Time Flies!

 

Addison is officially four weeks old today and to say that the last four weeks have flown by would be an understatement! While we can't complain about being insanely sleep-deprived like most new parents (our little one is still giving us a solid five hour stretch at night - thanks, Addison!), we are definitely getting used to the new routine. We have been very lucky to have extra help around the house (thanks to our mamas!) so we will see how good we really are in the coming weeks.

Addison at four weeks likes/dislikes...

LIKES:
- Cuddling up on our chests for a nap
- Kisses from her pup
- A good meal (like her mom and dad!)
- Tummy time... well, she doesn't hate it ;)
- Meeting new people
- Being outside
- Her Moby wrap (because its essentially cuddling up on my chest ;))
- The Giants making the World Series :)

DISLIKES:
- Napping in her crib, swing, bouncy seat, etc.
- Letting her mom and dad eat a complete meal without crying...
- Diaper changes (although she is getting MUCH better in this department)
- Her carseat (until its moving at 60 MPH or more)

We fall more and more in love with our sweet girl each day! She is just perfect and we are so thankful :)

Meeting Lisa and Tyler (who I have known since FIFTH grade ;))

Pumpkins (and Addison Week 3)!

There is no question about it... I LOVE fall! Most people prefer the long, warm days of summer, but for me, summer is just too busy. Yes, I love the warm weather as much as the next guy, but all the traveling and events that come along with summer are just too much at times. Fall is when things start to calm down a bit, not to mention its the build up to my other favorite time of the year... Christmas!

The changing leaves (you should see Green Lake right now!), the cool/crisp air and the lazy days spent cozy on the couch watching football (and this year, snuggling with our little nugget :)) are heaven to me. And what would fall be without PUMPKINS!

Such a fitting first family adventure with Addison... the pumpkin patch as a big three week old!

First family adventure! (Addison slept the entire time...)

Addison at three weeks :)

Addison has started giving us the hand when we talk too loudly while she is sleeping, if we turn on a light, startle her in any way, etc. Its pretty hilarious... figured we should document :)

Other week three events...

Snuggling with Pops at Suncadia...

SUNCADIA:
Pops asked us to meet him for lunch at Suncadia. We wandered through a harvest festival, had a delicious lunch and cuddled up in front of a big fireplace! Despite the outfit, this was actually a different day than the pumpkin patch. Gotta wear her orange for orange October (Go Giants!)

Quick bottle break on the drive back - thanks daddy!
(Addison's first bottle was the night before - nice to switch it up a bit!)
 

Go Giants! Dog, baby, mama (and daddy taking the photo) decked out in our Giants gear at the dog park!

Meeting her first Holy Names friend - thanks for coming over to meet Addison, Heather!!!

Addison and her PEPS friends!*

PEPS:
This week Addison and I attended our first PEPS meeting. PEPS is a Seattle organization that groups new parents together with other (mostly first time) parents in their area. Our group is made up of 12 moms and their babies all born between Sept. 1st and October 1st. This is the week one photo shoot of all the babies! Really looking forward to our weekly meetings and getting to know some local mamas!

Addison: Week Two!

One of these days I will post about all of our crazy adventures with Addison, but for now most of our days have been spent at home, getting checked by the doctor or running an errand or two (max)! So I will keep posting photos of Addison and all the new people she is meeting, but first, stats from her two week appointment at the doctor...

Week two stats (10/10/12):

• Height: 21 inches (81st percentile)
• Weight: 8 pounds, 9.5 ounces (69th percentile)...Back up to birth weight - and then some!
• Head circumference: 35.7 cm (63rd percentile)...This is smaller than the last check up so not sure how precise these measurements are ;)

And as another aside... this week Kenai decided that he isn't too sure about this baby thing. While he is still VERY good with her (whines and barks when she cries and tries to "comfort" her in her swing) he has decided that "family time" as Bob calls it is not for him. When we retire to the basement to relax and watch TV, he stays on the main floor to catch some zzz's. For the dog that has ALWAYS slept in our room, he wants nothing to do with us at night (and even opted to sleep with Mama K while she was here...) Addison loves her pup though! I have a feeling these two will be friends for a LONG time!

Snuggly in my swing

Car racing with daddy... this is his patented daddy swaddle - nice and cozy!

Meeting Papa Bob and Lesley :)



This was Addison's look the entire time we were at Papa and Lesley's house...
Much welcome given that the night before Addison decided to test how much we really loved her...

Cozy after a bath!

Kenai trying to comfort his baby...

First walk to the lake (and cheering on the Giants in game 3 of the NLDS).
Mommy forgot to put the memory card back in the camera and then her phone died so the picture
of the whole fam will have to wait for the next walk!

Giants torture - Addison couldn't bear to watch! Game 4 of the NLDS...

Snuggling with mama in the morning!

My two week photo shoot! 

First Bath

Addison had her first bath at home upstairs in our sink :) We heard from several people that baby bathtubs just took up space and that a sink would do the trick so we decided to give it a go. With my mom here to help and Bob to document the event, we got our girl all cleaned up! She wasn't so sure about it (and let us know she wasn't really enjoying herself at one point), but for the girl who HATES having her diaper changed, we didn't expect her to love the bath. Maybe someday...perhaps when toys are involved :)

 

Looks like mama needed a bath too!





In she goes :)

Clean and snuggly in mama's arms :)

Addison: Week One!

Now that Addison is two weeks old I figure I better get the photos of her first week up on the blog! Too many cuddles for blogging I guess :)

Addison's first week brought many visitors and slight adjustments to our schedule. Overall she has been an excellent sleeper and is eating like a champ so no complaints there. We are actually sleeping pretty well too considering we have a newborn baby at home (just getting up once to feed her in the middle of the night). Hoping we don't pay for this in the months to come (or when she is a teenager!)

And now for the photo dump!

Meeting Debbie Jean!
Thanks again for hosting such a great shower at your house :)

Kenai wake up call on our first morning at home!

 Day two at home... ready to meet lots of new people...

Meeting Whitney (AKA my future babysitter!)

Meeting Cindy and Olivia Breen :)
Thanks for bringing me my first REI items (now I am a NW baby!)

Cousin kisses and cuddles from Uncle Bill (either LOVING it... or pooping ;))

Meeting some of my cousins - Paige (9), Elliot (3) and Patrice (2 months).
Owen was likely running around with Bob!

Meeting Auntie Rhiana! (The hand in the photos has been a pretty common occurrence -
perhaps Addison was done with the photo shoot?)

And on her one week birthday, Addison got to meet her Aunt Lauren and Mama K all the way from Montana!

Meeting Auntie Lauren!

Love all the friends that have taken photos each week to document baby's first year so we are starting that with Addison too! Here are a few pictures (selected from about 100!) from her one week photo shoot :)

 

Addison week one stats (from her first doctor's appointment on Oct. 1, just shy of being one week old)...

• Height: 19 3/4 inches long
• Weight: 8 pounds, 1 ounce (up from when we left the hospital!)
• Head circumfrence: 36.3 cm

Heading to see Dr. Lindsay for my first check up :)

Photo shoot in front of the doctor's office...

And as a side note... how is the pup handling the transition to a family of four? We weren't totally sure how Kenai would react to having Addison around. We talked about his baby sister a fair amount (yes, we know he is a dog) and he gave her kisses on my belly (mostly when I had lotion on it!), but we had no idea what he would think of having a baby around. I can happily report that he has been GREAT! He worries about her, lays next to her swing, howls and/or barks when she cries and always wants to give her kisses. Overall, he reacted exactly the way we hoped he would! Good boy, Kenai :)

 

And one final parting shot for week one... Thanks to Aunt Chasie and her iPhone, photos like this are possible :)

Addison Grace Kehrli

Addison Grace Kehrli

Born Wednesday, September 26th at 11:02 a.m.

8 pounds, 9 ounces

18.5 inches long

 

The complete, unabridged tale of the arrival of Addison Grace (we are keeping this blog to update family and friends, but also as a way to document our life, so apologies for the detailed account, but we want to remember the first few days of our family of FOUR :))

We arrived at Swedish Hospital just after 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 26th, anxious to meet our daughter. As soon as we arrived, we entered labor and delivery triage, were given a room (the same one we were in for the version procedure the week prior) and I was hooked up to a machine to monitor our little girl's heartbeat. The nurses asked a million questions, I was given an IV and we waited... The charge nurse came into the room about 9:15 (15 minutes prior to my scheduled surgery) to inform us that a few other more emergent cases had come in and my scheduled c-section would be delayed. So again, we waited...

About 10:30 a.m. one of the anesthesiologists came into the room to explain the procedure and that's when things really started moving! My doctor came in, chatted for a bit and no less than 15 minutes later we were in the OR for surgery. To say that the entire experience was surreal would be an understatement. I was awake, with Bob in the room while doctor's and nurses prepped me for pretty major (routine, yes, but major) surgery. I have never had surgery before, but the way they show it on TV the patients aren't awake, listening to the doctors every word -- and just like on Grey's Anatomy they really do have small talk as they are performing surgery! I learned that my doctor of nine months had gotten engaged in April and the other surgeon took some great trips this summer -- all while, laying on an operating table, holding Bob's hand.

About 5 minutes after the surgery began, our little girl made her debut, butt first and not without a little drama :) Bob went over to her as the nurses cleaned her up. Prior to the surgery, we were told that once she had been with the nurses for a couple of minutes, we would get to hold her while they finished the surgery, but alas our little (still unnamed) daughter wasn't breathing quite right and had been cut on her buns when they made the incision to get her out. A surgeon was called in to look at her cut and then a neonatal nurse was brought in to assess her breathing.



Our little blue baby (cut buns and all)!

Getting oxygen (and some color back!)

All along we said that we would name our daughter when we met her. We arrived at the hospital with a short list of three names -- two that I really liked (one more than the other) and two that Bob liked. I thought we would end up with the cross-over name, but when I asked Bob what she looked like, while I was laying on the operating table and he had been on the other side of the room with our daughter, he said, "I think she looks like an Addison" (my favorite name, which has been a favorite since I lived in Palo Alto and drove across Addison Street on my way to Homer on a regular basis -- no, not because of Addison Montgomery on Grey's Anatomy ;)). I hadn't seen her much yet and still hadn't held her so we decided to wait to make a final decision...
 

The nurse wasn't super happy with her breathing so they decided it was best to monitor her for a bit in the NICU. Definitely not what we were expecting, but fine by us to make she was going to be OK. Bob asked if I wanted him to go with me to recovery or with our daughter to the NICU. Obviously, we decided he should go to the NICU and off they went while the doctor's finished my surgery.


Ready for her trip to the NICU...

Hooked up to machines in the NICU - she was the biggest baby in there by FAR!

Waiting in the recovery room while Bob and our little girl were in the NICU was the longest 2 hours EVER! When Bob arrived with an update, I was ready to be taken to a regular room and the nurses said we could stop by the NICU to see our little miss. The nurse had hoped they could just send her with us, but they wanted to watch her for a little bit longer...



Visiting the little miss in the NICU on the way from recovery to our hospital room...
She is about 3 hours old in this picture!

 

Just after we made it to our regular room, Dad and Robie (Pops and Mimi :)) arrived at the hospital. They asked what we had named her and after a few minutes of whispering between Bob and me, we decided Addison just felt right! I guess he had decided a few weeks back that he really liked that name and it fit our defiant little girl best.

Bob took Dad and Robie up to meet Addison in the NICU (one at a time). While he was upstairs with Robie, John and Margaret (Papa and Ema) arrived. Bob came back to the room with a great report and Addison in tow!



Addison with Papa...

Addison with Ema...

Addison with Mimi...
 

Addison with Pops...

Our first afternoon/evening was a bit of a whirlwind. Lots of cuddles with Addison, visits from nurses checking our vitals, etc. Late on our first night, Addison was taken to the nursery for a bath with daddy close behind to document the event!

Not too sure about the whole bath thing...

She LOVES being on her tummy!

Addison slept really well her first night. She woke up when the nurses came in to poke and again to meet her pediatrician in the morning, but otherwise she was a sound little sleeper. Fingers crossed this is a trend that will continue!

Mama and Addison waking up on her first morning!

The next two days at the hospital were more of the same... Lots of doctor's and nurses poking at us, checking vitals, etc. and visits from family and friends - Dad, Robie and the new aunties even came to watch the Husky game in our hospital room :).

 

Aunt Maddie with Addison - thanks for driving up from Corvallis to meet her :)

Auntie Chasie with Addison - who also made a major drive (from Pullman) to meet her!

Addison with her great grandma Sleavin (Bob's maternal grandma) -
this is the first Kehrli great-grandchild (Addison is #7!) she has met in the hospital!

Four generations...

Addison had a couple photo shoots -- one with her Aunt Maddie and Aunt Chasie (they were so cute with her!), and another with a professional photographer that makes the rounds for newborn shots at Swedish. She was MUCH more calm for her Auntie photo shoot ;)

 

Resting with daddy...

Wouldn't be an auntie photo shoot without some funny pictures...
as Chasie said, Addison is coming in HOT!

 

Proud grandparents - so in love with their first grandbaby!

 

Meeting Bob and Susan Wenzl - Bob and my dad have been friends for over 20 years!

We were discharged after two nights (pretty typical for a C-section at Swedish as long as mom and baby are doing well).

 

Time to head home!

Mt. Rainier in the distance... who knew we had a view from our room?!?!?
(Bob swears the mountain had not been out at all during our stay.)

One of the awesome nurses at Swedish - we had Tara for two day shifts and she was GREAT!

Buckled in and ready to head home!

Apparently Addison likes car rides as much as her daddy... asleep within minutes!

Addison with a bone for her pup... we figured it couldn't hurt ;)



Overall, the entire experience was incredible! Yes, scary at times, but in the end we got to come home with the greatest gift of all - a perfectly healthy little baby girl. We are so in love with Addison already and we cannot wait for the exciting times ahead. Here's to our next adventure - our life ahead with Addison Grace :)