Introducing Makenna

Makenna Rose was born at 5:11 AM on Friday, February 19th! She weighed 8 lb 3 oz and was 21 inches long. We are so excited for her to join our family!


On Tuesday night I started having some light contractions. By the next morning they stopped, but I had a doctor's appointment and found out that I had dilated to 2 cm. The contractions were worse Wednesday night - we actually almost went to the hospital, but the contractions stopped by the morning. By Thursday afternoon the contractions started again. Brian came home from work early and after we finished dinner, we were ready to go to the hospital! My mom came over to watch the kids and we left. As soon as we got to the hospital though, the contractions slowed down again and I thought for sure they would send us home. They checked me and I was at 5 cm, which is amazing considering that my contractions were still at least 10 min apart and not that painful. Within a couple of hours of being at the hospital the doctor broke my water to help things progress. I was at 8 cm within the next hour and then I had an epidural. My contractions all but stopped. We rested for a few hours and nothing changed. The doctor decided to give me a tiny bit of petocin to get things moving again. Within a half an hour I was ready to start pushing and after a half hour of pushing, we had baby Makenna!

We are so excited for her to join our family, but are still adjusting to each other. Overall, she is a great baby! She figured out how to nurse in the delivery room and hasn't missed a meal since. She has been sleeping well at night and only wakes up to eat. She is much more alert and awake than the twins were (so much for the week of sleep we were counting on) and definitely has some fussy moments.

Alli is very interested in her and tries to help out as much as possible. Nick is cute with her and sporadically comes over to take a look, but he still prefers trucks to babies! I wanted to let the twins hold and play with her more, but they had colds when she came home and we found out a few days ago that Alli has infantigo bumps on her face and is contagious. She has been taking antibiotics and should be better soon. I will try to keep the blog updated, but so far life with a new baby has been a little crazy! Luckily Brian has a couple weeks off of work to help with the adjustment.

Waiting in the labor and delivery room.

So new (and mad)...


Makenna loves her daddy. He calms her like no one can (except me when I nurse)
Nick visiting in the hospital. More interested in the cool bed remote than the baby.
Alli visiting Makenna in the hospital.

Getting Caught Up

Phew! December was a busy month! 6 new posts below!

Christmas Church Outfits

Alli and Nick got new church outfits from grandma and grandpa Kershaw for Christmas. They wore the outfits today and they looked so cute (and they knew it). They usually don't cooperate too well for pictures, but today they were happy to pose (more than 2 inches from the camera even!) I wanted to get one of them together, but that was asking too much. Maybe next time...

Merry Christmas

We stayed in Colorado with my family for Christmas this year. For Christmas Eve, we had everyone over at our house. We fed the kids pizza for dinner, watched The Grinch (my personal favorite), had the kids open their Christmas pajamas (thanks mom and dad), and then put the kids to bed. After they were asleep we had an "adults-only" dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Italian on Christmas Eve is a Plowman/Kershaw tradition. It was so nice to be able to enjoy a meal without all the interruptions!

On Christmas morning we went to Courtney and Russ's house for breakfast and opening presents. It was a long process since most of the presents were for the kids and they were perfectly content to play with the toys they had already opened. Nick was the worst, though. He has had this thing with carrying around 2 matchbox cars at all times, which makes it very hard for him to do anything else (I think the cars have turned into his comfort item since we took the pacifiers away a few weeks ago). Everyone was happy to relax and enjoy the day. We did have one very funny full-out tantrum courtesy of Lindsey. In her defense, Alli did steal a ride on her new rocking horse.

David and Natalie - we missed you and hope you can come to visit soon!

New Hair / Basketball Belly

As promised...a belly shot. No, I didn't stuff a basketball up my shirt. Yes, I really am carrying that low (thanks twins for stretching my skin out). I am feeling pretty good overall. I do have some aches and pains and I'm usually exhausted by the time Alli and Nick go to bed. Our little girl is still kicking away. When I go to the doctor, they are amazed how much she moves and how they can feel almost every body part. It's kind of neat, but kind of creepy (I think) when I look down and see my whole belly shifting and then have a knee or elbow or foot sticking out. I can' t believe that I have less than two months left (my due date is February 21st). Now that Christmas is over, I really need to start getting ready! I think that we will move the office to the basement and set her room up when she is about 3 months old. For the first few months she can camp out in our room. We have narrowed down our list of names to about 3 - just not quite ready to share yet...

Also, on a whim (sort-of) I got my hair chopped off. I have had the same hair (more or less) for a while now and decided it was time for a change. It was a little shocking at first, but I really like it.