Adjustments

I think Kayla is starting to get the hang of life outside the womb! Or maybe more truthfully, Ryan & I are starting to get the hang of who Kayla is and what she needs.
We are VERY blessed by the many friends who have come by with hugs, gifts and meals for us. The encouragement and help have made a world of difference for our marriage, our parenting and our sanity.
I am still recovering from labor and need to see a physical therapist tomorrow to help me with some pretty serious back pain that keeps me from walking comfortably. I am in a strange place of not fitting well into maternity clothes or my regular clothes AND I can't work out with this back pain. Hopefully that will get resolved quickly!
We continue to be very proud of her poopy diapers (because that way we know she's eating well), I am excited that she is learning how to put her arms through the sleeves of her tops, and she does not completely freak out any time we change her diaper.
I'm catching on that not all her little noises mean that something is wrong...she just makes noises! When she's really tired, it's difficult for her to fall asleep, so we've learned to swaddle her, hold her tight, rock her and whisper "shhhhh" in her ear. She will doze off and then wake up crying, doze off...wake up...and so forth until 5-10 minutes later she crashes!
Ryan has taken to giving her a bottle of pumped milk in the middle of the night so that I can get more than 90 minutes of sleep at a time. I've learned that it's okay to let her sleep at night, rather than wake her up to eat, past the 3 hour "limit" that the hospital nurses say she shouldn't pass. She wants to eat on average every 3 hours for about 40 minutes. It's so nice to go with her natural schedule rather than forcing her to get up every 3 hours to eat or ignore her hunger cries when she wants to eat after 2 hours. (We don't really ignore her, but we didn't realize that she was hungry again in the earlier days)
We're eager to see her start to intentionally smile. She makes great smiley faces now, but all the books say it's gas! :0 It's still super cute. And bless her little heart, she fell asleep last night to me" singing" parts of any song, nursery rhyme or worship song I could remember. We did Silent Night, Mary Had a Little Lamb, the Alphabet song, Stop in the Name of Love... It's hard to remember the words to anything late at night with a crying baby. She didn't seem to mind.
So that's life here...today...
She should be getting hungry soon. I should go...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Life with Kayla at home

Kayla Ann Corn is here!

Kayla Ann Corn joined us on
December 13
11:51 AM
7 lbs 4 oz
19 in
Ryan and I wanted to honor both our grandmothers who passed away during our pregnancy. My grandmother-Ann Wilkin and his grandmother Minnie "Kay" Corn. We chose Kayla Ann as a way to lovingly remember our grandmothers and celebrate the new generation joining us now!
Labor & delivery went very smoothly. I couldn't have asked for things to go any better than they did. Ryan was/is a fantastic partner and support to me and now us.
I started noticing I didn't feel quite right around 9:30 pm on Wednesday night and by around 11:30 pm I woke up Ryan to tell him I thought I was in labor. We called the doctor at 4 am and he said "well, come on in. You're going to have a baby today!". We left for the hospital around 5 am and by 5:55 I was in a delivery room!
They said I was about 7-8 cm dilated when I arrived and that we did "a lot of good work at home"! (kinda proud of that) ;) The doctor on call said I was around 8-9 when he checked me around 7:30 am and by the time my doctor got to me at 8:30 am, she said that the only thing holding this back was my waters. She broke my waters and around 10:30 they told me I could start pushing.
I pushed (with the benefit of an epidural) for a little more than an hour before Kayla came out to join our lives and bless our family. She was and is perfect. She is sleeping well, eating "aggressively", and a wonderful little cuddler. Thank you for your prayers and support during the pregnancy and for sharing in our joy now.
Here are some pictures to get you all started!

Waiting for the baby

Hey friends,
Today is the due date and I'm not saying I WON'T have her today, but I'm definitely not feeling it! I have my weekly appointment with my doctor tomorrow and will know more then, BUT last week they said that they would like to induce Sunday night with a birth on Monday, 12/17 IF this little girl doesn't make an appearance of her own.
For those of you who pray: Please pray for courage, a labor without induction, and safety for all of us. I'm sure we'll be fine, but it's just a wee bit overwhelming to think about the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenge of bringing a little one into the world.
Here's a verse that I've enjoyed lately:
Isaiah 66:9
Do I bring to the moment of birth
and not give delivery?" says the LORD.
"Do I close up the womb
when I bring to delivery?" says your God.
OK-so I know he's talking about the nation of Israel BUT He makes a good point...He hasn't taken me all this way for nothing! :) We're gonna have this baby any day!
Here are a few prego pictures in the nursery to tide you over! ;)

Indianapolis Colts Women's Clinic 101 -beginners

Ryan & I made a friendly wager on the results of Super Bowl XLI and happily…I WON! Per our bet, Ryan had to pay to send me to a clinic run at the Colts practice facility for women who want to learn the basics of football.
Last night my friends Libby and Laura joined me for four workshops hosted by Colts players, alumni and an NFL official.
Former tight end, Geneo Riley, lead an interactive session on the practice field that covered; terminology regarding the offense & defense and line-ups. The best part was watching a lady in her 90’s play the role of Marvin Harrison beautifully! They gave us laminated cards (aka cheat sheets) with details & pictures of all the positions and their responsibilities. Libby & Laura even got “drafted” to play mock defense!
THEN we met with alumni wide receiver, Darvell Huffman, who covered the breakdown of teams within the two conferences, how schedules are created and the importance of the bye week. He basically told us that a group of men decide all those things over mai tais in a warm location somewhere every year. Hmmm….
THEN we met with Colt’s practice QB #9, Josh Betts, and Defensive Back #33, Melvin Bullitt. They were SUPPOSED to cover general team information: the roster (who makes up the team, how many players in each position, etc), other members of the team & their roles (practice squad, IR, PUP, etc) and game day info (uniforms, coin tosses, scoring, etc). They did talk a fair amount about the practice squad, who dresses for the game, and their uniforms. They also answered questions about how jersey numbers are chosen/given, if they like wearing the tight pants, how they stay motivated when they know they’ll most likely sit on the bench all year, and what actually goes on under a pile. Apparently there IS a lot of pinching, biting, pulling and kicking. Darvell said that whatever you can do to get someone to let the ball go, you’ll do it. He said his coach offered the guys $1,000 to whoever could turn over the ball to him. They were funny guys and gave us a good insight into life as a player in the NFL.
Finally, we returned to the practice field to meet with NFL official, Mark Baltz. He has been in with the NFL for 19 years and is the head linesman. Libby, Laura and I got to get on the field and pretend to be officials…I was the “back judge”! I can’t imagine how scary it’d be to see an offensive line rushing towards you!
The questions to Mark Baltz were pretty funny. They included questions about if the yellow “flag” would hurt if it hit you and general confusion about the fact that not every player tackles another player every play! J
There were people from all over the state and even one from Minnesota. There were younger girls that looked very athletic, girls my age that were dressed super cute (possibly wanting to meet players?) and LOTS of older women (60s-90s). Most everyone wore Colts gear and I think that everyone enjoyed it. I know I did!

Colts Women's Clinic 101 (for beginners)

Ryan & I had a friendly waiger



After Ryan's team, the Chicago Bears, lost to the Indianapolis Colts