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Long before Kayden was even a twinkle in our eye, Scotty and I were negotiating terms of our first child. He said that when he had a child he wanted to get a really nice camera so that he could document everything. This was something I of course agreed to. Let’s see, a child for a camera… I think I’ll take it! On October 24, 2009 I took a pregnancy test because I was having hot flashes and ravaging the kitchen as soon as I walked in the door from school. I immediately saw the second line and called Scotty to tell him I thought might be pregnant. He came home, researched the pregnancy test to confirm the validity of it and confirmed I was in fact pregnant. Right after he researched the pregnancy test he bought the camera!! What that heck?! I thought I had to have the child in order for him to get the camera! Wrong!! Anyway that same day we became owners of a new Canon camera. Sorry Scotty, I don’t know the model or the stats!! Anyway just this weekend I decided I needed to learn how to use the camera. Today I took way too many pictures of Kayden and managed to capture many smiles! Not too bad for my first time!!

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This weekend has been one filled with low-key family time. On Friday Scotty and I decided to head up to Yorba Linda for the night. We enjoy spending time with Mimi and Grampy, but we also really enjoy having a date night. We can’t complain really because when we take Kayden to dinner she sleeps through it so it’s as if we are alone anyway. But there’s just something about having a little bit of time to ourselves. Thank you to the grandparents for making this happen for us!

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We spent Saturday up with my parents and decided to give them their alone time with Kayden- they kept nudging us out the door! We went and saw the movie Dinner with Schmucks, to which Scotty walked out of half way through. I guess I can officially say I’ve seen a movie by myself at the theaters! He doesn’t like awkward humor, so why he agreed to see a Steve Carell movie is a mystery. Well it’s not actually; he went to see it because he knew I really wanted to see the movie! 🙂 After the movie was over we headed back to my parents’ to check on the baby. My parents wondered why we were home so early so we fed the baby and headed out to lunch!

After a relaxing night at my parents’ we headed home on Saturday. I drove home while Scotty watched the first preseason Charger game from his laptop in the backseat. Why the backseat? Because he needed to be on hand in case Kayden needed him during the trip home! What a great dad!! The trip that usually takes 1 hour took 2 last night! Why, California, are you ALL heading to San Diego on a Saturday evening?!

Today Scotty and I have spent the day catching up on the things that pile up throughout the week. He put several items up on eBay to be sold and I am currently on load #3 of laundry! Kayden is sleeping in her swing dreaming sweet dreams! Ahh the simple things in life!

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The latest thing that we are working on with Kayden is self-soothing. We read about it in books, we hear about it from friends, and we discuss it with doctors. An infant has to learn how to self-sooth so that they don’t rely on the parents to calm them down. This isn’t something they should be doing from birth, but around 2 months old they suggest that you begin to teach babies the strategies they need to sooth themselves. This is tied to a baby’s sleep cycle and how they naturally wake up every 60 minutes to change cycles. Anyway, this is a real challenge for me. As any mother can attest, hearing her baby cry is very difficult. Miss Kayden is no exception. Hearing her cry makes me want to cry, not to mention it brings my milk! I am getting better about knowing which cry is real and which cry is ‘Come on mom, just pick me up already!’ When there are tears, I can’t get to her fast enough. I think she is starting to work me though!
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[simage=661,144,n,left,right]Well wouldn’t you know it. She just worked me during this post! I had her in the swing and she seemed happy enough. She is learning to watch her mobile and she’s getting better keeping the soothie in her mouth (but she’s still pretty bad!). All it takes though is one smack to the face from one of her seemingly independent arms to ruin everything! Scotty is upstairs sleeping and since he has to get up at 4:00 am, I figure he doesn’t want nor deserve to listen to a screaming infant. So needless to say we are in the “infant stage” of teaching this infant how to self-soothe.

Quick sleeping update:
We have reached or pattern! I get up twice a night- 12 am and 3 am for about 35 minutes. I average about 8 hours of sleep in 3 hour increments. From what I read (Baby 411) we are right on track for a normally developing baby!
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Today was another uneventful day at the Hatcher home. This evening we went to dinner with Papa and Mimi one final time before Papa heads back to the East coast. We went to El Torito. Kayden had to go on a few walks with Papa because she was not interested in sitting in her car seat Overall she did great though! We are being more and more adventurous about taking her out. This time we went to a real restaurant and didn’t bother anyone! I know this will all change when she’s a toddler and has louder screams and there are things to get into! So we’ll take it all in while we can! Kayden will miss her Papa, but with his new iPhone she’ll be able to Face Time with him and do a little iChat on the Mac. Face Time is talking on the iPhone and seeing the face of the person you are talking to. iChat is an instant messaging system where you can turn the cameras on and just talk face to face- like Skyping I guess. Scotty obviously didn’t help me with the explanation of each, so I’ll be doing some editing of this post if I got it all wrong!! Either way, technology will definitely keep us all close!!

Here is Kayden doing what she does best… look adorable!!

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Kayden and I had a great day today. We started our day purging her armoire of all of her new born clothes. I did get a little sad taking clothes out of the drawers because they were too small. Then I remembered that some babies never even fit in new born clothes because they are born exceeding the weight limit! Kayden is now wearing 0-3 month clothing. She is packing on the pounds and actually has folds in her arms and legs. I love it! She was born weighing in at 6 pounds and 1 ounce and went home at a mere 5 pounds 9 ounces. I have nearly doubled her weight since then! Most babies, from what I read, double their weight by 4 or 5 months of life. Not Kayden! She is 2 pounds away from doubling her weight at 2 months.
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After we cleaned out her “baby” clothes we went for a run at the beach. Today was such a beautiful day and all of the locals and tourists were on the sand by 10:00 am! We weaved through the crowd and had a great morning stroll. After her bath I was changing her diaper and noticed that she thinks it’s funny when she has a poopy. Only when she has a poopy diaper can I get her to consistently smile. I know what you’re thinking, “It’s gas!” But it’s not! I use this annoyingly high pitched voice and I tickle her. I get the biggest smiles. I hope to capture these big smiles on camera soon. Until then, here are the rest of today’s photo shoot. We are also experimenting with uploading video so stay tuned for that!
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