Koplin Grandparent's visit and Kate's Blessing

My parents came out to visit the best kept secret, Fort Polk Louisiana! They stayed for about 6 days, which was just about right.  I was sad to see them leave.  Its hard being away from family and missing out on everything.  I took them kayaking on Alligator Lake and biking on all the trail systems here on post.  We went out and got ourselves some crawfish at Mud Bugs.  It really isn't all that bad, just annoying breaking the shells to get the smallest amount of meat.  

We went shopping down in old Leesville and all its boutiques, hardware stores, and thift shops.  My dad fixed stuff around the house while mom, me, and Kate rested.  We played a lot of games-Wacky Six, Train Dominoes, and Qwirkle. We even went to the park, Anacoco Lake, and played a game.  It was a little windy that day.  

  It was a lot of fun to have them around, help out, and share our beautiful baby girl with.  

 On Sunday, Bryan gave Kate a beautiful blessing at church.  I am so grateful my dad was able to be here to participate in that special moment.  Kate did great- no puke or poop on the dress.  I almost didn't make it out of the mother's lounge in time for the blessing though!

 My mother helped me trim up my old blessing dress to fit Kate. I was a 10 pound baby, but was probably about 12 pounds when I was blessed, so the dress was a little big for my sweet girl.  We trim it down to size on the arms and waist line and it worked perfectly.

 She is a pretty sleepy baby! We are definitely blessed with a sleeper!

 Cute smile with her St. Patrick's Day bow!

One Month

My dad came with me to Kate's 1 month follow up appointment.  We had a bilirubin follow up too, since it takes awhile to get rid of that waste product for breastfed babies.  She is now at a 7.  Two weeks before she was 10, so we are trending down slowly.  She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 22 inches long.  Her head measured 36 inches.  She definitely doesn't have Bryan's head size, but pretty much everything else is Bryan!

Kate is nursing well. The first week was rough, but now she is a champ.  I produced too much milk in the beginning and possibly could have drowned Kate if I wasn't watching :) Being engorged is not fun the first couple of weeks while your body figures out what baby needs.  She started sleeping in her crib in her own room at 2 weeks because she is a very noisy sleeper (that is the best way to do it in my opinion).  I thought she was waking up to nurse again, but nope, she just makes lots of silly noises while she dreams.  She typically is in bed by 7-8pm, and wakes to eat 11-12, 2-3am, and 5-6am. Not too bad; especially since she wants to sleep all day too! It was hard for us to keep her up even a little bit during the day.  And we tried pretty dang hard with noise and movement.  Didn't work.  Kate is moving her head from side to side with noises, kicking her legs and arms uncontrollably, and arching her back. I love her cute little facial expressions as she is testing out her facial muscles.  My favorite is when she wrinkles her forehead or purses her lips:)

Two sisters in the ward threw me a post baby shower (Allison Crowe and Priscilla Baker).  It turned out super nice and a lot of my friends were able to make it.  They said that any party has a huge turn out because no one has anything else to do around here. Funny! We got lots of clothes in different sizes, handmade spit cloths, nesting boxes, pacifiers, toys, blankets, snack cups, nursing cover and diapers.  I could always use more pinks and purples in her wardrobe since we didn't know what we were having!

Air Assault

Five days after Kate was born, Bryan started Air Assault school (February 21- March 2).  No break for us.  No paternity leave for him.  Luckily, it was here on post and Bryan got to come home every night to help me out and study. I went out to visit him while they were repelling out of a Black Hawk at Honor Field.  Pretty cool.  

 I also went out, super early in the morning, to watch him finish the 12 mile ruck march.  He was the third one to cross the finish line.  2 hours 7 minutes.

 After the ruck march, they had a ceremony and graduated around 80 soldiers.  Bryan is way in the back hiding behind someone because it was cold and windy.

 I got to pin Bryan with his badge.

Good job babe!