Thursday, July 3, 2008

First Up

Kyla, our first born. Strong willed, extremely sweet and caring. We had her 3 years after we were married, and at 3 AM on June 14 she made her appearance. Full head of hair, and I mean full. Thick, black hair that never fell out, and a chubby round face that sat atop her long lean body. She was 7 lb 7 oz and 21" long. On June 12 we went in for an induction because she was a little late, and that seemed to be the "thing" that doctors thought appropriate. Induce Labor. Kyla wasn't ready to come out, and fitting to her personality today, if she's not ready to do something, she's not doing it! After a full day and a half of labor, the "professionals" decided a c-section would be the best thing to do, and so it was.

Recovery was actually short and sweet, I'd say it only took about a week. First time Mommy and Daddy were shocked to discover the challenges of a newborn. About a month of sleep deprivation made me question why people were so crazy as to CHOOSE to have any more children. But, blessing upon blessing we soon discovered that once you get into a groove, there's nothing sweeter than a sweet newborn baby.

At around 3 months, Kyla was sleeping through the night, 6-8 hours at a time. Breastfeeding was my challenge from the start. I think that being so stressed out and not feeling sure that Kyla was getting enough food really made it tougher. I was only able to nurse about 5 months, and during that time, we were supplementing with formula. It was and still is an emotionally upsetting experience because I felt like there was something wrong with me that I couldn't feed my baby the milk that God gave me to nourish her. But I understand that without the right information and with out the right guidance and support, nursing an infant is tough.

I think that the first time Kyla sat up on her own was around 7 months, and she didn't crawl until around 9 months. She walked on her own at around 13 months.

The fondest memories I have of Kyla as an infant are those of the times that she would just lay her head down on her daddy's chest and sleep so still and so relaxed. Her favorite place was snoozing on daddy's chest. She was a sweet sweet baby, mostly content and happy.

I hope to have more memories of Kyla as an infant as I post more journal entries about her. But for now, specific details are not registering in my brain.

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