Wednesday, December 22, 2010

.015

Today Audrey is 2 months old! I can't believe how fast time has passed. She has grown so much since birth and can do a lot of cool things now. Her talents include holding her head up (90% of the time), sitting in her Bumbo chair (which requires head stability that she is still working on), she rolled over (three times!!), and most importantly she sleeps at least 6 hours through the night (sometimes more)!!! So, her skills are not perfection but she is doing so great. We are really proud and excited for these small milestones.
My friend Jenny takes a photo of her daughter every month to show how much she's grown and I love this idea so I thought I would do it with Audrey. We missed the first month but we will start today with month two.



Audrey in her Bumbo chair



Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with Christine and Peter because they will spend the holiday in California with Matt's Grandpa Pappas. Christine cooked a delicious dinner of stuffed chicken breast, yams, salad, green beans and a double chocolate bread pudding for dessert! After dinner we sat around the tree and opened presents. I wish I took more photos but this is all I have from the day...

Audrey's morning bath


Playtime with Uncle Alex


Audrey hanging out with the boys



Daddy love



It was such a nice day. There are a lot of fun things ahead this weekend, I can't believe Christmas is already here!

Monday, December 20, 2010

.014

Okay, I simply couldn't resist. I had fun today with Matt's awesome professional camera (Cannon 7D) and took this collection of photographs of our dear Audrey.








Grandma Christine and Audrey




Audrey looks so cute in her punk rock hat!



So tired and so cute.


This is a video I took of Audrey a few days ago. She smiles and laughs so much it's the most adorable thing I've ever seen. And she has the cutest dimples!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

.013

Audrey is my favorite person in the world.

I love spending my days (and nights) with her & I'm really feeling the mother/daughter bond everyone told me about. It's funny how for 9 months I heard story after story of other mother's experiences with their baby and don't get me wrong it was wonderful to hear but it really means nothing until you experience it for yourself. And now that I am, I totally get it! Audrey is
SO much fun & probably the happiest baby I have ever met. It definitely helps when I'm woken up at 4am for a feeding and I reach into the crib and as soon as Audrey sees me she stops crying and smiles up at me.

I really enjoy the time right after she's eaten and had a diaper change and we just sit looking at each other smiling and laughing. She has now started to respond to us talking to her with her cute little "coos". I love her blossoming little personality.

This week has been a lot of different things. It has been painful, exciting, fun, busy, and exhausting. Let's start with painful...
On Wednesday I had 2 wisdom teeth pulled. They were both grown in and I had enough room for them but unfortunately they both had cavities. I put off visiting the dentist until I wasn't pregnant anymore and so the time came to have them pulled. It wasn't as bad as I always anticipate (even though I've had like 9 teeth pulled before) but it's never a good time. Matt was working all week so Peter took me to the appointment while Christine cared for Audrey. When I got home I was a little groggy but I felt well enough to bake Matt's birthday cake. Which brings us to the exciting part of the week... we celebrated Matt's 28th birthday on Friday December 17th! Unfortunately he was working that day but we were able to sing to him and eat cake, and took him out for a Sushi dinner.

On to the fun part of the week, Audrey at 8 weeks old
ROLLED OVER for the very first time. Now mind you, this most likely is a fluke (even though we are certain Audrey is a prodigy child) because we haven't seen it happen again since BUT the best part is I just so happened to be filming her when she did it! So here it is.

Listen for the cute little squeal she lets out as she's rolling over.





As I mentioned before Matt has been working all week which is where
busy comes in. He has worked on many different things including a pilot for a local woman starting her own Martha Stewart-ish show, an Mtv2 show filmed at the raceway & HGTV's Celebrity Holiday Homes where he got to spend two days at Kurt Warner's home here in Phoenix. Matt has been working so hard these last two weeks with extremely long hours and not a day off! For him, this week has been exhausting.

Here are some fun photos taken this weekend of Audrey, of course.

This is a winter hat I found at a local childrens consignment shop called Hissyfits




Audrey & I are pretty hip.




My good friend Taylor came over for lunch on Sunday




We ended the night with a stroll in the park using my new Baby Bjorn that both Audrey & I really enjoy. That was an almost full moon behind us.


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

.012

I have to admit our blog has been neglected. Our last post was about Audrey's birth and she is now 2 months old! It seems that time flies even faster when you have a baby. So with that realized, my new years resolution is to blog more often in 2011.

I will try my best to fill you in on the last two months, although a lot has happened.

The first few weeks of Audrey's life were precious and so happy & exciting for Matt and me. I was so grateful of the help I had from my mother along with Matt and his parents while recovering from the birth. Halloween was low key this year, Audrey was only 9 days old so my sister Natalie came over and we carved pumpkins, drank hot cocoa and watched Hocus Pocus. My mom came to visit for Audrey's birth and stayed for almost 3 weeks which was such a great help. She was extremely sad to leave but looked forward to our visit to Chicago in just two short weeks after she left.
The next 2 weeks were hard for me because I struggled with breastfeeding and was feeling very defeated. I was determined to make it happen and was not willing to give up! Unfortunately we weren't able to have a consult with a lactation specialist during our stay in the hospital due to the fact Audrey was born on the weekend so we decided to meet with a woman who runs her own breastfeeding business from her home and it was extremely beneficial to us. There are many reasons I did not want to feed Audrey formula so I was excited to finally nurse her successfully.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave for Chicago to visit my family for Thanksgiving. I was given a lot of helpful advice for flying with a newborn and Audrey was absolutely wonderful. I nursed her during take off and she slept the rest of the way, I was proud of her. You wouldn't have known there was a newborn on board.

Chicago was pretty cold but we were blessed with gifts of warm clothes for Audrey, we might have even over-dressed her at times ha ha.


And my favorite...

The main purpose for our trip to Chicago was to introduce Audrey to her 93 year old great-grandmother. It was such an amazing thing to see Grandma hold Audrey and interact with her. Although Grandma is doing well, we know at her age her days with us are numbered and I can't explain just how special it was to me for them to meet.


We were also able to spend a lot of time with friends & family whom we miss dearly. There were so many people and places we wanted to see while in Chicago which made it a bit overwhelming at times, especially it being the week of Thanksgiving. I think the whole city was chaotic. It was quickly learned that making plans & having a newborn do not blend well. We did the best we could to see everyone and really enjoyed our time in Chicago but it felt good to come home to our "normal" everyday routine. Something exciting that happened recently was getting to see Audrey smile! She is such a happy baby and now smiles & laughs all the time. It is such a beautiful smile.



Since being home from our trip life has settled down a bit. Matt has been working everyday which has been great. He has worked on so many different movies/tv shows/commercials it's hard for me to keep up! I pretty much ask him everyday, "where are you going today?" I think he enjoys the ever changing schedule, how could someone get bored of a job that is different everyday! However we look forward to a break in work for the holidays so we can spend time together as a family, just the three of us.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

.011

As many of you guys know, our daughter, Audrey Sophia Kyhn, was born on October 22 at 9:26 in the morning. We are so excited to have this beautiful little girl in our family. Thank you so much for sharing the excitement with us, for all your gifts, and all your thoughts and prayers. We have talked to many of you in person or over the phone and have loved sharing all the stories that go along with the birth.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

.010

Today was my last ultrasound before baby Audrey gets here. Grandma Christine came with which was so nice. Dr. Shah said that everything looks great and she is right on track with growth and development as she should be. He showed us that Audrey's head is already half way in my pelvic bones which means she is on her way out, head first. Awesome! The chance of her turning is slim since she is running out of room in there so hopefully she stays the same through the next few weeks. He also showed us the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding her and said that when my water does break, it will be quite a bit of water so I will definitely know! That makes me feel a little more settled since I was nervous about not knowing. We listened to Audrey's heartbeat which is a strong 150bpm and she weighs about 4 lbs. Dr. Shah said that she should be about 7.5 lbs at birth which is average, but because of my petite size if she is any bigger it could be more difficult to deliver. We talked a little about cesarean sections and epidurals and when I said I wish for the most natural birth possible he said he is right on board with that. I think we chose a great doctor and I am feeling more and more comfortable knowing he will be delivering our little baby girl.

Audrey's nursery is coming along really nicely and I wanted to share some photos of how it looks so far.

This is what you see right when you walk in the door.


To the left a little is a bed for us to take a nap while Audrey is napping.


Her changing station which isn't finished yet, soon to be filled with diapers!!


Audrey's crib :)


Her closet so far, I love all of her tiny clothes.

Matt & I are so very excited and can't believe she's almost here!! Everyday I tear off a paper link and watch how much we get closer and closer to holding our baby Audrey!

peace and love,
Cydney & Matt

Friday, August 20, 2010

.009

What a day! Tonight we started with the first of five birthing classes at the hospital where our daughter will be born. We spent three hours with a handful of couples learning all about the birthing process and what to expect.

It was a little overwhelming. So much of our natural instinct is to avoid physical pain. Even though we are so excited to meet our little girl, the threat of pain lingers.

There was one woman that did not have a significant other with her. As we practiced breathing exercises with our partner she slipped into the hallway; a tear streaming down her cheek. We feel for you girl. We couldn't imagine having to to do this alone and are so happy to have each other.

Today we finished our 31st week of pregnancy.



Almost there little one. We can't wait to meet you.