Aspen Is Here!

We are so, so thrilled to announce the arrival of Aspen Goddin Kitson, born at 8:25 AM via c-section on Monday, February 17.



Aspen weighed 7lbs 2oz at birth, the same as Sabine when she was born! Aspen was 19.75" long, and got an 8/9 on her APGARS. She was still breech at the time of birth, hence the c-section, but came out perfectly fine, and she shares a birthday with Nana Lin and Great-Grandmom Goddin.



We think she looks a LOT like Sabine did, as a newborn.



We spent five days in the hospital--probably the nicest hospital I've ever been in! Aspen lost 10% of her body weight pretty quickly, so we've been supplementing along with breast feeding, but hope to get back to just breast feeding pretty soon. It was nice to be in the hospital to be able to monitor that kind of thing, and she has been steadily adding weight back on ever since day 2. Aspen also had a bit of jaundice, but not enough to need to go under the billiruben lights. Something else we just monitored, and it's less noticeable daily, at this point.

So far, I can say she's a sweet baby and a good sleeper. We are not sure what to do with a baby who sleeps! (And we also don't know how much of that we can attribute to things like jaundice and mommy's Percocet regimen, both of which can make a baby sleepy) But so far we have been on a pretty steady three-hour schedule, where she eats, gets changed, and goes back to sleep. There are occasional bouts of quiet alertness, where she looks around with her big, currently blue (but we are guessing might turn brown) eyes, and even more occasionally, fits of crying. Usually we can figure out what's causing it when she is upset, either she gets too hot, or spit up, or has gas.

We had a few visitors, and the family all came by to meet our newest baby girl.



Her biggest fan (and that's saying something!) is her big sister.



Sabine has turned out to be incredibly loving, gentle, and helpful. She loves to touch, hold, and kiss Aspen.

We also had close family stop by to meet Aspen at the hospital.









That's it for now, we are pretty tired, a newborn is still a newborn, even if she's relatively a good sleeper. But we are happy to be home and to have all of our little family together, finally. I'll try and get another post up soon with more details about the birth and first week!

Getting Close

We've made it to February! This was a big milestone to reach for mommy, for some reason. Little Sister is still cooking away, I'm over 37 weeks along at this point. Little sister managed to flip herself into a breech position this week, which we hope she will rectify very soon! In the meantime, the silver lining to this drama has been a break in the contractions. From 17-37 weeks, I was having pretty regular contractions if I wasn't lying down. For some reason, the baby turning has called off the contractions, so I am able to do a little more, but don't want to bring on labor in the meantime if Little Sister is still upside down. (Or not upside down, more accurately!)

Here are a couple pictures of us when I was about 35 weeks along, with our good friend who is expecting a little boy just about 10 days before Little Sister.





In the meantime, there have been lots of preparations. Sabine and daddy got the crib re-assembled, along with the swing, while mommy and grandmom have been washing lots of baby clothes and gear.






Helping daddy hang the curtains in the nursery

Even the cats have been excited to see some of the soft baby gear re-emerge.



And some random, other pictures. Sabine drew this picture of cousin H in his crib the other day, with some toys in it. (And the green spot on the right is a picture she painted for him hanging on his wall.)



And a picture of Sabine with a dear friend from preschool, who has a very similar bunny! Kindred spirits in many ways.