The Kid's Room

A glimpse from the door:

Here's Logan's corner:

We picked her bedding out and were so blessed by all of the family that chipped in for her birthdaypresent and got the entire set for her. She LOVES it and when she crawls into it at night she talks about her "bid dirl" (big girl) sheets. And of course, she loves that her name is all over it. Or maybe I do. ;)

Logan's picture trio:

Brody's area:

His little trio:

I think these are my favorite feature in the room. I just kind of stumbled upon the artist who did them and asked if she'd be interested in helping me out and after placing my order I found out she had decided that she was closing shop. So glad I found her when I did! Mike picked Brody's verse and I picked Logan's. We both really desired a nice, feminine one for L and a good masculine one for B and we love how it all turned out! (Brody's: So be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the LORD your God requires. 1 Kings 2:2-3 and Logan's: Clothe yourself with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is so precious to God. 1 Peter 3:4)

Rounding the corner:

I got Logan's tutu right after we found out she was a girl and wanted to find something equally fun to hang on the wall for a boy and when I found the football letter applique I knew it was perfect:

Logan's kitchen corner:

The backpacks for the kiddos:

The hardest part about redecorating the room was taking of our big Logan decal (as seen in THIS post). I don't know what was so sentimental about it but it was not easy to pull that thing off knowing that our first baby was about to not just be our only baby. But, this was a fun new addition to the room and it's definitely helping with our alphabet recognition learning.

And I made her a new bow holder to match the new decor.

We spend a LOT of time in this room now with all of Logan's new toys that she got for Christmas/birthday so it was a nice little change of atmosphere. I have to say, it's quite possibly my favorite room in the house.

Brody Michael Kayle

Our newest addition has arrived! It is an absolutely glorious day now that I'm no longer pregnant. After our appointment on Wednesday, I thought we'd be waiting until sometime next week to have Brody; but God had other plans and I went into labor quite on my own on Thursday, March 10. I had irregular but painful contractions starting Thursday morning so I called Mike home from work and we took Logan and dropped her off with some friends. We checked into the hospital at 10:30am and my active labor started at 12:30pm and ended promptly at 3:17pm with a grand total of 2 hrs and 47 minutes in active labor. If my water ever breaks at home, I'm afraid we'll have a home birth with the rate at which my labor progresses when they break it.

With all the work my body did in preparation for weeks and weeks in advance, it was a nice reward to only go hard for that long. I got an epidural early on this go around and it once again sped the process along nicely, unfortunately, it wore off right as I was about to push so I did get to experience that very naturally this go around, but I only pushed for 11 minutes and he was out.

7 lbs 5oz (they rounded up) and 20 1/2 inches long. Not a whole lot different than his big sister who was 6 lbs 14oz and 19 inches long and was born 2 weeks prior to her due date.

He has got a mighty set of lungs. When they tell you baby boys sound completely different--they're right! Gone are the sweet little girl wails and in come the growly, howling wails that little boys produce. But it's music to our ears (for now) because it means he's here with us.

The practice I've been going to makes you rotate Dr.'s so that you've seen all the Dr.'s in the practice when you deliver. This way whoever is on call you've seen and at least met before. We started with Dr. Creighton and I was really, really hoping we'd end with her. Our appointment on Wednesday was with her and she assured us she thought we'd be back in L&D before our scheduled induction and I was very excited when she walked in as our delivering Dr.! Our nurse, Anne, was fantastic, too. She was so sweet at made me really feel comfortable throughout the entire process.

We are so in love with this little boy. I thought it'd be harder to bond with a baby this go around since I've got one already and have such a bond with her but it was pretty instant! Mike's reaction this go around has been different. His bond with Logan was very much a protective father/daughter bond and it's fun to see the different bond he already has with his son.

And it was soon after this that he started making phone calls announcing his name! Brody is not a family name, it's just a name that Mike and I really liked. We instantly agreed on it and thought it fitting for him. Obviously, Michael is a family name and it's fun that Logan and I share a middle name and that Brody and Mike share a name, too!

We had an ok first night. Brody is a lot more alert than Logan was, but that's ok because we enjoy looking into his sweet eyes and interacting with him. His sister, though, does wear him out, as evidenced here:

Logan has spent the entire day with us, today, so that she gets a chance to bond with Brody, too. Here she is opening her present from him:

He got her a big sister book, a Disney Princess sing along (to watch here at the hospital) and her own Disney Princess camera. She had fun "snapping shots" this morning.

Logan is very in love with her brother. She wants to hold him every second she's around. If she sees someone else holding him or if she sees him put down she immediately bounces, "I hold, PEAS? My baby, I hold him, peas, mom?" She knew right away who he was and there seemed to be no confusion as to the fact that he was no longer inside of me.

I think they'll be good friends one day.

...or she'll just boss him around and act like a second mother to him. :)

Both babies are napping together right now. We have a video of Logan first seeing Brody, I'll try and post that sometime in the next few days.

Thank you for all of the prayers and congratulations! We are so thrilled to finally be a family of four. (I have several other pictures that are attached to the iphone, I'll try and post a separate post with all of those, too)

Morning Date

Tuesdays this month, the Chick-Fil-A here is giving away free breakfasts! Last week I thought maybe we'd have a baby this week but since we don't, Logan and I got dressed a little early and headed over to have a little date. She did so well eating all of her food--it didn't hurt that she had her favorite food group (ketchup...yes, it's a food group for her) to go with it.

After we ate, Logan played for a while.

Don't let this fool you--she would NOT go up by herself so she just posed herself at the bottom of the slide and pretended like she had gone down. Some sweet little boys came in after we had been playing for a while and offered to help take Logan up. She'd make it up the stairs and through part of the tunnel and then would say "all done" and come back down.

She did quite enjoy the attention she was getting from the big boys, though, and when they offered to play hide and seek with her she quickly jumped at the chance. She hid and screamed with joy anytime they found her and then when one asked if she could count to ten so they could hide, she nodded and started, "one, two, free, four, fie, six, sen, eight, nine, TEN!" Really? When we're at home she has to be prompted to count this high and even then, you have to say some of the numbers for her to get the other ones....but no, in effort to show her skill she rattled those numbers off very quickly and in perfect order. Of course, when we got to the car and I asked her to count for me she only got to five. She's a stinker. Already trying to show off for boys...what are we in for?

Then we headed to Starbucks to see daddy and then we went to the library to pick up our week's worth of books. Just another normal day here. No baby.

Due Date.

Yesterday was our official due date. Obviously, we have no baby to show for it. Only 5% of babies are born on their due dates, though, so I knew the odds were kind of stacked against us. We had some activity last night, around 9 I started having very consistent contractions ever 4-6 minutes and they lasted for about 3 hours and then I was able to doze off and they became less and less consistent until they completely went away. We're hoping maybe it's a sign of pre-labor/early labor and we'll have a baby before my next Dr.'s appointment on Wednesday. Though, my plan over the next few days is to enjoy this sweet girl and all she has to offer:

Things won't be the same after the baby gets here and I want to make the most of what I've got with my firstborn. Though, I think we may stop leaving the house because anywhere I go people watch me like I'm a ticking time bomb (or like I've got something in my teeth) and make all kinds of crazy comments.

Dumpster Diving

Just wanted to share a few shots of Logan playing outside this afternoon. We are LOVING this warmer weather. It's so nice to be able to get out in the sun if just for a few minutes every day.

And can I tell you how much I love that it's warm enough for her to wear her Sperry's? I could eat those little feet!

In other news, as we were driving out of our complex this afternoon (to go get girl scout cookies so that if this never ending pregnancy continues to be never ending I have a little more sanity); we saw this pram sitting at the dumpster. Um, really?

I knew right away it was from PB Kids because I stalk that website and look at toys that we'll never be able to afford (and really, WHY on earth would you pay $79.99 for a toy stroller? honestly.). I left it there thinking we'd drive back through and it'd be gone, because that's what usually happens with decent stuff that sits at the dumpster but when we came back, it was still there! I grabbed it and we brought it home. It was a little dirty and the handlebar is a little lopsided but with a little bit of 409 and some handy work on Mike's part, it's as good as new for Logan. She spent hours walking it around the house tonight and I'm sure she'll wake up and run right to it in the morning. Gotta love free and fantastic entertainment, right? And what a perfect find right before baby brother appears...if he ever decides to exit.

40 Weeks and Psalm 23

Yesterday I hit the 40 week mark. Officially I'm not due until tomorrow but the way he measured in most of my ultrasounds dated him as due sometime between the 4th and the 6th. So, really, it's anyone's game now. Mike finishes his hybrid today at 5pm and my favorite OB is on call tonight so I'm kind of hoping that as soon as Mike is done this little guy will take the cue and get out. I'm drinking red raspberry leaf tea all day and we'll be taking some good walks in hope of getting the ball rolling.

At my last appointment I was 3cm dilated, 100% effaced and the baby was fully engaged at about a 1 station so he's ready to come, he's just comfortable and stubborn. Thankfully, the Dr. thinks he's stayed about the same weight the last few appointments because I haven't gained any, so she thinks he's just warm and doesn't want to move out. I'm hoping we don't have a ginormous baby! I was thinking she'd go ahead and schedule an induction at my last appointment so that I could at least have some sort of end date in mind. Unfortunately, hospital policy says that I have to be at least 40 weeks or it needs to be medically necessary to even schedule it... I was shy of 40 weeks by two days at the appointment. So, they'll schedule one at my next appointment on Wednesday if he hasn't come yet.

My hope is that they'll schedule it right away for the next day, but I know better than to get my hopes up. I think we'll have him sometime between the 11th and the 14th if he doesn't come on his own by then. I do show some signs of early labor every once and a while. I'll have good, long periods of strong contractions that come consistently but then will die off after an hour or so. We know they're doing something because I continue to progress, but they aren't active labor so we've avoided calling the hospital. So, there's the update. I promise, when it happens, people will get called. We won't hide a baby for several days without letting anyone know what's going on!

In the meantime, Logan and I continue to work on her bible verses. She's been picking up several more words in Psalm 23 so I thought it was time for an updated video of it. Here's the first video from a few months ago and the new one is at the bottom of this post. It gets so hard to catch her on video because she's SO BUSY (as you'll see). It amazes me that throughout the day we say it with no problem sitting still but as soon as we want to catch it for others to see she goes nuts. We had to give her a quarter of a bag of "dummy beers" to get her to at least stay near the camera this time.

Conversations With A 2 Year Old: Part 1

Ok, so, I have no pictures for you in this post. I know, I know...I'm sorry. I do try and pull the camera out every. single. chance. I get, but sometimes even that isn't enough to get some good shots to put up with all of my posts. However, I'm just going to start this little series because some of our conversations are priceless and I need to keep them recorded so that one day I'm not grasping at straws for funny stories about my two year old. Without further ado:

Conversation 1:

(Logan sees me digging through the pantry for dinner food.)

L: Mommy, I have a pop?

Me: Not tonight, honey.

L: Tum (come) ON! I a dood dirl (good girl)!

Conversation 2:

(Logan walks sleepily into the room at 6:30am)

L: Hi mom.

Me: Hi Logan, can you go back to sleep?

L: No, mom. Buddy boy (what she calls her brother) tuming (coming) today?

Me: I don't know, maybe. You need to tell him it's time.

L: Otay. (climbs up on the bed and starts to lean down to my belly) TUM OUT! Oh. Mom. He's tuck (stuck).

Conversation 3:

This is more of an ongoing thing, but when Logan is about to be disciplined now she likes to list all of the different kinds of discipline that I dole out when we're out in public.

L: And no pop, and no dvd, and no chick-a-le, and no o-made (lemonade), and no dummy beers (gummy bears). It's too bad.

Conversation 4:

Logan and I were sitting on the couch and she decided it was time to relocate our little reading session to her bedroom. Now, I adore our couch, I love sit in it, read it in, watch tv in it, and take naps in it (I emphasize that I know I'm using the word in because when you sit on the thing, you just sink and you're in it, not on it)...however, being 9 months pregnant makes it a little hard to get OUT of. Thankfully, it's only been the last few weeks I've had trouble with and usually Mike is around to help me up. Yesterday, though, Logan hopped right off the couch, held out her hand and said:

L: I no meed (need) help. Mommy, you meed help.

And then she sweetly held out her little hand to help me up. It took a few tries, but we got it.