McKynzie Month-by-Month

This is McKynzie at the hospital. Probably not even a day old.

This is her going home outfit. Josslyn has a matching one that says Big Sister. This was way to small for her. But I made her wear it anyway. They were going to match dang it!

My mom came to help for a bit and she was about 2 weeks old here. And entirely comfortable wherever.

One month old!

Two months old!

Three months old!

Four months old! (Note how she continues to get more wiggly.)

Five months old! She kept taking the sticker off her belly. It was very annoying.

McKynzie's Birth Story

At our last doctor appointment the Wednesday before Easter, our doc made a joke that he had to teach Sunday School on Easter and he'd rather not, so he was hoping to get a call Sunday morning that I was in labor. But it was not to be. I didn't feel huge, but I was extremely uncomfortable and ready for the pregnancy to be over. We celebrated my birthday on Saturday and Easter on Sunday. By Monday, which was our due date, I was totally ready for the pregnancy to be over and hoped that a lot of walking on Monday would do the trick. Monday night I was feeling some contractions, but they didn't every get too close. But I decided to sleep on the couch instead because I just couldn't get comfortable in the bed. I had contractions all night about every 20 ish minutes. I felt much better pushing through them this time than I ever did with Josslyn.

In the morning they were about 8-10 minutes apart, so I woke Nate up at about 8 a.m. and told him to get started, get dressed and ready to go and we would see where we were at. After getting Josslyn up and dressed and fed, and the rest of us dressed, fed, and packed, we headed to Nate's parents to drop off Josslyn. In the car the contractions slowed down a lot and I was pretty disappointed and worried that I would be sent home, but we decided that since it was already 10 a.m. and Nate obviously wasn't going to work, we would head in anyway. They still were pretty slow all the way in to the hospital but since I was a day after my due date they went ahead and admitted me anyway. After getting settled, they checked me to see if I was progressing any, and I didn't expect any at all, but the nurse announced I was already at 4 cm!

I was so surprised! They then ordered my epidural and we only had to wait about 30 minutes for him to come in. I have been really blessed (especially after hearing MANY horror stories) to have two really excellent epidurals. I could still feel the pressure, but was not uncomfortable. I could still lift my bum and move my legs. It was wonderful. I felt totally present in the moments of my children's birth because I wasn't totally bent over in pain, but wasn't so numb that I couldn't participate in what was happening. From this point it was a waiting game. My doctor came in at about noon and broke my water and I was at about 5-6 cm then. After he left things really moved quickly. The nurse came in to check on us about every hour and kept telling me the other nurses had told her to turn down my pitocin because it was obviously too high if my contractions were going that crazy and she kept having to tell them that I wasn't on any! This baby was just ready to come!

When my doctor had come to break my water he joked that he was sad he'd had to teach Sunday School, but he had a board meeting that day at 3:30 so I could make it up to him by getting him out of that instead. Well at about 3:20 I started to feel a lot of pressure. The nurse came and checked me and I was at a 10 and ready to go! She called my doc, who was happy to skip a meeting and come over to us instead! He came in at about 3:30 and I started pushing and baby girl slipped right out at 3:38 pm!

She was so big! I knew she would be bigger than Josslyn, but she was about a pound and a half bigger than her sister! She weighed in at 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long. All of us were surprised at how I had been able to keep this big girl in me. I also realized that all the adorable newborn size outfits I brought for her to wear were NOT going to fit her. But we were happy to have her, and quickly! And glad I hadn't changed my mind about going in when the contractions slowed down in the car. From start of really active labor to birth was only about 7 hours. I have said a lot since then that I if raising kids were as easy as my pregnancies and especially this delivery had been, I'd have a whole bunch.

We love our two girls to the moon. They are happy and beautiful. They are so smart and we love having a house of princesses and pink! We have frequently heard how much McKynzie looks like Nathan and Josslyn has always looked just like me, so looks like we have one of each of us!

The Laursens

It's been a really long time since I've published on this blog, but I would really like to keep up on the blog, if nothing else than to just to be able to remember these things about my babies when they were young.

Currently we live in Logan. Nathan is working for Utah State, and though he is busy and it takes him from home a lot more than we would all like, I think he really likes working there. He likes the people he works with and he likes working with the students and helping them learn and do better. He likes when he goes somewhere and works hard to improve something and I think that he has done that here.

I am busy being a mom. I love being able to stay home with my girls. It's really hard and some days I count down until bed time so it's quiet, but I love being a mom. I love watching them grow and learn. I love seeing how smart they are and watching them figure every little thing out. I feel bad when I sit in my pajamas until 3 pm, but who doesn't do that?!

Josslyn will be turning 3 soon and I just love how smart she is. She is so quick to catch on to things, and remembers every little detail of everything you ever tell her. Which obviously is hard sometimes when she remembers things you don't really want her to, but I wouldn't change how smart she is for a second. She recently started a ballet class, which is literally the light of her whole week. She loves going to see her teacher and it really is amazing to watch her shriek with excitement when Thursday rolls around. She has always loved singing and dancing. She knows more words to songs than I do and can memorize songs and dance moves like it's nothing. She continues to surprise us everyday with how articulate she is, how smart she is, how outgoing she is, and how much she loves life! She is especially a really good big sister. I definitely believe the oldest are meant to be because they naturally have this amazing ability to look out for their siblings. She doesn't love sharing her toys, but I think this is mostly because McKynzie is a baby who slobbers all over everything and Josslyn says "that's gross mom, SPIT!" Now the next challenge is potty training, which of course, she is smart enough to realize she'd rather wear diapers and not worry about having to take a break from toys or playing to go to the bathroom.

McKynzie just turned 5 months old. Despite a recent inability to stay asleep, she is really the joy of everyone's lives. She is so happy. Loves to smile and play and gets really mad when you leave her in a room by herself. Wherever you are going. McKynzie has to go to. Where Josslyn was my tiny, petite little baby, McKynzie is my chunker. She continues to grow like crazy and is so much bigger than Josslyn ever was. In fact she wore a dress to church the other day that I'm pretty sure Josslyn wore when she was about a year old. She can roll all over, she loves to sleep on her belly in particular. She is starting to sit on her own, she usually does much better when she has something to hold on to, but falls over when she tries to look around. She'd really love to crawl. When something is out of reach, she lays on her belly and yells at it until someone comes and pushes it closer. She is starting to push off things with her feet so crawling is not far behind!

Our family is so blessed. And even though sometimes we are not sure what path to take or what things to do with our lives, we know we are trying hard and our happy girls make it all worth the struggles we face.

Hopefully I'll keep better track of our lives. I know there are little things that I would like to remember that I never will unless I take a picture and write it down!