time with Grandma

My mom left on Thursday after her two-week visit.  It was so great to have her here at this time.  Primarily because she had the chance to get to know Kyalo, but also because she was an extra set of hands to help me, and because she helped us get our house a bit more organized.  Oh, and she made us lots of good meals.

Needless to say, we'll all miss her.

I had wanted to do a little photo shoot with her and Kyalo one sunny afternoon, but somehow that never happened.  I think afternoons are when Kyalo has his meltdown time and so instead of happy, smiling photos, my photos look more like this:

Mom is trying hard not to take it too personally.  And really, it isn't. He just likes to scream. A lot.

The best thing to do when he has his afternoon meltdown is to take him on a walk. I throw him in the front pack and off we go.  I figure carrying an ever-increasing baby + the Kijabe hills = baby weight melting off! I hope so, anyway! 

Grandma brought a sun hat for Kyalo to keep the sun from beating down on him.  I did manage to get this one, great photo of the two of them...

Nice, don't you agree?

And, here are a few more miscellaneous photos of Kyalo who already turns three weeks tomorrow! Wow.

 in his new swing.

 getting to know Jenny

snuggle time with papa

Mom left on Thursday, and Dexter has Friday and Monday off for the Easter holiday, which has been great.  He seems to have the magic touch in getting Kyalo to settle down -- and sleep -- especially in the long afternoon hours.  This is great, except that he'll be back to work on Tuesday.  I'll have to work on my own magic, I guess.

Happy Easter, everyone!

family gathering

Last Saturday, just 6 days after Kyalo's birth, we hosted Dexter's entire family and my parents (who'd arrived on Thursday).  It might have been a bit much, but it was great to be all together again.  It was the first time the two families were together since our wedding two years ago.  A good time was had by all!

It is hard to believe that it is already two weeks since Kyalo came into our lives.  He's a precious little man!  We're enjoying getting to know him and to learn this new thing called parenthood.  Dexter has been on paternity leave for the past two weeks, but goes back to work on Monday.  My mom is still here until Thursday, so I don't have to go it alone for a little while yet. 

Here are some photos from the family gathering. . .

 the dads and the grill

Dexter's Mum with Kyalo

 Baby Andrew - 6 weeks - and so BIG!

Helen with the cousins

.preciousness.

 grandparents

everyone!

First photo as a family of three!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a few more photos of Kyalo...

 {dopey}

 {lip quiver}

{not happy}

Kyalo makes the most interesting faces when he's upset.  It is hard not to laugh. Is that terrible?  These are a few of the faces. I'll try to capture more!

Since Mom is here a few more days we'll be organizing the house and Kyalo's room. Maybe more photos will come!

Kyalo: a birth story

Let's get the important things out of the way first:

Kyalo Mutisya Mulandi

born April 3, 2011 12:01 am

8 pounds 1 ounce (3.7 kgs)

And now, I'd like to recap the experience we had to get him to this world.  This will serve as a good reminder for me in the years to come, so I apologize if it is a bit long. 

From fairly early on in the pregnancy I had decided that I wanted as natural a birth as possible -- no pain medications, no interventions of any kind, etc.  I would just let nature take the course.  While home in the US in November, we watched, The Business of Being Born, an interesting documentary about the history of the birthing industry in the US (I recommend it!), and I picked up a book about the Bradley Method of natural childbirth.  I read this book about breathing and relaxing and thought, I can do this!  I will do this! I exercised a lot. Walking at 7,500 feet I was sure would help to ease the pain of delivery.  And to top it off, we had a friend come two nights and teach us some Lamaze Breathing.  I was well prepared. I told my doctor I wanted to be as drug free as possible. I hoped and planned to be at the hospital just minutes before delivering, and heading home just hours later.

Yes, I was optimistic.

My contractions started early last week - Tuesday night, but they weren't so bad, and I thought, see, I can DO this.  But then they came again on Wednesday night, and Thursday night.  On Friday night they began in earnest, and I had Dexter helping me to breathe and time the contractions and how far apart they were.  All. Night. Long. I thought it might be a good idea at this point to be checked out by the doctor, so Saturday morning we headed down to the hospital.  As I walked in, my water broke, and my doctor said I was progressing nicely, and ordered me to stay put, assuming things would move along quickly.

They did not.

Several hours later, I was not progressing, so my doctor sent me out on a walk.  We walked all around Kijabe for over an hour.  But still, nothing changed.

{40 weeks. Trying to encourage baby to come}

At this point, my doctor put me on pitocin which is something to speed up the delivery.  It basically makes contractions harder and more frequent.  For whatever reason, it didn't seem to work for me, even though they increased it bit by bit every thirty minutes.  Around 7 PM (12 hours after arriving in the hospital) my doctor checked me again and assured me that I would deliver in the next two hours.  Oh the relief in that knowledge!  I thought I could push through the pain and the frustration for another two hours.

Two hours came and went, and no baby.  And after another hour, I thought I just couldn't do it any more. So about 10:30 or 11:00 I decided I should get a C-Section.  All my hopes for the natural delivery at this point had been thrown out the window, and I wasn't that disappointed. I had tried and then tried longer and harder. I honestly don't know if there could have been a different outcome.

And so, at 12:01 am Sunday April 3 (2 minutes after my Dad's birthday had come to an end!) Kyalo entered this world in a way I never would have imagined.  But he's so wonderful and beautiful that it just doesn't matter to me.

Now I'd like to take a minute to praise on Dexter.  He was a superstar throughout my whole ordeal.  I really could not have made it as long as I did without him.  It was especially surprising to me to see so many women in the labor ward alone.  No husband, mother, sister, friend, to help them through the most awful/wonderful ordeal of their lives. The isolation they must have felt!  Dexter was with me throughout -- holding my hands, rubbing my back, getting me to breathe, bringing me water, taking care of paperwork, etc.  And then, when he wasn't there, my friend Evelyn came to sit with me (she also made food for him to go eat at her house) and to ensure that I didn't go insane.  I feel exceedingly blessed by the love and support I got throughout the day.

In the end, when I needed to have a c-section at midnight, Francis and Evelyn came to be with us. They weren't in during the operation, but came in as soon as Kyalo was born.

where would I be without friends like these?

We were in the hospital three nights, and are now back home, slowly settling into life as a family of three!

 {sleeping guys}

I will leave you with my new favorite photo, taken yesterday - four days old.  Thanks to my sister-in-law Noelle for the great outfit!