To swaddle, or not to swaddle...

So Afton has been fighting the swaddle, but when she's not wrapped up she only sleeps for an our or two vs. two or three. The below video shows the swaddle struggle with her cute wiggly arm. It's impossible because as soon as we wrap her up and she realizes she can't move her arms she goes crazy and gets super mad..I decided finally it's just not worth the struggle so I'm trying to ween her off the swaddle status, but that's meant that she's up in only 1.5-2 hours each night and I'm getting NO sleep. Hopefully she'll get used to it soon. I'm down for your thoughts - Mom's who know what to do about this- help a sister out! The other exciting development in this month old baby girl is that she's getting WAY bigger and wearing lots of clothes now, things that say 3 months fit her! It's so cute, as illustrated in these pictures. Enjoy!

Afton in Action!

We had a special request from my sweet niece Karina for more video of Afton since she's watched the old ones at least 50 times. Afton is so flattered Karina! Here's a cute one of her and Pops when she's kind of ticked off. And just for fun a picture me and the babe on Fathers day. I don't have a picture of this, but on Fathers day she shot out a massive pooh on daddy- shot it like a rocket and it went everywhere. Poor Dad!

Growing and Shrinking

Our little lady looks chubbier every time she wakes up! It's so fun to see her grow, especially knowing that as she grows I shrink, I gotta say, I'm really loving that whole situation. I've lost 33 pounds!! And I still have about 20 more to loose, but I'm not mad at how things are going considering I can't even exercise for a while. I posted a cheese-ball picture of me, of course I would prefer to post one of me and the babe, but whenever we are both awake I'm at least halfway undressed so it never works out to have us both in a picture. Afton is a maniac eater, she's hungry hungry all the time and she's a SUPER pooper - it's not uncommon to have to change her 3 times in a feeding! She is really into her arms and legs right now, she's always raging them around like crazy, it's really cute. You can see in one of these pictures how it looks like she's leading music, we kind of love it. She has a thing for Daddy as you can see in this picture of the two of them, she was totally fussing and freaking until he held her and she always calms down for him....unless she's demanding the boob of course. We can't believe how much she grows every day and we need to get some more video soon to catch some of the crazy facial expressions she's doing, it's seriously too cute for words. Man, what a lame post, no good jokes! Okay all, gotta go! - I'm being summoned..

Big Beautiful Baby

Afton is a dream girl! Yea, she had decided the sleep 3-4 hours thing is not for her and is now down to about an hour and a half to two....unless of course it's the middle of the day, she's almost at three this minute! Crazy little lady, I can't believe how much cuter she is every single time I see her - it's just unreal. One thing you'll notice about these new photo's is that the girl does not wear clothes, in my assessment, why bother. She needs to be skin on skin to stay awake while feeding (she has what our lactation consultant calls a "lazy suck") and she has to be swaddled in a receiving blanket to fall asleep. Not to mention her other new thing is to pooh pretty much constantly, I mean sometimes 3 times in a feeding. She's a super pooh monster.....what's the point of even a onsie ya know? She has been clothed a few times, but those are the times she quickly aims her pooh as far outside her diaper as possible, impressive really. We went to the doctor yesterday and she is 97% for height and and 83% for weight! The doctor commented multiple times on how cute she was and went on and on about her strong neck, long toes and super healthy perfect skin. Plus - she's just barely short of her birth weight again. Our little love girl is thriving, and anxious to meet you. Before long I will be wearing clothes and make-up again and ready for guests. I keep thinking I will get a chance to go visit Burton to show her off, but we're still dialing in our schedule so it might be a minute. More pictures coming soon!! - maybe even one with me in it now that I've lost almost 28 pounds. I will just say I LOVE not being pregnant - there are bones in my ankles and I'm beginning to recognize myself again - it's really really great. No more barfing when I bend over!

Benito Juarez.....

I just have to say a few things about my sweet sweet bird - it's quite sad really, but this gorgeous creature that has been so loved with such genuine concern (despite his frequently ungrateful attitude) will never love in quite the way he has been loved. Of course I still love Benito, but as I ate breakfast the other morning and he walked around our patio table trying to find a corner to dig in and destroy it, I shed a tear for the new place he holds in my heart. How could he not respond to this? How have the rest of you successfully added a human life to a family that previously had existed of 2 plus an animal? He's been pretty weird to me this week for sure, and maybe he will adjust, who knows, but I can't help but worry for him as I am now so much less worried for him. We were driving home from church a few weeks ago and smelled smoke so Justin joked that 20 Springflower is up in flames...my first thought was Benito, and my second thought was our snowboards. Life is very different now from a few weeks ago.

Little Afton at 3 days old!!

Afton Grace King

Contractions started at 4:00 a.m. late Saturday night. After getting so excited I had to jump up and down in celebration of the pain I'd been waiting for....which broke my water, we arrived at the hospital about 5:45. Labor lasted until 3:45 a.m. Monday morning when after lots of pushing and being at a 10 for 4 hours it was clear that this baby needed to come out and was not cooperating, so we went to the OR and Afton Grace King was born at 4:22 a.m. June 1st. She was 9.2 lbs, 21 1/2 inches long and her head was 36 centimeters around! These things make me somewhat grateful for her decision to stay inside. She's been very hungry and adorable and all has not gone as planned, which was really always my plan, because with things like this they never do. I've been totally unavailable, and I will continue to not call back or answer my phone a few more days- I'm SO SORRY! I'm just on zero sleep and any energy I have is for this baby right now. Soon I'll be back in touch, and I very much appreciate all the understanding on that.

I'm so in love that I can't look at this girl for too long or I start crying - it's like nothing else, and we just can't believe that she's ours. I wish there was a way to share with you all her incredible expressions and noises - we are so taken with her it's ridiculous! This week has been rough, but even when I'm on just an hour and 20 minutes sleep all night, and she's crying, and I can't stop crying, and my milk hasn't come in so I can't do a thing to get her full and I'm in pain all over and drugged up and hating it, I smile when I look at her, I can't even help it! These pictures hardly show the mircacle that is Afton, but hopefully they are a small window into the magic of this sweet baby girl.