Before we went on vacation Mackenzie had her six month checkup with her doctor. Yes she was older than six months at the time but that's when we could get in to see the doctor! Dr. Lehman was happy with how Mackenzie is doing. She said that Mac has filled out, you can especially tell if you look at her legs, and that's a good thing! We talked to the doctor about different foods to try feeding her, etc.

 A couple days after we returned home from Florida Mackenzie had an appointment with her health nurse to receive another round of immunizations. Mackenzie cried really hard and had tears running down her face. As usual Mike held her during the needles and then I cuddled her afterwards. The nurse weighed Mackenzie and she is now 18 pounds. She was measured at 29 inches in length. This means that Mackenzie is 50 percentile for her weight (which is a lot better than the 25 she was 3 months ago) and 100 percentile for her height. haha She's just tall and lean and that's fine. We talked to the nurse about things Mackenzie is and isn't doing right now. She doesn't have any teeth yet but she does seem to be teething (especially the last two days). She can sit up on her own when she feels like it and other times she just falls to one side or the other (we catch her of course). She seems interested in moving around on her tummy but is still working on it. She needs to figure out how to get her knees up under herself and support herself on her arms. All in good time though!

We went up a size in diapers again so now she's wearing size 4 diapers. She seems to be doing well on the Walmart Parents Choice formula. Still likes her rice cereal. I try new foods every now and then to see how she responds so the last couple of days she has been eating green beans and not minding them. I on the other hand can't even handle the smell! But anyways, we're slowly trying new things and expanding her horizon.

We went to Florida for ten days with my mom and ron, rons daughter Tyla, and Brett. It was an insane ten days! Some of the highlights for me included going to the Magic Kingdom and getting to take Mackenzie on some rides. We went on Dumbo and the Carosel, she even went on Pirates of the Carribean! She laughed when one of the pirates did something but that was her only reaction. haha It was neat getting to take the Monorail from the parking lot to the park.  The Aerosmith roller coaster at Hollywood studios was awesome! The day we went to Epcot it poured and we got drenched. It was really funny! My favorite things at Sea World were the Dolphin and Whale shows but most of all the Dolphin nursery. The nursery was at ground height and you could stand less than a metre away from the five dolphins that were in the tank. They were really cute and would come to the side and play peek a boo!

Universal Studios/Islands of adventure was awesome! The first day as soon as we got there I went on this big red roller coaster...I can't remember the name...it was the most intense roller coaster I had ever been on! It started off with you going at a ninety degree angle straight up and then you get to the top and drop straight down. You had to scream the whole time or you might pass out or throw up! haha Universal had a lot of really awesome rides but it also had some neat stuff to look at like the New Harry Potter section of the Islands of Adventure park.

All in all the trip was tiring but really fun and it was neat to see Mackenzies reaction to some things!

Well things have been eventful for Mackenzie lately! On Sunday she turned 6 months, which seems crazy! About a month ago we started feeding her solids, just Rice Cereal.  On the weekend I tried to give her creamed corn. She did NOT like that stuff. She made the most hilarious faces and it was really obvious that she wasn't a fan. After a couple bites she wouldn't even open her mouth for me! haha I did try to give the corn to her a couple days later again and she did the same thing so we'll give the corn a break for a while I think.  On Sunday I made up some Multigrain cereal with fruit for her. It's the same texture as her rice cereal (same company, etc) but a bit of a different flavor. Her reaction wasn't quite as strong as her reaction to her corn but she wasn't too interested in the cereal with fruit. I'll keep giving things to her now and then but she seems to really like her usual bland food.

Mac must have had a growth spurt because all the sudden I looked at her closet yesterday and realized that she should be wearing all of her 6 months clothes right now and some of her 9 month even! She still has size 3 month pants that she doesn't fit in the waist but her height is nuts! We'll also be switching to size three diapers within the week.

One morning, after a particularly bad night, I decided that I needed to figure out a way to get more sleep. Being  a little desperate I thought i'd ask some people for advice and do some reading on sleep training. My cousin Nathans wife, Renee, gave me the final push I needed so last Wednesday I tried it.  At bed time, after food and songs and cuddles, I put Mackenzie down in her crib when she was still awake and left the room. I went downstairs and turned the monitor to a low setting and listened to her cry for an hour and twenty minutes. I decided at that point to just go in and check her diaper and then put her back down. I had a code brown to deal with but then I put her down again and after twenty minutes more she cried herself to sleep. Yikes! Hearing your baby cry is definitely not the easiest thing, especially when she gets so worked up! The good news is that every day since then has gotten easier. It's been 6 days and some days she needs to cry longer before she falls asleep. The great thing is that once she falls asleep she stays asleep for the night! If she wakes up she can get herself back to sleep quickly without my help. This means that I get to sleep lying down!

I've also worked some naps into Mackenzies schedule. She used to only sleep on me so I never really got a break (especially at night) but now that I put her into the crib when she's awake I get at least one short break during the day to feel like I can do dishes or laundry, have a nap, or even write on my blog. haha For the most part I am finding things a lot easier for myself now that I get a bit of a break and better sleep at night. Thank goodness!

Some of you may have seen the facebook pictures so you already know that Mackenzie went to the park twice. She seems to like the swing, especially if I sit infront of her and talk to her. The park will be even more fun next year! Mac still likes her walks, although they're getting cooler now and I have to go earlier because it gets darker sooner. Just yesterday we tried putting her in the stroller without her car seat so that she faces out and sits like a big girl. She did really well with it. Not too much of a reaction of any kind.

Coming up in October we have lots going on! Mac has a doctor appointment and some more needles. :P It will be exciting to see how much she has grown! Also at the end of October we are leaving to go to Florida for ten days which is awesome! It'll be a lot of work packing everything we need for Mackenzie and probably a lot of work taking care of her while we're there but we're really excited!

For those of you who are wondering...no Mackenzie still doesn't have much hair and she doesn't have any teeth yet! haha Okay I'd better run Mac is due to wake up any time now. Love you all, keep in touch! :)

Kenzie is five months old and there have been a lot of changes! When we went to the nurse (not doctor) the last time she wanted me to try to fit in another feeding. I was pretty frustrated because I feel like I feed kenzie all day as it is. Anyways the only way that I could fit in another feeding was at night time. Before the meeting with the nurse Mac had been starting to do longer stretches at night and I was putting her back down sometimes without feeding her, which is a good thing to be able to do. Well after meeting with the nurse I stopped doing this out of paranoia so I was feeding mac all the time during the night and falling asleep while doing so and then Mac wouldn't sleep in her crib anymore. WHAT A MESS!!! Anyways, Kenzie looks really healthy, I'm guessing that she finally stopped growing in length long enough to put some of the food elsewhere. haha What a tall girl we have! Now that everyone is happy with her weight I'm working hard to fix our sleep problem. Mac slept for long periods the past two nights. I only did one feed both nights and she did okay with not having to be put back to sleep by a parent. She's a very light sleeper and makes a lot of noises while she's sleeping. I have a small fan that I let run for the first 3 to 4 hours of her sleep so that the white noise will lul her back to sleep. After I go to bed I end up turning it off eventually because it drives me nuts!

We started feeding Kenzie solids about a week and a half ago. She's on Nestle Rice Cereal (just add water) incase anyone wants to get anything Mac needs (people ask what she needs so I thought i'd mention it!). She's still on the Heinz 0-12 months infant formula also when she has formula. Feeding has been going well. I have figured out that I can fit a solid food eating time in at 5 pm fairly easily. Her primary food is still milk for another 5-7 months and then it'll be mostly solids. The only food she's allowed right now is Rice Cereal but she really seems to enjoy it so that's good!

Mac is still size 2 for diapers but i've started dressing her in some of her size 6-9 outfits. Because she's so tall she outgrows everything in length first, especially if the outfit has feet. One thing i've realized is that pj's with seperate shirts and pants are a lifesaver for night time! With all the rain lately we also had a chance to put some jeans and other pants on her that were cute.

She still loves bath time although we have some changes coming up soon. She has officially outgrown her bath tub and can splash water all over mommy during bath time. We'll have to make the transition to the big tub before too long. I really love the lavender baby bath products. I think they're johnson and johnson. They make Kenzie smell great!

Most days Mackenzie likes her walks. We alternate between carrying her in the soft carrier and pushing her in the stroller. She loves the carrier because she can see everything that's going on so we use it as much as possible. I use the stroller more often when I go for the walks by myself (because Mike is at work) or if it's very windy or misquitos are bad. She's had some bad squito bites already this year. We've also been chased by a few wasps. That drives me nuts cuz i'm so paranoid they'll sting her. Crazy insects!

So as I'm sure you have figured out by now my days are full of taking care of Mackenzie. I had started trying to add in more "me" things like exercise, showers, etc but it wasn't working out with all the sleep problems we'd been having. Perhaps sometime in the next 6 months things will slow down. Hopefully I covered all the bases as far as Mac is concerned. If you want to get in touch email works great since I can respond when I have time.

Mac's next doctor appt is in October.

Alright so I officially have a facebook account which is why I haven't been keeping up with this website. I was running out of the space I'm allowed to use which is why I joined facebook. If you have facebook add me as a friend so that you can see the most recent pictures I have of Mackenzie. I haven't figured out if there is a way to do a blog on there yet. I find the "wall" fairly annoying. I'll take a look at this website and see if there is a way I can keep updating it without running out of space!

Mackenzie is almost 4 months old now. She did well at her last doctor appointment. Her doctor says that she could stand to gain some more weight but it's nothing to be worried about, she's just slim! She's a good little eater though haha She'll have another doctor appointment in a couple months as well as some more vaccinations.

Some things about Mackenzie right now:

• she looks best in the color pink but it has to be the right shade, not too light.
• she has Mikes eye lashes which means that they're really long and gorgeous. Her eyes are still beautifull blue.
• she has a little more hair coming in on top but it's still mostly around the sides. It appears to be light in color.
• she's grabbing at toys a lot. Pulling at them. She shakes a rattle, that kind of thing. Has a favorite key ring.
• She tries to put absolutely EVERYTHING in her mouth. Her whole hand, MIKES whole hand, a book. LOL It's really cute.
• She's doing well with holding her head up for longer periods of time.
• Loves bath time, likes walk time, she's sleeping for longer periods. Some nights she actually does 8 hours and other nights a lot less but we're getting there!
• She loves to watch tv haha Anything that's a light source she'll track, like if you move a cell phone screen around in front of her face.

Well that's all that I can think of for right now. I've got a cold which i'm trying to get over asap so I'd better get some sleep!

Well our daughter Mackenzie decided to show up on March 26th.  I went into labor around 1 am (without going to sleep on the 25th) and was definitely feeling the contractions by 2 am.  I waited things out because I wasn't sure what I was experiencing but at 4 am I woke Mike up and said that I needed to go to the hospital to find out if I was in labor.  We went to the hospital and got checked in and then I was put on the monitor for about an hour.  When the nurse checked me she told me that I was not dilated at all and that babies head had not dropped down/engaged.  She said that It would be a long labor labor yet and that I should go home and come back when the contractions were so intense that I couldn't talk through them.

Mike and I went home and started timing the contractions and realized that they were coming 2.5 min apart on average for about 45 seconds each.  This sort of freaked me out because I was expecting a much slower start to labor, especially with the baby not having dropped into the proper position. Mike called the hospital and they told me to try having a bath to see if it stopped or slowed down the contractions.  Nothing changed so Mike and I were on our way back to the hospital at 5 am.  I was definitely in a lot of pain by this point.

At the hospital I was checked in and put back on the monitor for a while. Then the on call doctor came in because we told the nurse that I have a bicornuate uterus so they wanted to see how the baby was positioned by doing an ultrasound.  The doctor did the ultrasound and then told us that he recommended a c-section. The nurse seemed surprised by this so we asked the doctor what the odds were that we could deliver naturally.  He said "well miracles do happen." LOL At that point Mike and I realized that things were turning out a little differently than we had planned. We asked for a couple minutes to talk about it but decided fairly quickly that due to circumstances it was the best decision.

Because my doctor had gone into surgery I then had to tough out the contractions for another couple hours before the nurse could find out what kind of pain relief the doctor wanted me to be given. (Yeah contractions that close together...not very comfortable!) I ended up with a shot of morphine in each arm. The needles really hurt but the relief was nice.  This was the point in the day when I started feeling really drugged and tired. A feeling which stayed with me into the next day.

Around two the nurses started getting me ready for surgery. I wasn't too worried about the surgery partly because I've had surgery before and partly because things were happening so fast that I didn't really have time to process anythying. The anesthesiologist (not going to bother looking the spelling up for that word) was really nice and was joking around  alot with the nurses. I was freaked out about getting a spinal because I don't like needles but the spinal was actually my least painful needle of the day! Things moved really fast once that was done. They only give things about ten minutes to work because the drugs work that fast and then the surgery is started. They actually started the surgery before Mike got into the room because they had to make sure the spinal would do it's job. Mike came in and started chatting with the anesthesiologist because it turned out that he had delivered Mike! haha So Mike was busy doing that instead of talking to me but it all worked out. Within ten minutes the doctor had our baby out. The first time I heard her cry I started to bawl. Not a little bit. I mean full out bawling so hard that I couldn't stop shaking and they were trying to do surgery on me lol So Mackenzie Jane was born at 2:45 on March 26th of 2010!