Catching Up

I promise we have not fallen of the face of the earth. We are here and gloriously happy! Posting just took a back burner to holding the love of my life most of the day these days :)

I guess I should start from the beginning - but first a big thanks to Audra for updating everyone in real time when the action started!!

Here it goes-

On Tuesday, April 14 I went in to work for my last day before maternity leave. Felt great, just huge. No major contractions, just what I thought was frequent Braxton Hicks. But I did feel like I needed to just be at home and take it easy, and sort of prepare myself for what was coming in the next week or so. I kinda thought she would come early, but I didn't want to really admit it because if she came late it would just make the waiting that much harder. Anyway, looking back, I think I was more in tune with my body than I really knew, but hindsight is 20/20, right?

So I left work, headed home to spend time with my mom and sister and her family who were in town (and praying that I went into labor before my due date so they could be here for it... little did they know!). We grilled out hamburgers and all had a great time hanging out on the back porch watching the boys (my 4 and 2-year old nephews) run around the back yard.

Around 10:00pm we all headed to bed, and turned out all the lights. My mom was sleeping on the couch in the living room last night. This turned out to be a good thing because when I needed her I couldn't walk very far :)

At 10:15 I remember clicking off my lamp on my nightstand and closing my eyes, thinking "Ah... I don't have to get up for work tomorrow!! SWEET!!"

...and they FLEW open at 10:20pm...

"BEN."
Groggily..."Huhh?"

"I need a towel"
"What?"

"My water just broke."

No question. I thought it would be hard to be able to tell if it ever happened. Not hardly. I think I was more shocked about that experience than anything else. I mean, when it breaks, it breaks. It's so wild. But it was so exciting!!! So after Ben catapults himself into the bathroom and hands me a towel (the first of about 50. Seriously.) we just stood in our bedroom for a second and looked at eachother. He said "So what do we do now?" and I was still in so much shock that all I could say is "I dunno..." Lovely. He throws on jeans and brushes his teeth. Well, at least one of us is functioning.

Did I mention how glad I am that my Mom was here?!?!!?

So I waddle out to the living room, and why I whisper is still beyond me- like the whole house wasn't about to be thrown into fast action...

"Um, Mom?"

"Yes?" (At this point she already knew what had happened. You just have to know my mom. Awesome intuition. And she remains calm, cool, and collected in just about any circumstance you can throw at her. I love it.)

"My water just broke."

"Okay."

"What do we do now!?!?" ( How many books have I read again?!!? So brilliant)

"We go to the hospital."
"Are you sure? I'm not having contractions yet." (Good grief, the mind of a pregnant woman. The woman has only given birth to 4 children, one at home. I'm gonna say she knows what she's talking about.)

"Yes. And I knew you were gonna do this as soon as I washed all my makeup off."

"HA!" I just started laughing. That was so classic, and I think it broke through my shock. Oh, and reminded me to get my makeup bag.

So Mom wakes up Heather and the crew, we pile into the cars, and off we go to MTMC, which is 3 minutes and 10 seconds from our house.

Thank goodness.

Because on the way there I had my first contraction. And let me tell you, a contraction when your water has broken is a serious contraction.

We get to the hospital and get admitted around 10:40pm, while I apologize to the admissions desk lady about 50 times for the puddle I am leaving on her floor.

"Honey, I promise, it happens all the time."

Oh. Yeah. I guess you're right.

In the L&D room we met our nurse, who was by no exaggeration an angel. We had prayed for the doctor and nurses who would be with us through this delivery, and felt our prayers had been answered on so many levels.

My sister and her family hang out for a few hours, Charles falls asleep on the cot, oblivious to the fact that he will soon have a new cousin ( atleast one of us is getting some sleep), and when we realize it will probably be a while, they go home to get a little more sleep, and come back when the real action starts.

My sister, to who I am eternally grateful, goes home and cleans my whole house. She does laundry. She buys groceries.

Yes, she's amazing. No, you can't have her.

Here she is - she was the first one in the room after Kaelyn was born!

I started progressing right on track, and was dialated to a 3 by midnight. At around 4am I had dialated to a 5, and my contractions had been consistent and strong every 2 to 3 minutes ever since I had been admitted. I was pretty tired. After talking with Ben, my Mom, and our nurse, I decided to have an epidural. I had told myself that I would labor without any medication as long as possible, and if I could go all the way, great, but if not I would not feel any remorse for getting pain relief. And I knew that if I did not get some rest I wouldn't have the energy to do what needed to be done when the time came!

Again, I had an angel of an anesthegioligist. She gave me the kind of epidural I wanted- not completely numb from the waist down, but just enough to make the pain go away. I could still sort of move my legs, I still knew when I was having a contraction, but I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep. I remember being so thankful and being at peace with the decision I had made. Now, as long as it didn't slow down my labor progression, (this was my one other biggest fear of getting the epi) I was good.

Around 6am the nurse came in and nudged me awake.

"Honey, your contractions have slowed in time and intensity some, so the doctor would like to start you on Pictocin here in just a little bit."

She could see the crushed look all over my face.

"Can we wait just a little bit and check one more time before we do that?"

God bless her, she happily agreed.

At 6:30am she came back in to see how I was doing.

"WOW. You have dialated to an 8! Nevermind about the Pictocin. You're fine!"

I squealed and woke up Ben I was so ecstatic.

AND, the other good news is that at 7am my very own amazing doctor was the L&D doctor on call, so she would get to deliver Kaelyn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So around 8am when Dr. Redden walked through my door to say hi and see how we were doing, I just cried. I had wanted her to deliver Kaelyn so badly, this was just all too good to be true. I couldn't believe it.

And I was at a 9.

She said she'd be back in just a little bit to see if I was ready to start pushing, and she had also prepared me for how long a first-time Mom ususally needed to push. Thank goodness I got some sleep, I was thinking.

At 8:30am the nurse came in and I was at 10cm. She asked if I would do a practice push so I could 'get a feel' for it.

And this whole time, I would like for you to know, I was in complete awe of my husband.
He was amazing.

We had made jokes and comments and jabs this whole pregnancy about how he would be passed out on the floor as soon as anything got started.

I was so wrong. He was by my side and supportive every single second. (Well, a lot of seconds. And when he was asleep my awesome Mom was right there to calm me and answer my bombardment of questions, and remind me to breath!)

So when I did my practice push and the nurse said "Okay... WHOA!!! You got it! There's the head!" I'm not sure if I was laughing at her or at how Ben was bouncing up and down he was so excited when she said that.

The nurse yelled for someone to page Dr. Redden, and I told her I needed to start pushing.

So around 8:45am the nurse told be to go ahead, and at 8:55am she told me I needed to stop (um, no, thankyouverymuch. I would like to keep going!) but she said a doctor needed to deliver this baby so I'd better breathe through this contraction. "FortheLOVE, woman," I thought, "I am wasting a contraction when I could be pushing!! DANGIT!!!"

Dr. Redden comes flying in, literally throwing on her scrubs, I push through two more contractions, and at 9:03am my heart cracked open.

I heard my daughter cry.

And I saw my husband's face when he saw her.

My world forever changed.

And Dr. Redden looked at me and said " I want you to know that you only pushed for like 20 minutes. That does not happen!"

What can I say, I was in a hurry to see her I guess... :)

And I think the first words Kaelyn heard out of my mouth was "She has HAIR!!!!!!!!!"

Love it.

And that's how it went!!

We came home on Thursday afternoon, and have been loving every day since.

And I know I should count my many blessings. Believe me, I am =)

Kaelyn slept 7 hours, waking up once to eat, the first night.

She only cries when she is hungry (and even then she is pretty patient), when she has gas (which after 2 weeks is pretty much gone), and when she has a dirty diaper (she's a clean kinda girl).

Here she is with her Baba, getting spoiled and loving it!

We had our two week check up yesterday, and her pediatrician was very excited that she now weighs 8lbs. 3oz! No worries about how she is eating or if she is getting enough here. And that was a big concern of mine since we are not bottle feeding. Its good to know she's getting enough to eat.

We were visited by so many amazing family and friends, and had so many well wishes, flowers, and congratulations, we will never be able to say thank you enough to everyone who shared this time with us.

We'll be keeping you posted!

xoxo dae