Baby Kate

Kate Marian Edwards
3/22/11 at 6:17pm
7 lbs 10 oz, 20.5 inches




This may be a fake smile from Zachary, but he was genuinely excited to see Baby Kate. He couldn't wait to undo her blankets and check out her toes, fingers, and belly button. He keeps telling us that he is her big brother.










We will spare you delivery details, but have a few antidotes to share.

1. The hospital uses a GPS system with the babies. I was anxious to get out of my cracker box room and go on a walk, so Brady and I took Kate out last night to walk the limited corridors of the hospital. No one told us the boundaries, and we assumed that as long as we didn't walk out of the door of our wing, we were golden. Wrong. We walked past the delivery room and the hospital went on lock down. Nurses came running out of the delivery room, doors closed automatically, and alarms blared until they realized it was us.

2. After Kate was born, they stamped her feet. The nurse noticed the stamp showed 6 toes. She looked alarmed, and glanced from the sheet to Kate's feet, counting her toes. She did this several times before looking relieved that Kate only has 5 toes on each foot.

3. Today, Zachary came in the house and saw that we were back from the hospital. He looked from me to baby Kate and back again, kind of confused. Finally he said, "Baby Kate is right there, but in your tummy too?" Yeah, son, it will take a while to work off this jelly belly!

4. Last night, Kate was awake from 1am to 6am, and she worked out her lungs. I heard the man in the room next to me call and ask the nurses to "do something about that baby." I guess airplanes are not the only places you run into people not happy to be next to you with a child!

5. One of us put a diaper on Kate last night. She has little chicken legs right now, and when I went to pull the blanket off, I saw that the diaper was basically around her knees, with the tar-like poop all over her blanket. We are re-learning all this baby stuff!

We're happy to be home, and ready to start life as a family of four. We feel like Kate is our second little miracle!

3rd Time's a Charm

We really were pretty bummed about the last two camp-outs getting rained out, so when I heard, "You're not even close" come out of my doc's mouth on Thursday, we decided to give camping another shot. Thursday night, we dealt with the whole tsunami threat, evacuating to Will and Karen's and out of the flood zone, but for some reason another fairly sleepless night sounded appealing. We timed our arrival perfectly--updating ourselves on the way to Polihale from Brady's phone as BYU finally pulled a W over New Mexico and Jimmer raked in 52 big ones. Jimmer!!!!!!

Our camping group split up this time around, with some going to Koke'e (the mountains). We prefer beach camping, and one reason is Zac never seems to run out of things to do in the sand (and it is warm...). He and Olivia were the only kiddos on this trip.

Chad and Rob brought their fishing poles. Brady thinks he needs one for his birthday this year. I can't wait until the surf calms down and the boys can go lobster diving.
It could be pregnancy talking, but I usually hate burgers and this turkey burger was outstanding. Yummy, yummy food on this trip.

Mary built this fire all by herself. We hung out by the fire and swapped stories for hours after the kids fell asleep.

Zachary is our pancake boy. He can't get enough. At least he doesn't dip them in the sand anymore.
Chad showing the kids how fishing works.

I love how we all celebrate Costco with the same purchases.
The current was really strong, but we were still able to swim. Brady decided to surf, too.
Just kidding, that wave is enormous with crazy undertow (pic taken from far away). We did see some fantastic whale presentations--breaching and a lot of tail wagging. Whale season is almost over, so it was fun to get in a few last views.

The kids collected (and fought over) sea shells in their buckets.
Chad showed Zac how to catch "fishies." He was excited to hold the pole "all by hisself."
Polihale is one of my favorite places on this island. I love the views, the stars, the hot sun during the day and the crystal clear water. I love that you can feel all alone on this huge beach, and that it is one of the only beaches you can get away with having a campfire. It was definitely worth the aches to have one last go around at the camping gig. (I will fess up that at 3:30am, I woke up so disappointed that it wasn't time to get up yet. I was dying sleeping on that mat, and it didn't help that we forgot pillows...I even tried to go sleep in the car later, but saw a fist-sized cockroach and couldn't fathom trying to sleep trapped in with that sucker. So, yeah, I'm not as tough as I thought going camping a week before the due date.) Seriously, though, how do you pass this up?

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing...

We are ready. It's official. I went from "This is so fun, I could be pregnant forever" to "Get out of me, you sweet baby girl" in a matter of one week. The change coincided with us finishing the nursery, me quitting my job and suddenly having too much time on my hands, and the baby "dropping," making life just a little less comfortable. No worries, she will come soon enough!

Emily and Beau, our cousins on Brady's side, came to Kauai and brought with them the best part of our nursery! Emily painted the canvases to match our bedding, and we could not love them more.
When Zachary was about to arrive, people would ask if we were ready. We didn't do much to prepare, especially after our failed adoption, and picked up odds and ends after he was born. This time around has been so much fun, except somehow I'm still feeling anxious. What if this child is not a girl? We even had an ultrasound to check on weight (she's aprox. a healthy 7 lbs!) but they couldn't verify gender with her positioning.

Zac has been a dream child at doctor appointments, primarily due to this Memory game. He's also had to do a lot of sitting lately....
...due to the fact that every adventure we plan lately gets RAINED OUT. I realize that most readers have terrible weather right now, but that will not stop me from whining about the fact that most of our weekends--including 2 camping weekends--have been wrecked by rain. This may seem like a little matter, but there's a big part of me that feels a need for a final "hoorah" before baby comes! So much, in fact, that a couple weekends ago, we still went hiking in the poring rain. We lasted a whopping 20 minutes with our boy who was not thrilled about the mud puddles.
On those days when it is not raining, we've spotted dozens of whales (with some of the closest breaches I've ever seen!) on this walk behind our house,
and when this water overflow area is not chuck full of water, we spend quality time watching Zac roll down the hill.

Beau and Emily came to visit a little over a week ago, and we couldn't get enough! We only wish they stayed with us the entire visit instead of just a few days. They were the perfect visitors, who found something to be excited about every day even when it was lousy weather and also made our kiddo feel like gold. We played lots of games, stayed up late, and joined them on excursions to Poipu Beach and Hanalei.
This pic was stolen from Emily, who just got her camera and already knows 10 times more about photography than I do.
Last weekend, Brady ran the Captain Cook Fun Run: his first 10K. He pulled in 7:04s and was happy with his time and race.
The thing I didn't like about this race is how they had 5K people mixed in, so it was hard to tell who was ahead, etc. The dude in front of Brady is a 5Ker...
Thursday night, we got 2.3 inches of rain, and our camping plans for Friday were once again dashed. You can't drive on a dirt road after a day like that! I've given up on hopes to camp again before baby comes, because I don't want to deliver her on the west side of the island (in the hospital that seems like a one-man show). I guess we will just wait a couple months! Instead, we got together under a pavilion and grilled up our dinners and s'mores.

I love these toddler s'mores pictures. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only people who ate s'mores were me and the kiddos.









Our outdoor adventures might be lacking a bit, but we are certainly excited about the baby adventures coming up! Zachary keeps caressing my belly, saying, "Mom, baby Kate! He moved!" We keep correcting him, and he then says, "Sh.... He moved!" I am really going to miss his little belly kisses and our time as a mommy/son duo during the day, so yeah, two more weeks is not a big deal.