ESP... Eat, Sleep & Poop

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written a post here. I've been off work now for 3 weeks and yesterday was my first day back. It's amazing how fast those three weeks went by. It literally feels like Makenna was just born yesterday and yet this Saturday she will be 1 MONTH OLD already! Oh my goodness, time has flown by! And now I have to go back to work. I already feel like I'm missing out on her growing up just by not seeing her most of the day. I'm just blessed to be able to have spent so much time with her right after she was born. As you can see from all the pictures we've added to our flickr site, she's growing up more and more every day. Just look at those facial expressions! It seems like every time we grab the camera she's posing for us! Someone at work tells me that she probably has gas when she makes these faces but I choose to believe she's just developing her sense of humor early on. :) We'll keep trying to add new pictures to our flickr site as get them so check back often.

On July 15th, my Grandma Fox drove over an hour to come meet her great granddaughter for the first time. I haven't seen my grandma since Christmas, I believe, which has been WAY too long. We met up at my dad's house who cooked up some mean hamburgers on the grill. It is always a treat to be around my grandma because she's always so positive and such a wonderful person. She just loved the time she was there with Makenna. Just yesterday she emailed me and told me that she showed Makenna's pictures off to her sunday school class and they were all "ooohing" and "ahhhing". Made her proud. This Christmas is going to be a great one. My cousin and his wife, who live in Texas, are due to have their first child in October this year. So, as you can imagine, my grandma can't wait to have 2 little ones stealing the show this year.

The following week, on July 20th, my best friend BJ and his wife Wendy, along with my God-daughter Lilyanah, came to Okiehoma to visit friends and family. What a complete blessing it was to spend two whole evenings with them during their 4 day stay here! On Thursday night, Kimi and I opened up our house (and refrigerator to BJ... J/K!) and welcomed their company! It was so relaxing just being around them. We've been waiting for this for months so it was nice to finally have the day come! I had been marinating steaks for 24 hours prior to their arrival and had BJ help me cook them up. I also made some barbeque chicken for Kimi and Wendy as well. Topped off with fresh corn and bacon-ranch alfredo noodles (yum) and big glasses of sweet tea, it was delicious! Afterward, we put on some soothing music and just talked the rest of the night. The girls went to bed early and BJ and I stayed up talking until almost 3am! We had a lot to catch up on. It's not fair that they live so far away though, if God answers both of our prayers, they may be coming back to Okiehoma within 2 years. Now THAT would be good times! One of the best things from this trip was that Makenna got to meet Lilyanah! Though we didn't get any upclose pictures of the two (they were always sleeping!), we were able to shoot the one above that you see. I love where life has taken BJ and I since we first met in high school. We have so many great memories together. I just hope that we are able to someday be within driving distance again so we can make some more memories together, now especially with our kids being practically the same age!

On Sunday night, BJ, Wendy, Lily, and Wendy's parents came by to visit us one last time before they had to go home the next day. That night though was the live draft in the fantasy football league we are in and fortunately for BJ, I had an extra computer so he could participate! It was a blast! I think I drafted the best team but we'll see. Afterward, I showed BJ the tickets that I just bought for the Dallas Cowboys VS Indianapolis Colts game in November. Though he can't go with me, I know he will be with me in spirt, or at least watching me on TV as I cheer rabidly for the Colts! WOOO! If you click the picture you can see the big version of the view we will have from the section we got seats in. Oh so much fun! I can't wait!

That pretty much sums up the big events of the past two weeks. The last thing I want to share with you guys shows you proof that I'm a dork... but sometimes it pays off. I was dropping off two movies the other night and it was getting close to midnight which was the cutoff before being late. So I took out my camera phone and snapped a shot of the videos along with the movie store clock and dropped them off. About two weeks later, when I went into rent more videos, they said that I had two late fees for returning the movies after the cutoff time. I was mad at first because I knew I had returned them on time but I was fuzzy on the details. Then I laughed out loud when I remembered that I had the picture on my phone! I took out my phone, pulled up the picture and showed it to the clerk who promptly removed my late fees because there was no denying the proof! SO, lesson learned? It saved me $6 in late fees b/c I had the presence of mind to snap a quick picture before I returned the movies. I just thought you all would think this was pretty funny. And yes, I am still a big goob.

I hope you all have a great week!
Jason

Two Weeks Old

I'm a sucker for black and white photos, especially of our beautiful little Makenna Grayce. As I write this, little Makenna is sitting here on my lap just looking up at me. I just love looking at her beautiful dark blue eyes. Good times. Lately, she has been developing a cycle. She gets a full belly, a clean diaper, and goes to sleep pretty much right away, only to start the cycle over again in 2 to 3 hours. Apparently though night time is the most interesting part of the day for her because she's always looking around at night time. Even in the dark, she will just lay in her bed and look around. Or like two nights ago, Makenna and her daddy had a late night date watching the new Harry Potter movie. She layed beside me for an hour just looking around. Pretty amazing. It's almost like she's just trying to figure the world out. I'm sure she won't stay so quiet for very long but until then, her momma and I will just love every minute of it. That pretty much sums up Makenna's first two weeks of life. Eat, sleep, poop... and look around a whole bunch. :) Haha, good times.

As you all can see, we've added a few more pictures of Makenna to our Flickr site. Today, we crossed over a thousand views since we put the first pics of her on July 1st! Seriously, over 1000 views! That's amazing! She's a popular little girl! Haha. This picture was from when she was under the "Bili" lights to help her get over her case of jaundice (which she did in less than 3 days!). We were able to catch her smiling at something, though we're not sure at what. Kimi thinks it has to do with her getting her first tan, I mean what girl wouldn't smile at that she said? Haha

I wanted to take the time to say thank you to those of you who have taken care of Kimi and I over the last two weeks. We've had three people volunteer to stay with us and take the "night shift" with Makenna so we could get a full nights sleep. Also, we've had at least 10 meals made and delivered to us during this time as well! We especially liked Leah's cookies! MMMMMM! But seriously, we truly appreciate every kind act that you all have given to us. Thank you guys so much!

Our little family is doing so good, it such a blessing. I've got to tell you all real quick about Makenna's bottle feeding time. At first we were feeding her every 4 hours and she was only eating .75 ozs, which isn't much. We didn't know any different because we thought she was just a newborn and how much do they really eat anyway? She'd always fall asleep and didn't seem to want the rest. Well, four days after she was born, the hospital weighed her at 5lbs and 8ozs, which was 10 ozs less than her birth weight. She was still loosing weight so they recommended we wake her up and start feeding her at least 1 to 1.5 ozs every two hours so she could put on some weight. Let me tell you, Makenna absolutely loves this new eating schedule! They told us to feed her until she is through. Well, she just keeps on eating and when we finish a bottle, she looks at us with her mouth wide open and starts grunting for more. She loves it so much she even GRABS THE BOTTLE with both hands and pulls it toward her mouth! Just tonight, she even set a new personal best by eating 5 ounces. FIVE! Tell me, is this normal? We don't go to Makenna's two week check-up until Monday to ask the doc so if you all read this, let us know. I can tell you she's gained well over that 6lb mark they wanted her to be at by today. One side effect from all this eating: She now burps like a champion! As you can probably guess, I'm very proud. Haha

I wanted to share a video with you that we took right after we got home from the hospital. We're all silly in the video but you can really see Makenna checking us out. She's much more alert now but it's still a cute video. Click here to watch it.

God Bless,
Jason

Happy BIRTHday Makenna!

MAKENNA GRAYCE FOX



Born: June 29th, 1:43pm
Weight: 6lbs 2ozs Length: 18 1/2in

As I wrote to you all last Wednesday night, when we went in for our scheduled appointment, we met with our doctor about Kimi's blood pressure. Earlier that day we had an ultrasound to measure Makenna's growth and to see how the fluid around her was doing. All looked well, her heartbeat was steady and great, and we got a couple more pictures, thinking it's be another two weeks before we got to meet her. Right after that, we met up with Kimi's doctor and began to go over how Kimi felt. She had been feeling really queezy and drained, more than normal pregnancy. The doctor said she really felt it was time for us to "get this kiddo out of ya". We looked at each other, realizing we were going to meet Makenna a whole lot sooner! The doc didn't even want us to go anywhere but straight up to Labor and Delivery and check in. Needless to say, when we got to the parking lot, we started calling our parents and the calling chain to let people know it was time.

We checked into the hospital and they hooked Kimi up to an IV to give her a magnesium drip to counter the effects of high blood pressure; mainly to keep her from having a seizure during delivery though the side effects were feeling like you had the flu and wanting to be really sleepy. The evening time went well but the night time Kimi had a lot of heartburn and being so excited as she was, she really didn't sleep at all. She was at a 0 cm dialation (out of 10) and 0% effaced when we came in. Three times during the night Kimi received a medicine called Cervidil (sp?) to help her prepare down there so the baby could come along more easily. This was a very painful procedure but it helped her dialate to a 1 and be 85% effaced by early morning time. At 5am the nurse came in and gave Kimi medicine called potocin, which is intended to help her start contractions. They were small for a while so Kimi was able to sleep for a little bit longer. At 7am, Doc Lashbrook came in and broke Kimi's water. There was no going back from this point.

About 10am or so, most of Kimi and I's family had arrived to support us. Earlier, the docs had given Kimi some kind of medicine that they described as "having the effect of drinking 5 heavy margaritas". Since Kimi's never been drunk before, it was quite funny seeing the effects on her. :) She doesn't remember anything she said at that time. Haha But it did it's job and helped ease her pain for a while, though not all the way. About 10:45 the Anestesioligist (pain medicine guy) came in and gave Kimi the epidural, aka the Drip from Heaven. It started working immediately, allowing Kimi to rest while the contraction onslaught came on over and over again. They checked Kimi again and she was now at a 3 and was 100% effaced. Slowly but surely.

I waited about another 30 minutes until Kimi was resting and the nurse told me that I should take a nap or get some lunch while I could. So my mom and I decided to grab a bite to eat down at the deli on the 1st floor. We made our way down there, ordered some food, and started eating our lunch. About 20 minutes into our lunch, my cell phone rang. I tried to answer it but I couldn't get any reception. I headed toward the large windows of the deli to get some "more bars" when my dad rushed to the edge of the overlook on the floor above us and began to shout down to us. It took me a minute to understand what he was trying to say but I heard loud and clear the part where he said, "KIMI'S HAVING THE BABY RIGHT NOW!!!!" I jumped up, grabbed my mom and we ran upstairs to the elevator. Apparently between the time Kimi got her drip started and the time I sat down to eat my lunch, her body decided to dialate from a 3 to a 9 before I could finish my chicken salad! It was already time to push!

I rushed upstairs just in time to wait. It was true she was ready to start pushing but it would be over an hour and a half later before the baby was actually born. We all took bets as to the time when the baby would be born. Only Grandmpa Miller was right, off by 1 minute. Hehe. Anyway, we chose to have a croud of people in the room for the birth which consisted of all the Grandmas and Denise. We wanted to share in this experience with all of them because of how much they have meant to us through the last 8 months. And really as gross as the birth process truly was, nothing seemed to matter except making sure both girls in my life were safe and healthy. As Makenna came out, she tore Kimi up pretty badly. She had an epiziotomy plus additional trauma rated to a "3" out of 4 on the trauma scale. All you girls out there would be so proud of Kimi at how she did. She was running off of no sleep, had flu-like symptoms from the mag drip, and was being torn to shreds in a very sensitive area and still had the determination to stick to it through the end. When Makenna was born, it was amazing. The whole room exploded in a flood of emotion. While I don't cry very much, it was like a wave came over me when I saw Makenna for the first time. I couldn't hold it back. She was just so beautiful. Literally our little miracle. They held up the cord and handed me the scizzors. :) Yuck. But I didn't queez out or hesitate, I just cut away. Haha

Right after Makenna was born, they took her over to the cleaning table to be examined. She had all her fingers, toes, legs, arms, and a full head of dark brown hair. She scored an 8 on the APGAR test in the 1st minute of life and a 9 at the 5 minute mark. Kimi and I got to hold onto her for just a few seconds before they took us down the hallway to the nursery. I was so proud of my wife. We were in complete awe at this little person being inside of Kimi. Just incredible. They took Makenna and I down the hallway to the nursery so they could assess how she was doing. She had labored breathing but they said that was somewhat normal because her lungs weren't completely ready to work full speed yet due to being underdeveloped by almost 5 weeks and having fluid still in there. I stayed in the nursery for what seemed like 2 hours just watching my new precious baby while Kimi was getting taken care of by the doctors. After the surgery the doc came by and filled me in about what was going on with Kimi and the baby. She said Kimi was fine and was surrounded by our family and that my place was here with Makenna. So I did my best to comfort her because I am sure she was in shock from such an insane event as being squished out the birth canal. But I immediately fell in love with her. I mean, just looking at her, how could you not? She was absolutely beautiful. I was asked what I thought she would look like and my reply was always, I have no idea but I know she will be perfect. And it was competely true. She was perfect. Yes, I might be a little biased but there is a feeling in my heart that I felt in which I cannot explain. It was such a deep emotional connection immediately that I felt with her. I still feel it today as I write this. I know I always will. I guess it's called parenthood? or the love between a daddy and his daughter. Who knows.

We had a couple more days to stay in the hospital while Kimi recovered and the magnesium drip exited her system. During that time, the nurses kept a close watch on Makenna's breathing to make sure she got back to normal. By Friday night, her grunt was gone and her breathing had eased. This photo was from the hospital's staff for their website. We did a little posing but I think it's a powerful picture. My hands are so huge compared to her entire body, just showing how fragile she really is. And her little piercing eyes just looking up at mine, almost saying Daddy you've got to take care of me. That was one of the first times she opened up her eyes to explore her new world. And I am so glad I could be part of her first vision, as scary as I might have looked. :)

Kimi thinks she looks like me, mainly in the face. I'm still holding out for Makenna to get Kimi's eyes. She's got captivating eyes and is one of her most beautiful features. Even if this doesn't happen, it will be okay. Like I said before, she's perfect just the way she is. I put a lot more pictures on our Flickr page so when you get a chance, head on over there and have a look. I promise to put more pictures on there when we take them. I'm also sorry to have taken so long to write out our story. Makenna has developed a case of biliruben (sp?), which is basically jaundice or a yellowing of the skin. We have her under the "bili" lights right now to help get it out of her system. I'm on the late shift tonight so I'm taking time between her feedings to write. As we go through more things, I'll post it up for you all to stay abreast. I should be off work for the next 2 weeks while Kimi gets adjusted so hopefully you'll hear about all of her "firsts" that happens! :)

Thank you all again for your prayers and support. We got so many phone calls telling us they were praying for us. We also got floods of support from everyone. My wife and I truly thank you all from the bottom of our heart. I hope you all have a happy 4th of July, at least the last 30 minutes of it!

God bless!
Jason, aka "Proud Daddy"