Myla's 3 week update!

Well Myla is officially 3 weeks old and we are...thriving??? I don't know about thriving but we're definitely surviving:) Last week Myla had her checkup that showed she is steadily gaining weight, weighing in at 8 pounds which the pediatrician was thrilled about. She lost her belly button, still loves to cuddle, and we're working on her schedule which is a bit tough for all of us but we know in the long run is what's best for all of us. She is quite the popper too...she pooped on my face over the weekend and last night all over our bed; sorry for the details but she's a projectile popper! It's actually quite amazing what she is capable of doing:)

This past weekend was CRAZY...Andy did his first ever half marathon and he rocked it! He ran it in just over 2 hours which is an amazing pace for someone in general, let alone someone who is only getting 4 hour increments of sleep. The next day, Sunday, was my depute as children's choir director:) My choir which consisted of 45 kids sang 3 songs in church and thankfully it went really well. The weekend was literally crazy and none of us got enough sleep but thankfully my great friend Cori was visiting from San Diego and she was HUGE HELP! She took some feeding shifts so Andy and I were able to nap, she helped with Aves, etc. I was very sad to see her go...People have been bringing us meals which has been a huge blessing, we couldn't have done life so far without people's help so if that's you thank you thank you thank you!

While Myla is thriving, Avery is having somewhat of a tough time...she loves everything about Myla but is throwing horrendous fits including kicking, screaming, hitting, etc. We are learning how to handle them without killing her:) But it's sooooo exhausting! I know this was expected but it's still hard to deal with. Hopefully it is short lived and we'll learn to deal with it in the meantime! Here are some pictures:

The nursery half of the girls' room is really coming along! Kathy is doing an amazing job...

Myla's first visit to Pete's in Danville...she really liked the french fries;) This was when Kathy and Roger were still visiting, it was a great time!

Blue eyes are starting to shine through

Myla in the bouncy chair and Aves eating breakfast is how I sometimes have to get my shower in:)

Finally meeting Grand Greg and Grand Deb!

This is Myla but we have the exact same picture of aves:)

I've been trying to get to the park a lot to keep Avery entertained but she makes me so nervous on this thing!

This picture represents such a great moment! Myla started taking a bottle which is such a great break for me, it means I'm not solely responsible for every feeding:) This was her very first bottle, given by Daddy!

Another day at the park

I never thought I would be the mom to put the girls in matching outfits but these ones were from Nana and they are adorable! Not a good picture but somewhat representative of our lives:)

A beautiful picture taken by Cori! Look at that blonde hair and blue eyes!

Avery dancing

And more dancing...:)

Monday night

Monday night fun at the Koning's! we love dance parties...

Addendum...

So at the end of every nursing shift at Children's you have to write a nursing note (something of the past yes but for some reason we're still hand writing them, like on paper, in a real chart) and if you forget to write something but have already signed your name you simply write the word "addendum" and then add whatever needs to be added...therefore i'm "addenduming" my Myla Bea story, solely for dramatic effect and mainly (once again) for those that understand medical terms because in reading it, I realized I left out some drama:)

Addendum: During my first dramatic fainting episode, you know the one where they quickly put me flat, gave me oxygen, etc., they also gave me a 2 liter bolus of lactated ringers and promptly started a 2nd IV (this was done by some random nurse called into the room to help, she was in such a hurry she forgot to put on the T-connector so it really did us no good). Then came the bad news, they started a bag of pitocin. I begged and pleaded for them to stop it, but they insisted upon it saying that everyone got one, RUDE! I didn't believe them for a second:) But what could I do? I got 2 bags of that stuff...I hate pitocin. -----------------------------------Haley J. Koning, RN

And that's my whole addendum, hope you enjoyed;)

Brave parents:)

Well because Avery just loves Myla Bea so much we're trying to let her have some independence with the whole situation...as you can imagine it's somewhat difficult:) Here is a small snippet of letting Avery take care of Myla, enjoy and don't worry, we only let Avery carry her over carpet!

Myla bea and Avery

There isn't anything too exciting about this video but it was taken the day we brought Myla home from the hospital. Avery couldn't get enough of her:)

Miss Myla Bea

I know that all of you have been dying to hear the details of last Monday night/Tuesday morning so here goes, in all it's glory:

Monday night was like any other night, we skyped with Kathy and Roger, watched some TV, relaxed, etc. having no idea what that night would hold. I took a sleeping pill before falling asleep, as usual, but I woke up around 0245 with contractions. Unfortunately, I'd been having contractions for a while so I just ignored them. With every contraction, I'd make some noise, Andy would wake up, tell me to take deep breaths, and be snoring within a minute:) But, as I said, this has been our routine for a while now as I have had contractions for weeks. After about an hour of timing them, I woke Andy up for reals and updated him that they had been very strong for an hour and occurring every 8 minutes. So he woke up a little bit more and helped me breath through about another half hour of them. We then realized that these could be real so we slowly started packing our bags, toiletries, etc. I also started doing some laundry and making lists of things that Avery needed:) I signed onto my e-mail around 0415 to get the phone number for Kaiser and my sister started chatting with me! She was unable to sleep, as was I, so I told her I might be in labor at which point she started to get ready and head out this way (she lives about 45 minutes away). I then called my parents and told them to start getting ready and I called Kaiser to update them and let them know I was on my way. This is when pregnant/contracting Haley came out...the woman I spoke to on the phone at Kaiser instructed me to take Tylenol, hydrate, and take a warm bath. Then to call back when the contractions were closer. I was not a happy camper (as you can imagine) BUT I did what they said. I took Tylenol, drank a lot of water, and took a hot shower and boy was that the most horrific/painful shower of my life! I think it took me an hour just to get in, washed, out, and dressed because the contractions were so horrible. Thankfully my parents got there by then and my Mom helped me finish packing, and we went downstairs. At this point the contractions were every 4-5 minutes and we were getting a little anxious. My sister and Brian got to the house around 0600 (I was on the couch writhing in pain at this point) and we left for the hospital around 0615. My mom, sister, and Andy escorted me. I texted Chas and Kaitlin to let them know they should probably head on over to Walnut Creek.

After checking in they made us go to the triage area, this was the worst part. I was in a gown and an uncomfortable bed listening to the RN admit another patient who was laughing and clearly NOT IN LABOR! She was ignoring me...after about 30 minutes (it's now 0700, change of shift time for nurses, what was I thinking???) of being ignored in triage the nurse saw me have a contraction, panicked, decided she should check where I was at, checked and determined I was 9cm, panicked some more, called labor and delivery saying we were rushing over right then and there and pleaded with me to not push the baby out. She kept saying, "please tell me if you feel pushy". I laughed and told her I could walk but she made me ride on the gurney to L&D the whole way saying "don't push don't push don't push!".

Insert pause here...this is when it hit me. You see I've always been afraid of being "that girl" who goes into L&D thinking she's in labor only to find out she's 1cm dilated and days away from giving birth. But I had to pat myself on the back...I had labored to 9cm at home, how crazy! I was hoping she'd check me and say "yep you're 3cm" or something like that but wow, 9cm! I was pretty proud of myself AND happy they wouldn't be sending me home. However, while they were afraid I was going to push, I was afraid I wasn't going to get pain medicine, back to the story...

We got quickly wheeled into our delivery room where multiple nurses ware panicking getting the room set up; sterile packaging is being ripped open, things are being thrown, the poor nurse Christy who would be journeying with us through this process had just started her shift ten minutes prior to my arrival, I hate it when the beginning of my shift is crazy! One nurse started putting in my IV at which point they were desperately trying to read my chart (because they still hadn't admitted me:) and I informed them I was GBS positive (for those that don't know it's no big deal, just a little something about 20% of the population has and you have to receive IV antibiotics prior to giving birth to protect the baby from getting the infection). That sent them into another frenzy because they were panicked that I wouldn't get the antibiotics on time; I found this humorous. Call me crazy but their hecticness helped lighten the mood for me which in turn lessened the contractions. Throughout the craziness everyone kept telling me, "don't push, tell me if you need to push". To this I laughed, because of the dramatic birthing process I went through with Avery there was no way I was having a baby without an epidural...NO WAY! Everyone kept telling me there was no time and that the anesthesiologists were tied up in emergencies and wouldn't make it there on time. To this I responded, "Then I'm keeping my legs crossed, I will not have this baby without meds". For those in the medical field I was "that patient", the one we all hate to have. The one was was insistent upon something that at the time did not seem possible. But, I waited...I waited until I was able to be seen by an MD that could place the epidural. AND I was so determined to get it that I was able to sit still through multiple contractions and not move while they put it in. While I felt bad for being an annoying patient, it was all worth it when I went numb:) Also in this time my Dad and Bryan (Erica's husband) arrived with Avery, the whole family was there and for the time being, I was pain free!

About an hour and 30minutes after receiving the epidural my nurse thought we should check me again to see where I was at. I was 10cm and ready to go except that my water hadn't broken...

Insert pause #2 for those in the medical field again:) I was also wanting to wait because being GBS positive, if you only get one dose of antibiotics before the baby is born you have to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after the birth, if you get 2 doses in, you only have to stay 24 hours. I was determined to get 2 doses, my first dose was at 0715 which meant my next dose was due at 1115 BUT could be given 30 minutes early being at 1045 (and yes, once again I was that patient and reminded them they could give it to me 30 minutes early:) I'm such a bargainer, back to the story...

The midwife came in and decided it was probably time to break my water and have the baby (I didn't realize these two things went hand in hand!). Thankfully my parents and Avery had just returned from breakfast at the hickory pitt next door BUT my sister and bryan and just left...after a quick text to them to come back and them sprinting back, my midwife broke my water. Because I had shared my fears about child birth related to birthing Avery my midwife was awesome in that she really wanted to protect me from any tearing happening. After breaking my water, she told me to give a good practice push, then she quickly recanted and said, "okay, we're having this baby, stop pushing!" A NICU (neonatal intensive care) RN was called into the room because Myla had passed her first meconium in utero (can make the delivery higher risk if she aspirated the meconium while still in the womb) as well as my nurse, the midwife, an emergency prepared nurse, my mom, sister, brother, kaitlin, and Andy. Yes, it was a party, yes, that is how I like it. Less than 4 minutes of pushing later (with the midwife guiding me through, half a push here, a baby push there, etc.) and Miss Myla Bea was born. She came out with her hand squished to her face. Despite the fact that she looked so blue to me, she was perfect, agars 9 and 9! Everybody did their thing and the birthing process was over! She was born at 1049, weighed in at 7lbs. 10oz, 20 1/4 in. long.

While I didn't tear at all (WOW that is one amazing midwife) I did lose 2 liters of blood from 2 small lacerations that I had. Once again the midwife and nurse were a little panicked trying to get the bleeding to stop but they did and we thought I was in the clear. After about an hour or so they sat me up to feed Myla for the first time and oddly enough, I started feeling nauseated, got tunnel vision, ringing in my ears, etc. and tried to pass out. Once again, PANIC! Before I knew it I'm laying flat in the bed, oxygen is going, my midwife was rushing back into the room and my nurse was rubbing me saying, "are you still with us". I think I was, I was maybe out for a second or two but then came to. Scary, I don't like that feeling. They think it was just from losing all the blood so I just had to stay flat. AND I got a long lecture from my midwife on how I needed to rest for 2 weeks, staying in bed, etc. Anyone that knows me knows that that is not possible for me but it was a good lecture none-the-less:)

A few hours after the fainting moment we were able to bring Aves in to meet her sister, that was the most precious moment I have ever experienced. Avery held her, kissed her, rubbed noses with her, and constantly said, "I love you sister" and "I'm so happy" Wow, melt my heart! Everyone slowly left and around 3, after another fainting episode, I was wheeled to post pardem. The rest is a blur, we slept, we ate, we stayed awake to Myla crying, we changed a lot of diapers, we stayed awake to Myla crying, we had a lot of labs drawn, we stayed awake to Myla crying, and I took a lot of pain meds:) After one night in the hospital, I was ready to go home and thankfully, due to the fact that our Doctor was Meg's college roommate (Meg being Andy's sister) who andy knows well, we were able to go home Wednesday. My labs kept dropping, by the time I left my hemoglobin was 7.5, but they gave me some iron and sent us home (thank goodness!) Despite the fact that I was quite pale/dizzy/tired I was feeling just fine!:)

This past week at home has been a whirlwind, Andy is back at work, I'm exhausted but hanging in there, and Avery is crazy. Andy's Mom and Rog are visiting and taking Avery out every day which is such a blessing! Poor Myla already has 2nd child syndrome, we haven't even gotten out the real camera since we got home from the hospital! But we're using our phones to take pictures and so far they're turning out:) I'm attaching the link to all the pictures from the hospital...

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.671930045327.2132613.68602760&type=1&l=776f86da34

Sorry this turned into a novel, I know some of you care about the details and some don't, so hopefully those who like details are feeling satisfied:) More to come...

Monday Update!

Well I'm officially 39 weeks today...come on Myla Bea let's do this! We did discuss induction at my last appointment but Kaiser does not like to induce until a week past the due date, which is in 2 weeks...ugh! I can't imagine waiting that long BUT hopefully Myla will make an appearance on her own. Everyone in the family has a different preferred day, as for us we're just wanting it to happen:) As you saw from the video of Myla in my belly she is quite active. Last night I took a sleeping pill around 10pm but she was so active from 10:30-12:30am that I was up playing games to keep my mind occupied. Just getting me ready for when she comes I guess!

This past week has been CRAZY and we definitely over did it, including hosting people over at our house 3 out of the 6 past nights but now, other then Andy's work and getting ready, we have no plans until this baby comes! We keep telling her we're ready but clearly she's not...

To conclude our craziness we went over to meg and jim's yesterday to have a pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving. Meg did an amazing job preparing the meal and, as usual, jim did an amazing job entertaining Avery. We love how much fun Avery has at their house and how she is able to just run around like crazy! I shot a short little video of the running around with Uncle Jimmy and Grandpa, hope you all enjoy it!

We'll keep you baby updated and as always, your prayers are appreciated! Stay tuned...

Yo gabba gabba live again...

We had a little photo shoot before lunch...:)

Here is another video of a song she knew and showing that she was enjoying herself:)

This is what the stage looked like when we got there...

Here's our big girl after the show...look at her with her back-pack...so cute!

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

This past Saturday my parents, Andy, and I loaded up the van and headed to San Jose for the oh so exciting "Yo Gabba Gabba" concert. This was our present to Avery for Christmas as well as a "happy last week of being the only child" day. We spoiled her like crazy and it was really fun. We went out to lunch, let aves have a milkshake, then took her to the concert. While there we learned that Yo Gabba Gabba has quite a following! Kids had on all kinds of "gabba gear" including shoes, hats, sweatshirts, etc! It was crazy...Nana and Pop-pop got her a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and light up necklace thing (you'll see in the video). While she looked over stimulated most of the time, she loved it and talks about "gabba gabba live" daily. We're really glad we took her!

This first video is showing just how over-stimulated she was, ha ha.

Myla Bea at Large

This was all taken at one time within about 6 minutes but here are the highlights! I know it's romantic and all to watch the baby move, but also sooooo painful!:) Enjoy!

Drum Roll Please...

We're just chugging along! Officially less than 2 weeks away from our due date, feeling okay, and staying busy! In fact the next 6 days all officially have something planned for us to do, while it's exhausting it's good to keep my mind off of how uncomfortable I am:) Our next OBGYN appt. is Thursday so we'll see what the Dr. says...we need continued prayer that this baby will come in November because of some health insurance issues that we're having!

Avery is understanding more and more that her baby sister is in my belly, recently she brings toys, blankets, outfits, etc. up to my belly and says, "look sister!" it's probably the cutest thing ever, she is so excited! she also wants to help with everything and test out all of baby #2's toys. Andy thinks baby #2 needs some "untouched" toys so we're trying to hide them from big sister Avery, difficult to do at this point but we're trying. She also asks every morning, "baby coming?" and we tell her soon:)

Here are some photos of the things we've been up to lately:

It's probably been since high school that I've had a double scoop hot fudge sundae from baskin robbins, and andy claims he had never had one, so we got one. I like to think my problem with over-eating is Andy...I ask for something, and he delivers!:)

It's been nice and cold around here lately, we've even had a few rainy days. I always said I wouldn't be "that person" who takes their kid into public looking homeless, but now that I have a kid I think it's kind of cute, so here she is, in all her glory, looking homeless:)

Something we've never seen before, blue on Avery's thermometer, complete with a frown face and all! Most of her life it's been red (for too hot) but not anymore, we are loving this cold weather!

Along with the cold weather we've been having a lot of soup-ish meals...this one in particular was my mom's homemade chicken noodle soup; it was on our doorstep when Andy got back from one of his morning runs, oh boy is my mom amazing or what?!

*SIDE NOTE: i would like to give a shout out to my husband who through all of the craziness of getting ready for a baby and working full time is training for his first half marathon and he's right on schedule! He's such a stud and doing it for an amazing cause (clean water in Africa), if you don't know what I'm talking about, contact him because it's really awesome!

This past weekend some co-workers of mine had a baby shower brunch for me, very low key, and perfect! One of them also brought a present for Avery and she couldn't have been more excited! It's a princess book complete with her very first dress-up dress! As you can imagine, once she opened it she wouldn't take it off. She even wore it to church the next day (another thing I said I would never do;) she walks around saying, "avery princess" and she feels so special, too cute!

After the co-worker shower Andy and I sat down and enjoyed opening our "baby shower in a box" from the Oregon clan...thank you so much everyone! we thoroughly enjoyed everything (sorry i look a little crazy in this photo...had just gotten up from an amazing nap:)

And Avery also got a gift from Grammy and Grandpa Rog, which she has really been enjoying, she couldn't wait to get into the bath to play with her new numbers and letters:) Also don't mind her crazy hair here...she had also just woken up from a really good nap;)

As a nurse I always loved getting treats from patients so I decided to bake some things ahead of time for the nurses we'll be having at the hospital, i baked them, cut them up and put them in ziplock bags in the freezer conveniently labeled "labor and deliver" and "post pardem" (for whoever will be in charge of getting them out of our freezer:) If you haven't tried it before, pictured at the top is the world's best pound cake you'll ever taste (from the pioneer woman's website, and totally fat free;) wink wink wink) and then some good ol' pumpkin bread, yummy!

There she is, once again in all her glory, helping Mommy bake for the nurses:)

AND THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...we've officially decided on a name for baby #2 (unless she accidently comes out as a boy:) It has been a difficult decision BUT we're feeling confident and excited and hoping that she'll come knowing that she has a name:) so...drum roll please...baby Koning #2 will be named: Myla Bea.

How did we come up with it? Well it's actually somewhat complicated but i'll take a stab at it to give everyone proper credit. My cousin Heidi (affectionately known as HJ1 cause she's heidi jean and i'm haley jean) had e-mailed us the name mila a while ago and while we liked it, we were focused on other names. then the other names failed us so we went back to the drawing board and re-considered it, andy only liked it spelled myla, hence the "y" in the spelling. The middle name was the toughest part, I've been somewhat set on a certain middle name since finding out it was a girl BUT since both parties have to agree/love the whole name, we threw out some options one night at family dinner. After some Grandparent's names were thrown out as options, my sister (erica) came up with Bea, the combo of both Andy and I's Grandma's (betty and beatrice). So that is where we got Bea! We met some resistance with Avery but decided a 2 year old should not be the deciding factor for our un-born child's name, so there you have it. We can now call her Myla Bea instead of baby #2...wow I'm glad I got that off my chest, I feel better already!:) oh and since it's official, keep your opinions to yourself;)

Justing chatting...

Princess!

Halloween Pictures!

Follow this link to facebook to see our Halloween pictures! (let me know if it doesn't work)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.658766909357.2130106.68602760&type=1&l=65b8e32ed7

Avery singing

Here's a little piece of Avery singing into her microphone like Daddy...she sings and dances CONSTANTLY!

Avery's kisses

We are doing open mouthed/wet kisses...here we are trying to get it on video:)

Sunday Update!

Hey guys...well we have been keeping very busy this last week or so since our last check in, I'm not totally sure what we're doing, I guess a 2 year old, one of us working full time, and the other one trying to get stuff done around the house before baby #2 comes just keeps you busy:) Avery is getting more and more excited for baby Mary Lou to make her arrival, every day she asks, "baby coming?" and just yesterday she said, "mommy, avery hold baby, avery hold baby" I had to explain to her that she can't hold the baby quite yet because the baby is "stuck" in Mommy's belly (ha ha anyone else have a better way of explaining this to a 2 year old?). The weather is getting colder and rainier which we LOVE but it seems to make little Avester a bit more antsy so we're going to have to get creative with entertainment. She asks to go to "Super Franks" (a kids play place in Pleasanton) daily and she asks to play with her bestie Dawson daily. They went trick-or-treating together on Halloween, it was adorable, I'll post pictures as soon as I get them edited:)

I've been keeping busy doing things like washing burp cloths, bottles, blankets, etc. getting ready for the new baby. It takes me double as long to do it all cause #1: i'm super pregnant and #2: I have a 2 year old that wants to help with everything, and her helping just makes everything take that much longer! I've decided organization is key with two little ones in a small house so while some may think I'm looney, I'm going label and bin crazy! We've decided to do cloth diapering with the 2nd one so we're figuring all of that out (we have the diapers already which are the cutest things ever, pictures also to come) but we're still figuring out the organization and washing of them, once we do we'll post pictures (because once again, they're adorable!). We're doing somewhat of an owl themed room for the girls, really cute and unfortunately really trendy right now. My amazing mother-in-law Kathy sewed everything for Avery's original room and is doing the same for the room the girls will be sharing, we're so excited to see the final results! (also pictures will come when it's all put together:)

I had to go in twice this week to the OB for some stuff going on (personal...sorry:) BUT I'm fine, the baby is fine, and I'm 1cm dilated and 50% effaced (you have to get to 10cm dilated and 100% effaced for those that don't know:) so we're on the right track! Not due for 3 weeks but we wouldn't mind if she came in about a week, I'm not really sleeping anymore related to being sooooo uncomfortable! Here are some random pictures from our lives the last week or so:

Halloween teaser!

Baby #2 hasn't gotten as many music lessons from Daddy as Avery did BUT we try to put those headphones on the belly as much as possible!

See anything wrong with this picture? I was getting ready for the day, heard Avery run into her room and close the door, then opened it only to find that she had found a nuk somewhere in her room and climbed back into bed...this happened twice in one day and has not happened since then, I think we got rid of them all!

This is happening a lot in my house right now...lots of baking, some cooking, lots of baking:)

The result: a yummy warm cookie bowl with vanilla ice-cream and hot fudge, we have dessert every night, it's a really bad habit, but oh so yummy!

One of our visits to Kaiser this week...Avery decided her baby pooped her "panties" so she was cleaning her up...everyone that walked in and out of Kaiser thought this was adorable:)

Cute picture BUT represents one of Mommy's greatest frustrations in life right now...we are going through a MAJOR daddy phase. I imagine it is because I'm home all of the time now so I'm old news, hopefully that's all it is because I rarely receive kisses and hugs, when I go into her room in the morning she pushes me aside and says, "where's daddy?" and then throws a fit when she realizes he is gone at work...this picture is her eagerly awaiting his arrival home from work, oh dear I hope this phase is a quick one!

Sassy Mc-Sasserton is what we call her now...the outfit is a good portrayal of how sassy this little one has become!

Yesterday was one of the most glorious days I have had in a while, I got to run away to my parent's house for a little while (leaving Avery with Daddy) where my Mom and I watched cooking shows for a few hours, I then enjoyed an AMAZING bubble bath, then Andy brought over the Avester who stayed home with Nana cooking dinner while Andy and I went to the movies. We came home to an incredible home cooked meal by my mom and watched another movie, oh so relaxing!

Finally...God bless the people in my life that tell me, "wow, you don't look like you're having a baby in 3 weeks" If you know someone that's pregnant, say the same thing to them, unless it's a complete lie of course. At this stage in the pregnancy, I feel huge and completely unattractive but when friends and/or random people (aka the receptionist at the OB office) tell you that you don't look that big, it feels really good, so pass it on!

Oh, stay tuned because we will be announcing the baby's name SOON and for those interested (but no pressure) we're registered at Babies R US!

It felt like an emergency at the time...;)

Two nights ago I experienced what I consider to be a total "Pratt" moment of thinking, "did that just really happen?". Obviously not everyone knows all the crazy Pratt or Koning stories of when us kids were younger, but as a bit of history we were taking a roadtrip to Winnemucca in our Toyota Previa and Erica got stuck with the seatbelt wrapped around her (not totally sure how this happened other than she wrapped the chest strap around her and fell asleep only to have the seatbelt lock up, then she unbuckled it, and it locked again, then she moved closer to the window and it locked again, you get the idea, each time getting tighter and tighter eventually making it somewhat difficult for her to breathe) and we had to pull over on the side of the road to cut it off of her with the knife my mom always carried around (way to go Mom!). This is a Pratt moment in my head cause I'm like, "who else would this happen to?" (although I'm sure every family has their stories;). Well, similarly, two nights ago around 2130 (9:30pm for those not able to tell military time) we heard Avery crying for Daddy from her bedroom. This was odd for a few reasons, first she should have been sleeping, secondly, she rarely cries from her room, and thirdly, it was loud enough for us to hear it without the monitor or anything on while we were downstairs watching TV. We quickly ran upstairs only to find our 2 year old daughter had essentially hung herself (can you say hung if it's not around her neck?) via her earring on the blinds. What happened was she loves to watch cars from her room so she pulls the blinds out and sticks her head between the blinds and the window, in doing so the strings that keep all the blinds together somehow wrapped themselves around her earring and she was stuck, unable to move any great distance in any direction.

Andy and I both went slightly into panic mode because it was ripping her ear...it was so similar to Dad holding Erica up in the Previa (except that Avery could breathe quite well;) Andy was holding her up as I was trying to unwind the chord from her earring...why not just take the earring off you ask yourself? Well, we have those fancy screw on kinds that are really quite difficult to get off and because she was moving so much and the back was digging into her ear so badly, it was impossible. Andy and I were yelling at eachother to do this, do that, finally I unwound the stupid chord but no release happened. So I ran into our room to grab scissors and by then Andy had worked a miracle and freed our poor innocent 2 year old:)

Probably more traumatic for us then for her but it was quite sad. She told us how it happened after we freed her (despite her hand motions and all of the words she used we really have no idea:) and we put her back to bed and just started laughing because really? Who gets the blinds stuck around their earrings? Oh dear...so many more of these moments to happen in our future!

October!

Well as you can see from the previous posts, we're keeping ourselves busy! But busy in a good way of course, and we are loving the re-vamping we are doing around the house:) Avery of course is growing and changing daily, she says full sentences now which is quite incredible. As of yesterday her little voice is hoarse and she says her throat hurts, who knew she would be able to communicate this at such a young age? Despite the fact that I get a little antsy, I'm trying really hard to take full advantage of all this time with my girl which has been great. We are two peas in a pod. Avery often grabs my face or gives me a hug and says, "I so happy!" (she actually just did it as I was writing this:) She loves the fact that I'm no longer going to work and tells me almost daily. Oh and also, two days ago we decided to take the Nuk (aka pacifier) away, we never thought we would let her have it this long so it's been a long time coming, we were just too nervous to attempt it. BUT...because she's Avery, she's been pretty much un-phased (she's truly an amazing child); whenever she asks for it I want to cave but thankfully Andy stays strong. We told her that we had to send all of her nuks to all the babies around the world that needed them. She asks about them when we put her down and get her up from bed/naps but she gets over it and sleeps just fine, wow! Another seamless transition for this little one!

Speaking of not-so-seamless transitions, as many of you know we've been potty training for quite some time. She has phases of doing so well and phases of not doing so well. Right now, I'm glad to report it has been multiple days of no accidents! (against what we always thought as parents, bribery is involved...:) but it's working and all the Konings are happier people!

Here are some random pictures/a video of life around the Konings!

This is Avery's new backpack, she absolutely loves it! I got it so we could have 5 weeks without a diaper bag:) Avery totes it around everywhere we go and it's so cute, but it sure makes her look grown up!

This is how excited she is about the backpack, and let's not forget that the purse goes everywhere too! Some days it's a backpack, purse, and baby! Oh dear she's so girly!

We recently visited Babies R Us to register for a few things for baby Mary Lou and play with the double strollers, Avery found this snowman hat and would not take it off (and Andy and I being softies of course got it for her:) This is us at the next store, Target, where she is still wearing it, tag and all because she loved it that much! (and you know how I mentioned up above that we took the nuk away for all the babies around the world? This worked so well until we were at Babies R Us and Avery saw them lining the wall, she was very confused...sad)

Avery is such a dancer (here she's dancing while sick without music), in fact I found some dance classes at a local studio in downtown Danville that I am seriously considering enrolling her in because she has dance parties with herself and/or others multiple times a day (they're just so darn expensive, Mom how did you do it all those years?:). It's amazing to watch the joy she gets out of dancing though...

And there she is! Baby Mary Lou! Depending on her position I say I have "popped" because my belly button insides stick out further than my belly (you can't tell in this picture) which never happened with Avery. This one just keeps growing! I'm still exhausted but very thankful to be off work because I know that it helps. She still moves all the time, usually visible from the outside of my clothes which is crazy to watch. Only 5 more weeks to go until this little one enters the world...can't wait!

Re-vamping an Armoire

So in our continuing quest of nesting, Haley was inspired by what someone did with an old armoire. The idea was to repaint, and turn it into an office storage/filing cabinet. Here's some pictures of the process!

First off we stripped the finish, and added some primer. Then came the first coat of light green.

A darker green (almost olive) came on after that. Lots of sanding later, we added some poly lacquer

And the final product! If you've seen this corner of our room before, this is a vast improvement!

Hey everybody!

We just undertook some projects to update our place, one of which is a new headboard! Andy wrote about what we did in his blog, so enjoy!

Getting Crafty

So as Haley and I are getting ready for the new baby to come, we've been updating our place. Giving everything just a little different flavor. Avery got some bunk-beds, some new wall art, and we've been organizing like crazy. Having only two bedrooms for two adults and two kids is very daunting!! Good thing my wife craves organization.

But while in our "nesting" phase we've also wanted to update our own room, make it a place we want to be in. Enter Haley's desire for a headboard, and Pinterest - that never ending time vacuum, where you lose hours imagining what your house COULD look like if you have tons of time and no job/responsibilities. We got some inspirations and set out into the world

Note: you can click on the pictures for a larger size

We visited Haley's brother's house, and picked up some wood he had stored up (thanks Chas!). Turns out some of it was this beautiful knotty pine that was inside the house (when Haley's greandparents lived there) before the remodel. After hammering a few nails out, and cutting the pieces to size we threw them in the van and set off.

Avery also discovered a "little" something to entertain herself in Uncle's backyard...

Then came the sanding... oh how much fun that was! No sarcasm intended, it really was relaxing to a certain degree. There was some old golden lacquer/varnish on the pine that needed to be removed. We were looking into what color we wanted but knew that no matter what, the golden hue had to go.

Along with the headboard, we were also refinishing an Amoire into a desk/filing cabinet. More on that in another post.

A not very good picture of the almost finished board. Once sanded, I just lined them up accordingly and bolted them together from the back. Next came the finishing decision. We had wanted a weathered look because that would fit our new amoire, and the overall feel of our room. But figuring out how to do that by ourselves (without a farm in Pennsylvania to help us, since that seemed to be pervading theme on Pinterest) proved a little difficult. With some help from my ever faithful friend Google, I saw that I could combine steel wool, and vinegar to create a gray stain. Who knew normal, standard, straight up steel wool was so hard to find!! Every one I found seemed to have soap, or was scented like a fruit. So we used an SOS pad, rinsed thoroughly, and dropped it in a pint of vinegar for a day. And crossed our fingers... Here's a shot of my first test coat:

You can see on the 2nd board from the left the difference between my gray stain, and the original pine color.

A "sort of" success! Here's a picture of the final product hanging on our wall

So there you have it, our new headboard! Now I have no idea why I felt the need to share this with the world. I don't even think the 2 people who read this blog (my wife and mom) would really care, namely because one of them was with me the whole time! And by no means should anyone replicate what I did, because I have no idea what I'm doing. But there you have it. I did something with my hands. The end.

We'll have more photos of our other projects soon!