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.

One More Day

Oh goodness...only ONE MORE DAY and my baby girl is ONE!!! ONE...can you believe it?  I'm not entirely sure I will be able to make it through the day tomorrow without laughing myself to tears when I think back to how far she has come and all that we have been through in a year.  I am so so so unbelievably blessed to have such a smart, sweet, loving, spitfire baby as MY baby.  I think Jim and I are in for it when she gets older...she has such a strong personality and an attitude already!  Hmmm, wonder where she gets the attitude from?!?  And boy can she make some faces...its pure comedy to watch her interact with someone and watch her little face make all kinds of different expressions.  Funny thing is, I know EXACTLY what she is thinking when she makes them too!!  Geesh, I am so in for it!

And this is her MOST favorite past time these days

She loves this dog...or just loves climbing on her and biting her ears.  But I must say that Hally is so good with her.  Most times she will just lay there and let K climb all over her.  And to get her back she licks K's face like it's going out of style!!

And a quick side note...I just got a call that K got in for her first lasering tomorrow morning.  Her procedure is at 8am so if you're the praying kind and wouldn't mind saying a small prayer for her and her doctor tomorrow that everything would go according to plan we would so appreciate it! Thank you!

The day that changed my life forever...

Today has been a weird day.  I thought as soon as I woke up, the only thing I would be able to think about was how this day played out a year ago, but it hasn't been that way.  When I do look at the time, which is sort of often when I'm seeing how close we are to nap time, I do think back to what was happening at that time last year.  So far I have ran through the events of exercising, starting to get the contractions, calling the doctors and talking to the nurse and actually as of right now, I was on the phone with them making an appointment to come in and be seen at 3pm.  As I was sitting watching Kenley play this morning, I actually got a few minutes worth of anxiety.  I think because I knew what I was getting ready to go through at this time a year ago.  Thank goodness I'm not able to see into the future...I would not have handled the events of this day well if I had know what I was in for.  I guess this tells me I deal well with surprises and with things not going according to plan.


I occupied my time this morning with checking out monkey decorations online and ordering a really cute banner for K's bday party.  That way I didn't dwell on what this day could possibly bring to me emotionally.  I thought I would be in tears all day and I actually haven't cried once so far.


I got a couple of pics of K this morning in her monkey pj's but really haven't been in the mood today to snap pics like I have been. 

I can't help but wonder, if from this day til her birthday, if I will replay as much of the days as I can remember throughout my head as they pass. I probably will for goodness sakes, who am I kidding.  I guess I like torturing myself like that.

The doctor from UNC wants to do K's first lasering on her "bump" on March 1st...to clarify we are on the waiting list for that day because all of the appointments are taken but we are on the add-on list... and part of me wants it to happen then, because I want to get the ball rolling on getting it removed, but another part of me doesn't want it to be on her 1st birthday.  Call me selfish but I want to enjoy that day with her, just me and her, and spend the time loving on her and telling her how she was born (of course she'll have no clue what I'm telling her but still) and reminiscing about how my squeaks was brought into the world, rather unexpectedly.  I kind of want it to be just a me and her day with no other intrusions. Of course if daddy didn't have to work I would want it to be a me, her and daddy day. I know she won't remember her 1st birthday but I will and I'm not entirely sure I want that day to be marked with memories of more scariness and unknown if she does have the lasering.  Two years in a row might be kind of difficult for me.

If someone cancels their appointment for their lasering then we will get a call and of course go and have it done...no since worrying about it right now.  I have no control over the situation.  I'll post about new revelations with her "bump" soon.  I was just waiting to see how things panned out.

So here we are, another year later, another year wiser. 2:21pm...I was getting ready to head to my doctors to be seen and had just gotten off the phone with Jim where he explained that he was leaving work to come home.  I told him no, it was probably just a bladder infection, I have to open the dance studio at 4 anyways. I wouldn't be there long...or so I thought.  And then my world changed forever!


Here are some pics I took yesterday when K and I got a chance to go outside because it was so flipping nice out! She even got to wear her first pair of shorts!!

                                

She LOVES being outside.  I love taking her outside because she can just sit there and sit there and observe her surroundings.  I didn't get many smiles from her yesterday because she was so busy just looking around and taking it all in.  One thing Jim and I have noticed is this girl is an observer...or nosey as we like to say.  She loves to stare at people and look at everything. 

These next pictures are pics of what my poor girl has to do while I take a shower.  If I put her downstairs in the exersaucer or pack and play and leave the room she will holler so I opt to strap her in this seat that is WAY to small for her now.  But she's a good sport and she just hangs out with me while I shower.  Granted I can't take a nice long shower like I like to but overall shes a great girl for me.

And here we are...another day closer to the big day!  8 more days!! Can you tell I'm excited!?!

The Day Before...

I've been really weepy today and I'm not sure why.  Maybe because I'm getting ready to "start" that time of the month or maybe it's because today was the beginning of the end for Jim, myself and Kenley.  Jim and I were thinking back to a year ago the other night and I remember this time very well.  We joined Barry and SuSu, good family friends, along with my mom and dad and a couple of other friends out for dinner to celebrate Barry's birthday. That was on Sunday night.  I remember being very uncomfortable that night.  She was completely vertical on the right side in my tummy and anytime I would sit down, she would get shoved up under my ribs which hurt.  Today was a normal day. (Monday)  I went into work that evening and even remember doing handstands as I was showing my girls how to do something.  I remember as I was falling asleep that night I got one small cramp in my tummy, which I look back at now and realize was a contraction.  Today was the first day of the rest of our lives...being turned upside down!  Tomorrow is the day I was admitted to the hospital.  Oh and believe I will be posting on that!


I'm not even sure what to say.  Only that I feel kind of sad.  For lots of reasons.  Sad that today was my last day of normalcy...EVER!!  Sad that as I think back, I couldn't keep her in longer.  Sad that I didn't get to have a normal pregnancy.  Sad that I put a HUGE kink in our lives.  Sad that my girl is about to be one and a whole year has already passed.  Today to me just feels like a sad day.  You have those sometimes.

I don't want to be Debbie Downer so I try to not dwell on it too much and looking at these sweet cheeks always makes me smile!

Last Thursday here was AWESOME!!  The weather was to die for and it was so warm that K was able to wear her pink tutu skirt and "I Love Rock and Roll" tank top she just got.  I haven't seen her in skirts much because its been so dang cold but now that its getting warmer out, all I want to dress her in is skirts.  They are too cute on her and something about her Buddha belly makes me grin from ear to ear!

You talkin' to me!?!?

She decided to start pulling her clothes out of her laundry basket...now if I could only teach her how to fold them then it would be all good!!!

I'll be interested to see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow morning...I wonder if I'll relive the entire day, hour by hour or if I'll only occasionally think about the events that happened throughout the day.   We shall see...til then...I'll just pass the time by kissing my sweet cheeks!!!