Ten Things I Love About My Little Noah

So I saw that my friend Debbie made a post about all the things she loves about her Lisa.  I thought it was super cute so I decided to make one about Noah.  Noah is 3 1/2 months now and growing like crazy... or atleast it seems like it to me!  We will find out his stats in two weeks when he goes in for his 4 month check up!  So anyway, here it goes.

1) His big smile and sense of humor.  He looks like a total goober when he smiles like this.. and I love it! What a ham!

2) How chubby he is.  He was so scrawny when he was born, and now he is my little chunk!  Check out his cheeks... they're pretty impressive!

3) How well he sleeps.  We have really been blessed with a good sleeper.  He's been sleeping through the night since mid March and naps well during the day.  Some people ask if we even really have a baby in the car seat under that cover!

4) His big lips!

5) How well he travels on the airplane!  Noah has already been on six airplane rides!

6) How cute he is.. even when he's naughty!

7) How his little personality comes out during tummy time.  He really gets into The Biggest Loser!

8) His blonde hair.  Some may say he's bald.  But mom says he's blonde!

 9) His laugh.

10) Getting to spend every day at home with my little man!

Of course there are a million things I love about Noah, and I'm sure right after I publish this I will remember more or find more pictures that I wanted to post.  I just love Noah so much.  He is such a good-natured little boy, and we are so lucky to have him!  His baby blessing said that he is going to be an example to his future brothers and sisters, and I know he will be amazing!

Noah Bradley Kuykendall: Better Late than Never

Better late than never... describes the arrival of Noah Bradley Kuykendall and this post! Our sweet little boy was born January 10, 2012 (2 days past his due date) at 6:06 PM weighing 7 lb 3 oz and measuring 19 inches. It was a long awaited arrival that is for sure. The doctor wanted to induce labor once the due date had passed. After much contemplation on Katie's part, we decided to go ahead with an induction after the appointment with the doctor on the 9th.

Here is a quick account of Noah's arrival.. since I'm sure everyone is really just interested in pictures! We had to be at the hospital at 5 AM. Here are my final belly pictures that morning.

We arrived at the hospital on time and got right to business. Katie was put on an IV with antibiotics as soon as we arrived. About an hour later they started the pitocin (very mild dose). The nurse kept coming in asking if Katie wanted her epidural, but she said no. She was uncomfortable, but not in pain. At 11:30 the anesthesiologist came in to interview Katie. When she said she would wait for the epidural he asked how far along she was. We had no idea as she hadn't been checked since before they started the pitocin. The nurse came in and guess what.. NO PROGRESS. That was very discouraging for Katie. The nurse recommended they break Katie's water to try and get things moving. Katie was hesitant, but after talking with her sister Meghan and her doctor she decided to do it. They gave her the epidural first and within 15 minutes she had progressed another cm and effaced almost to 100%! Katie progressed about 1 cm an hour until about an 8. Then she started to progress faster.

Honestley I couldn't believe how it went. I felt nothing. I didn't even know when I was having a contraction. A little after 5 PM I let Brad know that I started to feel different... not really an urge to push.. but something was definitely different. The nurse came in to check me and I was a loose 9. She had me give one push and I was to a 10. She then called the doctor to see if he wanted me to wait until Noah dropped more or begin pushing. We had the go ahead so I pushed one contraction a little after 5:30 PM. Unfortunately, during the last push of the contraction I felt like I was going to burp.. but.. I threw up. I threw up like 5 times.. and it was straight green apple jolly rancher lollipop mixed with ice chips. It was neon green, but at least it was the most pleasant smelling throw up you could ask for. I then had to get cleaned up and put in a new robe. So by about quarter to five or a little after I was finally ready to go again just as the doctor showed up. I pushed for about five contractions and baby Noah was born at 6:06 PM. It was the most amazing moment of my life when they placed that little guy on my chest. I just love him so much.

After he was born we had 1 hour to bond with Noah in the delivery room before he headed to the nursery and I headed to the recovery room. It was such a weird feeling to be with him and Brad and then taken away all by myself to the recovery room. I was there for 2 1/2 hours before they wheeled me down to the mommy/baby room. Since I was Group B positive they kept Noah under observation for an extra 3 hours. So Brad and I finally ate in the mommy/baby room, and Noah joined us around midnight.

We stayed two nights in the hospital because the pediatrician wanted Katie to have more time with help for getting the hang of nursing. We are really glad we stayed the extra day. We felt so loved by everyone. Margo and Randy brought us a much needed pizza and TONS of drinks and all of Brad's and Katie's families were asking for updates and giving encouragement throughout the day. Tiffany and Micah had flowers delivered to the labor/delivery room, and Western Tech sent us this cute arrangement.

Welcome to the world baby Noah!

The Newest Addition to the Kuykendall Family

We are very excited to announce that we are expecting our first child January 8, 2012! This first picture is our ultrasound at 14 weeks! It is so awesome! We could not be happier or more excited about it. We have had a lot of changes in our lives recently, and this is by far the absolute best!

Brad finished his MBA at University of Utah in May, and Katie finished her PhD at BYU in the middle of June. A few short weeks after that we headed on down to El Paso, Texas. Brad started work on Monday and has been keeping busy all day long. We have a lot of plans coming up and are excited for all of our trips.

This weekend we will get to go to Tucson for Madison's birthday party. An added bonus will be for Katie to get to see her old roommate Cassy! Katie also has a trip planned to Austin in the beginning of August to see Jo and the kids, and Brad just found out he has a business trip to Austin around the same time. We fly back to Utah together for Katie's graduation August 10-14, and Katie will fly home with mom and dad to Pittsburgh for two weeks. So, needless to say, we have a busy month ahead of us! Hopefully, all of these trips will actually get us to blog more than once a year. :)

Cade turns 5!

This weekend we went to Cedar City to visit Autumn and Drew and the boys for Cade's birthday. It was a ton of fun. We got down there Friday night just in time for cake and ice cream. We gave Cade an Iron Man mask that we hope he loved. Saturday we had Cade's favorite breakfast (chocolate pancakes!), and then we all went bowling together. While Cade was at his friend's birthday party we watched the BYU game... VERY DISAPPOINTING. Ugh.. but that's a whole other blog post in itself. Saturday night we went to the SUU football game against San Diego. We all learned what a terraro? is... apparently, it's a matador. Although Brad and Drew served in Hondurus and Chile and neither had ever heard of it. Go figure. Here are some pictures from the trip. Note: The first picture of Jake was not from our trip; however, it was so stinkin cute we stole it from Autumn's camera! :)

Cade had an awesome Spider man cake.

Cade and jake just being cute as usual.

We hardly ever take pictures of ourselves. So when we do, we post all of them. Enjoy these two slightly different shots of the same thing. :)

Cade was a champ at bowling, and even Jake got to bowl by himself with the ramp.

Overall it was just a fun and relaxing weekend for us. Now we are back to school (yuck). We will try to be sure our next post is less than 15 months from this one. :)

California Adventure

We had a lot of fun last month in California. We first drove down from Sacramento to San Diego. We stopped at Sequoia National Forest and Six Flags Magic Mountain. We also got to see where Randy (Brad's dad) grew up. It was a lot of fun. We rode the most insane roller coaster called X2. Neither of us have ever felt so scared for our lives on a roller coaster before. After our own little mini vacation we met up with Brad's family for the reunion. We stayed at an AMAZING beach house in Oceanside. The week was so much fun, and we just enjoyed getting to be with everyone. Here are some pictures from our trip!

We tried to eat at this diner but it was closed. They used to have the best homemade ice cream.

Brad's grandparents old house.
Us inside one of the sequoias.
General Sherman.
In the forest.

Our "family" pictures from the reunion.