The Park

So we ventured to the park last weekend for the first time ever with a little one in tow.  It started out fun and I got some really good pictures of Kenley smiling and laughing in the swing...

And then it took an ugly turn...Daddy lifted her very high and swiftly brought her back down and the cries started.  She first shook like a leaf, and I am not exaggerating on that either.  Her entire body started to shake and then the crying started.  Poor thing was scared out of her mind.  We tried to take her mind off of it by getting on the horsey...she wasn't having it...she had been scarred, hopefully not for life!

Daddy felt bad because he didn't mean to upset her, Mommy was pissed at Daddy because we had only been there for about 2 minutes before it happened and I knew after that it would take an act of congress to get her to be OK with the swing again.

I took her the next day to the park before we went on our run and she was not fond of me sitting her in that evil swing again.  She lunged forward for me as soon as I sat her down and she then started to whimper and cry. 

Oh well...we shall try again next time.  I wish they made those things so parents could sit with their children and swing.  I'm hoping the long term memory decides to not hold on to this memory.  Our first time at the park turned out to not be so grand!

Birthdays and Babies

This past weekend was a fun little getaway for me.  I handed the job of caretaker of Kenley over to my sister for a full 24 hours so that I could escape to South Carolina to attend a surprise 30th birthday party for my college bestie.  My poor sister...little did I know but the evening I dropped K off with her, her oldest starting throwing up and pretty much continued the puke fest all the way til I picked up K the next day, and then some.  So not only did she have three children to take care of which was a new experience by itself for her, one of them was horribly sick.  God bless her! I'm pretty sure I would have spent much of that time in tears if I were her.  But she did a great job with my girl, had no doubt of that of course, and so far did a great job of keeping the sickness off her as well!  Guess I shouldn't speak too soon though!

Anyways, I had a great time with my dear friend who I've known for 12 years now.  Holy cow!  12 years.  I didn't realize it was that long til I just counted it up.  We met at our college orientation, lived just down the hall from each other our Freshman year, lived together our Sophomore, Junior and Senior years, were in each others weddings, shared lots of tears, many laughs, been there for each other through pregnancies, through early births, through family drama, of course boy drama and have been through all that and then some together and after all this time she is still my best friend.  She has stood by my side and had my back through some very thick and thin and I'm so lucky to have her in my life.  She is such a blessing.  I only wish we lived closer to each other.  I love her like she were my own sister.  Friends come and go...life carries on and even when I moved to California and we weren't as close (not just physically but emotionally) I knew that she was always there if I needed her.  Some people you become friends with and even if you go through a period of time where you don't talk as often or keep each other updated on life's happenings, no matter what you know that you can call them anytime and it is like you never missed a beat, that's my Jenny.  I have a lot of acquaintances, I only have a few that I would call my close friends, and I have only one I would call my best friend and that is her. (and this goes unsaid but of course my sister is my best friend, shes my blood bf, Jenny is my non-blood bf)

And with that said...I'm takin it back...Jenny don't be mad!!!  I had to show how young and goofy we used to look!!!

And us now...

I love this girl and her precious family so much!  I'm so glad she's kept me along for the ride!!  And taking pictures beside her reminds me I need to whiten my teeth!!


####################################################    New topic!!!

So we have discovered that Kenley likes to bang pots and pans, don't most young children?  She got a kick out of playing with these the other day!

She cracks me up!!!   And this next picture is one that I FINALLY captured on film, because my camera sucks, and she's not smiling but hopefully in the next few days I'll get one with a smile.  And this is her "hang at home, can't go out in public because someone will think I'm a boy outfit"  But I love it anyways because it has a monkey on it!

"How big is KK???   Soooo Big!!!!"   And she's drooling...lovely...

The Ickies

So the ickies finally hit the Copeland house.  I was hoping we would get away scott free because I do a pretty good job of keeping her secluded and away from sickness but it found us.  It found Kenley first, the poor thing.  She has never really been sick before.  She got a runny nose and coughs around Christmas time that lasted about a week but other than that she has escaped sickness.

She spent last Monday night in bed with me so I could take care of her and it never crossed my mind that she would decide to pass her fun stomach bug on to me.  Well it hit me Wednesday morning and it hit me hard.  I wasn't as lucky as K was.  She was whiny all day Monday so I guess she didn't feel good but the actual sickness only lasted about 4 hours for her.  It lasted much longer for me!  Jim had to come home early from work because I couldn't watch her and run to the bathroom every 15/30 minutes.

I finally started to feel like myself again around Thursday night and then Jim woke up Saturday morning sick.  It was a fun filled week here last week.  I'm surprised we didn't pass it on to the cats and dogs with as many germs as there were floating through the air.  At least it happened the week after her birthday party and the week after her actual birthday and lasering. 

            I was trying to get a picture with her wearing my glasses, she wasn't having it

                            Watching Yo Gabba Gabba...she loves DJ Lance Rock!

And of course I have to end with a picture of her smiling!!

On a side note...anyone else ready for Spring to get here? And stay here!! I can't stand these awesome 65 70 degree weekends and then waking up to coldness on Monday morning.  Ready to get my girl out to the park during the week and ready to take some pictures with my camera that sucks!!

Other than that can't really complain...life is good!!!

One!!!

She made it a whole year!  Its been a mighty rough year and this year will be tough too...though not as nearly as tough as last year but Hallelujah she made it!  Does every mommy tear up when "Happy Birthday" is sung to their baby or is that just me?

Her actual birthday was a very low key evening for us.  She had had a rough morning and afternoon with her lasering so we decided to just celebrate at home, the three of us, and we got her a giant piece of cake from the grocery store.  Lite the candle, sang her happy birthday and let her dig in!  Her first real piece of sweetness ever and she LOVED it!!! I think she's gonna be a sweets girl like her daddy!!

Thank goodness by that night she had started to feel a little better and was in a much better mood.  I didn't get weepy when we sang to her home but I did at her party!


Her party was this past weekend and we celebrated down at my mom and dad's place in Wilmington.  I wanted to invite some of her NICU nurses and I knew they were not probably going to be able to make it if we did her party at home so we had it down there.  And all but one were able to come.  And of course did I get a picture of K with her nurses???!!!  Of course not! Because I had ten thousand things on my mind and totally forgot.  Just like I had made her a photo book of pictures of her first year that I wanted to give her and let other people see and did I forget to give that to her as well.  Yep, sure did!  Oh my brain...

But we had such a good time and I'm pretty sure she did as well and my mom and dad did such a great job of getting everything together and for hosting.  They are the best!

                                                                               Here was the cake for everyone else      

                                                                             The Birthday girls cake!

She is such a stitch!!!  She figured out she could get to the cake faster by just skipping her hands and putting her mouth right down to the cake.  Most hilarious thing I have ever seen!!

I think it is safe to say she enjoyed herself some cake!

Then it was presents time!

Among other fabulous gifts she received this monkey chair!  I think I'm in love with it more right now then she is.  Once she figures out how to get herself in and out of it then I'm sure she'll love it more than me!  This was a gift from her Nurse Amanda and Nurse Rachelle.


Overall it was a great weekend!  To be surrounded by so many people that love this little girl just makes my heart swell!  I'm not entirely sure every single person knows exactly what they mean to Jim and I.   To have them travel through such a hard time in our lives and be there every step of the way to offer any type of help they could offer means the world to us.  We love all of our friends and family so much and will be forever grateful for the emotional, physical, spiritual help they have given us, without us even needing to ask this past year.  And the fact that they love our Kenley girl so much and are so happy to see her so healthy and doing so well is the kicker for me.  I know there are quite a few out there that love our K like she is their own and I am so grateful.

This little girl is so blessed...and so are we!

And She's One...

The day has arrived!! I can't say it is exactly how I would want to spend her first birthday but hey, beggars can't be choosers. 

These two pictures were taken yesterday...when she was in a much better mood

The day began for her with us waking her up at 4:45am. And we of course wished her a happy birthday right off the bat!  We made the trek to Chapel Hill and arrived at the hospital a little after 6am.  We checked in and then we just had to wait.  Surprisingly, for a little girl that was awakened early and was not allowed to eat, she was in a really good mood.  While we were waiting to be called back she didn't fuss, she just really wanted to get down on the floor and crawl around and that wasn't happening!

It was kind of tough sitting in the waiting room because we were surrounded by other children that were there early, just like us, for some type of surgery.  There was a boy in a wheelchair and another little boy there that later I found out, had something called Hunter's Syndrome (or Disease...I can't remember exactly)  It made me sad.  I looked at Jim at one point and mentioned how here I was fretting over this growth on my daughters face and mentally everything is alright with her, but here are these children that have mental handicaps and our worries with her seem less significant.  God bless their parents.  I just couldn't imagine.

We got called back around 7am and got Kenley weighed...a big ole' 20 lbs. 14 oz...that was with her clothes on but hey, who really cares right?!?  We had to get her into her little gown and booties and then she started to go downhill a little bit.  I think it was a combination of being woken up early, being hungry and wanting to get down and move around on her own.  We had about a total of 4 people that came in to talk to us, ask us questions about Kenley, and explain what was going to happen and even the Dr. was able to stop in a talk to us for a minute which I appreciated.  Then a nurse came in the room and told us to give her kisses and surprisingly, I didn't break down and cry like I thought I would.  I'm pretty sure I got all my crying out the day before, after I got the call that she got an appointment for today.

We then had to go back out to the waiting room to wait.  It only took about 15 minutes and someone came and got me and took me back to recovery.  And as I walked up to her it was an amazing sight to me.  Here was my girl sitting in a hospital crib, which she hadn't been in since she was in the NICU and she had one nurse on either side of her and she was sucking down a bottle of apple juice.  The first thing one of the nurses said to me as I walked up was, "This girl has a set of lungs on her."  I said, "oh yes she does."  Apparently they gave her pedialyte after she woke up and she wanted nothing to do with it! Cue the screaming.  So they quickly got her some apple juice and she was much happier.

I had to sit with her for a bit just to make sure she could keep some food down.  I fixed her some milk and she scarfed that down and I got to sit there and rock her beside her bed.  It was really surreal because she was still attached to the monitors and it was complete deja vu to look up at that monitor and see those numbers that I looked at EVERY day for 58 days straight.  In regards to that, I feel like she's come full circle.  It's an almost indescribable feeling.

              The birthday girl not in a birthday mood...the poor thing was just not in a good mood when we got home from the
                    hospital but I snapped some pics anyways

                            *I wanted to have this picture to put in her scrapbook...The first lady to come in and
                             talk to us and take notes on K was a resident working with Dr. Van Aalst...for some reason
                             she had to put her initials on K's face.

                             
She started doing a few smiles right before we put her down for her 3rd nap today, yes her 3rd nap, that's how tired she was but she is usually just a two naps a day girl.  But can you really blame her for being grumpy and not feeling good? Not really.  We woke the poor girl up before the chickens and then put a laser to her face.  But I'm sure she'll bounce back quick...she is one tough cookie!


For all the people that prayed for us, for her, and for her doctors today, Thank You from the bottom of my heart!  I know God hears my prayers but I know it's so much better when He hears LOTS of prayers from different people for my baby girl.  I can't express how blessed Jim and I are to have family and friends that care enough about us to take a couple of minutes and say a prayer.  We are so incredibly lucky.  Thank you!

And as l look at the time..it's 5 minutes after 4, my sweet girl had just been born (3:43pm was her exact time), I had just been sewn up and Jim and I were still kind of in complete shock that our girl was here...11 weeks early...a year ago today exactly!  Thank you Lord for our most precious gift...Thank you.