Ouchie!

Well, Payton is one week old and already we're having some excitement in our house! Kevin started his externship (AHEC) this week and shortly before he came home today, Alexa had been playing on/near the coffee table. We're not sure if she rolled off or just lost her footing next to the table, but the next thing my mom and I knew, she was crying on the floor. Now, we've had our fair share of bumps and bruises and normally, Alexa is over and done with the trauma within seconds. That wasn't the case this time. 45 minutes after it happened, when Kevin finally arrived home, Alexa was STILL crying and complaining about her left arm. She had let both my mom and I touch it and move it but she wouldn't move it herself. This wasn't like her at all. So...after several attempts to contact friends in the ward who might know how to help us, and other friends for advice...we finally decided to take her to the Kosair Children's Express at Norton Suburban Hospital. And because I'm nursing, I couldn't leave a 1 week old at home with my mom, so we all packed up and headed to the ER....and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening there. After having Alexa's arm manipulated once by the ER pediatrician, sent for x-rays, and manipulated a second time by the doctor...I was done. I just sat in the hallway outside the x-ray room and cried while Alexa screamed and then I cried like a baby again while the doctor looked at her arm the 2nd time. My little girl was hurting and I could do nothing about it.

Thankfully though, nothing was broken but they said it would take a few days to heal. We're grateful that our first ER visit with Alexa wasn't worse.

***Ouchie Update...it's now been a week and a half since she hurt her arm and she's pretty well back to full use. She still favors it from time to time and still says she has a "boo-boo" but for the most part it's behind us.

Friends are Chosen Family!!

I have made some amazing friends while living here in Louisville. Last night, just 6 days after Payton was born, a girls' night was arranged and since some of these fabulous ladies were/are moving, I decided to get out of the house for a couple of hours to bask in their company one last time. Thankfully, I had my mom to help and so she, Payton and I went to enjoy a milkshake at Steak'N'Shake. I am so grateful to these wonderful women (not everyone could be there unfortunately), for their love, support and friendship. They make living away from family a whole lot easier!

***My favorite part of the picture is the guy at the table behind us who wanted to be in the pic!!

Can you tell who is who???

Well, I'm pretty sure that I have the ability to clone myself. It's now happened not ONCE...but TWICE!! And to prove it...here are a three sets of photos for you to guess which is Alexa and which is Payton! Good luck and don't peek at the bottom of the post where I'll post the answers!

Set #1: Picture A

Picture B

Set #2: Picture A

Picture B

Set #3: Picture A

Picture B

Answers: Set #1: Picture A - Payton, Picture B - Alexa

Set #2: Picture A - Alexa, Picture B - Payton

Set #3: Picture A - Payton, Picture B - Alexa

The tradition continues...

When I was a little girl, I would make cinnamon rolls with my mom. In fact, it's one of my earliest memories. Well...while my mom has been here to help with Payton, she's also been spending a lot of time with Alexa (also a part of the plan!!)...and they decided to do some baking, including cinnamon rolls. Alexa had a blast and I thought it was fun that it was something I used to do with my mom. Now, I just need to learn how to make them so Alexa, Payton and I can continue the tradition!

Our Welcome Home!

The day we came home from the hospital with Payton, this was waiting for us. However, it rained shortly after and we didn't get a picture of the original, which included a lot of Alexa's original artwork! So Grandma and Alexa tried to re-create it but Alexa wasn't as interested as the first time!!

Payton's 1st Bath

As you can see...Payton REALLY enjoyed her first bath at home!! Poor Alexa was more traumatized though by Payton's crying. She kept saying "no more mom, no more" and "stop mom, stop"...like I could keep Payton from crying!! So I just kept telling her Payton was okay, she just wasn't used to taking a bath like Alexa was. It was so cute though to see how concerned she was for her little sister! She's definitely taken to her and always wants to know where she is and what she's doing. Payton is so lucky to have such a great big sister!

SiStErS!!

Alexa has taken to her "liddle sister" so well! She absolutely LOVES her. She wants to hold her all the time and "do it myself". She thinks Payton is "so cute" and is concerned every time she cries. My favorite is she tells me ALL the time "eewwwweeeee mom, taypon stinks", and that I need to change her bum. If Alexa had her way, we'd be going through a pack of diapers a day!

Anyways, I love that Alexa loves Payton and I hope it blossoms into a great friendship as they grow older! Aren't sisters great??!!

Introducing Payton Jae Mortenson!

Okay, so I finally have a minute to sit at the computer and share the story of Payton joining our family. Thanks Amanda for getting the initial information on the blog for us!! Here goes:

On Wednesday, April 29, 2009, I was scheduled to be induced and luckily when we called in at 5am, they actually had a bed available...so off we went to the hospital at 6:45 that morning. Here I am just before heading to the hospital. I was soooooo ready to have this baby!!

By 7:30am, I was hooked up to the pitocin, the doctor on call then broke my water at 8:20 and my contractions quickly became uncomfortable so by 9:30am, I had my epidural and then life was great! Kevin studied while I read magazines, talked on the phone or tried to get some rest. We were actually pleasantly surprised at about 1:30 when the nurse said I was already dilated to 8cm since I'd only been 4cm at the previous check. So they quickly got things ready and called my doctor. And at 2:22pm, after about 4 pushes, Payton joined our family.

Here is my fabulous doctor, Dr. Graves, and the wonderful delivery nurse we had, Mary Ann.

Since things went so well and I was feeling pretty good, Kevin went home at dinner time to get Alexa so she could meet her new baby sister.

She was so excited that she really didn't care about seeing me first thing, she just wanted to know where "Taypon" was.

And she loved her right off!

Here is Daddy with his girls!

I couldn't resist getting her dressed in something cute the next day! (Sorry about her giving the bird to the camera...apparently she has some pent up aggression!!) :-)

Me just being camera happy while Kevin was off taking 3 finals the morning after!!

My mom brought Alexa back the next morning to spend some time with mommy and her new baby sister.

On Friday, we came home from the hospital. Our little family of 3 is now a family of 4! We are so grateful that Payton is here and that she's healthy and strong.

It's crazy how small she is compared to her big sister!

Our Little Princess

Payton Jae Mortenson finally made her long-awaited appearance today. 

She arrived safely at 2:22 pm. She weighs 8 pounds and is 20 inches long. 

Everyone is healthy, happy and very excited to finally have her here.  We've been waiting for a long time! 

We will post more when we get home on Friday!

The end draweth nigh...

So for those of you who picked Wednesday, April 29th as the baby's arrival date...you have a pretty good shot at winning the prediction game. Winning what exactly has yet to be determined!! Anyways, I had my last doctor's appointment this morning. I am still at 1cm and the baby is sitting quite high still so my doctor didn't think the baby wanted to do this on her own anyways AND she thinks she's going to be a good size baby so she scheduled me to be induced this Wednesday, instead of waiting until Friday!!!

Yay!! That works out perfectly...my mom arrives in a couple hours and Kevin has his oral path final tomorrow afternoon and then the baby come on Wednesday! Kevin will still have to reschedule some finals on Wednesday and Thursday but it'll all be good! Anyways, we won't have a laptop or cell phone with internet access while we're at the hospital (we're just not that technologically advanced) :-) ...but we'll try and get information and pictures posted as soon as possible after baby Payton arrives! Stay tuned!

Predictions Anyone???

Well, we've made it to 39 Weeks!! Since there is no baby yet AND my doctor said she would induce me next Friday (my due date), that means we literally have 1 week left!!! Soooo....anyone want to guess when this baby will make an appearance and how big she is going to be??? For reference purposes...Alexa was born 2 days early, she came on her own, and she was 7 lbs 13 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

Now that we've made it this long...I'm hoping and praying we can at least make it until Tuesday evening before labor begins so that my mom can get here Monday night AND Kevin can take his oral pathology final Tuesday afternoon. Anytime after that is great for me!!!

Good luck!!

Happy Birthday to Kevin!!

Today my man turned the big 2-7! Happy Birthday Babe! Of course, I started the day off right by FORGETTING to wish him a happy birthday as he kissed me goodbye while I was still in bed!! What a good wife I am eh??!! :-) Thankfully, I was on top of things last week and had an ecard scheduled to be sent to him at midnight last night so he had that when he woke up and checked his email this morning!!!

Anyways, Alexa and I did some last minute birthday shopping this morning and I finished his cake while Alexa was napping this afternoon...so we were all ready to celebrate when Kevin got home from school. Alexa was so excited to help daddy open his presents. So excited in fact, that on the way home from picking him up...she told him what one of the presents were (the one we bought this morning). The girl just can't keep a secret!!! Oh well, I had ordered his other 2 gifts online a few weeks ago and I totally surprised him with the DVD we got him...he wasn't expecting it at all.

We had a nice dinner of pecan crusted chicken (seriously so yummy), cheesy mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. Then it was onto the cake.

I think Alexa would have been fine with just skipping dinner and going straight to dessert...but we managed to get a few bites of real food down before she devoured the cake. As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the face she would make after every bite and after licking her fingers.

Happy Birthday Kevin!

You are my rock and my light and I am so grateful to have you in my life. You really are the best husband a girl could ask for and the best daddy a little girl (almost two little girls) could ever want! Thanks for being there for us always. We love you!!

No Baby Yet!!!

Alright...for those of you who are anxiously awaiting an update (and for those of you who aren't, you get an update anyways!!!)...there are no plans for baby Payton to arrive anytime this week. She could always decide to come on her own, but my doctor said today that she could induce me next Monday, the 27th. Wellllllll....that just didn't work for Kevin's exam schedule. His finals start this Friday and continue through Thursday of next week...but the only one he REALLY has to be at is on Tuesday morning, the 28th. That just wouldn't work for me to be induced on Monday...so the next option is next Friday (which is technically my due date anyways), the 1st of May. I wasn't dilated anymore today (still at 1cm), but I am now 75% effaced and the baby has moved down into position more...so I'm making progress, slowly but surely. AND, I even lost a pound since last week!!!! That's just a little exciting to me since I've put on more weight this time around than I did with Alexa!! :-)

I still have an appointment scheduled for Monday the 27th so we'll see what progress I've made by next week and then I'm sure we'll schedule the induction. But in the meantime, here I am in all my puffy, swollen, achy, tired, pregnant glory at 38 1/2 weeks. Hopefully this will be the last prego pic I take prior to labor!!

Our crazy weekend...

So our little lady had a major asthma attack on Friday morning. She woke up having a really hard time breathing so I called her doctor's office the second they opened and had her in there at 9:15. Her doctor said she hopes to never see her that bad again...and thankfully she responded well to the breathing treatment there, otherwise we most likely would have been on our way to the hospital. Poor little thing! She's had asthma since she was 4 months old, but we've only had to periodically give her breathing treatments when the wheezing gets bad. It's never been THIS bad before. So she was put on several breathing treatments a day to get it under control, plus an oral steroid to gain control more quickly, and an antibiotic as her lungs sounded a little "junky" as well. Her doctor thinks that she's a spring pollen kind of girl so we'll most likely be getting her allergy tested in the near future. We had to go for a follow up appointment on Saturday morning to make sure she was improving, which she was!! Phew!!! We're to schedule a further follow-up once baby Payton arrives and has her first well-baby visit (so that we can just make one visit to the doctor) at which time we'll discuss further the need for the allergy testing.

Anyways, it's been a crazy weekend keeping up with all of Alexa's treatments and medications AND stressing about when/if this baby will make an appearance. Thank you to all our wonderful friends who have offered to help if Payton arrives prior to my mom getting here next Monday. We really are so blessed.

Here is our sick little girl on Friday. She didn't sleep well Thursday night and fell asleep on the couch as soon as we got home from the doctor!

Happy Easters!

Happy Easters everyone!!

Here we are just before church, showing off Alexa's new Easter dress. She was so excited to put it on and didn't mind posing for the camera at all!

Alexa and Mommy...two peas in a pod! She thought it fun that we matched today, both wearing pink. She's all about matching lately!

Alexa and her Daddy! As you can tell, she kinda likes him!! He'd just gotten home from church and she was so excited to see him before she went down for her nap!

This is another picture from before church and I had to include it because she was so adamant that her lovey be in the picture too!

Since Kevin leaves so early on Sunday mornings for meetings, the Easter Bunny didn't visit out house until nap time (hence the crazy hair - Alexa insists on her piggy's being taken out for her naps). But she was so excited to find what the Easter Bunny had left her!

The biggest hit was the bubbles. She didn't want to put them down for the rest of the afternoon! I'm sure that's what we'll spend the majority of tomorrow doing!

Anyways, we had a great Easter Sunday. It was nice to be at church today and to focus on the sacrifice our Savior made for us and on His Resurrection. We are so grateful for the knowledge we have and for this time of year.