Gingerbread house, Trains, Santa Cookies

December 14th Kasey had her first tub bath in the sink (meaning not a sponge bath). This was after her umbilical cord fell off.


On December 17th Fredel (family friend) gave us all of the fixings for Landon to make a gingerbread house. Landon did really well putting icing and decorations on the house. He also enjoyed eating decorations that he didn't put on the house.

Landon decorating his Gingerbread house

Landon proud of his Gingerbread house


Landon likes trains a lot, and with the holidays there were several things around town to see that had trains involved.

Greg's mom (Grandma) took Landon to a huge train display at Northpark Mall where you can watch trains. Landon liked seeing Thomas and Percy the best, but liked seeing all the trains. The next time he saw Grandma he said we're going to see trains again? And so they got to go see them again.

In Grapevine there is something called the North Pole Express. My mom (Grammy) bought tickets for us to go to this on December 19th. It's a real train that you ride on. They read Twas the Night before Christmas on the train, you sing Christmas Carols, and then Santa comes through to see all of the kids. Greg, Grammy, Landon, Kasey and I all went on the train. Landon was pretty tired because he didn't want to go to sleep the night before, but we all enjoyed it. We accidentally dropped our camera on the cement and it didn't make it. Grammy and Gramps decided to get a new camera, and so we are using their old one which is the same camera that we had.

Grammy, Landon, Mommy & Kasey getting on the North Pole Express

Landon's expression watching Santa visit all of the kids on the train

Santa coming back through on the train

The 4 of us on the North Pole Express -12/19/08

We made cookies from scratch for Santa this year. Greg made the dough from scratch, Landon and Daddy cut out the shapes for the cookies, and then Mommy and Landon decorated the cookies. We had fun making them, and we're still enjoying the ones we didn't put out for Santa.

Landon and Daddy making cookies for Santa

Mommy and Landon decorating cookies for Santa

Landon proud of his cookie decorating

Potty Training

I posted a pregnancy and delivery summary on 11/28/08 if anyone is interested.

We've decided to start a reward system to give Landon some incentive to go the bathroom in the potty. He gets 1 M&M if he goes pee pee and 3 if he goes poo poo in the potty. When Greg explained this to him last night he barely made it to the potty he was so excited to go and then get the M&M. He's gone pee pee 3 times since last night in the potty which is good for him.

Kasey 2 week update

We took Kasey for her 2 week update on 12/15. She passed with flying colors.

She weighed 8 lb 1 oz when she was born, and weighed 9 lb 2 oz at the 2 week visit. Her weight is 70%. They basically want them to be back to their birth weight (which she well surpassed). She had gotten down to 7 lb 5 oz a couple days after she was born so that's a really good weight gain.

She's also grown 3/4 inch in length to 20 3/4 which is 60 %. Her head has grown from 13 1/2 inches to 14 1/2 inches which is 64%.

Kasey is still sleeping in the swing which they said is ok for the first few months. Basically whatever works. After 2 months we have to worry about spoiling her. She is spitting up, but we're not worried unless she stops gaining weight well or it starts bothering her.

Yesterday 12/15 Kasey seems to start focusing her eyes more for the first time.

I'm doing well. I weighed 8 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight this morning. Still not fitting in all jeans because everything is still in weird places, but I'm not really wearing maternity clothes either. Hopefully it will start moving back, but who knows.

Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but Landon has a major liking for cookie monster. His diapers have different sesame street characters on them. He always wants diapers with cookie monster on them. He also wants Kasey to wear diapers with cookie monster, and he'll look through all of them to find one.

couple updates

Things are going fairly well. Kasey will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. She seems to be sleeping some more at night, but I worry that she may not be getting enough to eat. We go in for her 2 week check Monday so we'll know more about weight gain then.

We did tummy time with Kasey for the first time on 12/5 - she was able to move her head from side to side. She also moved her arms and legs quite a bit like she was trying to move.

Kasey's umbilical cord fell off on 12/6 - just over a week. On that day, I weighed 2 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. My body is still changing shape though and I still have just enough tummy to be more comfortable in pregnancy pants.

Landon is doing ok. He wants to help with Kasey really more than he can and he wants to hold her a lot. He is rebelling some though. He won't clean up his toys at night so we've had to put toys in time out for a couple days. He also still goes back and forth several times whether he wants to go somewhere with daddy or stay home with mommy and Kasey. Landon also seems to want someone to go play with just him in a different room. He's just trying to get more attention which is understandable. He still gets to go to school and spend fun days with grandparents.

On 12/8 Kasey grabbed a toy that Landon had given her. She held on to it and moved it some.

Today (12/11) Kasey got to go to Landon's school to meet his teachers and some of the other parents from his class. Kasey also had her first bath in the little bathtub in the sink. She didn't like it much, but I think she got cold pretty quick. She did do well holding her head up though.

Kasey Leigh Myers

Sorry it's taken a while, but I wanted to at least get some pictures up here. We've been a little busy with our new little one.




Here are some pictures from Kasey's Birthday and a few since then: click here


We are doing well. Not sleeping a lot, but that's to be expected. Landon is doing well with Kasey, and we're all adjusting to a new one in the house. The night Kasey was born Landon and all of the grandparents came to the hospital. Landon on his own said that he liked her a lot and that she was cute. He still tells us she's cute, and he wants to hold her as long as she isn't crying. When he leaves to go somewhere he gives her a kiss and hug.

Kasey is doing well. She seems to want to eat all the time, and doesn't want to sleep in her bed. We've started getting her to sleep in the swing a little bit at a time. When the pediatrician checked out Kasey they found a heart murmur, but the pediatric cardiologist determined that she was just transitioning to life outside of the womb (this is fairly normal). She was also Jaundice (Landon was as well). For this we had to take her to hospital for blood tests to check her bili levels. After doing this for 3 days her level was ok and we just need to follow up at the normal 2 week visit.

I'll work on getting more posted on the birth story.

Kasey's Pregnancy & Delivary Summary

Wanted to put together a summary of pregnancy and delivery for Kasey Leigh.

First Trimester
I definitely had more morning sickness with this pregnancy. I only got sick once, and that was because of taking vitamins right before bed. I've taken vitamins before bed for a long right before bed, but for some reason in the first trimester this didn't work so well. I had to start taking vitamins at dinner time with food, and I actually stopped taking Omega 3 for a while. I lost 3 pounds during this trimester just like I did with Landon.

Second Trimester
Not sure if it's because of having more to do (Landon), being older, or just a different pregnancy but I've definitely been more tired during this pregnancy. It's probably a combination of the above. During the second trimester I kept expecting to get lots of energy but it didn't really happen. Most weekends I would take a nap when Landon did which could be over 2 hours. I still didn't have an issue sleeping at night after that. There were several nights that I would wake up at 3am and wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. I would try relaxing, drink warm milk but it didn't seem to work. It probably also was that I would wake up and my head would start thinking about all of the things I needed to do which didn't help much for trying to go back to sleep. My total weight gain for the first two trimesters was about 8 pounds (or 11 if you count the 3 I had lost).

Third Trimester
For some reason I felt like I actually got some more energy in the 3rd trimester. If I did take a nap I would have a harder time going to sleep at night. I definitely got slower and had more aches and pains when I got to around 30 weeks. I continued doing aerobics 3 times a week pretty much up to her birth. I worked out on Wednesday Nov 26th and Kasey was born that Friday. On Monday Nov 24th I had gained 21 pounds during the pregnancy. I worked in the office Monday but decided to work from home Tues and Wed just in case. Wednesday I tried to close as many things as possible in case I went into labor over the long holiday weekend. On Tuesday Nov 25th I decided to read Landon's birth story. It was interesting because it described things that I started experiencing like contractions when I would get up in the middle of the night. I knew it was near, but wasn't sure how near.

Kasey's Birth Story
Thanksgiving we had dinner at Greg's parent's house with his sister. After a great dinner we all went to Nanny's (Greg's grandmother) house where several cousins and Aunts and Uncles were. We had a good visit with everyone, and I was feeling good. As we were leaving I joked with Cindy that the night was young and I felt like I could still go somewhere else. I should have known this was the extra energy before labor starts.

That night I woke up with some contractions, but went back to bed. Then at 5:52am I woke up with pretty strong contractions. I decided to watch the clock some. After a few I told Greg they were about 10 minutes apart. They started getting closer together pretty fast. Greg decided to get up and take a shower just in case this was it. I wanted to eat something in case I was in early labor. My mom made me one of our holiday favorites lime green salad. I had some of that because it has cottage cheese in it (good protein).

About 8am we called the grandparents to put them on notice that we thought we were in labor. Grandma planned to take care of Landon and Grammy was going with us to the hospital. I took a shower and started getting ready. Contractions were getting stronger, and they had been 4-6 minutes apart since about 6:30am. We called Jeanean about 8:30am to tell her we thought we were in labor. She recommended getting in the shower to help get through contractions, and she said she would call back in 2 hours. A little before 9am we called the Grandmothers to come up to the house. Landon got up a little before 9. He wasn't sure what to do. By this time I was on the floor in the living room. I'd sit down, and then lean over the birthing ball (or big exercise ball that Grammy let us borrow) during contractions. He came in to give me a hug. I'd have a contraction and everyone would wait quietly until it was over then we'd go back to talking or telling Landon everything was ok. Grandma, Cindy and Grammy were all at the house at this time. Landon had 2 waffles and then left with Aunt Cindy and Grandma. We told him we'd see him that afternoon sometime. After he left, I decided to try the shower like Jeanean recommended. It did seem to help with the contractions (they were easier), but they got closer together (about 2 minutes). After getting out of the shower contractions were getting pretty intense, but I was torn if it was to early to go to the hospital. We talked to Jeanean about 10:30am, and she was going to call back in an hour. I got up to go to the bathroom and started shaking. I told Greg it was time to go to the hospital.

Jeanean called as we were driving out of the garage and we told her we were going in. Greg, Grammy and I got to the hospital about noon. When I got there I was 6cm dialated, 90% effaced, but she was still pretty high up. My water had not broken. They monitored Kasey and contractions for about 30 minutes. I was sitting up in the bed, and was pretty comfortable there. Kasey was fine and contractions were about 4-6 minutes apart. Even after they stopped monitoring I stayed sitting up in the bed because it was pretty comfortable. Earlier I would have a small contraction then a bigger one a couple minutes later. In the hospital it seemed that these were combining into pretty intense contractions. I would feel contractions across my back and then in the front. After going to the bathroom, I tried sitting on the birthing ball but this seemed to make the contractions stronger. I tried doing side lying position that I practiced the most and then rotating from side to side every 6 or so contractions. About 3 I asked Jeanean to check again. I was having urge to push. I was 8cm, 90% effaced, and Kasey had dropped quite a bit. Jeanean asked if I wanted her to break the bag of water. Because I had the urge to push and was only at 8cm, I said yes. Greg was surprised that I let her do this. Jeanean said things would move fast now. I got on my hands and knees and rocked back and forth to labor for a little while. Contractions were really intense and Kasey didn't seem to like that position so I went back to laying on my side and switching. I think she checked at this point and I was at 9cm. I still had the urge to push, but Jeanean said that if I pushed before the cervix was ready it would swell.

I worked through some contractions on one side and then basically said I'm pushing now and can't stop it. Jeanean checked and Kasey's head was right there. Jeanean basically sat on the bed because there wasn't time to get everything in place for pushing. I pushed Kasey out in a couple minutes (litterally). As with Landon it took longer to deliver the placenta than the baby. Kasey had a compound presentation which means that her hand was next to her face when she came out. She was born at 3:28pm. Luckily I didn't have any tears, which I was surprised about with the compound presentation. I also didn't bleed much so I didn't have to have Pitocin afterwards like I did with Landon. We were very happy to see Kasey. She was actually pretty quiet, but very alert and looking around. Kasey weighed 8 lb, 1 oz, 20 in long, and 13 1/2 in head, 13 in chest. Kasey's APGARs were 9 and 9 - she said they didn't give 10s.

Landon/pregnancy updates

Landon went back to the doctor today to check on his ear infections. He still has some infection in both ears but they are better. We got another medicine to clear it up for good. We'll go back in a month to check and make sure everything is cleared up.

Landon is getting better at leaving his blanket upstairs. When Landon was sick he lost a couple pounds down to 29 pounds. Today he was back up to 31.1 pounds and about 37 1/2 inches in height. Landon has been eating a lot since he's been feeling better. He'll sometimes eat all of his meal and want some of mine. This morning he had a breakfast burrito, and then ate about 3/4 of one of mine.

One of Landon's new things is boot socks. To keep warm at night he likes to wear the longer socks and pull them up to his knees. He knows this is funny. Sometimes he wants to do it during the day under pants as well. He calls them boot socks when they are pulled up.

I had an appointment on Monday. Kasey's heartbeat was good in the 130s. No dilation or effacement, but that doesn't really mean anything especially with the second one. So any day now, but could also be a little while. If she doesn't come by this weekend, they'll do sonogram and fetal monitoring to make sure everything is still ok.

Here are a couple pictures from November. First one is from November 7th when Landon was helping Greg to tighten screws on our dining room chairs. The second one is the from November 8th when Landon first started feeling sick. I had big pregnancy belly, sick guy in my lap and dog next to me. Thank goodness Grammy came over to help out that day. The third & fourth ones are from today Landon playing with his kitchen. Landon got a school report that said his favorite activity was cooking. He enjoys doing it at home as well.