For my Daughters

Dear Kaylee & Alyssa, There is no one in this world who has meant more to me than the two of you girls. You have changed my life in ways you will never understand, until you are grown up and have children of your own. I love you more than I thought possible to love someone. And I continue to love you more, and more everyday! My biggest wish as your Mother is to be able to show you that love everyday and express to you just how special you both are. I hope that one day when you are older, you will want to be the type of Mom I was for you. I don't have a relationship with my Mom, so I think it makes it that much more important for me to always keep a very special bond with you. I want to always be there for you, and never make a promise I don't plan on keeping. I know how much that can break a little kids heart, and I don't ever want that for you. I want to try and be fair, listen to everything you have to say, and always be patient and kind. I hope that I can always stay strong in front of you, that I can help with whatever you need, and always be on your side. You both are my everything, and I would do anything for you. I want you to know how proud of you I am, and how much I love being with you every single day! With lots, and lots of love, Mommy

Baby Sign Language

I am so, so proud of my little girl! Kaylee and I started learning sign language about 4 months ago. She can sign over 20 words, and uses atleast 5 of them regularly! She is so smart. She even made up her own sign for "hot". I read that you should encourage kids when they make up their own signs, so Shaun and I have started using her new sign as well. The real sign for hot is to touch your mouth and move your hand away from your mouth while opening your fingers. Kaylee opens her mouth, points inside of it and makes the H sound. How cute is that?! The sign she uses the most is "all done". She uses it every time she finishes a meal or snack. I want to keep learning and teaching Kaylee sign language but I feel like we should focus more on her talking. When she started using signs she stopped using her voice. We stopped teaching her new signs about a month ago, and she is already talking more. I want to keep signing with her but obviously her talking is more important. I'm stuck because I would hate to start signing again and have her stop talking when shes been saying so many new words. I think ill wait a while. I just hope she doesn't forget the signs she already knows. Here is Kaylee signing "up"!

Til next time, Katie

Kids & Pets

I love our cats, but I hate living with them! Our house is proving to be way to small for two kids and two cats. One of our cats has a jealously issue and pees all over the girls clothes, and everything else! Gross! The other cat tries to claim Kaylee's bed as her own which is unacceptable,cat's are not aloud on the beds! I swear I spend most of the day chasing the cats out of the bedrooms and chasing Kaylee out of the litter boxes! Today while I was cooking dinner, I turned around to find Kaylee standing in the cats water dish. Last night Kaylee put her blanket in the water dish, soaked up all the water, and then carried the empty dish to her Dad in the next room. Funny girl! She also gets a kick out of emptying Shrimps food into Alfs dish, poor Shrimp! So some things are pretty funny. But, it's not funny when Kaylee tries to play with Alf and gets scratched in the face. And, it definitely wasn't funny today when Kaylee walked up to me crying with a mouth full of cat litter. Poor girl was so upset, had no idea it would taste so yuckie! I almost puked. I'm surprised Kaylee didn't. I'm pretty sure she wont be doing that again anytime soon! I wish we had the room to keep the cats separate from where Kaylee is aloud to run around but we just don't. Oh well! I wrote this post on my kindle, I hope the spelling isn't to bad. I cant go back and edit but I will edit it from my computer and add a picture later. Good night, Katie

Alyssa's Due Date

Today is Alyssa's Due Date and she is exactly two weeks old! I feel so lucky that we got to meet her two weeks early! I was so anxious to meet her! I kept wondering how big she was, what did she look like?, did she look like her sister?, what was Kaylee going to do when she saw her for the first time?, the wait was killing me! Eventually, after about ten hours in labor, all of my questions were answered! She was tiny, not big! She looks just like her sister, beautiful and perfect!
I was a little bit worried that having Kaylee and Alyssa would be overwhelming and difficult. However, it has been surprisingly easy. I've always been home with Kaylee so we have a daily routine that we've been able to keep even with Alyssa being here. We did push Kaylee's bedtime back an hour, because Alyssa usually eats then. It has been working out great though, she likes staying up later and goes to bed without much protest, and she sleeps later in the morning! So far Alyssa is always sleeping during Kaylee's nap time too, which is awesome because I get a little break in the middle of the day. There have only been a couple of times that Alyssa would need to eat or get her diaper changed at the same time that Kaylee needed to eat or needed her diaper changed. For the most part as long as Alyssa is changed and fed I can focus most of my attention on Kaylee because right now Alyssa has more basic needs and Kaylee is more demanding. I think it's important that both girls see Mommy giving the other one attention, so that no one feels left out or more important. And hopefully that will teach them to have some patience, although I'm sure it might take a while for that to happen. Lucky for me, Alyssa is an amazing baby who only cries when she's hungry or wet and Kaylee has stopped lashing out and seems to be okay with having her baby sister around. I feel confidant that the situation will only continue to get better! I know I am really blessed to have such a wonderful family! Just a couple of years ago I would never have thought that I would have so much! Two beautiful daughters and their father, who is the love of my life! Everyday is a blessing! There is no life I would rather have than the one I have been given. There is no job I would pick over being a stay at home mom. Nothing makes me more proud than my children!

Much Love,
Katie

Kaylee & Snow

Today we brought Kaylee out to play in the snow for the first time! Much to my surprise, she loved it! For the first couple of minutes she just stood still looking around, but it didn't take long before she was throwing snow at her Dad! She was throwing snow, eating the snow, and even giving the snow kisses! It was a lot of fun! I must say my favorite part was just watching her try to move in her snow suit! What a cutie! I can't wait until next year when both girls can go out and play in the snow together! I'm so proud of Kaylee for not being afraid of the snow! She didn't even get to upset when her Dad pushed her over and accidentally threw snow in her face! Yeah, I got it on tape!

Loving life,
Katie

~Birth Stories~

I've decided to start this Blog by sharing the girl's birth stories. These two stories are my favorite to tell. Of course, it was the two most happiest and emotional days of my life. Not to mention the two days that have changed my life forever. Enjoy!

                                                 Kaylee Anne Davis ~ My first Miracle!

It was Wednesday night, October 5th, 2010 when I started feeling my first real contractions. I know in reality I was only waiting nine months, but it felt like I had been waiting my whole life for that moment! The contractions lasted about one minute and were coming 10 minutes apart. This went on for a few hours while I walked in circles around my kitchen hoping they would start coming stronger and closer together. Then, just as fast as they started they stopped. It was so disappointing, I knew my baby was not coming that night, but she was coming soon! I woke up the next morning, Thursday October 6th (the day before my expected due date) and rushed to the bathroom. My water still hadn't broke but I was having bloody show and no contractions. I woke Shaun up and told him are baby was coming soon! Shaun still went to work and I spent all day walking around the house, going up and down the stairs, and bouncing on the birth ball. I was trying everything to make my contractions come back! Finally around dinner time they started coming every ten minutes lasting about a minute each. This had to be it! All I could think about was how the next time I left my house I would be coming home with a baby! I was never more anxious in my life! Around 10pm Shaun came home from work, by then my contractions were painful and coming about every 5 minutes. Shaun kept asking if he should call my Midwife but I kept telling him no. I was so afraid of going into the hospital and having them tell me I wasn't really in labor. I had practiced my breathing and read about every single method on how to deal with contraction pain. All I could think was if I can't handle this pain, I will never get through this without drugs! My goal all along had been to have a natural birth with no drugs and no interventions. Around midnight (Now my due date) my contractions were every 2-3 minutes apart. Shaun filled a bubble bath for me to sit in to help my back pain. After being in the tub for a few minutes my contractions seemed to be right on top of each other and even though I told him not to, Shaun called the Midwife. Somewhere around 3am we headed to the hospital. The car ride didn't bother me and we just talked about how exciting it was that we were going to meet our baby girl! We walked into the emergency entrance, where I argued with the check in girl for a while about not needing a wheel chair. She insisted, so I complained the whole way up to the maternity floor... Poor Shaun! I got admitted at 4:15am October 7th, 2010. I was checked and told I was dilated to a 5. I cried as I was getting checked and still think that was the most painful part of it all! I was doing really good breathing through my contractions and the nurses would know I was having one because I would stop talking. They asked what I wanted to do to help the pain and I decided to try the tub. Being in the tub was my favorite part while waiting for Kaylee. Shaun and I were alone, listening to music in a big private room. The warm water helped with the pain more than anything else. I remember feeling so connected to Shaun at that point and for the first time it really hit me how connected we really were going to be for the rest of our lives. It was a very emotional and amazing experience for me. About an hour went by before they asked me to get out. Kaylee's heart rate was rising because of the hot water. No big deal. When we got back to the room, Debbie (Shaun's Mom) and Rita were there. I was still waiting for Alicia (My Sister), who was driving up from MA to be with me. I was able to walk around, go to the bathroom, eat and do whatever I wanted. Around 9am Alicia arrived with my niece and nephew. Now that Alicia was there I was ready to just have my baby all ready! I asked the Midwife to brake my water to speed things up, and she did around 9:30. After my water broke I just remember having to go to the bathroom a lot! My contractions were right on top of each other and hurt so bad! I was so tired that I was having a hard time breathing through the contractions. Labor definitely takes a lot out of you! I decided to get a shot of Nubain to help with the pain. I got the shot around 10:24am and immediately started pushing. Kaylee was born 13 minutes later at 10:37am on her due date. I held her right away as Shaun cut the cord. She was just as beautiful then as she is now. It took a while to sink in what had just happened. Holding her and seeing Shaun hold her for the first time brought tears to my eyes. There is nothing more magical! I Fell in love with her and Shaun all over again! She was 6lbs 7oz 18 1/2 inches long and absolutely beautiful. My life changed forever, and I thank God for her every day!  

                                 Alyssa Rayne Davis ~ My first Natural Child Birth Experience!

Alyssa's expected due date was January 13th, 2012. However, I had a feeling she was planning on coming earlier than that. On December 29th, 2011, Kaylee and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. We got home around 4pm and I felt some contractions that were pretty painful but thought nothing of it. By 6pm I was having really strong contractions about every 5 minutes. Shaun, Kaylee and I sat down to eat dinner and I told Shaun we were going to meet Alyssa in the next 48 hours. Shaun was not convinced, he still thought we would have to wait another 2 weeks. After I had put Kaylee to bed my contractions were getting even stronger, and I just knew our Daughter was on her way! I started getting all of our things ready just in case we ended up going to the hospital that night. I made plans for a good friend of ours to come to our house and stay with Kaylee while we were gone. I was so excited that I called Shaun's Mom, who was in California, and told them to expect a phone call anytime saying Alyssa was here! I knew we had to go to the hospital sooner rather than later because I was only in labor 6 hours with Kaylee and the second baby usually comes faster. Around midnight I went to bed. I woke up to strong contractions around 1 or 1:30. When I went to the bathroom I was having bloody show. I woke Shaun up and told him to call my Midwife. Once she told us to come in we had our friend come to stay with Kaylee, who was sleeping and had no idea what was going on. We got to the hospital around 2:30am on December 30th, 2011, Alyssa wanted to be a 2011 baby! When we got to the hospital I was checked and dilated to a 4. I was walking around just breathing through my contractions as Shaun slept, Lucky him! Around 4am my contractions stopped and I was able to "sleep" for a couple of hours. This time I was Anxious and also a bit sad. I was so anxious to meet Alyssa, but I was sad because I felt like Kaylee and I hadn't had enough time just the two of us. Kaylee was only 14 months old and the poor girl had no way of knowing how everything was going to change! That upset me a little but I was still so excited to have another little girl! Around 7 I got in the tub. This time there was no music but Shaun and I talked about what we remembered from Kaylee's birth and it was very relaxing. I was already feeling that closeness with Shaun, Again, for the second time! My contractions seemed very spaced out and less painful than I remembered from my labor with Kaylee. Then around 9, I think, I had a couple of very strong and painful contractions. I told Shaun that having a Natural Birth wasn't important to me anymore and I would rather get the drugs than go through the pain. So he called the nurse and I told her I wanted to get out, go back to my room, and get the Nubain. It took all my strength and patience to get dressed again and go back to the room. But I was positive that Alyssa would come out even easier than Kaylee had, even though I had already been in labor longer. When we got back to the room I got checked and the Midwife said "Instead of having the shot, let's have a baby!" I couldn't believe it was time to push! I was in way more pain when it was time to push with Kaylee! Little did I know, I would spend the next hour trying to push her out! With Kaylee I only pushed for 13 minutes, so I was definitely surprised. The whole time I pushed Shaun, the Nurse, and the Midwife all kept telling me how good I was doing and how close she was... I was so frustrated and upset with all of them because I was not doing good and she was not close (I could feel where she was and she was not about to come out) and I was in the most pain I have ever been in my entire life. I hurt so bad I was crying and trying to scream, although, i'm not sure it came out as a scream. Finally I felt her head crowning and I just started to cry. After a few more pushes she was completely out and I could not be happier that it was over and Alyssa was finally here! She was placed immediately on my chest and started nursing right away! She was 5lbs 15oz 19 inches long, and beautiful just like her sister! Once again my life was changed, and I was the happiest Mom in the world! She was exactly 2 weeks early! December 30th , 2011!

New Baby ~ New Blog

I'm starting a Blog! What better way to share my experience's and stories as a Mom, with two girls under the age of two! My oldest is Kaylee Ann (15 months) and my newest is Alyssa Rayne ( 1 week, 4 days old). With one sleep deprived Mom, A very active toddler, and a newborn baby, our family has a lot of stories to share! Every day I stop and take a second to remember how blessed Shaun and I are. However, I constantly ask myself  "What the heck was I thinking?!"

Anxious to start posting,
Katie Lynn