Sneak Peak

We just got back from Florida!  More details and pictures to come...

Yummy

At Kamden's 4 month appt, we got the all-clear to start eating solids.

Today we tried a delicious brown rice cereal.  I am not sure much made it in his mouth :)

Holiday Decor

Not a very exciting post but I am bored :)

I was playing with my lovely camera in an attempt to take a cool *sparkly* picture of the tree.  I like how it turned out... maybe a little blurry but a work in progress.  I probably need to put it on something solid instead of holding it.

I revamped the mantle this year and am really happy how it turned out. It was mostly inspired by pinterest.  I don't love the swag thing on the wall but I can't find anything I do love.  I was considering doing a BIG letter "M" but couldn't commit.  The only things I bought new were the little bit of greenery at the bottom, red spray paint for the wine bottles, and silver/gold stuff in the wine bottles (and it was all 50% off).  I already had the reindeer, ornaments, and the upside-down cake stand cover that they are held in. 

My super-crafty, sewing specialist, mother has offered to make stockings for the family.  They won't be done this year but next year we should have matching stockings.  For now, Kamden is using "mine" from last year and I am using my childhood stocking stitched by my grandmother.


On a sidenote:  My 4.5 month old child might be wearing 12 month pjs tonight.  They are a little big but I didn't want to buy the 9 month size that would only fit for another couple of weeks.  Lord help me!

4 Month Update

 

If you need a refresher to past photos click here.

Teething

We officially have the first tooth popping through today (at 4 months + 3 days old).  It would go a little easier if he had the motor skills to always get a teething toy in his mouth for some relief...

He loves Sophie (when mom holds it to his mouth)!

Thanksgiving 2011

We celebrate Thanksgiving in a big way.  Meaning we do it 3 times.  I forgot my camera for thanksgiving... all 3 of them (yep, mother of the year right here). 

This if from our second T-day 

(11.24.11)

Third T-day

(11.30.11)

Kamden in San Francisco

Joe has had a lighter than normal travel schedule since Kamden was born (thank goodness!).  We decided to take advantage of that and the free ticket for K and go to San Francisco to visit Joe's sister.  We were a little nervous traveling with a baby for the first time but K was so easy.  I even received numerous compliments from strangers about how great of a baby he was on the plane.  We didn't even have to lug around a carseat or stroller because we borrowed them from some gracious friends in San Francisco.  

K waiting to take off...

 

When we arrived in San Francisco, K was pretty exhausted.  It was his bedtime back at home so we just went to S's house to eat dinner and let him sleep.  Another easy part of this trip was where we stayed.  A friend of S's was out of town and let us stay in his (immaculate) apartment that was just 5 blocks away.  It was perfect and made the carseat/cab situation non existent.

On our first full day in San Fran, we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf to be tourists for the day.  We decided to take a boat tour, which K slept through :)

We went over to see the seals after the boat ride but there weren't many there.

 On the second day, we went across the bridge to the lookout back towards the city.

After a few pictures, we headed to Muir Beach to relax for a bit.  K slept through this but I can really see him enjoying it in the future.  After the beach, we went to Stinson Beach for some great fish tacos!  Not quite as good as the best fish tacos ever, but still pretty tasty.  

One of the best parts of the trip was that S was willing to take Kamden overnight... twice!  We got to go out to some nicer restaurants, enjoy the city, and some uninterrupted sleep.  

Overall, it was a great trip but we were ready to get home.  We took a late flight and K slept the ENTIRE direct flight home.  It was great!  We are ready for our next adventure with K to Florida in a few weeks!!!

Kamden's first "Muddy Adventure"

We took Kamden to San Francisco over the weekend.  It went extremely well!  I will post more stories and pictures soon but for now, this will have to suffice.

Cloth Diapers

Yes, I use cloth diapers.  No, I am not a hippy. 

Cloth diapers are so much easier than they sound.  I started using them when Kamden was 1 month old.  There was just way too much going on for the first month of his life to start earlier than that.  He is now 3.5 months old and I am still happy that I made the initial investment.  I might have a different opinion when he starts solid foods!

Anyone wanting more information on cloth diapering should continue reading.  If you are not that interested… stop now!

Diaper of choice:

We use mostly bumGenius 4.0.  They resemble a disposable diaper pretty closely.  I currently prefer the Velcro option but I have heard the snaps come in handy when they get bigger and think taking off the diaper is a good idea.  We have about 16 diapers we use regularly.  I think that is plenty but some people prefer more so they don’t have to wash them as often.  

Storing dirty diapers:

We put them in a planet wise wet bag.  We haven’t had any issues with smell but I wash the diapers and wet bag every few days.  We have a few wet bags.  A small one that holds about 2 diapers that is good for a short trip out of the house, a medium size that holds about 5 and a hanging one that holds all of them.  I really dislike the large hanging wet bag because it gets twisted in the wash machine and retains a lot of water. 

Washing the diapers:

Cloth diapers require special detergents that don’t cause build up.  I use Country Save that is found at my local natural food store.  I wash them once on a cold cycle and once on hot.  I usually use a drying rack to save on the cost of running the dryer.  They usually dry overnight without a problem. 

Cloth wipes:

I recently got really crazy and added cloth wipes to the regimen.   It is also a lot less scary than it sounds.  I simply use baby washcloths or some squares of flannel that my mom had left over.  I made a solution for the wipes that I just keep in a bottle with a pull-up spout (like on a bottle of water) and dribble it on the cloth.  This is the solution I made:

1/4 cup olive oil (extra virgin not necessary)
1/8 cup gentle baby bath
A few drops tea tree oil
4 cups water

That is probably more information that anyone could ever want but I do have a few friends that have asked me about the details.  I will say that some daycare providers are not willing to use cloth diapers.  We didn't have to worry about that since I am staying at home (for now).  I think my initial investment was less than $500 and I have heard you can spend over $2,000 to diaper one child.  Assuming we have more kids (fingers crossed), this will be a gigantic money saver.  

Squeals

Kamden has started making these hilarious squeal noises when he is happy.

Enjoy the video...

3 Month Update

and just for a visual comparison...

ROARRRRR!

Happy Halloween from Little Bear

Princess, Sleeping Beauty, Rex, and Woody also visited!

The wardrobe essentials

I am a firm believer that children need overalls in every size.
They are the new "must-have" this fall season :)

And if you really want to complete the look, get a hold of some cowboy boots. Yes people, those are baby cowboy boots. Thank you Ryan family!

2 pictures for 2 special people

For Grammy R...

For Grandpa J (of the real JR's Garage!)...

Christmas in October

The Minnesota and Kansas City people met in the middle this year for our Christmas Celebration. Des Moines was the perfect location for a quick reunion together. Below are a couple of pictures.

Grandpa and 2 of his grandsons. Yep, Kam is sporting Christmas clothes. Someone passed them down to me but they won't fit him by the time actual Christmas rolls around.

This is a fun comparison of the generations. The top picture is all cousins in the family. I am on the far right (the youngest).

The bottom picture is all but one of the next generation. All girls the first round, and (almost) all boys the second round!

Baby Rocky

(If you don't LOVE dogs you should ignore this entire post)

Baby Rocky is my name for my "first born"
Rocky is the most intense, concerned, active, playful, energetic dog ever.
He is a persistent, optimistic, glass half-full kind of dog.

He started having seizures in November of 2010. We tried to adjust diet and hope for the best but it wasn't enough. He averaged about 1 seizure a month for 6 months and we thought we could manage that. In June 2011 he had 3 seizures in 1 day and we decided we had to go on meds. They worked great for a few months. Then he had 1 seizure in September and 2 in one day on Sunday. It looks like he will be starting a second med this week (when bloodwork results are in). We love this dog and hope that this is the trick.

To top things off... he partially tore a ligament in his knee a week ago. The vet said it is the equivalent of a (partial) tear of the ACL. If he doesn't take it easy for the next few weeks, we are looking at surgery to fix a torn ligament. If you read the first few statements about Rocky, you will understand that "taking it easy" is not in his vocabulary. :)

This is a picture of his intense stare.

Kamden's Baptism

Big Baptism Weekend!
As you can see from the previous post, we had a very busy Friday and Saturday. Sunday was even crazier. It started off with a very early morning with Kamden. I guess he was just too excited for his big day. Rocky (dog) made the morning even more exciting with another seizure. Luckily Kamden did great during the service and the lunch after went well.

Kamden is wearing the baptismal gown of his Grandfathers and a slip under it that was worn by his Great Grandfather. I wore this gown as well as every other family member.

Below is a picture with his sponsors Aunt J & Aunt C. Aunt S couldn't be present for the event.

I was particularly excited about the cupcakes in the shape of a cross...

Fun Fall Weekend

Carnival @ G & G's Church

This is Kamden and I at the carnival. He pretty much lives in the Ergo baby carrier. I would get nothing done without it!


Pumpkin Patch

Fun @ G&G's "farm"

Horrible game... cute outfit (made by Grandma).

2 Months Update

If you need a comparison... check out his 1 month update!

A Typical Saturday Night

Things change when you have a kid. Saturday nights are one of them. Luckily we have good friends that come over to play intense board games with us.

Looking Good

Why, yes he does!

(I really wish this had 2 "D's")

30 Months.

30 months is the amount of time it took to hold Kamden in our arms since the time we decided we were ready to have baby. More appropriately, 30 months... a team of doctors... a small fortune... and a lot of heartache.

(This post proceeds to get rather lengthy and maybe "TMI" so read ahead with caution)

We actually started trying for Kamden about the same time we began this blog. Our trip to Vietnam was planned to be the last pre-baby vacation. We were pretty tight-lipped over the course of this "adventure" but I finally feel comfortable enough to share.

We started off trying the natural way.... the way it was intended. After a disappointing first few months, we were still able to maintain our positive outlook. We were young and didn't anticipate any problems. After all, I was 27 and Joe 30 and we were both in relatively good health. However, Joe's travel picked up, which made the "timing" especially challenging. After doing my "homework" on the subject, I began to chart daily temperature and trying every "wives tale" that may help with this process. I even made the dreadful trip to Houston in the middle of the summer to coordinate my timing with Joe's travel schedule. As the months dragged on, each cycle became more disappointing then the next.

After trying for 6 months, we started to suspect that there may be another problem beyond our control and got tested through my OB. We were immediately referred to an RE (reproductive endocrinologist), where he recommended that the next step we take would be an IUI. For those unfamiliar, this is basically a procedure that point and shoot the "swimmers" in the right direction. After our first procedure, we were very optimistic and were sure that this HAD to have worked. Unfortunately, this led to another month of disappointment, which turned into another, then another, then another.

We went through 4 months of failed IUIs and our specialist indicated that our next logical option was to go with In Vitro Fertilization. This was our first "major" expense as our health insurance did not cover any fertilization treatments. After making this decision, we had very high hopes and the thought of potentially having twins was very exciting for us. When we made the decision to do this, we had wild expectations that this would certainly work and that we would have enough leftover embryos to have the family we had always wanted. We had our first "fresh" cycle in May 2010. This is where they pump me full of a ridiculous amount of drugs to produce a lot of eggs and (hopefully) many strong embryos. We ended up with 4 embryos. We implanted 2 in May. This is an ultrasound of our first 2 being implanted:

These obviously didn't stick. It was classified as a chemical pregnancy ... which is just a fancy term for an early miscarriage. We had many positive pregnancy tests and then and then some not very hopeful blood tests. The hope of a few weeks of pregnancy made the outcome even more heartbreaking.

The 2 leftover embryos were frozen for later use. We elected to try again in August 2010 with our 2 remaining embryos. This also didn't work... another chemical pregnancy. This one was almost worse... many positive pregnancy tests... and some positive blood tests... then nothing.

At this point we were feeling beyond defeated. We were up against the decision to give up and look into adoption, which can also be very costly and end up with something, but ultimately not what we envisioned for our first child, or take another chance and invest another $14K to try again. To make things more interesting, we were fighting the insurance time bomb. Although our insurance wouldn't cover the treatments, they would cover maternity, which was very important in case any medical emergencies happened during pregnancy or delivery. I was laid off in April 2010 and we had to be pregnant by February 2011 to still have cobra insurance coverage for maternity. Joe is self-employed and we knew it would be difficult to get maternity coverage and if we could get it, we would be on a 2 year waiting period for this to kick in. In a last effort to try for the family we ultimately wanted, we agreed to try one more time and invest the time, money and emotional distress to do another "fresh" IVF cycle.

"Fresh" IVF cycles require a LOT of drugs. Below is a picture of the drugs for the second cycle. Four of them were injections and this was just the first shipment:

The second "fresh" cycle was much more successful. We had 17 eggs, 14 fertilized into embryos, and 7 became really strong (5-day) embryos. We implanted 2 of the embryos and froze the other 5.

One of those little white dots is KAMDEN!!! It was very difficult to be positive about this pregnancy in the beginning. We had been through 2 miscarriages in the past and were pretty guarded with our emotions. Unfortunately, at this point, we were unable to enjoy the results of the home pregnancy tests and the excitement of the possibility that this may have actually worked. We have been through this twice and having our hopes let down again would have been too devastating for us enjoy this moment. I don't think we really believed we would have a child until we found out the gender at 18+ weeks, and we were still skeptical. We didn't really feel any relief until we held a healthy baby just 8 weeks ago. We were always worried that he would have a developmental problem or there would be a complication, even during delivery (and trust me, his delivery did NOT come easy!)

We are obviously thrilled to have Kamden, our miracle child. I would not recommend anyone go through 7 infertility treatments in 11 months. It was so incredibly, emotionally, difficult to handle that I don't think we would have made it without a really strong relationship. I am not going to lie ... wine helped a bit (ok... A LOT!!).

I know many people struggling with similar issues and you might know someone as well. Joe and I wouldn't have made it through without having support through each other and a few close people. Some of my advice if you are going through this.... you have every right to feel every emotion you are feeling. They are all justified. If you are supporting a person fighting infertility, I hated hearing certain things. There were 2 that topped the charts: "Just have fun/Relax" and "It will happen." When you are going through a million treatments it is NOT "fun" and you don't feel like it will ever "happen."

At the end of the day, Kamden has exceeded every expectation we could have in our first child and we now feel complete. We are hopeful that our family will continue to grow, but we do not have high expectations since we know the difficulties that can occur. If we end up as a family of 3, we are happy.

09.18.11 - A great week

We had a week of "Muddy Adventures"... especially for a 7 week old. It is hard to stay in the house when the weather peaks in the mid 70s, regardless if you have a baby or not. This week was no exception. Kamden went to his first Royals game with Joe and my good friend "K." He might not have caught a fly ball but he slept most of the game... which was even better.

On Friday, Joe and I had a night out with friends. The fabulous Aunt "C" allowed us a little adult time while she scored some quality cuddle time with him!

On Saturday we hit up the Plaza Art Fair. Kamden was pretty great. He slept a bit, fussed a bit, and became a little overwhelmed. We *may* have borrowed a Pottery Barn Kids glider for about 20 minutes to rock him to sleep. Thank goodness for store samples!

After a quality nap we ventured to the neighborhood block party. They had a live band but thankfully, Kamden slept through it all. We had fun but left early because of a particular college football game that *must* be watched.

After this "Adventure"-filled week with Kamden we are feeling (possibly too) confident. We are currently planing a long weekend on the coast in November. Are we crazy? The kid flies for free... we must take advantage.