Two Weeks In...

The last two weeks have been rewarding, exciting, and very challenging! We are so blessed to have a happy, healthy baby girl. I was so lucky to have a great "labor." Everything went as planned and was relatively "easy" :) It is amazing how much you can love someone from the moment you see them, it is unexplainable. The moment Maddie arrived in this world, Jeff commented to Dr. Fine (an amazing Dr!), "If a person doesn't believe in God after seeing this, they are really missing something!" Dr. Fine agreed.
We definitely had our challenges though...I have had some serious difficulty with breastfeeding because I was not blessed to have a great "milk supply." So...I have been taking herbal supplements (Phenugreek and Blessed Thistle), a prescription (Reglan), pumping every 2 hours, drinking insane amounts of water and still no luck (I don't even have time to describe the SNS contraption the lactation specialist set us up with). We are giving it a great fight but we are having to supplement with formula, we will continue for another 2 weeks but then we are leaving it up to the Lord :)
Jeff has been so great and so busy. School is in full swing and football season is here. He is an amazing Dad, Maddie is the luckiest little girl I know. His love for her is amazing, the way he looks at her makes me smile. Jeff wants to be the dad for Maddie that my dad would have been for me...that says something! Maddie and I have been to 3 football games so far (2 Varsity and 1 JV game). Maddie is 1-2 in her football ventures thus far; however, with how competitive her parents tend to be, I am sure she will finish well above .500:)
I am also so thankful for my Mom. She is such a blessing to me, and I hope that I can be the same for Madison. She was there for me during labor; she was there helping me recover in the hospital and helped me at home. She was able to be here for us when Jeff was at football and was doing everything from laundry to cooking dinner and taking care of Maddie so that I could get some rest. She is such a giving person and she gave 100 percent, even though she is fighting breast cancer herself. For everyone who reads this blog if you could pray for my Mom on September 18th, she is going to have surgery to remove the cancer. I know she will be cancer free after fighting the battle but everyone's prayers are much appreciated and we will all focus to have a 99.9% positive attitude (as my Dad would have said). We will keep udating with pictures as we have time. Who knew it takes until 1pm to get yourself showered, a baby a bath, and get everything packed up ready to go. Thanks so much for thinking of our family and for all the support we have received. We can't wait for all our family and friends to meet this amazing little girl!





Pics of Maddie meeting her older brother Nils are on the way! We just brought Nils home from Grandpa Roger's house yesterday.
Love,
The Naslund Nest

Welcome Maddie!

This is Jeff signing on...

As I type this post, I am watching the two most beautiful girls in the whole world catch up on rest. Karissa will try to edit this later, but I am going to write it how it is: Karissa made one of the most miraculously difficult things on the face of the earth look easy! She started the day (7:00am) getting her water broke. As the Pitosin started to drip, and the contractions got closer together, Karissa became more determined. She could not wait to introduce Madison Joy Naslund to the world (and dominate the rest of us in SkipBo in the meantime). When Maddie was finally in her arms, Karissa looked like she was ready to go out to dinner...she was beautiful. I even have pictures to prove it. When all was said and done and the "colossal" pizza was being devoured, we had the greatest thing that has ever happened to us: our beautiful healthy daughter. Below are some pics:

Maddie was not excited for her first bath:)

Her first outfit is a little big:)

Thanks to Grandpa for giving Madison her first baseball! This is from the Spokane Indians game on 8.26!

Thanks for all of your support!

Jeff, Karissa, Madison, and Nils

4 weeks to go...

4 weeks until Madison is here...Nils is very jealous of his sister (he has been an only child for 5 years). He loves his summertime swimming which shouldn't change with the baby coming because she can swim in his pool with him :) He loves to "submarine" around the pool with his entire face submerged. We went out for what may be our last date night except for the weddings we have every weekend until Maddie is here, really, four of them. We saw the new Batman movie, The Dark Night, which we highly recommend and had dinner at Tomato Street. I still think Red Lobster may be in the works (hint..hint..hint). This weekend we will be going separate ways, Jeff has the State AA Legion tournament in Selah, WA and I will be going to the Sand Family Reunion at Flathead Lake, MT. Let's hope Maddie holds on! We will update when we are back in town. Check out the following pictures...

Tag...you're it!

So we were just "tagged" by the Snyder family, specifically Charlie Snyder.  Because Charlie is so quick, there definitely won't be any "tagbacks" (see rules below):

Here are the rules to the tag:

(1) Link back to the person who tagged you

(2) Post these rules on your blog

(3) Share 6 things about yourself

(4) Tag people at the end of your blog

So here's some random info about the Naslund Nest:

(1) Karissa loves to shop: Her favorite stores right now are Nordstrom, Baby Gap, Costco, and Mels.

(2) Karissa always has a sweet tooth after every lunch and dinner...but doesn't like chocolate.  Didiers frozen yogurt is currently her #1 fix right now:)

(3) Jeff is constantly looking for bowties.  He wears them on Tuesday's and dubbed it "bowtie Tuesday" with Jonn Covell.  He currently only owns one, but thinks he is setting a trend...I won't burst his bubble.  

(4) Jeff's biggest claim-to-fame to date is that he was waiving on the Today Show for about 10 minutes last year when we vacationed to New York with Brad and Lisa.  He woke up at 5:30am and ventured down to Rockefeller Plaza by himself only to catch airtime with Meredith, Matt, and a bunch of girl scouts.  

(5) Nils doesn't pride himself on knowing tricks...however, his cue to go to bed in his crate is "Make a good decision."  While he isn't usually excited about making this decision, he puts his head down and mopes right into his crate...good boy!

(6) Maddie's latest trick is making objects move on mom's tummy.  She is getting so big that her every movement can be seen!  We are getting so excited to see her in about 4 1/2 weeks!

We are hereby tagging:

Keith and Meghan Ross 

Mitch and Cassie Hegerhorst

Blog on!