6 Week Checkup

Lauren now weighs 10 lbs and 8 oz. She turned 6 weeks yesterday! I can't believe how much she is growing and how fast time flies by! I'm loving being a mom!

Lauren's First Rodeo

I took Lauren to the Rodeo of the Ozarks when she was a month old. We met up with family and you can see they enjoyed her and she enjoyed the interaction from someone other than mommy! This was a good experience as it was probably the first time I had taken her out long enough to actually have to heat up a bottle. I just brought it cold and thought she would just eat it that way...but my sister helped me find some hot water to heat up the bottle and Lauren liked it much better that way! :-) She was really good and never fussed at all.

Lauren and Jackson

Our friends Kyle and Emily Coleman welcomed their little boy Jackson into the world while we were on vacation. Emily and Jackson brought us dinner one night and I had to get a photo of the two of them to look back on. Lauren and Jackson are 6 weeks apart and Lauren was almost 4 wks old in the photo so Jackson was almost 10 weeks old.

Lauren and Hayden

Our friends Chad and Christa Lawrence welcomed their baby boy Hayden just a few weeks after Lauren was born...I believe on the same day as our friends Jason and Lindsey Skarsten had their little girl Stella. Here is a photo of Hayden and Lauren at the hospital.

Lauren's Dr. Appt. at 3 weeks & 3 days

We took Lauren to the Pediatrician yesterday because only part of her umbillical cord fell off and what was left was all gooey and soft still. I didn't know if it was like an open sore or what, so we took her in and they put more stuff on it so that it would dry up. They weighed her and she now weighs 8 lbs and 9 oz!!!! That's crzay to me! She has gained over 2 lbs since we left the hospital 3 weeks ago yesterday! Just had to share the good news. :-)

Lauren and Kennon

Our friends Laura and Josh Teff welcomed their little (well big) boy Kennon Teff on June 15th. He and Lauren are 12 days apart. We visited them at the Teff home when Kennon was 4 days old. The funny part is it looks like Lauren was saying "hey you...I'm over here!" and Kennon was not having it at all! He was like "you're a girl...gross!". Hehe!

Lauren's Stats at 2 weeks old

Weight - 7.70#
Height - 20"
Head - 14.21

Lauren needed some help burping

At just a little over a week old, Lauren had some visitors and little Cole wanted to help burp her. Afterwards he gave her a kiss! Isn't it cute!!!!! Thanks Cole!

*Little did we know that Lori was pregnant with baby Kate at the time! :-)

Lauren finally arrived!

After 27 glorious hours of labor Lauren arrived happy and healthy on June 3! 6 lbs 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. She is wonderful and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Lauren's Arrival Story

After 27 ½ hours of labor, we had our little angel. Here is our story…

At 4 a.m. on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 I awoke with a contraction. I got up and Kraig said, “Are you ok?” and I said, “I think I just had a contraction.” He said “well, they told us to just go back to sleep if we can”, so that’s what we did. I woke up every once in a while with contractions so I started timing them and by 7 a.m. I could not sleep anymore. I got up and took a shower just in case it was the real thing. The contractions were not that strong, but were every 15 minutes. Throughout the day they got closer and stronger. By 2:30 p.m. Kraig and I were ready to speed up the process so we went walking around our neighborhood. By 3:00 p.m. they were 5-6 minutes apart. We went in the house and they didn’t stop so we went to the hospital to see if we were actually in labor or if we were experiencing Braxton-hicks contractions. The hospital monitored us for 4 hours. I was dilated 2 cm and my contractions were regular, however after 2 hours of walking, I was not progressing so they sent us home at 7:30 p.m. but said that they would probably see us again later that night. They were right! Kraig and I left the hospital and went to Shogun to take home some dinner. After we ate I laid down in bed and slept for 1 hour and woke up at 9 p.m. with the most pain I had felt all day so I knew something was going on. I didn’t want to go back to the hospital afraid they would send us home again, but after a few minutes of monitoring my contractions, we realized they were about 2-3 minutes apart. The pain was much more intense, so much so that I wanted to cry! With a little persuasion from Kraig, we decided to go back to the hospital. At 10:30 p.m. they checked me and found that I was dilated to 4 cm and checked us into room #23. They said “earlier you didn’t have an I’m in labor face…now you have that face, so we are going to keep you!” I was excited because I knew that meant that I could get an epidural! To my surprise they had to do lab work before I could get it and the anesthesiologist had to do a stat C-section, so I had to wait until 1:30 a.m. (2 ½ hours) to get my epidural and by this point I had dilated to 5 cm. Thank goodness for the Lamaze classes because without those I think I would have lost it and would not have been able to control the pain like I did. I felt much better after the epidural but was exhausted since I had been up since 7 a.m. (except for a 1 hour nap). Kraig and I both slept until 3:30 a.m. (2 hours) at which the nurses checked me and found I was dilated to 8 cm! We called our parents to let them know our progress and told them they didn’t need to rush up to the hospital, but they did anyway! At 6 a.m. I was dilated to a 9 but Lauren's heart rate kept dropping, so the nurses said "lets start pushing and see if we can get that last cm out of the way" so we began pushing. Kraig and I were excited to meet Lauren! After 1 ½ hours and a few different labor positions due to Lauren’s heart rate dropping multiple times, Lauren finally arrived, perfect as could be at 7:23 a.m. on June 3, 2007! The interesting part was that after all that pushing, Lauren actually arrived by me laughing! Kraig was talking to our Dr. about Las Vegas and how our Dr. had just been there on vacation and she saw all these people wearing chains and letting their chest hair hang out, etc...well Kraig started laughing and talking about how he would totally show his chest hair if he had any, but 'oh, it's just so bald' and that got us all laughing, which made Lauren finally pop out. (I think Kraig was a little excited and nervous at this point so he was just talking more than normal) Of course the Dr. was being nice and let things progress slowly so that I would be in the best shape possible after birth and I would like to thank her for that! My recovery was not that bad considering the hour and a half of pushing...so thank you Dr. Weathers! After Lauren arrived, Kraig cut the cord and we had our wonderful baby! She was beautiful with 10 tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes!
6/3/07
7:23 a.m.
6 lbs, 11 oz
20.5 inches long

-Kraig, Connie and Lauren Williams