Jesus Loves Kylie

We recently joined Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Rochester. We really like it there, as they have a few different contemporary services geared toward our generation. They play fun music (Jon thinks the lead singer sounds like Huey Lewis) and the sermons are excellent. So, we went to our new church today...It was Kylie's first time there. She was a perfect lady! She was awake and HUNGRY when we first arrived. This was the fault of my poor planning. I still haven't mastered getting Kylie and myself ready in an efficient manner. So I had to feed Kylie during the beginning of the service...She was starving. I know this because she ate the most she has ever eaten in the shortest amount of time. I think it was about 4 ounces in 12ish minutes. I only missed the opening song and the childrens' message. She then slept for the rest of the service. We weren't exactly sure how to do communion with a baby so I just brought her up with me. I'm sure I did, but I don't remember going up to communion with my parents as a kid. When you bring your baby/child up with you, she gets a little bit of special attention. The pastor gave Kylie a pat on the head and said, "Jesus loves you!" It warmed my heart!

After church, we had to attend a baptism class because Kylie is getting baptized on March 20th! YAY! Kylie continued to sleep through the entire class....See, she's a perfect, little lady! At the class we talked about how to raise Kylie in a Christian way by teaching her about Christianity, bringing her to church services, teaching her the 10 Commandments, The Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed, reading her the Bible and role modeling Christian characteristics such as love, tolerance, fairness and integrity. I felt energized and motivated to start teaching Kylie right away...And I am really looking forward to Kylie's Baptism Day!

We took pictures of Kylie when we got home from church because her outfit was soooo cute! It was actually the first piece of clothing I bought for her when I was pregnant! I love it!


Kylie is starting to become more and more interactive. She smiles, makes eye contact, likes noises and lifts her head when on her tummy. It is so much fun. I decided it was time to get the play mat out for her so she would have something to look at when she is lying on her back. Here there is a picture of her relaxing on the play mat, and one of her doing "tummy time." She does not love tummy time, but Jon decided that she needs to do it at least 2-3 times each day for 10-15 minutes. :)

I also wanted to post this picture for two reasons. First, she is wearing the outfit that Jon (and by Jon, I really mean Kristen Yuan...Thanks Kristen!) bought her for Valentine's Day! Isn't it adorable with that little tutu?! Second, it is a great picture of her smiling, although I have no idea what she is smiling about!

Finally, I wanted to share the latest adventures in breastfeeding. So Kylie never really learned to breastfeed well, and because I am kind of impatient, I decided to quit trying to get her to do it. I have continued to pump about 8 times a day, and feed Kylie breastmilk from a bottle. There are definitely pros and cons to this decision with the biggest pro being that anyone (Jon, my mom) can feed her and the biggest con being having to stay up a little longer in the middle of the night to pump. BUT I believe that because of pumping, I've built up quite the supply. In fact, I have more than enough! I almost have an entire freezer full of frozen milk (see picture above)! If you have talked to me lately, you have probably realized that I am very proud of this, even though I have no control over it. I am very thankful to be blessed with lots of milk! Anyway, my new plan (although we all know how well my plans work when it comes to Kylie) is to continue to pump until she is on solid foods, probably for 3 to 4 more months. Then I'll use up the frozen milk until it runs out...I think I should have 2 to 3 months worth. So, in the end, she will be on breastmilk until she is about 9 or 10 months old. Even though breastfeeding didn't work out exactly as I had pictured it, the most important thing to me is that she is getting the benefits of breastmilk through most of her first year of life!

I apologize for the lengthy post...I guess there is a lot to share these days! Tomorrow is Kylie's first play date. I think I am waaaaaaaay more excited than she is. I'll take some pictures to share! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Happy Quarter Birthday!

A close up. "How cute am I?"
Thanks to Willow and Michi for the adorable outfit!

This one gives you a good idea of her size, especially that tummy!

Sleeping with one arm above her head!
I think she looks like a little angel!

Today is Kylie's 3 month birthday! She was born 13 weeks and 1 day ago, but her corrected age is 5 weeks an 1 day. In celebration of her quarter birthday, we attended "Cabin Fever Days" in Stewartville. CFD is an antique/craft sale at the Stewartville Civic Center. It was fun to get out and see some of our relatives like Grandma and Grandpa King and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa King! She was the belle of the ball...Admired by all!!!

Here is her 3 month update:
At 3 months, Kylie is sleeping in her crib in her own room. At the beginning of February, she was taken off her supplement because she was growing so fast! We were originally told that she would likely be on it for 9-12 months. So, now she has started to eat a little more at each feeding...I'm guessing it takes more milk to feel full without the supplement in it. She is eating 2.5-4 ounces per feeding. She is eating 7-9 times/day or every 2-3 hours on average. She sleeps 3-5 hours in a row at night. She is wearing size 1 diapers and filling out her 0-3 month clothes. She will be weighed again on Monday, but I have a feeling she is between 11 and 12 pounds. She has also definitely grown in length! Kylie can hold her head up for a few seconds, but she is still working on control...She looks like a little bobble head when she pulls her head up. She is starting to social smile, which is sooooo exciting for Jon and me. We've been waiting a long time for her to smile at us. She doesn't do it a lot, but a few times a day we get to see that cute, little smile! She makes eye contact and tracks things with her eyes, especially her spinning mobile. I try to spend some time reading and singing to Kylie each day. She doesn't really pay attention though, and I usually seem to put her to sleep! :) I am also putting her in her swing each day...She tolerates it for about 15-20 minutes at a time.

There are a lot of things I love about Kylie. I love that she sleeps with both of her arms above her head. I love that she seems to know my voice! I love that she is vocal...I think she is going to be a chatterbox when she learns how to talk. I love that she can be feisty (even though it makes me sad when she cries). I love that she loves to be held by me and Jon. I love that she is growing like a weed, especially after she started out so small. I love that she has dimples and big blue eyes! I really love her teeny, tiny baby nose. And I really love, love , LOVE that she looks exactly like her daddy when she sleeps with her big eyes and open mouth! She is a little doll and she is so loved!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kylie modeling her V-Day outfit!

My extremely talented and creative friend, Sari, made this beautiful bouquet at the flower shop she works at in Dallas, TX (She goes back every year to help out around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day). She dedicated this one to Kylie and me! We love you, Sari!

Shout Outs

My fellow Wisconsinites: I miss the Shout Outs. I have re-dedicated myself to reading them on a regular basis because they make me happy. Here are some of the ones that I liked from this week:

"SO to meat. Of any and all varieties."--Duh!!!

"SO to the kid who got hit in the face with a snowball yesterday because you were wearing a Pittsburgh hat. You're in packer country dude. Get used to it."--Yes...This is definitely something that would happen in Madison! Love it!

"SO to the girl riding the 80 on Thursday morning who thought that her backpack deserved a seat of its own. No, it was NOT a coincidence that every time the bus turned or hit a bump my backpack hit you in the face. Be more considerate next time."

That's it for now! Have a good day!

Celebrating Kylie!

Some of us admiring Kylie (left) and Alex (right). For those of you who don't know these people but have heard me talk about them by their nicknames, this is (from left to right) Hacker, Bac-T and Bilbo. Jon is the one who is sitting.

On Saturday, a group of our friends from college and Jon's high school came to Rochester to celebrate Kylie! We were originally going to do this before she was born, and then when she was still in the hospital, but nothing seemed to work out until now. We met at Green Mill for some good food and great company. The service was really bad...I think we waited an hour for our food which came in 2 shifts that were 20 minutes apart. Within the group were a couple of nursing mamas and one very pregnant friend, so needless to say, the hormones took over and we were raging mad in our hunger state! Although I don't know what was said exactly, I have a feeling that the manager got an earful. But it didn't reallllllly matter because as Kate said so perfectly, "They were lucky that we truly enjoy each others' company or we would be really mad!"

Kylie also put on quite the performance for her new friends. This was her first outing to a public place, so I packed what I thought was more than enough "stuff" for her. I dressed her in a cute, little outfit and packed a second one just in case something happened. Well...Something happened...3 times! She numbered-two'd on outfit #1...I'm talking blow out! But no biggie. I changed her into cute outfit #2. Ten minutes later she number-two'd again on outfit #2. Now what?! I had no more outfits with me...So, I wrapped Kylie in a blanket (hence the look in the picture below) and Jon ran home. He came back with a plastic bag filled with several outfits and numerous diapers. We put cute outfit #3 on Kylie...This time she spit up all over. Not just a little white, wipeable spit-up. No, this was a large amount of black-tinged, iron supplemented spit-up. Believe me...It stains! Oh well...This is just the story of the life of the mother of an infant!

Me and Bac-T (Kristin) with our babes!

It was a really fun day with amazing friends and great conversation! We are so blessed! Thank you, friends, for the shower, the gifts and making the trip to Rochester! We love you!


Lastly, Saturday was also our nephew, Elias' FIRST BIRTHDAY! I can't believe he is one already! I just wanted to give him a shout-out! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELIAS!

Our Little Big Girl

Kylie is growing and changing everyday in many ways. The most obvious change is her weight...She had another weigh in on Tuesday, February 1st! Incredibly, she is up to 10 pounds and 12 ounces. Our little girl is HUGE (to us)! I'm not sure on her length, but she is filling out her 0-3 month clothes, so she is definitely growing in that department too.

She is also experiencing a second "growing up" change in her life. She has officially moved into her nursery. She spent her first full night in there last night. She was awesome! The reason we decided that now was the time to move her is because we started Kylie on a new routine...Thank you Reba and Babywise! It's basically a 3 hour cycle in which she gets 30 minutes to eat, 30-60 minutes to "play" and 120-60 minutes to sleep. It's like the quilt that Ingrid made for Kylie: "Eat, Play, Sleep, Repeat." The only exception is during the night she is allowed to sleep until her natural awakening, but no longer than 5 hours. Supposedly, this routine will help her learn how to sleep 7-8 hours through the night within the next 8-12 weeks! I really hope it works, because I just cannot imagine what it feels like to sleep more than 3 hours in a row...It's been a long time!

On another note, Jon and I switched roles for 5 days last week. I went back to work for the week (Long story short: I have to work 10 more days this school year for my third probationary year to count and hopefully receive tenure.), and Jon stayed home with Kylie. Jon really enjoyed his time with his little girl, and it seems like they have really bonded! Work was good too...We cross country skied (my favorite unit), and played floor hockey! The kids were very sweet. Maybe they missed me?! Some of them even showered me and Kylie with lots of little gifts! Whoever said middle schoolers were selfish was wrong...Mostly! :) I have such great students! As much as I enjoy my job, however, I really, really, REALLY enjoy being home with Kylie! My mom job is awesome!

Other than that, we don't have a whole lot going on right now. I am just hanging out with Kylie during the day while Jon slaves away on this busy rotation. We are starting to look forward to our time in Florida! We are definitely not going to miss this cold weather! I can't wait to get outside and go for a run with Kylie in her stylish jogging stroller!

I've posted a recent picture of Kylie in a little outfit that Jon bought...Notice what it says, "I love Daddy!"