Our new addition has arrived!

On September 8, 2009 at 2:04pm we welcomed Kamea Amelie Henderson weighing in at 6lbs 9 oz and 18 inches long. It seems that Kamea is just as stubborn if not more than her big sister. We continued all of the baby turning tricks including handstands in the water at the local pool, but Kamea refused to turn. We attempted a version 5 times on 9/8 and although the doctor was literally on the table pushing on my belly all around, Kamea refused to move her bottom to complete a turn. They nicknamed her pretzel. So later that afternoon we ended up in the OR with a c-section and a beautiful and healthy baby girl. Just over a week has passed since Kamea entered the world and she has already gained back 4 ounces and as of yesterday she weighed 6lbs 6oz.

Big sister, Kaia, has been amazing!!! She loves her baby sister so much that it is hard for her to not go in Kamea's room when she is sleeping because she needs to see the baby. When Kaia got to the hospital on Thursday morning with Daddy and Aunt Leigh, she didn't beeline for me - instead it was right to the baby. We are so happy that she is so welcoming to Kamea. Kaia also did amazingly well with all of the change and different people around last week. We left for the hospital early on Tuesday morning and Auntie Carolyn was here when she woke up. Auntie Carolyn and Kaia got to hang out together until Wednesday night when Aunt Leigh came over to take over. Leigh was here until late Thursday when Grandma arrived in from CA. So Kaia got to wake up with Grandma on Friday. Bryn did go home to see Kaia twice during the week and took her to preschool for her orientation and to pick out her cubby. And we all finally came home on Friday afternoon just in time for Kaia to wake up from her nap.

Kaia has had all of the concepts about the baby down from the beginning. She immediately has recognized that the baby is not in Mommy's tummy anymore and she has been very understanding about Mommy's owie from the c-section. I was dreading her not understanding that I can't pick her up, etc for about 6 weeks, but she is doing OK. We will be in trouble once Bryn is back at work and Grandma is home in CA.

Kaia has had a lot going on lately. On top of having a new baby sister, she started preschool this passed Tuesday. Bryn stayed at school as a co-oping parent so he could report everything to me:) I was bummed to miss her first day of school, but apparently she did awesome and had a great time! She played with lots of kids (she knew a lot of them from the playgroup this summer) and came home in a great mood. She suddenly seemed like such a big girl to me when she came home. I don't know where my baby went:(

Some of Kaia's other recent skills include her new desire to negotiate everything. She will ask to do something for a specific amount of minutes and understands that 5 is bigger than 3 and 3 is bigger than a couple of minutes. She is always trying to work everything. As before, she needs to do EVERYTHING by herself.

Thank you to everyone for all of their good wishes, calls, emails, etc. We are all settling in and doing well.