It's Been A While...

Hello! It has been ages since we have posted any updates here... Life's adventures certainly haven't stopped, we just haven't reported on them in a while.

We are, of course, still in the Denver area. Since our last post I resigned from my job (yet again) to start my own business which is coming along well and I am hoping to have it officially up and running soon. There is always a lot going on in our lives: little K will be turning 2 soon, but we also have a little boy arriving in a few weeks, aaaaand we are moving into a new place right before that happens. Thankfully we have a lot of help from friends and some more family coming to help out.

We will post more as life settles down a little bit. We are also considering moving this whole blog over to another platform. Stay tuned!

The Many Faces of Baby Food

Lil K has been testing out various foods since about the 6 month mark. So far she has tried sweet potato, butternut squash, peaches, broccoli, peas, green beans, and the tiniest bit of avocado and potato. For your viewing pleasure, here are some messy pictures. Getting messy is part of the learning process and we are only just getting started!

Baby and the Dog

Things really started getting fun when lil K actually noticed our dog Maggie. Before that Maggie would walk by, jingle her collar, smell the baby, and lil K was oblivious. Then she started following the dog with her eyes and smiling. Now she is watching, giggling, reaching, holding her arms out to and petting the dog whenever she gets a chance. And Maggie in turn has been sweet and patient with her. We can already see the two of them will be great playmates!

Teaching lil K "nice, gentle touches."

The bounce jumper puts her at the perfect height for interacting with the dog!

Lil K loves the swing; Maggie is not so sure.

Taking a rest break from playing fetch in the backyard.

Butterfly Pavilion

The Butterfly Pavilion is located in Westmister, CO and is a fun afternoon activity. It not only has the obvious butterfly area, but multiple other rooms with other interesting creatures: tarantulas (of which you can hold one but none of us did), bees, scorpions, beetles, starfish, horseshoe crabs, and so much more.

The butterflies are in a tropical rainforest enclosure and as you wander around the paths there are butterflies everywhere you look. They have fruit set out where you are guaranteed to see several butterflies up close. We also stayed for one of the Butterfly Encounters where they release butterflies into the pavilion that have just recently emerged from their chrysalides. Some were ready to fly and flew out of the box on their own, others needed a little toss to get going, and others were still too damp and not quite ready and were set on leaves to dry before taking off. The point to remember was that the employee doing this was wearing gloves and visitors are reminded not to touch the butterflies as it reduces their life expectancy. If one lands on you, like it did on K, you just enjoy and wait until it flies away again.

It was fun to see our friend's daughter checking everything out and even lil K was looking at things. We had fun and it will be even more interesting to do these kinds of things as lil K gets older.

The First 6 Months

It has been a crazy, wonderful, amazing, mind-blowing 6 months. It's hard to believe we've already had this little one in our lives for over half of a year. There have been so many challenges, so much to learn and figure out, so much work on little sleep, but it has been so rewarding, and has gotten easier in so many ways. Though as soon as we think that in one area baby girl mixes it up again and moves into a new phase! It has been fun and interesting and entertaining filled with lots of cuddles and love. Funny how so much can be all bundled into one little being! We're looking forward to the next 6 months!

Visitors

Since baby girl's birth we've been blessed with visits from many loved ones. Family and friends have come to visit and meet baby K, get lots of baby cuddles, provide encouragement, and help around the house. It's been a steep learning curve, exhausting and frustrating at times, but also incredibly wonderful and so worth it. This baby is so loved already and has totally stolen our hearts. Here are some pictures of her visitors and her first few months:

She is Here!!!

Baby girl arrived near the end of July. It was a crazy long labor but all ended well. The short version of the story is that baby's head was asynclitic, meaning it was tilted toward her shoulder, which made dilation extremely slow and uneven, and caused the pushing stage to also take a very long time.  It was certainly intense. We can't say enough good things about our midwife, our doulas (we highly recommend parents to be consider hiring one, and our doulas from the Birthing Boutique were especially wonderful), and our nursing team. K was the best support also, providing physical support in form of massage or counter-pressure, and tons of emotional support and encouragement.

After various position changes, some changes to the original plan, some strategies that worked and some that didn't, I was dilated enough to push. It got a bit scary at the end when baby had trouble getting under the pubic bone due to the position of her head and vacuum or forceps use or a c-section were mentioned, but working together with our team and some help to get her head turned a bit I was able to push baby girl out. Hear heartbeat and overall handling of the contractions was perfect the entire time which we're so grateful for because otherwise we may not have been able to continue for the 45 hours it took!

We truly believe everyone's prayers and thoughts for a good outcome were what ensured we didn't have to resort to those other measures and that everyone was healthy and in good shape after the birth. It was great to know so many people were thinking of us and waiting anxiously to hear of baby's arrival!

I've since made a good recovery, and we're now in the thick of things with this new adventure of parenthood. Here are some pictures!