Baby Adley is here!

Hello young world!!!!   Baby Adley finally hit the world stage last Wednesday (8/12/2015), being ripped out of her mother's stomach at 11:14am  and weighing in at an impressive 7 lbs 13 oz, 20.5 inches!!!  

And this time Daddy Kemp got to see it all happen live!!  For Hudson's birth, I had a big ol' blue screen blocking my view and was reprimanded for trying to push it away.   Not this time....I was given front-row access.  Woo hoo!!!   Lots of blood and other goo I have no idea what to call, and then all of a sudden a head popped out of Angela's stomach (which, for all you Total Recall fans, for a split second reminded me of Kuato!!).  Adley was crying as loud as possible (and the doctors noted how healthy Adley's lungs were) and taken to the testing table, where she was cleaned up and aced her Wonderlich (or whatever test that they give babies) with flying colors!! 

Adley got a bath to get all the white goo off of her (which I don't remember Hudson having, but apparently all babies have when first being born).  They cleaned her up nice before handing her off to me.  And I'll admit, holding little Adley in my arms produced some sort of salty discharge coming out of my eyes.  I was taken aback, because for all the excitement of Hudson's birth, it did not elicit tears.  Maybe it was because I got to see Adley being born, or because having Adley, in some way, makes a "complete" family.  Or maybe it's just because I now had the sweetest, prettiest looking girl looking up at me.  It was all just overwhelming.   Adley, I am so sorry that watching you be born made me think of a weird sci-fi movie character when you first popped out!!!!  We love you!!!!  :-)

Although you wouldn't be able to tell from any of the pictures, Adley was/is the most alert baby I have ever seen.  Her eyes opened up almost immediately and she didn't seem tired or hungry at all.  She just wanted to look around and see what was going on.  Of course, once she did finally feed, it knocked her out and she's been just the perfect little baby girl - sleep, eat, pee/poop, repeat.   Can't ask for much better than that!!  Angela and I were totally prepping ourselves for another Hudson (i.e. a baby whose volume is set at level 11), but Adley is a complete 180° - the little girl just loves her sleep!!!  The first night, I think I got around 4 hours of sleep!  If the baby cried, I didn't hear her (I'm sure Angela did though).   Unfortunately, I had to sleep on an awful sofa, and when I woke up my lower back was in debilitating PAIN, which lasted all day and severely compromised my ability to be a helpful husband.   Not to make this about me - that's not my style - but I had to take Angela's bed, which was way more comfortable and I fell asleep holding baby Adley in that instead.  Thanks babe!!!  

Oh calm down.  Ang was taking a shower and please believe she kicked me out when she got done. 

On Day 2, we brought Hudson to the hospital to see his new baby sister.  He has been fascinated with "it" ever since, which is what Hudson calls HER.  We've tried to correct him many times, but as of now, he still looks at Adley as more of a toy than an actual sister!

Angela and I were looking at pictures the other day of Adley in the hospital and Adley a week old, and it is amazing how much babies change in so short a time frame.   I swear I think Adley gets cuter by the day.  Even Hudson can't get enough of his baby sister!   Every morning when he wakes up, he ruuuuunnnnnnss to mommy and throws his arms out in front of him and says "Mommy, I'ma hold it.  I'ma hold Addy."  He loves holding his little sister.  Even more, he's fascinated with touching and poking and prodding Adley - an eye here, a nostril there, or a rough tickling of the forehead that I can't imagine would feel in anyway uncomfortable!  That said, both he and Penny Lane are super protective of their little sister.  Whenever Hudson hears Adley cry, he'll run up to me or Angela, point to Adley and yell "Daddy.  Addy crying.  Come on!"  It's cute.  Penny Lane loves to get right in Adley's face and be on the verge of licking of her though never do so.  But you can tell she wants to so bad!!!

On her way to first doctor appointment, where everything checked out a-ok.  Adley is soooo tiny in that car seat!  Angela has a huge collection of obnoxiously big bows for her little head!!

We ended this week by taking Adley out for her first dog walk in the baby sling.  I know as parents we aren't supposed to compare children, but I can't help it....I still vividly remember us walking the dog in Humboldt Park w/ Hudson in a sling and him crying his lungs out the entire time.  He did eventually get better at it, but Adley mastered the sling like she's an old pro.  Never cried one peep the whole of the walk.  Woo hoo!  Hudson, mommy and daddy still love you lots though!!!!  

Until next time....

Moving on up and the Nursery

Angela here!  Hudson had another life change this past week.  I feel terrible because every two weeks something major happens to the kid.  First we took away the pacifiers.  Two weeks later we took away his crib.  Now he has changed rooms at daycare and is in with the "big kids."  And in one week, he'll have to share his parents with a new baby!  I'm freaking out over here!!  Luckily, my son seems to adapt well to change and is not as stressed out as his mama.  He does not ask for a paci anymore, he sleeps through the night and he won't get out of bed till we go get him.  Success!

 Now his new room at daycare is where they start to potty train, eek!  Every two hours, they line the kids up and place them on the potty.  And double eek - he's still in cloth diapers.  The teachers have not complained (yet) so I'm holding out to buy pull-ups.  But Hud seems excited about this new challenge and has actually successfully made the trip to the potty a couple times.  He's still young (according to the pediatrician and the baby blogs) to potty train, so we'll see how long the excitement lasts.  Chris keeps expressing daunting concerns of having two children in cloth diapers.  I keep telling him Pampers makes this awesome product called a disposable diaper, but he refuses to listen.

Another fun festival happened in good ole' Springboro last weekend.  The high school hosted a Family Fest with face painting, bounce houses, carnival rides, food and music.  So the entire crew headed out to embark on the chaos.  Hudson requested his blue sunglasses and I happily obliged...

 The boys got their face painted, so we had two Spidermen and one Batman....

Hudson was too short to ride the rides by himself, so Chris happily jumped in to help.  It was a good time for all! 

And with one week to go, we finally finished the nursery!!  Well, it was actually done over a week ago, with everything decorated and hung on the walls.  And then I decided the wall paint needed to change.  I would say it was a diva moment, but hear me out.  The walls were brown before.  Not really fit for a little princess.  I thought that if I kept adding enough purple, the dark walls would disappear and everything would be girly.  But that just wasn't happening.  So another Lowe's trip later, Chris painted the room light gray and it looks soooo much better.

 My crafty-decor wall, with some help from my craft expert, Lolly...

 And below are just SOME of her bows!  No I have not been on a shopping craze, as I have only bought two bows myself.  These are all awesome hand-me-downs from family and friends.  And she has another shoe box full of more bows!

We also had our last photos taken as a family of three.  Definitely bittersweet and crazy to think how fast time has flown by and how quickly things are about to change.  Chris is definitely more nervous about having a girl (aka, he's totally freaking out over here), but I know he'll rock out as a dad just like he did with Huddy.  And whether he likes it or not, he'll eventually get a grasp on all the accessories and dolls and glitter and all that sparkles that comes with having a little girl :)

Next week we become FOUR!!!