on the 4th day of CHRISTMAS

4. create a perfect holiday pandora playlist
      so far the best tunes come from the indie holidays radio but i have to have some NSYNC and mariah carey in there somewhere too!
i'm learning that kiah just loves to be out and about. on the days that i get up, go to the gym, walk around the mall, and do my normal life things>she is totally content. she sleeps better and loves GOING. like today! it been an awesome  awesome day!  on the days i try to stay at home and make a routine and focus on HER> she doesn't do well. yesterday the poor little doll face had to go in for her 6 month check up and get 3 shots. thankfully stephen came with me because it is soooooooo hard to watch her innocently laugh and play and roll around on the table where she will very quickly be surprised with stings of shots on her legs. she was very very brave yesterday though. the pediatrician said she needs to gain more weight though. from the last check up she had not gained even a pound so i am now focusing more on getting these solid foods in her and feeding her well. she's just a tiny little bug-a-boo. 
this week she is eating cereal in the morning and avocado in the afternoon. i also got her her FIRST SIPPY CUP yesterday because she needs to start drinking water now too. I've been using our BABY BULLET to grind up oats and make her super baby porridge from the The SUper Baby Food Book. i like it a lot. she doesn't really love the new food yet but we are getting there. i do not see why people WANT to rush the food eating process because it really is a lot more work than just sitting down and giving her my milk. more dirty clothes, more things to wash and sanitize. all of that to say, it is fun. she is fun. she is such a happy baby. 

Get Ready...december count down

2012 Christmas Count Down begins tomorrow. i just finished our first annual 25 days of things to do in december advent calendar. 

i kinda just made this up myself with a combo of ideas from the infamous PINTREST. stephen and i came up with 25 things to do this winter as a new family starting our own traditions. so i decided to make it even more fun by turning it into an advent calendar where we open the little baggie every day and see what it tells us to do! kiah makes me wanna be crafty. i bought my very own hot glue gun too! oh the possiblities. i plan on getting some help from my BFF jessica jones on some stockings for kiah, stephen and i out of an old sweater!
    having kiah has justified my desires to decorate and start traditions. before, when it was just stephen and i, i always wanted to do things like buy a pumpkin or buy a tree or decorate for holidays but since he could care less about it i just didn't do it. but NOW...things are different. this is the beginning of a beautiful thing. we have to start off right. gosh, I LOVE TRADITIONS! 
    the other thing that we have decided to do as far as the gift giving stuff is the, "something you want, something you need, something you wear, and something you read." 
for me-
want: some type of good work out clothes
need:
wear :maybe TOMS, or sunglasses or a new scarf
read: subscription to REAL SIMPLE
for kiah-
want:
need: a warm hat
wear:
read:
for stephen-
want:
need: luggage for thailand
wear:cleats and indoor shoes for his trip to thailand
read: i'm sure this won't be too hard, he loves getting new books

if anyone has any gread ideas, i sure could use them because i'm not getting very far with this list.

1st THANKSGIVING

        i always look forward to "FIRSTs" ;you only get a first time once! EVERYTHING!!! FROM KIAHS FIRST CAR RIDE, to her first giggle, to the first bottle, the first tear, the first taste of cereal, her first time on an airplane, her first bath= so this year we are enjoying and celebrating EVERYTHING! every month we celebrate and this month is a big milestone.    6 Months OLD. i remember thinking about when she would be 6 months old way back when she was only a few months old and feeling like 6 months would take forever but here it is before our very eyes.

..........the funny things that kiah does these days are roll around the floor all over the place, suck on everything, she kind of growls and smiles and it is sooooo cute, she hates getting her diaper changed in the middle of the night so we don't do that anymore, she almost jumps herself out of her little activity bouncy center, she laughs at PEEK-A-BOO, she is SO curious, she goes to anyone who wants to hold her, she loves listening to stories, she loves the bath, she has a bit of a temper..-thats just a few things that i don't want to forget 

       thank God i have been able to simply breastfeed kiah through this whole time and she has been growing beautifully. feeding her other things is going to take some extra work. she has been sleeping through the night since Nov. 12. this has made a huge difference in our lives. i believed in my heart that she would get it before or around her 6 month point and sure enough she did. it just clicked for her and i am so glad i did not have to have excruciating nights of letting her cry it out...which i was prepared to do by her 6 month birthday. thank you God!

       this has been an amazing thanksgiving family vacation with Stephen's family down here in sunny florida. on thanksgiving day stephen, his dad and i ran the 10k turkey trot in the morning and then in the afternoon we boiled and mashed some carrots for kiah to try for the first time. she was a great sport about it but defiantly didn't love 'em. its gonna be fun introducing her to more foods now and entering into THIS NEW SEASON! a new season of being able to be away from kiah for longer periods, a new season of CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS that we start as a family, a new season of teeth and crawling and changing and growing. wow! its so good!

kiah. im soaking you up.

oh kiah lily 

ok we have officially decided that kiah cant grow up any more. she is at this age that we just love so much and she is rolling onto her tummy almost every time i lay her on the ground. this makes me excited but sad. if she is rolling on her tummy now then next will be crawling soon and then before i know it walking and talking and before our very eyes she will be going off to college ready to start her own journey, ahahhahhaaa! so, i haven't read any self help mommy books or studied from great baby whisperers but i have decided that its better for kiah, stephen and i to continue this way, trusting holy spirit to be my helper and trusting my heart to lead me. otherwise i am just too overwhelmed by what everyone else has to say about things. i mean, of course i am asking for advice when i need advice. but mothers in africa don't have books telling them when to do what. for example, right now i am soaking up every time kiah sleeps in my arms extra long. i see the light at the end of the tunnel and i am pretty positive i wont regret spending more quality time close to my baby girl instead of cleaning the house or doing other things. she is just so amazing.

fall

summer

lots of babysitters here in the neighborhood

pumpkin muffins.

on the days that i don't get go to my "super important as if i have an appointment" athletic conditioning class at the YMCA Mon-FRI 9:45-10:45 i usually have no idea what to do. its so weird because i have more than enough to do but don't do much. i love my friend caroline who tells me, "oh yeah" you are just keeping another human being alive thats all. i mean if i had a day to do all the things that i think about doing-wow, that would be a good day. but today was VERY VERY VERY close

woke up around 6:45am to feed kiah and put her back to the land of nod. i was sneezing like crazy and my nose was running so i decided not to try to go to the gym and to just take a nice hot shower while stephen was still home so i didn't have to worry about the little princess. so fist things first...down stirs i go to make coffee. i took my cup of coffee into the shower with me, sit down in the tub and drink it. why haven't i done this more often? i have no idea!!! our tub doesn't stop up for me to ever take a nice bath so this was VERY VERY VERY close. ahhh, decided...i'm not going to look cute today. i am going to go for a comfortable athletic mom on the go look. i like that look.
then i whipped up some yummy pumpkin muffins for breakfast, played with the little sweetie, said tata to stephen, vacuumed the upstairs and down stairs, gathered all of our dirty laundry and loaded kiah up in the car to drop it at our friends house who (YES) blesses us by doing our laundry.
kiah just looked so cute today with the little leg warmers on that jessica jones made her. before i knew it it was almost 2 and i needed something to eat. i was meeting jessica and anna jubilee down by the green way so i made an executive decision about how to feed my belly and it was a good one!!! i had exactly 6 dollar bills in my wallet so i decided that it had been such a great day already why not try out the new which wich place near the greenway with kiah. wow!!! my new favorite place. for just like $5 and some change i got a loaded veggie sub sandwich with a black patty and tons of veggies. it was a really fun place! i highly recommend it!
   then to top it off jess and i took our little daughters for a stroll in the sun on the greenway!

4 months gone by already

dear kiah lily, how u make me laugh and how u make me cry. i love you. u are so amazing.
you are officially 4 months old. i have been a mommy for 4 months...16 weeks. it has felt like a lifetime but still new all at the same time. you are sleeping in you crib so well now for naps but i think tonight i might introduce a taste of rice cereal to see if you will let me sleep all night long.

i took you to the pediatrician this morning and it was so sad. they gave u 2 shots and you cried so hard you face almost turned purple. its good that you daddy isn't there when this happens because he would probably cry too.
 kiah lily jackson you are 13.5 lbs and 25 in long now
you have been doing some amazing things lately.

1. last weekend when morgan came down from Pittsburg to visit you slept all night long! until 6:30 am! it was amazing!
2. yesterday morning after the 3-5 wake ups through the night i woke up to a bright sunny room at grammy and papas house in VA wondering what time it was because i could tell it had to have been late. i was like, IS KIAH STILL SLEEPING? nope, u were ever so cutely and contently playing with yourself in the pack and play below my bed. i was so happy that you let me wake up on my own!
3. then yesterday afternoon, you just put yourself to sleep again at nap time. all of this told me that you were inevitably growing up
4. you are holding you head up really well
5. might be teething
6. love it when kailer jumps up and down like a frog in front of you
7. you are great about taking a bottle
8. you laugh sooooo much, play so much and are so great about being passed around most of the time
9. you are sucking on everything! you gave me a serious hickey the other day

there have also been a few words given to you already too
"a preacher and teacher of the WORD"
"a worshiper"
"strong"
"alert"
"content"

you always fold you hands like you are praying

waller wedding

all the eagle girls

all the eagle boys

wow, what an incredible weekend this was! do u all remember this?!?!?!
can corbin and sarah get married every weekend please!

weddings.mountains.crib

oh my goodness, is it already september?
   i feel like thanksgiving is gonna be here so soon, then christmas and then kiah will be 1 year old walking and talking and ....ok i need to slow down.
   on kiahs 3 month birthday we put her in her crib to sleep IN THE OTHER ROOM for the first time. i actually was totally ok with it because she has just grown right out of the bassinet that once seemed plenty big for her now is too little.
  LOL! sorry to get off track but i literally just laughed out loud. i am sitting in kiahs room on this rainy thursday morning while a Burmese bible study is taking place downstairs and kiah sleeps in her crib. i think she is having a bad dream but it is so hilarious because she just yelled out while she was sleeping REALLY LOUD but when right back to sleep. sorry, but i love it.
   anyways, but back to kiah in her crib. i love it because stephen and i can actually stop tip toeing around our bedroom at night and moving on or off the bed in slow motion to keep it from sqeeking. and we can listen to our little princess on the baby monitor. but before we could make it a routine, we took off to Asheville,nc for dinner at my favorite TUPELO HONEY and Liz and Caleb's wedding, then late that night to grandfather mountain with friends for labor day weekend. it was a perfectly planned out weekend right? well, it was different. different compared to life back before kiah.
before kiah lily, it was just stephen and i. at weddings, we socialized, danced to slow songs, reminisced about our wedding, ate fun food, danced with friends.  life is very different with little kiah. we stood in the back to keep kiah quiet during the ceremony instead of with our friends who we hadn't seen in a long time. during the cocktail hour before the reception i hid away in a back bathroom to feed kiah while everyone else mingled and caught up on life and took fun pictures together. stephen and i barely ate, barely danced, barely finished conversations with friends and mostly took care of kiah. honestly, as we left i was really sad. i had been looking forward to this wedding and seeing friends for so long. i had a pity party for about 15 minutes and then decided...while all of my heart
...she is more than worth it.
becoming a mom, u sacrifice lots of things. i realized i love her so much!!! she is and will always be worth anything i might not be able to do or have or enjoy. i love her just because she is mine and i am hers. i also realize, that is how it is with God. kiah doesn't even talk or tell me how great i am or doing things for me. but i love her just because she is mine. "i am my beloveds and he is mine"
   GOD IS LOVE
i am so thankful for stephen and all the help he gives me. i am thankful for the long runs i have been able to go on. i am thankful that my friend faith has moved just down the street from me. i am thankful that my friend morgan is coming to visit me and kiah in a few weekends. i am thankful for all the people who have provided so many things that we have needed for kiah. i am thankful for the kids in the neighborhood being understanding about how much time and energy it takes to take care of a baby.

we have a lot going on these days. tomorrow, we head to high point, nc for corbin and sarahs wedding!!!! we will be there all weekend and then monday we will have our first GIRLS NIGHT starting back up again. then i am having a baby shower for one of our friends in the neighborhood who is having a baby boy any day now. so exciting! along with my other beautiful friend JESSICA JONES who is having her baby girl any day now!!! i am so ready to see and hold a newborn again!

love her

3 MONTHS OLD she was not in it

bye bye newborn clothes
    hello 3-6 month
these past 3 months have gone by so fast. in some ways it has just been a wild blur. in other ways i look back at the best 3 months of my life. at times it has defiantly been hard. when kiah is crying and we don't know why and stephen is trying to tell me something and we are yelling because we can't hear each other and stephen rushes to eat spaghetti so that my plate wont get cold and i can't eat until he is finished because kiah is crying and the next thing we know its 10:00 at night when we even get to eat and then my sweet Stephen's plate of spaghetti slides where...? into kiahs car seat. don't worry she was not in it. 
kind of like when we were in LONDON and we had the stroller with all of our wallets and passports in it and we were trying to get off the tube quickly. well, i managed to push the stroller off onto the platform but then in a blink of an eye the doors slammed shut. i had to jump back and let go of the stroller or else i would have gotten my arms chopped off. there we were watching our stroller go away as the tube took us to the next station. again, don't worry she was not in it. luckily, THANK GOD, there was a nice older couple who watched the whole thing happen and stayed with our stroller until we could hop off the tube going one way and then across and over to the tube going back the other way where we had come.

Kiah has grown from here.....


     

to here!

grammy.papa.

stephen and i have been in stuart, va visiting kiahs grammy and papa. it has been a great get-a-way after such a long week of doctor stuff, the fire, the youth tour and all that comes with birchcroft life in general. we have had lots of hands holding and passing kiah lily which gave me a BIG BREAK. we got here saturday night and have been hanging out until today- tuesday. i swam in the pool and laid in the sun and made homemade ice-cream. life is so slow here. slow and quiet. kiah is almost a month old and every single day i am amazed at how amazing she really is. yesterday she slept on papa for 5 hours after our long hike at fairy stone park. it is such a gift to have a daughter to share with everyone. my brother eric and his son kailer had some quality time with kiah too. my grammy held her and kiah gave her lots of smiles! stephen and i have taken time together to plan out out big trip to ENGLAND next week and to finalize our tickets, get kiah a passport  in atlanta, and to get all our last doctors appointment's rescheduled before we go. this was kiah's first road trip and next week will be a big step up from this 2 hour car ride.

TO DO:

1. buy starbucks instant coffee packets to make it in the tea drinking culture
2. paint my nails of course
3. figure out how to pack for kaih to be ok overseas for 2 weeks
4. wednesday 11:00 appointment in atlanta, ga for kiahs passport
5. thursday 2:00 appointment with the hip doctors for kiahs 1 week check in charlotte, nc
6. friday 8:45 pediatrician 1 month check up,     11:00 OBGYN appointment for me,       afternoon haircuts for stephen and i with our friend elise 
7. sunday july 1st- jenna hood meets kiah!
8. monday & tuesday- urban eagles summer camp for boy's
9. wednesday- ENGLAND--- until july 18th

friday.whoot.

stephen's off playing in an eagles scrimmage. so what shall my evening with kiah look like?
let's replay the day.
where to start?
4:30 am walked down stairs to load the coffee maker. is it bad that i am usually ready for my morning coffee by the time i go to bed at night?
went back to sleep.
officially got up at 7:30 and turned the coffee on. kiah was still snoozing so i got a shower.
had a visitor who brought me FLOWERS! i love fresh flowers.
cleaned up the apartment while i had free hands and packed for virginia. we are going to visit my family tomorrow.
met the man who works for BEDS FOR KIDS who brought furniture for the families who lost everything in the fire.
ate cereal with blueberries.
laundry.
went with stephen and kiah to get her birth cirtificate. then drove to the airport to pick up a girl from delaware who is going to brazil on the youth tour and took her to the hotel where everyone is staying. i got to see some girls who went last year with us and played sock wars in the parking lot.
shared a luna bar with stephen. -so hungry- came home and fed kiah.
made a quick and regretful cheese sandwich and now i am typing wishing i hadn't resorted to that. still hungry. missing our delivered dinners!!!
i like time alone with my sweet kiah lily.

hard. harness.

this morning we woke up to such a sunny day. happiness was in the air.
stephen and i just prayed in the yellow room with kiah and then took her dancing.

i have to video tape stephen and i dancing to this with her sometime. it was the best moment of my life!!!
 today was also the day that we were gong to the doctors to find out if kiah would be in a harness for 6 weeks or not to fix her hips. faith filled our hearts and brought us the a place of such belief that Jesus would heal her and we would witness a great miracle to tell everyone about the powerful healing. we were singing and worshipping in the doctors office. i think we were honestly HUNGRY TO SEE GOD IN THIS WAY. we are hungry to see healing the way we KNOW God does heal. we know the goodness and kindness and greatness of Jesus. he is and always will be, even in the midst of our feelings that try to tell us he failed us or that we failed. his love never fails.   the ultra sound showed us that there was still a dislocation after taking this past week to pray over her. this was hard news to hear. wow we cried. i cried. my mothers heart hurt so bad. i just wanted to tell kiah, i'm sorry i'm sorry. but the hardest thing was probably more just that we were so ready to praise Jesus for the miracle and to be able to tell all the doctors about Him and to tell everyone praying for kiah how Jesus is alive and heals miraculously. i have been thirsty for a refreshment in the holy spirit like this. i had thought to mself. we need this. urban eagles needs this. our families need this. our friends need this. something to spark us to push closer to him. but, in that moment, i thought to myself, well. i guess we have to tell everyone that He didn't do it.
i know that was not the right response. i knew we were still going to put our trust in Jesus and praise him like never before and continue honoring Him. in that moment i was upset. but then, we left the doctors office after taking time to collect myself and having learned how to put the harness on and everything. we were NOT ready to go back to birchcroft just yet. we went to one of our secret hide out houses- where the famly has given us a key to. we got there and just wanted to be alone but the house keeper was there. we figured we should still stay there and just tell her what was going on. THIS WAS AMAZING! the house keeper is a holy spirit filled hispanic woman of God who we love so much. she does our laundry quite often actually. she's wonderful. so we walk in and OOOHH MANNN!!! the rivers of heaven overflowed on us. she grabbed our hands and prayed in spanish with all her heart and soul. we were just weeping there in the door way and kiah slept in the car seat in peace below us. the housekeeper prayed for PEACE PEACE PEACE. then she reminded us of so much truth. God used her to destroy all the wandering thoughts i was having and totally fixed my eyes back into the eyes of our precious savior Jesus Christ. wow. peace like never before came over kiah.
seriously she was in a supernatural sleep. i had to wake her up at like 7:30 that night. she had slept from 1:30-7:30. wow. just wow. and she slept great all through the night too!
Jesus is faithful. and when we don't understand we will praise Him.

u are good God    u are good to me

busy.

life has been busy. a blur almost. kiah keeps me on call 24-7 and i am learning things about her all the time. for example, just about 10 seconds ago i laid her down in the bassinet wide awake and crying just so i could step away and go to the bathroom. surprise surprise, i come back and she is quiet an happy!!! laying her there + stepping away= a totally content baby chillin. wow, i wish i had tried this sooner. little did i know, she just didn't want to be held. i guess kiah needs alone time just as much as me. i think she is a lot more like me than i can imagine. i realized this morning when she was crying, while i was ready to get out of the apartment and go to abby's birthday brunch, that kiah was JUST AS READY to get out too. she wasn't crying because she didn't want to go. i believe she was crying because she was just as ready to get out as i was.
she was quiet as soon as stephen and i stepped outside and got into the car.
    stephen is amazing. he wins the best father in the world award.
there have been lots of fun things going on lately and having a baby makes it so difficult to actually go out and be with other people out in public. so many things run through your mind. what if she is hungry, can i nurse her in what i am wearing, what is she cries and i can not sooth her, if i wake her up to go in the car seat will she ever go back to sleep, if i feed her before i go will it put her to sleep or energize her up...and so on and so forth. without stephen and his confidence as a dad, i would be a wreck. he has helped me in the night times, helped me in the day times, helped me in the quite times and helped me in the loud times, helped me in the hungry times and and helped me in the tired times. he is just amazing.
he wanted me to be able to go to abby's birthday dinner on thursday at kickstand but i was nervous to try and take kiah out to a party. he convinced me it would be great and that he would be there to help me. we went and it was all great. a lot of friends were able to see kiah and i for the first time since having her so that was fun. i was able to finally be out and around people again. then, when we all screamed surprise to abby kiah woke up and stephen took her outside to rock her while i was able to spend a little bit of time with my friends again. i was able to get some quality time in, while it actually felt like a date with stephen because we were actually dressed up out somewhere together. i got a burger and fries to-go and stephen got tacos-to-go from loco lime next door and we went home. now-a-days eating dinner is much more complicated. we keep finding ourselves in situations like, when the food is actually hot and ready kiah needs to be fed so then i will go feed her up stairs and stephen will bring the plates of food up to where i am, and then i will make him eat without me because you never know how long its gonna take her to eat and be burped and hopefully put to sleep. then by the time i finish with her, i hand her to him and then i try to reheat my food and eat as fast as i can before something else happens. THANK YOU GOD FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BROUGHT US MEALS!!! we would be eating cereal every night if it weren't for people bringing dinner to us.
      we are defiantly getting a hang on it all though.
so this morning, after i fed her at 5:30 and got her back in bed by 6, i went and made a pot of coffee, got a shower and had QUITE TIME. i love those times in the morning. then rode with stephen and kiah to the TERRACE CAFE- my new favorite breakfast place- i was able to have brunch with the girls while stephen took kiah out. it was so nice of him!!!
see, he is just the best
charlotte eagles game tonight; i think...

abba. daddy time

kiah LOVES daddy time everyday

and so does stephen!

first pediatricians appointment

7lbs .5oz gaining good weight, looking gorgeous 

labor.

this week i did something that i never want to forget about. it was THE MOST amazing, incredible thing i have ever done in my entire life. in my own opinion, labor is not easy or fun. labor is a marathon that goes uphill until the very last stretch. i remember sunday as such an incredible day. stephen and i went to church and praised jesus with tears flowing. a guest speaker was there and really encouraged us in sacrifice. sacrifice has and will continue to be a thread in our relationship and in our life. we had planned out a really nice day together. came home and ate lunch after church, went to the gym to work out a little, and then went on a shopping adventure at the mall with a $50 that stephen's grandpa had mailed us. we mostly just wanted to do a good amount of walking to get me going into labor. that whole day i had felt a few contraction type things but nothing bad at all. by the time we got home i was feeling them just a bit stronger and more often. we made homemade pizzas/calzones for dinner and continued to monitor the contractions. we knew it was coming. that night i went ahead and called my midwife and told her what i had been feeling that day and night. she said i was in the early stage of labor and the best thing i could try to do was to sleep as much as i could through the night and keep timing the contractions. we KNEW we would be going to the hospital the next day! stephen went ahead and packed the car that night. by about 4:30 am i was clocking them coming every 5 minutes. by 5:30 am we got up and showered and kept counting. we called my midwife again and said it was time to come in. WOW! we had no idea what we were getting into. those contractions were NOTHING! at that point, i had no idea what pain was. i couldn't eat. stephen made me a smoothie but i couldn't really drink it. around 8:30 we left birchcroft and headed to the hospital. i called my parents, he called his and mass text messages were flying all over the city sharing that we were finally going to the hospital. we were so excited! laughing our heads off all morning!!! we pulled up, stephen dropped me off, i was wheel chaired inside and up to the 8th floor, while stephen parked the car and brought in our bags. we were put in a suite and GOD blessed us with the perfect nurse and midwife. it was mostly all waiting around until like 10am. i was like 4 cm when the first checked me. we walked and walked around and contractions got more and more intense. then they checked me like 2 hours later and i was like 7-8 cm. i got to have a cherry popsicle around 1:00 pm.

 my parent showed up at the hospital so fast. they had to of been driving like 100 mph from VA.

it was getting hard. i had to stop and take very deep breaths to handle the contractions as we walked around the hallways to get things going. around 2 or 3 that afternoon, THEY BROKE MY WATER. it was kinda cool.
        THEN REAL LABOR BEGAN!!!

by that time i was not talking to anyone, barely had my eyes open as i tried a few ways to continue speeding up the process. went into a warm shower, DEEP BREATHS, birthing ball, DEEP BREATHS, laying on different sides on the bed, deep breaths, leaning over on stephen, DEEP BREATHS. i was completely focused on taking long deep breaths. time was flying by to me. finally, i started to feel that certain pressure that they had been telling me about. i pressure that feels just like you have to have a bowel movement. by that point i had thought to myself so many things.

1. why didn't i get an epidural
2. how in the world do women do this more than once in their lifetime
3. i'm so mad! i have to go through with this and there is no stopping it or going back

than PUSHING CAME! i loved pushing so much! it was finally a way for me to get back at the pain my body had been enduring for the last few hours. i pushed for about 45 minutes and then, with a gigantic door size mirror infront of me, i saw her head com farther and farther out with every push until i knew my next push would do it. i pushed and she flew out! it was the most amazing feeling in the entire world!

happy.

horray for...

1. fitting back into my old shorts this morning
2. coffee oh coffee
3. kiah loving getting her hair washed under the sink
4. a husband who makes sure i take time to eat
5. first pediatricians visit -we passed with flying colors
6. stephen treating me to smoothie king after the pediatricians appointment to celebrate all the great things the nurse told us about how she was doing 
7. kiah gaining back her birth weight in only a few days . mon-7.2 lbs wed-6.11 lbs fri-7.05 lbs
8. good milk coming in
9. having friends bring us delicious meals and visiting to love on kiah with us
10. weeping together with stephen in this new flood of love that comes like the rain, POURIN'
11. and this song!

she has arrived

birthing ball and popsicle by the afternoon

seconds out of my belly

exhausted and happy

first bath

daddys girl for sure

papa

the ride home

after stephen and i gave her her fist bath at home

3 days old