Alexis Marie Hickman

Alexis is now two weeks old and I have yet to post any pictures! She arrived on November 24th at 12:27pm and weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces. They gave me the pitocin at 9:30, I felt my first contraction at 10:30 and she was born before 12:30. Everything went really well except for the fact that I had a resident administer my epidural. I felt like I was on an episode of ER and this was the first epidural the guy had ever given. By the time he came to my room it was 11:30 and I was having contractions right on top of each other. He kept poking me with the dang needle over and over again and probably put the epidural in at least 5 times! Finally he called the Attending in and he did it correctly in 2 minutes; however, by then I was fully dilated and ready to push! I was so mad, because there wasn't enough time for the medicine to start working and I was not ready for a natural birth! The good part is that it was really fast and it's a lot easier to push when you're bottom half isn't numb!

She's only 16 days old, but so far Alexis is such a sweet, good natured baby. When she was first born she looked exactly like Kaitlyn did, but with brown hair and brown eyes. Every day she looks a little different and gets a little bigger. Kaitlyn is such a great big sister and loves to hold Lexie and play with her. Anyway, we are so blessed to have this little angel as a part of our family. She has such a sweet spirit and we love her so much. Enjoy the pictures!

Who Knew?

Who Knew you could walk around being 4 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced and not be in labor yet? I sure didn't! I feel like she might just fall out if I walk around too much! I mean, most people already have an epidural by now. Monday can't come quick enough!

Katy's thoughts...

Kids say the funniest things sometimes and I always forget to share some of Katy's best moments. Yesterday, I was trying to wipe Katy's nose and she says "no, mamma. Those are my boogers!"


We were having our nightly story time and Katy was pointing out characters that looked like Daddy in her books (mostly any males with glasses). We start reading Chicken Little and Jared asks "Where's Daddy" (thinking she would point to chicken little since he's wearing glasses). Instead she points to the pig and says "there he is". Maybe you had to be there, but I was laughing so hard I almost went into labor. I had tears coming down my face and Katy was saying in her most sincere voice "it's okay mamma".

Trick or...barf?

Kaitlyn was so excited for Halloween this year. Jared and I got her primed for the occasion by taking her to the pumpkin patch, a Halloween event at the zoo and her daycare even had a big Halloween party as well. I dressed her up as little red riding hood and she looked so adorable. She even practiced saying "trick or treat" all week. We took her to the ward trunk or treat since it seemed a little safer than taking her door to door. Jared and I brought her around to several cars together and while she was holding hands with one of her friends I was turned around doing something else and I suddenly heard several people gasp. I turned around and saw that some kid had thrown up all over the ground in front of someone's trunk or treat set up. In my head I'm thinking "ew gross, someone's kid threw up" not realizing that "someone's kid" was my kid! To make a long story short we cleaned her up, got her in the car, started driving home and she threw up 3 more times in the car (thank goodness for leather interior)! She was sick for about 2 hours and completely fine the next day. Needless to say I went out and bought a new car seat as soon as possible. Moral of the story: never spend more than $10 on a Halloween costume and always attend school parties so you can monitor what your child eats. Happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Patch...

Well today we visited this cute pumpkin patch in Cypress that my Mom and I went to last year when she was visiting. It's actually a Christmas tree farm, but they do pumpkins as well. It's really cute though because they have a train, a hay ride and a bunch of other fun things for the family to do. I wanted to take some cute pictures of Kaitlyn, but she would not pose for a single picture! Don't you hate that? Then, when they finally settle down and do something really cute you don't have your camera out. Regardless, we took a ton of pictures and Katy had a lot of fun climbing on top of the pumpkins, rolling around the huge ones and stacking as many as she could. It was funny because she knows how to say pumpkin and she knows what a pumpkin is, but she kept calling them "apples". She kept saying "I wanna get an apple" or "I wanna hold my apple". No matter how many times we corrected her she kept calling it an apple. To end the day we took a little train ride around the Christmas tree farm.

Toddler beds and potty training...

Well, Kaitlyn sure has turned out to be one independent little diva! She yearns to do everything mommy and daddy do without any assistance. Climbing the stairs to our condo, climbing into the car, buckling her carseat, eating at the dinner table (without the highchair), picking out her clothes and so many other things!

The last couple of weeks we've tackled two new "big girl" things; the toddler bed and potty training. A friend of mine offered to let us borrow her daughter's old toddler bed since she wasn't using it. I sent Jared over to pick it up and the second he brought it home Kaitlyn was hooked. She took a nap in it that day (within 30 minutes of putting the thing together) and absolutely loves sleeping in her big girl bed. I was worried that she would constantly be getting in and out of bed, but she hasn't done that at all...yet. Even in the morning when she wakes up she doesn't climb out of bed she just yells "Papa, come here right now"! Jared is pretty slow in the morning so she repeats this several times and finally ends with "Papa, come here right now, I mean it"! It's pretty darn hilarious!

Sometime in August Kaitlyn transitioned to the toddler class (aka "the big girl class") at daycare. This is a bigger class that includes children from 2-3 years old and they really encourage potty training. They have mini toddler toilets in the class and all the kids wear pull ups. Katy loves wearing her "big girl diapers" and sometimes insists on wearing big girl panties over the diapers. Her teacher was wondering why she needed to wear a pull up and panties, but sometimes you let your child do whatever makes her stop screaming in the morning! Having Katy be around the other kids at school who are using the potty has been great. She sees them doing it and wants to do it too. She goes potty in the potty several times a day now and has gone poop once (it's funny how excited you get to see your child poop in a toilet)! Now, everytime she goes I'm thinking "Wow, I'm so glad I don't have to clean that up".

How about November 24th?

I had a doctor's appointment last week and told my doctor I was a little concerned with scheduling my mom's visit to help out with Katy when the baby is born and with Jared having finals the week after my due date. All she said was, "how do you feel about induction" and that was it! As of right now I'm scheduled to pop this little girl out on Monday, November 24th. This works out perfectly because Jared has that week off from school because of Thanksgiving, I'll get out of the hospital the day before Thanksgiving and my mom will be in town so she can make me one of her fabulous pies! Not to mention I will have just had a baby so I won't be expected to cook a single thing! The induction date is 10 days before my due date, however, I went into labor 15 days early with Kaitlyn so who knows, the baby could come before the 24th.

For those of you who keep harrassing us, Jared and I think we've decided on the name Alexis. It's not 100% set in stone, but it's the only name we both really like and can actually see being our daughter. I can't believe I'll be holding her exactly two months from today!