOO!! Baby girl was still kinda high so my nurse let me labor down for some time so she could work her way a little lower.

About 8:30 the nurse checked me again and we were ready to start pushing! We thought for sure our little girl would be with us by about 10 or 11. The epidural was still working great. I was numb enough to pretty much feel no pain but I was still able to move my feet and legs just enough that I was not dead to the world. It was kind of hard to feel when the contractions came so I relied a lot on everyone else to tell me when they were coming. I did eventually figure out from the pressure in back back when a contraction was coming which helped as well.

Well I pushed for quite awhile. The nurse and my mom and Mike kept telling me what a great job I was doing and they kept telling me that they could see her head and she had lots of dark hair! I was so excited but was having a hard time understanding while she was still not here. Finally one of the nurses brought in a mirror so I could see the progress in hopes that it would help the entire process. I was not sure on how I felt about it but it was awesome! I loved having that there! For those of you have not had it there during your delivery, I would recommend it, very cool experience! It was great to see what was happening! The down side of it was that I could see the progress and the regress. Her head was playing peakabou and we were not in the mood to play! Just before midnight the nurse began talking c-section because I had been pushing for so long. When the doctor came in to check me and make a decision, I must have showed her how determined I was to have her via vback because she said with an episiotomy

HERE IS THE KICKER! As she crowned, we saw more than just her head... her HAND was there too!The REASON she would not come out was because her right hand was up by her head! No wonder that little stinker would not come out! She made things much more difficult than it needed to be. That made me feel a little better knowing I was just not a wuss at pushing!

So all in all I was in the hospital 12 hours (12pm check-in, 12:25 had baby Kayla), in labor for about 10 hours and pushed for ALMOST 4 of those 10 hours! Pretty good for my first baby I think!

Kayla Marie Brown was born on Saturday morning at 12:25am at 8 lbs 10oz and 21 inches long. She has LOTS of dark hair and is the most beautiful baby!

When the nurses were doing all their fun little tests on her they found that her blood sugar levels were low. We gave her formula regularly for about 12 hours. At every feeding they checked her levels again and they were not getting better. The pediatrician called me at about 2pm Saturday afternoon and said that they would need to admit her to NICU so that they could give her an IV and get her blood sugar levels where they needed to be. Well being EXHAUSTED and a new mom I broke down. I was so sad but also thankful that she was going in for such a minor reason. She was released from NICU on Monday morning with her levels finally stable. There were a few concerns with hypertension for me so we stayed until Tuesday and finally took our baby girl home!!

The overall experience was just wonderful! The labor was grand without much pain involved, our stay at the hospital was incredible, the staff went above and beyond their call of duty, and quite frankly we can not wait to do it all again! How thankful I am to have this beautiful, healthy baby girl in my life. I have been blessed in many many ways but SHE has been a gift as well as a blessing! As usual, I would not have been able to endure what I have over the past 3 years as well as the incredible journey over the past 10 months without my sweet husband who has been my my side through the good and the nasty (really and truly), prayer and my Heavenly Father, and the support of family and friends!