Double Digits!

Katelyn finally hit the double digit weeks. She turned 10 weeks old Tuesday. I guess I can stop counting weeks and start counting in months instead. I can't help it though. Every Tuesday, I think about her being another week older.

I can tell she is getting bigger now. A couple of weeks ago when I took her to the doctor, she was 9 lbs., 1 oz. She's probably 10 lb. by now. She is starting to hold her head up and away from me when I hold her in burping position on my shoulder. She is also very interested in looking at everything and everyone around her. She is smiling more now. I'm pretty sure I even heard half a laugh! It's amazing how silly we will act just to get her to smile. It's our favorite part of the day. She also really enjoys bath time and sometimes will kick or hit the water. I don't know if she means to, but she seems to enjoy it.

I will try to get some pictures of her smiling to add to this post. She is just the cutest baby ever and we love her so much. In fact, Billy asked me the other day if we could keep her.... I guess she can stay :)

Shopping Newb and Alien Abductions

I think when most people become parents, they tend to find new and different ways to save. I have been doing a lot of just that. I've been researching and trying my hand at strategic shopping. The idea is to only buy stuff that is on sale and use a coupon with it. Sometimes you can get stuff for FREE! It's actually kinda fun trying to see how cheap you can get things for. It also keeps from getting in a rut and having the same thing every week. Since you are planning your menu around the sale item, that creates variety that I sometimes lack otherwise. I'm not that great at it right now, but I'm averaging a 30% savings off my total grocery bill. I've seen some people save like 60% or more. Thankfully there are a lot of websites out there that pretty much do all of the research for you. I've had the most luck with southernsavers.com. There are others, though, like couponmom.com and afullcup.com. I have also been buying Katelyn's "new" clothes and stuff at either consignment shops or garage sales. Who needs to spend $20+ on an outfit that you will only wear for like 2 or 3 months? Anyway, I'm enjoying our new family date tradition to go garage sale shopping on the first Saturdays.

So, in other news, I have been missing a lot of time lately. Not sure where it goes. I just can't find enough time in the day to get stuff done. I figured the only logical answer is that I'm being abducted by aliens. That's the only way to explain all of this time that I am missing. :P Seriously, though, I have got to figure out this whole time management thing. My house is a wreck! I haven't even printed birth announcements. Is it too late to do that? I'm soo sad that I didn't get them out. I may just send them anyway and have people wonder why the heck they are just now getting them.

Day Care

Yesterday was Katelyn's first day of day care. I really didn't think I was going to get emotional like other moms. I could handle this. Boy was I wrong. I had to run out of there before I started to ball. In doing so, I forgot to pay the lady that keeps her. As soon as I got to the car, I couldn't contain it any longer.

Katelyn, on the other hand, seemed to LOVE day care. I think she liked watching the other kids play. When I picked her up, she was awake and alert and just chillin watching everyone.

Her tummy issues seem to be much better too. Except for last night. She was screaming so much she didn't even want a bottle. Hopefully, it will get completely worked out soon.

Tummy Time

So, Katelyn makes the cutest little noises when she's happy. I may be a little partial but still, you just can't help but smile at her cute little sounds. Pretty soon she'll be laughing. Anyway, enjoy the video.

Katelyn's First Photoshoot

Katelyn had her first portraits taken at the hospital. There is a lady that comes around with her portable studio at the hospital. I thought they were pretty awesome for hospital photos, plus you can go wrong with the subject matter :)

Click here to see all of them.

At the Hospital

Here's Katelyn's first picture....

See more pictures here.

Katelyn's Arrival!

June 14, I went to my OB checkup. My pressure was still up and I was in a lot of pain from my stent, so we decided to induce the next day.

June 15 at 5:00 a.m. we went in for the induction. I was 1 cm dilated. They broke my water and gave me a lot of pitocin, but I never got past 1 cm although I had plenty contractions. Around 3:30 p.m., they decided I needed a c-section. I already had an epidural in place. They came to increase the dosage to get ready for the c-section. I immediately started having a bad reaction. It started to sound like I was in a tunnel. Everything sounded strange especially when I was talking. Then my tongue started to go numb and I felt like I was going to faint. He immediately stopped the epidural, readjusted it in my back, and then tried again. I had the same reaction. Apparently, the epidural had gone into a vein instead of were it should have gone (which can be very dangerous). He decided to pull the epidural out and do a spinal block, which worked (Thank God!)

They finally got me ready and brought Billy into the operating room and shortly after beautiful Katelyn Brie Atkins was born. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect baby. We are so thankful to be to fortunate. She was 20 1/4 inches long and weighed 6 pounds and 7 ounces.

We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers.