Our Son

First cuddle with Uncle Mark once we got home!

Don't I have the cutest wrinkly feet ever!

Cuddles with older cousin Bekah at the hospital less than one day old!

Jaris and MacKenzie! Wow does three months make a difference!!!!!

In his coming home out fit!!!! The words say born to farm!!!

Just taking pictures of my miracle son!

He looks like his daddy!!!!

Mommy sure does love this little boy!

Jaris Zachery Krahn

Well due to complications with blood pressure - Jaris Zachery Krahn was born at 12:01 am on March 27th. Trust me I pushed hard enough to try and get him to come on the 26th, however just did not make it!

We are very excited to have our little boy and our little girl! Our family is complete (at least for now), and we look forward to spending time with our children watching them grow up and become the amazing children God desires for them to be.

So Jaris' birth in to the world happened 11 days early due to my blood pressure being high and some tests showing that my organs were being affected by the high blood pressure which in turn would affect Jaris. So seeing that I was already 3 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced my water was broken on the 26th at approximately 4 pm, and I shortly went into labor, and with the help of oxcytocine was full dilated by 11:15 pm. Had to wait to push until Jeral got there are he was on a walk, and not at the hospital. I pushed for just over 30 minutes and Jaris was out. I got to hold him right away, and then though he was quickly passed to Jeral because my blood pressure dropped to 43 over 31, and I started to hemorrhage really badly. I am a red head and apparently there is a greater chance of hemorrhaging if you are a red head. I gave everyone a good scare. I guess you know in reality that women do die in child birth, however you never think you may be one of those women who might have complications that could lead to death.

Jaris and I got to come home today, which is nice. We may have to go back if he stays jonndist (sorry do not know how to spell), and since he is not getting enough from me when he nurses I am topping up with formula - not what I had originally wanted, however I want to stay home with my family and not be in the hospital and we have done the formula/Bottle thing with MacKenzie and I am able to let go of breastfeeding both of them if it means my son and I get to stay home. I know some may question this decision however - I am okay with that, and will still choose to make the best decisions I can and think are best for my children, and us as a family!

Life is about to be crazy busy and I am not totally sure how we will manage it however I know we will and that is the best thing, know that God is with us and he will guide us through. I am blessed to have two wonderful children and an amazing husband and to be alive to experience it all!

Pictures coming soon - when I have more time, and help!

Love - Leanne, Jeral, MacKenzie and Jaris!!!!!!

Waiting!

I had been postponing this post in the hopes that I could introduce everyone to our son however we are still waiting. After being told I would be induced today if my blood pressure was high, my blood pressure dropped, so no breaking my water just yet. I had 4 solid hours of contractions tonight only to have them subside when I lay down next to MacKenzie to sooth and snuggle with her. I was as of yesterday 3 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced, which is all good. Now we need for my water to break and or some powerful and consistent contractions.

Oh well one more night with my daughter who I love more than anything and anyone other than her daddy.

Today we found out that not only is Jaris in the 90th percentile for weight. He is also in the 90th percentile for length. So it appears that we are going to have a big and long baby. Oiy and ouch! So the sooner he comes the better!!!!

Here is hoping that the contractions come back full force and Jaris is here soon!

Growing Up

Our little girl is growing up way to quickly! She has taken to holding her own bottle while feeding. She doesn't hold it the whole time, however she holds it long enough to give us pictures of her holding it. Also last night MacKenzie slept through the night for the first time. I feed her at 8:30 pm, put her down shortly after 9pm and I got up at 2:30 am to make a bottle assuming she would be awake by 3 am, however instead she got up when daddy got up at 6:30 am. Maybe moving her to the crib was not such a bad idea!

So it looks like we are going to Abbotsford again this weekend. Jeral's uncle passed away last week and the memorial is this coming Saturday. Originally we thought it was to risky, however once we realized that all of MacKenzie's care takers if I go into labor are either down in Abbotsford and Vancouver for the weekend, of flying to South Africa making the trip while I am very pregnant makes sense. My Dr. said he will give me my files to take with me just in case anything happens while we are down there, I can just go into a hospital and hand them my files, so they have everything on hand! However here is really hoping something happens this week, and yet the reality is Jaris is coming when Jaris and we will have to wait on him!

Too Hard To Resist!

Proof that she is smiling more and more everyday! This morning while daddy was get the oil changed and getting a very special "bumper" sticker made for the van MacKenzie and mommy played all morning and it was great she was laughing and smiling away - thus no morning nap!

This is the I am shy and yet smiling look, and today she was able to sit in the Bumbo Auntie Karen borrowed to us, thanks to the towel tip Auntie Shelley gave mommy this morning!

Tummy time! MacKenzie is doing better and better with tummy time.

This is mommy's solution to being able to get supper ready and eat supper with daddy since MacKenzie's nap times seemed to have disappeared. Put her in the high chair with some toys and either a Baby Praise DVD, or a Veggie Tales DVD. I once used a Scooby Doo DVD and Daddy was not so keen on that even though MacKenzie seemed to get a kick out of it.

Last night was MacKenzie's first night in her crib and she did great. She woke up a little sooner than she has in the past few nights for her middle of the night feed however once I put her back down she slept until 8 am so we are not complaining!

Dr.'s Appointments and Ultrasounds

So I saw the replacement OBGYN yesterday, and he was once again running behind schedule. When I got there, three people we still waiting for their appointments. However to my luck I was alone with MacKenzie and she started to fuss pretty dang loud, so he bumped me ahead of the other three patients! Yeah for my little girl helping me get in a head of people. I did great at multi-tasking because I was holding her while we had to do everything like measurements, and weighing and hearing my son's amazing heart beat.

I had an ultrasound today at the request of the Diabetes's Education Centre, so nice to be able to see my little boy - well what he would let us see of him. His head was so far down that is was hard to get a clear picture of him, however that is a good thing him having his head right down there!!!!!! Pretty much it could be any day now, or still a few weeks. We are hoping and praying for any day now, in part because I am barely able to hold my daughter for 20 minutes before my back is toast and yeah so not fun for me and little girl. I am willing to do anything and everything to help with getting labor started!!! ;)

With that being said I have realized that we will need the help of friends and family especially in the beginning. We will have two little ones - who will have very different feeding schedules, and basically this mama will be a feeding machine and the house, cooking, laundry, oiy! I have bit the bullet and asked Jeral to invite his parents out for more than just 2 days, and maybe see if Dad wants to help Jeral with the farm etc.. I have asked me mom to see if she can work it to come out for a week knowing it all depends on when my sister works, because she babysits my nephew. Basically any family and friends who want to come out and help out with holding babies and helping around the house are welcome we have decided. No more arrogant I can do it all because I am super woman attitude!!!!!!

In other news MacKenzie is sleeping in her crib for the first time tonight. We moved it into our room for now, and we will see how the first week with both kids goes, and if we are able to sleep with both of them in the room or not. If not then Jeral and I will discuss things every night for that first week and find a solution that we are both happy with. I am not ready to put MacKenzie is a room all by herself yet. In part because I had hoped that she would stay in our room until she was 6 months old, and I do not want to sacrifice attachment with her once Jaris comes. He has a natural attachment to us due to living in mommy for 9 months. While we are attached to MacKenzie she has only been with us for 3 months, a third of the time that Jaris has been with us, just inside me. So all of that to say we will see how things go! I love the bedding we bought her so it is nice to get to use it!

Adorable

I just love putting up pictures of my daughter because she is so adorable!

One of the rare moments of sleep that happens these days! She just looked so cute!

Pictures and an Ah Ha Moment

Well here are the pictures I have been promising! Basically these are for Auntie Joy, Grandma J., Grandpa & Grandma K., and Auntie Lisa - however I know others read this too so you can feel free to look at the pictures too! I enjoy having the blog so those who do not get to see MacKenzie on a regular basis still get to watch her grow up.

Last night daddy built a little box for MacKenzie to stand on while she is in the Jump-a-roo, and it seemed to be a big hit this afternoon once we got home from Church! This is also a rare picture of her smiling! Normally when the camera comes out we get this look, as if to say what is going on Mommy and Daddy?

Daddy and MacKenzie - daddy bought MacKenzie this out fit all by himself with out the help of mommy. He bought it at a baby shop on 4th ave in Vancouver - it was more expensive than the 6 items I bought at Thyme Maternity a few days before. Oiy for high end baby stores! We put her in it for Church today, and I realized that while it says it is for babies 6-9 months of age there is no way MacKenzie will fit this when she is 6 months old. It just fits her now, so we may get a few wears out of it in the next few weeks!

So we decided to buy matching car seats and this is MacKenzie going on her first walk in the car seat. We have a baby trend clip the car seat into it stroller that we are using until Jaris gets here. So I clipped her in and off for a walk we went.

The two car seats side by side! Yep they match our van and the double stroller we have, however they do not clip into the Chariot, so we will wait until Jaris is a few months before we plunk him into it. In the mean time if I want to go on walks, one will go in the baby trend and the other will be in a baby carrier on mommy.

MacKenzie in Daddy's arms. She is growing so much and changing more and more every day!

Mackenzie with her cousin's Rachel and Jaydn!

This tends to be the face we get when we take pictures. We will have her giggling, cooing, and smiling and then the camera comes out and this is what we get! She still is super cute though!!!!!


Today at church I had an Ah Ha moment. It all started with MacKenzie fussing a little bit due to being tired. She is a rather aware little girl who like to look and see everything. So I took her to the nursery room and swaddled her to put her to sleep if even for a bit. A lady came in and asked if I wanted her to sit with MacKenzie while she was sleeping so I could go back tot he service. I kindly said no I was fine and would bring her out to fall asleep, this was just to get her comfy. The truth was I just do not know this lady well enough to leave my daughter with her. So then when a very close and dear friend offered to hold her because she could see I was physically done I said no because I did not want to offend this other woman. However as I passed MacKenzie off to her daddy. I realized that hey I am Mommy and if I am not comfortable handing MacKenzie off to someone then that is my choice as mommy, that does not mean that then I cannot feel free to allow someone I know and trust to hold her. So that was my moment of realizing that is okay to say no to some people holding my daughter, while saying yes to other people. In that moment I felt free instead of trapped and it was glorious!

An amazing Daddy

My little girl is all snuggled in one arm as I type this. I have a hard time putting her down right away as I love our snuggle and cuddle time. I know there will come a day that she will no longer wants snuggle and cuddle time, however here is hoping that is many, many, many, years away for both my children.

I have had to realize that the way I desire to parent and the way I am physically able to parent are two different ways at least for now. I had great intentions of carrying MacKenzie in a snugglie (baby carrier) most of the time - however my very beautiful pregnant belly will not allow for that to happen right now. I have tried, and no such luck. For now daddy gets to do that, and I have to release him to do that without my getting bitter or feeling that should be me. The truth is Jeral is a fantastic daddy and I know MacKenzie loves her dada very much - I see it in every smile, coo, and giggle. Honestly it is a pretty amazing thing to see my little girls eyes light up when she hears and sees her daddy, and for that I am grateful.

In other news I found matching car seats yesterday, so we will be taking the other one we bought in the hopes of finding a matching one back. The new car seats even match our van, and stroller. I know who would have ever thought that I would be so picky about stuff like this.

I will post pictures tomorrow!

Week 36/37

While I am trying to find my keys/waiting for the hotel to call me back to see if my keys were left there I may as well update my blog!

Yesterday I saw the replacement OBGYN and everything is going well. Jaris is head down with his back out so that is nice, which means I can start the herbal regiment that my friend took in the hopes that my labor is similar to hers!!!!!! However the reality is that my labor will be the way it is for me and that is it.

The new guy for this month looks like he is 12 years old, I guess that is because Dr. Upton is much older. All seems well so that is good. I have an ultra sound sometime next week at the request of the Diabete's Education Centre and the reality is I will not turn down an opportunity to see my son! The new doctor does not think my son is a big baby so that is nice, and yet I know that could change in the next couple of weeks!

Yesterday we bought another car seat and today I will go look at a few other baby places in Vernon to see if we can find another one that matches, or something nice and pink for MacKenzie - we will see. We also wanted to buy another crib however the one we wanted was out of stock and will not be in for a a week to 10 days, so that is life. good thing we have another playpen is we need to set it up in our room. I was just hoping to have MacKenzie in a crib this week - still in our room and yet in a crib! We got her some adorable bedding and I am excited to get the crib all set up with it!

Well that is it for now!

Our Trip and Ramblings

This was MacKenzie just before our trip to Abbotsford and Vancouver! We were packing things up so we let her be entertained by her stuffie and luckily I was able to capture this on camera! We have the most adorable girl in the whole wide world and we lover her very much, and I will never be able to say that enough!!!!!

Our Second stop was at our friends in Abbotsford we got together with a few friends for supper so we got to see them all at once! I must admit it would have been nice to get some one on one time with Marie, however that will have to wait for a bit. We had a great supper and 3 members of the "Joy Club" were there and so we had to have a "Joy Club" discussion - it was great.

MacKenzie with Sammy - she was not into being passed around to little kids, and she was tired form traveling, however she did great. My friend Trina's 7 month old son was totally taken in by her - I smell some match making going on in the future :) To bad I do not have any pictures of him just looking at MacKenzie. It was also great for MacKenzie to be around the noise of other kids because lets face it in the next couple of weeks here there will be another baby making noise.

Here is MacKenzie with another son's friend! On our way home we got to stop in and have lunch with our friends Trev and Rebekah. The fed us a great lunch and it was nice to spend some time with them, even though it was short.

Rebekah and I with my little girl - the first few pictures MacKenzie was not impressed with us, so we had to stop and I bounced her on my belly - aka her little brother Jaris and then she started to smile. I wish we could have had longer, however we needed to get going home! It is funny how much longer trips take when you have a little one. We decided to stop in Kamloops at my mom's house, just so we could feed MacKenzie. I guess we could have just pulled over and i could have jumped int he second row and fed her in the car seat, however I just wanted to hold her while I fed her so we decided to stop. I know it was nice for my mom to get to see and hold MacKenzie!

We had a great trip, and it was a lot more relaxing than I thought it would be - in part due to my husband putting his foot down when I was about to schedule everyday and every meal time with friends. We had a great time just going on walks, and looking around and shopping for our children of course!!!!! Jeral's sister was a gracious host for three nights, and it was great to just be able to relax and not worry about packing everything up everyday to go to someone else's house.

So that is our trip!

An Adventure!

So no pictures with this post - and I will keep it short. We are still on Holidays in Vancouver and today we got towed!!!!!! We parked and plugged in money to the parking meter and MacKenzie, my cousin Michelle, and I went into Starbucks to hang out and have a drink while Jeral went to get some new roller blades. Well Jeral came back and walked in and told me that the van had been towed and I did not believe him I thought he was joking! So I went outside and sure enough the van was gone. We got towed for parking in a no park zone between 3-6 pm. So we called the number and luckily the impound lot was only a 25 minute walk for a woman in her 9th month of pregnancy and we walked to go get the van. Talk about an adventure! I was sort of hoping that maybe the braxton hicks contractions would turn into real contractions and labour would begin due to the stress of haivng our van towed - however no such luck!!!!! That is it for now, hopefully we will not have that happen again on our trip!

Other than that I am reading a great book entitled "Parenting from the inside Out", by Dan Seigel. So good and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a parent of anyone who helps parents. Who would have thought that a book about parenting would basically tell parents that they need to look at unresolved issues from childhood to help them become better parents. I love this. I guess that is what I was doing for the 3 years I drove down to Abbotsford, and in truth I am grateful that Jesus continues to remind me that when I am reacting in a way over the top way that there is something I need to talk about and look at with him. I also love how the book talks about the brain and how our brain develops. I guess even though I am no longer officially in counseling with the ring leader of the "Joy Club" I will never be officially out of counseling with Jesus!

Date Night, Pictures, and a Tangent!

So I came out of the laundry room the other day to see this. Daddy reading his Bible and MacKenzie sawing logs! She is so like her mommy!

Bath time - this is our nightly attempt to keep MacKenzie awake until her last feed of the evening at about 8 pm. Yes her lips are purple, however not from the water being cold she likes her bath really warm. Her lips are purple from the Gentian Violet we are using to try and get the thrush under control.

We were trying to put a hair bret in MacKenzie's little tuft of hair at the front. I know she looks grumpy, however she sat there rather content for a while. I was amazed at how long she gave us just sitting there!

I am feeling better bit by bit so that is great. I had a conversation with Jesus the other night as I was feeding MacKenzie and I told God I wanted to be the best mommy I could be, and his response was that I was being the best mommy I could be. My re-butt was I want to be the best mommy I can be while being able to breath and function without all the congestion. Gotta love how we place stipulations on what we mean. I then proceeded to ask God if my congestion was as a result of something I need to ask forgiveness for - oiy! So not how the new me believes, and yet when we get desperate we revert back to our old ways of thinking. Thank goodness Jesus was there to remind me that sometimes life just happens and we need to walk through it, not over, not around, not under, but through - and sometimes we need to push for what we need.

That is my little tangent for this morning. Jeral took MacKenzie out on a Daddy date, and last night MacKenzie was with Uncle Mark, Auntie Jodi, and the kids, so mommy and daddy could go on a date. It was strange not having MacKenzie with us, and yet it was nice to know that she is well bonded and attached to us so she can be left with family and she is okay.

MARCH

Wow it is March already!!!!!! Time just seems to be going by so quickly. MacKenzie is growing more and more everyday. She is sitting up when we help her to and she is getting stronger and stronger every day. Her head control is amazing.

I am going on walks everyday with her. I wish I could walk with her in the baby carrier however with Jaris still inside me it does not work, so in the stroller it is. I am hoping that this will help Jaris to drop and engage. I am enjoying the weather and being outside is helping me to breathe during the day.

My GP did give me something yesterday that seems to be helping. It helped a bit last night so here is hoping that tonight is better, and that we will get to go on our trip!!!!!! However if we stay home I am sure that we will do a few day trips here and there since we ship our birds on Thursday.

Well I need to go put MacKenzie down and get ready for my date tonight. Tonight is the first time since we have become parents that we are going out without MacKenzie. She is spending the evening with Uncle Mark and Auntie Jodi - mommy really wants her little girl used to hanging out with her uncle and auntie so that when we have to go to the hospital to have Jaris MacKenzie is used to her other family members.