Life as a McClellan: May 2014

Friday, May 30, 2014

Updates on me {yet again}

Sorry I haven't updated in a bit. Things went great at my appointment 2 weeks ago, Dr. Wallentine cut my medicine back even more and my count looked good. It had dropped a little but he wasn't concerned about it. Last week, it still looked awesome and today it's at 210,000. I'm at 5 mg right now, so I think they're going to tell me to go off the medicine! Then, if it's like last time, I'll keep getting my blood drawn once a week to make sure my levels stay ok for a month and then we wait and see if it comes back!

I also got a new job! Things weren't working out with Shukria being her assistant, so I asked my friend Janaca about her job she does from home and they just happened to be hiring! I had training last week from 9-12 in Taylorsville and this week has been my first week working at home. Basically I transcribe phone calls for sales companies. I don't do any sales, no phone calls - it's AWESOME! I make my own hours and it's between 2-3 hours a day, so I just do it while princess naps. It's been working out awesome and I'm very grateful for that!!

Last week while I was training, my mom, Jake's mom and my sister Brynne took turns watching Kaycee. I think by the end of the week she realized something was different, she's been so snuggly this week and I LOVE it!! She's not usually snuggly at all so it's been really nice. Last week made me SOOOO grateful I normally get to be home with her.

That's all for updates - I'll keep you posted on my blood count!

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Updates on me {again}

Quick update:

My blood count last week was at 225,000. So it's come down, but not by much. They tapered my medicine back to 20 mg on Thursday. They're being VERY aggressive with the taper this time around - last time I cut back by 10 mg a week, this time it's by 20. So I'll be off the medicine twice as fast. So far, I haven't noticed any side effects from the medicine which I am SOOO grateful for. I have an appointment with the doctor Thursday and they'll do my blood work then. I have a pretty sinking feeling it will have dropped more, and that my doctor won't be happy about it. We'll see what happens!

I got a new calling! I was called on Sunday to be the Assistant Cub Scout Committee Chairman and Award Specialist. Say that 10x fast. I have it written down because I can't remember the full title haha. I will be working with Jamie Peterson and I am SUPER excited about that! She's my neighbor that helped me make Kaycee's baby blanket and she's just super fun and I'm excited about geting to work with her! And I get to keep going to Relief Society. And it's a calling that I can easily do with a new baby! I'm so excited and grateful that I was asked to fulfill a calling that I feel I can do!

Turbo is going awesome. I am so grateful I found my soul mate workout - working out is 10x easier when you absolutely love it and look forward to it every day. It is TOTALLY my "me time" every day and I am so grateful I am able to workout again. One of the big things I'm scared of with my potential splenectomy is how long it'll be before I can do turbo again, but I'm trying not to worry myself too much over it.

Ok I think that's all the updates for now - I'll make sure to post again after my appointment Thursday!

Mother's Day 2014

This past weekend was my first official Mother's Day and it was amazing. Last year, we found out we were pregnant 2 days before Mother's Day. That was SUPER fun, and it made it so much easier for me to get through what could have been a super hard holiday, but it's completely different once the baby is here and I'm "officially" a mom.

Saturday we celebrated Mother's Day with Jake's family. His mom took all the daughters-in-law to get facials in Salt Lake and the guys made dinner for us. Getting facials is SOOO relaxing - I absolutely LOVE going to get facials. We had BBQ'd chicken, chips, pasta salad, a veggie tray & 2 different brownie/cookies for dessert. It was SUPER yummy!! We got Jake's mom a little board with a saying about Grandma's & a picture of her 5 grandkids.

Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day with my family after we got home from church. Jake was super cute all day and kept telling me Happy Mother's Day over and over again. We also got a nap in, which is one of my favorite things about 9 AM church. Before we went to my mom's, we were watching something on Netflix and Kayc zonked out in her swing. Normally, she needs to be in her crib or her pack n play to sleep but she must have been really tired. I love watching her sleep.

We got to my mom's and talked with everyone while Jeannene made an awesome spaghetti dinner, and then my step sister Sarah skyped us from her mission in Washington. She will be home in August - I can't believe how fast it's gone!! It was fun to talk to her, and she finally got to see Kaycee! We got my mom a board I made to hang her medals on from running half marathons. She got me {but mostly Kayc} a quiet book and it's super cute!

After we left my mom's, we came home and started getting princess ready for bed. And then I realized that we hadn't taken a picture of the 2 of us yet, so Jake took one right after she got out of the bath tub.

After we got Kayc in bed, we went to our room and Max was super snuggly so I had to get a picture with my "first" child on Mother's Day too! Jake decided to join us for that picture :)

Jake got me a new kitchen table a few weeks ago and I love it!! We found it on KSL and it was exactly what I was wanting. Jake touched up the paint and everything for me and then put it all together and brought it in the house the next day.

My first Mother's Day was awesome. I have an entirely new appreciation for all that mom's do, and am excited for many more Mother's Day's {is that right?!} in the future. While I'm excited for the cute notes & little gifts from Kaycee that I'll get in the future, I am grateful for my first Mother's Day this year and how simple it was.

Kaycee is 4 months!

Our Kaycee girl turned 4 months on Saturday! I can't believe how fast time is going, but at the same time, it really blows my mind to think she's only been a physical part of my life that I could see for the last 4 months!

Jake's work gave them the Friday of spring break off {paid} so that they could spend time with their families! His work is the greatest!

Her first time outside - she loved it!!

So sleepy her lips were making faces lol

Story time on my lap

Her comb over! We were playing with her hair one night and combed it over instead of spiking it up. She looked so different!!

Jake on the left, Kaycee on the right. With their comb overs, they could be twins!

Max trying to get Kaycee to play with him

Crazy long hair!!

My little lunch date - I've been sitting her on the counter with me while I cook, and then move her to the table while I eat :)

Love my mini!

Jake thought she was asleep, so her turned so I could look and I just saw these two little blue beady eyes looking back at me. She LOVES being on daddy. And seeing daddy. And anything at all involving daddy haha.

She still loves to hold my hand while she eats

Still loves to play on her play mat

Lunch date!

Being a good girl at the hospital while I got my blood drawn - she's been SUPER awesome!

We scheduled her first hair cut for April 23. Our neighbor, Betsey Richardson, cut it. She wasn't so sure about this whole process...

This picture kills me - she looks so cute!

She HATED having her hair cut!!

Lots of crocodile tears, but it looks awesome now and hopefully we can just let it grow! Next hair cut, I'll make sure NOT to schedule it during her nap time haha!

Love her

Playing dress ups!

Sleepy girl all swaddled. She always looks so teeny to me while she's sleeping

When she's really tired, she sucks her thumb and fans the rest of the fingers up over her nose

Except normally, she isn't flipping the camera off I promise lol

Smiley girl before bed the day she was blessed

She sure loves her puppy!

And then zonk - she was out on my shoulder and didn't wake up at all when Jake swaddled her

Breakfast date!

She just sat there with Sophie in her neck for a few minutes, no crying or moving. I think she was tired haha

She loves to hold hands and I absolutely love it. I hope she always wants to hold my hand

Jake getting Kaycee swaddled for bed. After I feed her, and we say prayers, he gets her ready for bed. She loves it - just stares at him or talks to him or giggles {except when I pull out the camera}.

Jake calls her swaddle sack her wings - this is why.

All ready for bed!

Max sitting on Kaycee's lap during her 4 month photo shoot

4 month nearly naked picture

4 month picture with clothes on

Some fun things from this month are:

At her ear infection doctor visit, 2 days before she turned 4 months, she weighed 12 lbs 13 ozs.
She's still an awesome sleeper, and sleeps 12 ish hours a night in her room, plus she has 2 solid 2 hours naps, and then 1 1-2 ish hour nap depending on the day.
She's still wearing 3 month clothes, with 1 newborn onesie still fitting her. A couple of her 3 month pants are starting to get a little short, but for the most part everything fits great still.
She got her first ear infection this month, and it was AWFUL. I absolutely HATED seeing her in so much pain and not being able to do anything about it. She was SUPER snuggly and wanted to be held so that she could sleep, which is opposite of her usual. The doctor gave her a prescription for amoxicillin and it started working almost immediately. She liked drinking it the first few times, but then would spit it all right back out so we've started mixing it with her bottle to make sure she'll drink it.
We still haven't had to buy diapers - she's in the last box that we bought from Costco while we were pregnant. I will TOTALLY be stocking up on diapers while pregnant again - it's been AWESOME!
She's had 1 nap where she wasn't swaddled, but other than that she still loves to be swaddled.
She's really close to rolling over from her back to her tummy. She'll get half way and then chill out on her side. She doesn't even try to roll off her tummy though - she'll lay there and lift her head and put it down and lift it up and put it down until she's tired and then she'll bury her little face in her mat and cry until I pick her up. Tummy time isn't her favorite thing haha.
She needs almost no help with her neck when you're holding her - she can hold her neck up high and turn her head.
She can sit on her own as long as you hold her hands to help her balance.
Like you saw in the pictures, she LOVES to hold hands. I absolutely adore it.
She is acting like she's starting to teethe. It seems super early to me, but she'll be fussing and then pull your finger into her mouth and chomp down on it and stop crying. It doesn't hurt right now, just feels funny.
She's starting drooling more, which I've heard means she's ready to try solid foods. Going to start trying them as soon as she has her 4 month appointment. The doctor wanted us to wait to come in until she's done with her antibiotic.
She LOVES splashing in the bath on splash nights. One night, she gets shampoo & soap and the next night she just gets to splash and we switch back and forth. She has got me pretty wet a few times from me sitting on the side of the tub while she splashes. She's starting to get a little big for her tub, it'll be fun to put her in the toddler tub when she can sit up on her own.
She is going back and forth on whether or not she likes to suck her thumb. Sometimes she does, and sometimes it's her whole fist. If she's SUPER tired, she'll usually find her thumb.
When she falls asleep, she puts her right arm over her eyes and her left hand in her mouth. It looks like she's being dramatic - super cute.
She still sleeps best if her white noise machine is going, which is totally fine with me. She can sleep through the vacuum & I LOVE THAT!!
She is doing AWESOME at holding onto things with her hands. She can pick things up off her tummy now, and is learning how to angle things so that she can put them in her mouth. She loves putting everything in her mouth right now.
Church is still tough on her because it's right when she takes her first & best nap of the day. Hopefully we can figure out a way to get her to sleep on one of us while we are there - it's not so fun having your baby be so tired they just want to cry :(
She loves playing with her links {they're in the 2nd picture}. She can be fussy and as soon as you get her links out she'll stop and play with them. We keep a set in the diaper bag and a set in her toy box in her room.
She loves the sound of TV still - I don't watch TV when Jake is at work, but when he's home and I'm feeding her in the living room, it's super hard to keep her from getting distracted. In a way, it's a good thing though - we joked that we thought she might be deaf because she sleeps through Max's barking and doesn't seem phased by it at all, so having signs that she can in fact hear is a huge relief.
She loves when you tickle her, especially if you make little noises while you do it. Her Aunt Macy {Jake's brother Clint's wife} can make her giggle every time doing it. She'll run her fingers up her tummy while she makes noise and Kayc just laughs and laughs.
Kaycee loves boys. LOVES boys. Kinda cute right now, gonna be a problem when she grows up if it continues haha. She loves daddy, grandpa's, uncles - any boy. She'll laugh 10x easier if it's a boy trying to get her to laugh than if it's a girl.
She loves to blow bubbles still and got into a bubble blowing contest with my sister Brynne last week. It was SUPER cute - they just kept blowing them at each other for a good 3-4 minutes without stopping. You could tell Kaycee was getting tired, but was having too much fun so she just kept blowing bubbles.
Jake's new trick with Kaycee is to tap her mouth while she's making noise. It sounds like she's talking or singing & it's hilarious.
When she's done with her bottle {whether it's empty or not} she'll make duck lips and use her gums to spit her bottle out. If I keep trying to get her to finish, it'll escalate to her using her hand and pushing it away. She's definitely learning to communicate with us in a way we understand!
When Jake changes her clothes, he counts to 3 before he pulls her onesie over her face. She's learning what each number means - she'll grin on 1, giggle on 2 and full belly laugh on 3. Jake's teaching our baby to count, no big deal.

We sure love you, Kayc! Thanks for being such a fun, happy little girl - you make our lives so much brighter! Happy 4 months princess!!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Kaycee's 3 Month Pictures

The week before last, my best friend since I was like 3 years old took Kaycee's 3 month pictures and she gave me the disc on Sunday of all the shots we took. She is just starting out her photography business, but I swear you'd never know - she's amazing!! She's SUPER talented at everything she does! I absolutely LOVE how they all turned out!!