Walk for JDRF

This past weekend we participated in a walk with my company.  The weather was perfect and we had a great time walking through Carowinds for a wonderful cause that brings awareness and support for children with diabetes.  Below is a picture of the Kamm family, thumbs up from Lawson:

Once Upon....

Right now we're dealing with some of the craziness of the terrible two's- talking back, "no's", Harleigh wanting more independence and to make her own decisions.  Although some of it makes me want to pull my hair out, it's a great time for me to start posting some of her stories. 

As I've mentioned in other posts Harleigh loves to sing.  The other day she made up a new song, it went:
"Mommy pumping, mommy pumping, mommy pumping"...."yucky, yucky, yucky"
(I guess we know how she feels about breastfeeding)

At church I like to give Harleigh a paci so she sucks on that rather than toys that have been passed around to 20 other kids that have all licked it or coughed on it. When we went to pick her up, the nursery staff could not find her paci, so we had to drive home without it.  The whole ride home Harleigh asked cried begged for paci.  Later that evening, I was asking her how church was, and what she learned.  Her response "No paci".  All she got from church that night is that if she brings paci in, she's not getting it back.  Maybe this will be how we get "rid" of paci, bring a box of them to church and let Harleigh kiss them goodbye!

6 1/2 Week Check Up

We've had a little head cold going around the house, with it came coughs, congestion, running nose, sneezing, etc.  Harleigh and I got it, and poor Lawson got it too.  I went to the doctor because he's had it for about two weeks and it's disrupting his sleep and making him a bit upset at bedtime.  My concern was that he would have an ear infection, but he checked out.  In the process, he had his weight taken and my little guy loves to eat!  He's 12 lbs 13oz at 6 1/2 weeks!  He also likes to flirt with the nurses- winking and smiling.  What a charmer!

The Hospital- my second home

For the first 3 weeks of Lawson's life, I spent about half of it in the hospital.  After a second c-section, I was in the hospital for 5 days.  And when Lawson was 3 weeks old, I got a really bad case of mastistis.  I got it with Harleigh too.  Mastitis, in a nutshell, is an infection of breast tissue women get when they're nursing.  (Sorry if this is TMI, I use this blog as a record and a way for mom's to share information.)  I was on medicine for 3 days, and wasn't kicking the infection, I felt like I had the flu (cold sweats, feeling aching, fever, tired).  I woke up on Sat morning after being on antibiotics for 3 days with 104.4 fever, I called my doctor and they sent me to the hospital to get on IV antibiotics. After 24 hrs on IV, I still had a 103.1 fever and needed to stay until my fever broke and was fever free for 24 hrs.  It was definitely tough for Zak, because I wasn't much help with both kids, and I wasn't allowed to have Lawson stay with me unless someone else was there to care for him.  I'm very lucky to have an amazing husband who stepped up and was able to watch the kids and help care for me.  I also want to thank the grandparents, my mom, who came over Sat morning to watch Harleigh and Lawson when I was admitted to the hospital and kept Harleigh Sat night.  And for my mother-in-law, who dropped everything to come into town to help out.  We are very blessed!  After my stay in the hospital, I'm still nursing and pumping (which is what you have to do to get rid of this horrible infection).  Anyone who says "you don't sacrifice as a parent" needs to come talk to me! :)

Lazy 5 Ranch

To celebrate Harleigh's 2nd Birthday we took a trip to Lazy 5 Ranch.  She had a blast and enjoyed the animals - at a safe distance away.  Below are a few pictures of the aniimals we saw.

**Disclaimer:  I'm 9 months pregnant in these, so no I was not stung by a swarm of bees, just fat and ready to pop (4 days later).

This is my fave- looks like a postcard

Don't Jinx It!

I really hope I don't jinx it, but this week (Wed night) Lawson slept from 11:15pm- 7am.  We've been struggling with getting him to sleep long stretches through the night.  He typically would sleep for 2-4 hr stretches, and one night he was up from 1am-7am (I was ready to take out a second mortgage and get a baby nurse after that night). 

We've tried everything- keeping him awake throughout the day, feeding every 2-3hrs throughout the day, cluster feedings at night, grip water, and nothing seemed to work consistently.  But, at 6 weeks Lawson gave us a wonderful present and slept through the night.  I think part of it is that he has a little cold and is tired and trying to fight that, but I'm hopeful that if we can keep the routine the same we'll continue to get more rest!  Thank you, Lawsy!

Big Sister

Harleigh has adapted so well to her new role as "big" sister.  Each morning she wakes up she says "baby brudder" and runs into our room to hang out with Lawson and give him lots of kisses.  When she comes home from school, it's the same thing "where baby brudder?", and she runs over to where he is an gives him hugs and kisses.  She certainly loves her brother.  She's learned how to wipe and diaper all her stuffed animals (she pulls their legs up just like mommy and daddy do to Lawson when we give him a change and wipe).  It's the cutest thing.  We are very blessed to have a little girl who loves her baby brother more than anything.  We look forward to seeing their relationship blossom as they get older we pray this excitement towards one another will continue for a long time.

One Month Stats!

At Lawson's 1 month check up, here's what the numbers were (4/3/12):

weight: 11lbs 3 oz (90%)
height:  22 3/4 in (95%)
head width: 15 1/2 in (96%)

So pretty much we have a big boy with a big head!  Hey, those brains take up a lot of space! :)

Lawson's Birth Story

I wanted to post Lawson's birth story before I forgot as a way to remember how he entered the world. 

On Tues, Feb 28th I started having contractions throughout the day.  Nothing painful, but about once to twice an hour.  That night they began to become more consistent and stronger.  Since Harleigh was 3 weeks early and breach, this was my first time experiencing contractions.  I called my sister to be sure they were contractions and that I was in fact begining labor.  From 11pm-1:30am they became more and more consistent moving to every 5-8 min.  Zak was able to get some sleep during this time as I was wide awake.  At 1:30am I called my midwife to let them know I was 5 min apart and they told me to come in to the hospital.  I called my parents to come over to watch Harleigh.  At 2:30am we checked into the hospital and I went into the labor & delivery room.  They checked me and I was at 1cm, about an hour after they checked me I went from bearable contractions to intensely painful contractions.  I was at 3-4 cm and ready for the epidural.  Since just weeks before, my sister had her son and was unable to get an epidural, I was not about to miss out on my window to get one.  I sent Zak out to let the nurses know I was in excruciating pain and to get the anesthesiologist stat, apparently my cries of pain were heard, because Zak didn't have to ask the nurse to send in the shot of relief, the nurse said the anethesiologist was on her way and I actually got bumped up the list since I guess they wanted to shut me up before I scared the other moms! :) After the epidural, labor was much better.  They were watching my contractions and they were all over the board and lasting quite a long time (over 2 minutes!)! At 5 cm they broke my water (approx 4:15am), in hopes of moving labor along.  After another hour or so I was at 7cm so they started petocin, and hoped that would help baby boy drop lower in my pelvis.  Since I was having a VBAC, I couldn't have high doses of petocin as there were risks involved in doing that.  After they started the petocin, Mr. Lawson was not happy.  Apparently he wanted a few more hours of shut eye, and his heart rate started to drop.  After a number of hospital staff came in my roomm (midwives, nurses, doctors), they decided it would be best for me to have a c-section.  At this point, I had been up all night and a good portion of the night before (Harleigh was having bad dreams, probably "sister intuition" that her baby brother was on his way and that would be her last night as an only child).  At 12:27pm Lawson Philip Kamm was born via c-section.  He cried for a solid 30-45 min. Zak was a trooper and just continued to hold him and rock him while I was being sewn back together.  At this point, after laboring, having an epidural, and a spinal my eyes were rolling in the back of my head. Zak and I went to the recovery room (where we actually decided on Lawson's name).  Zak texted family and friends the good news. 

Later that afternoon, my parents stopped by with Harleigh. As usual, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to play a little prank.  Zak and I decided to tell my parents that we named Lawson, "Waggot Topher Kamm", and that he'll go by Wagg's. The expression on my dad's face was priceless.  He immediately looked at Zak and to my mom to see if anyone was going to crack a smile.  My mom did a really great job of "accepting" the ugly name that surely our son would be made fun of for the rest of his life, and asked how we were going to spell "Waggot".  After a minute or two, we told them that the baby's name was really "Lawson Philip Kamm".  You could see the relief on both of there faces.  It was hilarious!  I really wish I would have been able to get a video of the reaction, it was priceless!

So that's it in a nutshell.  Lawson's birth story, different from Harleigh's and memorable in its own way.

Kamm Family