First 10 Days!

Today marked Kyan's 10th day of life. It already seems hard to believe that he has been here even that long, but on the same note, it seems like he has been a part of our family forever. He honestly just fits right in and it seems like our lives were almost always this way.

Mckinley still loves him--a little too much at times. She wants to pick him up (totally dangerous and difficult to stop), pat his back (still pretty gentle in this area), help feed him (not too bad here either), and put blankets on him (unfortunately she covers his face!). She also is a little unpredictable at times, which has resulted in the biting of one of his little toes. Her and daddy were doing "this little piggy...." on Kyan's toes and Mckinley decided his toes needed some kissing---cute right? Yeah, really cute until she clamped down on one of his toes and he let out a shriek that would send tears to anyones eyes. It was awful. Kisses are not in her and Kyan's immediate future after that little event. Honestly though Mckinley is doing really great with him. Other than the toe incident she really has shown no jealousy towards him.

We also have had lots of visitors since we've been home which has been so nice. We are so proud to be Kyan's (and of course Mckinley's) parents that it makes it really fun to show him off!

Here are a few Kyan notes from his first 10 days of life:

- He makes THE cutest sound when he is going to sneeze--he coos and then sneezes! It is a must hear! :)
- He is a really good sleeper. At night he gets up to eat every 3 - 3 1/2 hours (hopefully after he gains some  weight we can stop waking him to eat though).
- He hardly cries (knock on wood)--only when naked or if we've gone a little past feeding time.
- He's still tiny. He honestly is just skin and bones--you can feel all of his little bones and he has rolly, wrinkly skin.
- He goes to bed with arms in sleeves and swaddled, and then ends up with his arm up through the neck hole so that he can suck on his fingers.
- He is so stinking lovable. :)

 First walk -- we were going to the park.

 All bundled up! :)

 Out and about.

 Getting cleaned up!

 Nap time! :)

Kyan Dane Hinton

Kyan Dane Hinton was born on March 18th, 2011 at 6:10 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 3.2 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long. He was born at 36 weeks and 2 days, but has had very few of the late-term preemie "issues" we were warned about. He did face a few challenges in his first day of life; however it was nothing too significant. He had a little trouble maintaining his body temp and keeping his blood sugar levels up (unfortunately this resulted in about 15 heal pricks over 24 hours), but after a few tricks we got that pretty much resolved.

In the past four and a half days he has already completely changed our lives. Mckinley LOVES him and aside from the inevitable sleepless nights that newborns bring, he really has been pretty mellow. Time will only tell what type of personality he has, but by comparison to our first several days with Mckinley, he is completely different.

So, without further adieu, here is Kyan Dane Hinton:

Last Day as a Family of 3

Today was a big day. It was the last day we are a family of only 3. A couple days ago my doctor decided, for numerous reasons, to move up my induction to tomorrow (3.18), assuming an amniocentesis showed that Kyan's lungs were mature enough for delivery. I had that amnio today and his lungs meet the maturity mark by quite some bit. This means that tomorrow at 7 am we will start my induction.

I'm not quite sure how to articulate what I feel about our changing family. Obviously I am beyond excited, but at the same time it is strange to think that this little angel who has been the center of our world for the past (almost) 21 months will now share that space with a brother. I know we will love Kyan just as much as his sister (so don't worry buddy), but where will it come from? Mckinley consumes Kevin and my lives. She is the center of every decision or choice we make. I know that will just continue and Kyan will weave his way right into our hearts immediately--it is just hard to grasp what a huge change this will be.

Regardless of my readiness, TOMORROW is the day! I am excited, nervous, anxious, scared. A million emotions are running through me all at once. I am overjoyed by the fact that I get to meet my son tomorrow (assuming this labor takes less than 24 hours--fingers crossed!). Mckinley will have a brother and our lives will be forever changed. I cannot wait...I'm still going to try and enjoy my last night of somewhat good sleep though! :)

Here are some pictures of this last and final day as a family of 3!!

Also, here is one pic of Kinley enjoying her hospital visit today:

"Vroom-vroom-vroom" is all she kept saying! :)

Here's to a smooth (and quick!) labor and delivery tomorrow! Hopefully the next blog will be introducing Kyan to the world!!!!

Pregnancy Excitement and Frustration

So I don't really know where to begin this post. Things have just been so crazy the last week or two that I don't feel like I know where up is or where down is. I guess I will just start at the beginning....

During my normal visits to the doctor for this pregnancy they routinely do various tests. Well about two weeks ago one of these tests happened to come back a little abnormal and was a small indicator that I may have preeclampsia. Because of this my doctor decided to run few more tests to better understand what was going on. A week later I returned to the doctor to find out that my initial test was still abnormal, as was another indicator. So yet again more tests were ordered....which again came back abnormal. All of this combined has resulted in me being placed in the hospital being observed (i.e. more tests!) daily. The strangest thing about all of this is that my blood pressure is great--this is typically the most significant factor for preeclampsia. So I am sort of a strange case. Unfortunately because of the strange circumstances I have also had to deal with a LOT of communication breakdown among the doctors treating me.

First and foremost, I love and trust my doctor immensely. She is fantastic--level headed, very competent, caring, understanding....yada, yada, yada. She has also always told me she has great trust in the fellow doctors at her practice (many of which I have heard great things about from others); however, for some reason there has been an issue with what the "plan" is for me here in the hospital. Long story short, and bottom-line, my doctor made it very clear to both Kevin and I that I would be in the hospital either until my test results improved or Kyan was born. One or the other. Black or white. But, since that day my doctor has not been in the office or on-call for personal reasons. Therefore, I have seen a different doctor every day...that makes 4 including my doctor the first day. Each day I have been told something different. "You can go home", "no, you are staying", "I think you should be able to go home"--have been the newest three doctors thoughts. Keep in mind this has all been in spite of the fact that the main indicator my doctor was looking at has continued to get worse! Too say it mildly I have been incredibly frustrated by this experience. Note that originally my doctor said we are staying until I improve or Kyan is born...clearly neither of these things have occurred!

To make matters more frustrating...I secretly would LOVE to be home. In my heart I know it is important that I be here, but at the same time I miss Mckinley, and being home in general, SO much. I get to see her every day for a few hours but it is not enough. Kevin on the other hand is holding firm on what our doctor, the one we trust as he reminds me, has said. Luckily, my doctor is suppose to be back on tomorrow. So for now I sit...in a hospital room, the same room I have been in for 4 days now, in a bed that they will not let me leave, missing my daughter, and my dog, and my bed, and REAL food...until my doctor either says oh you can go home or nope you're staying still or we're going to have a baby now! Frustrating to say the least.

Regardless, it appears I will be having Kyan much sooner than my due date. Most likely no later than 37 weeks--which is March 23rd, but possibly sooner than that date as well.

A Star in the Making!

Today was a really fun day for Mckinley and me. Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my sister-in-law, who just happens to manage the marketing department for a mattress retailer--she was in need of a baby for her commercial shoot today! Of course Mckinley and I were willing! Are you kidding--my kid....on TV?! Pretty exciting stuff (even if it is only about a 3-4 second close up of her beautiful face!).

So off we went this morning to the studio for a real TV shoot! First, her wardrobe was assessed. The fave shirt of everyone was rejected because it was too dark for the background being used, so we went with something a little more playful--still cute though. Then we were off to hair and make-up--her pig-tails were re-aligned and yes she really even had make-up on (just a little concealer and powder though--this isn't Toddlers and Tiaras). Mckinley was not a huge fan of the hair stylist though. It took a lot of singing "The Wheels on the Bus" by myself and aunt Gina to get through the traumatic event of hairspray application! After she was all dolled up it was time for the real work...standing in a specific spot and looking at the camera. I know, I know this doesn't sound all that prestigious of a role, but trust me, she plays an important part I'm sure of it! :)

So after about 10 minutes of Mckinley's close up we were done. And just like that a star was born!

Honestly, I have no idea how a 20 month old is suppose to do in a commercial, but I think she did pretty good. She gave a sweet look, a sad look, she looked down and then back up (she must have dug deep for that type of emotion huh?), she really showed a lot of talent...who knows if any of this was actually in the direction of the camera and is able to be used, but she was amazing truly. I cannot wait for the commercials to start rolling (I will be sure to give more info when I get it). I'm sure they are going to edit her into a very important part of the commercial.

Now, we just have to wait for the opportunities to come a knocking! :) Get your autographs while you can people (just don't expect anything other than scribbled crayon).

Pirate Kinley

So this is one of those posts that I hate to have to do (not really), but feel it necessary to do anyways. I say that I hate to have to do it because it is based around a struggle that Mckinley is currently facing. That sounds very dramatic now that I read it back to myself, but it is true nonetheless. It is important to me to take note of all parts of Mckinley's life and this just happens to currently be one of them.

When Mckinley was about 6 months old I began noticing that her eyes wouldn't always focus on me--particularly when she was in her highchair (I think I noticed it at that point because I was staring face to face with her for an extended period of time). It really didn't happen that often, but it happened enough for me to take notice. I brought it up to her pediatrician at which point he did a little exam and then told me "she's fine", basically brushing my concerns aside (side note: we have a new pediatrician now). Fortunately, mother's intuition wouldn't let me brush it aside. I continued to notice the issue and decided to take her to a pediatric opthalmologist in spite of what our pediatrician thought. Apparently a good pediatric opthamologist is really hard to get into because we couldn't get an appointment until she was about 9 months old. I'm so glad that we went to see this doctor though because it turns out Mckinley has Amblypia (aka a little bit of lazy eye).

When she was 9 months old her case was very mild in severity and her doc thought it would probably resolve itself on its own; however, over the last month or two I have noticed it getting progressively worse in her right eye so back to the doc we went. Before going to see this doctor I always thought that this issue was mostly cosmetic (definitely needing attention, but nothing actually impacting vision), apparently though, if left untreated she could lose sight in that eye completely as her brain basically turns off use of it. SO....now we have pirate Kinley:

Still stinking cute!

At this last appointment her severity level had gone from below mild to moderate and thus requires a little bit of treatment in the form of an eye patch. Right now she only has to wear it for 1 hour a day, so it really isn't even that big of a deal, but it was still something hard to hear because it is the first real struggle she has faced. Thank goodness it actually isn't even something too serious and is currently easily treatable.

Again, this all sounds very overly-dramatic, but as her mama I hate the thought of her having to ever deal with a difficult situation. Lucky for us she isn't even two and therefore doesn't have to deal with comments from school-age kids or self-confidence. She just thinks it is a fun sticker to put on her belly after her hour is up! :)

So hopefully the hour a day does the trick. We won't actually know anything for quite some time though--her doc says expect her to do the hour a day for 3-6 months. We go back in the end of April to find out it the hour is enough time or if she needs more time per day. Until then she gets "pretty stickers" for her eye. She has done surprisingly well with them too. It very well could have turned out to be a nightmare getting her to wear these patches, but just like her amazing little self, she has taken it so well. Fingers crossed that this period will be short lived and that this is the biggest struggle of hers I ever have to write about! :)