What's new? Hmm...

Well it's been over a month since I last posted any updates... I'm sure I can find a good excuse somewhere for that. Life has been interesting to say the least. So I'll just give some quick updates on some of the more important news lately.

July 1 - Kayla went to a doctor's appt to find out she was not dilated, but was 50% effaced. Yay for the 50%!

July 8 - 2 days before our due date and we go back to the doctor to see if there have been any changes... Kayla is not dilated, but was 50% effaced... Boo for no changes! We scheduled another appt for July 15 @ 8:45am to see if there would be any more changes... if not we would have to discuss induction possibilities.

July 10 - Our due date... nothing significant happened today... unfortunately.

July 14 - Kayla was told by her sister to go walk laps around Target to try to start the labor process. We had walked at home, but it was hot outside and we generally only made one lap around the block. Kayla nearly ran over my toes several times pushing the basket around the store and deciding that "Oh... I want to see what's down this aisle..." nearly running me over. We stopped by her sister's house in Yukon that night to eat cupcakes. I love when people have birthdays! Kayla said she was having some cramping like pains while we were there, but nothing she could really confirm were contractions. We went back home.

10:27 - Kayla says that we need to time a pain... lasted 30 seconds. Another one started about 7-8 minutes later. Kayla was still laughing through them, so we still weren't sure if they were true labor contractions. We timed these "pains" until sometime around 12:30... Then we decided that we would try to sleep and see if it was possible to sleep through them. I think I slept for an hour. Kayla did not sleep.

1:30 - Kayla sat up and said that there was no way she was sleeping through them. We started timing them again. We timed for about 2 hours. They were closer to 1 minute in length, and were coming about every 6 minutes or so. When Kayla got up to walk around, they slowed down and took about 7-10 minutes to come again... but as soon as she got back in bed, they resumed their regular interval. I went ahead and packed the car (just in case) with all of our bags and prepared a snack to eat on the way for me since I wasn't sure when we would eat breakfast if we went in.

3:30 - Kayla was still unsure if they were contractions although we had no other explanation for what they might be. We decided to wait 30 more minutes to see what happened. Kayla told me to get some sleep and she would just see how many contractions she had without timing them.

4:30 - I woke up to find Kayla trying to breathe through the contractions. I timed a couple to find they were still about a minute long and were about 3-5 minutes apart. Done deal... we were headed in to the hospital! We got up and got ready and told my parents we were headed in and would call them when we knew if we were staying or not.

5:05 - We left for the hospital.

5:30 - We arrived at the hospital. Kayla got checked in by the admissions lady and checked out by a nurse. She was dilated to a 3 and nearly 100% effaced. We were moving to a room until delivery. Kayla was told she could have an epidural any time she wanted... but we decided to wait a little while.

8:30 - Kayla had been having pretty strong contractions since about 7am. We decided it was time to go ahead with the epidural. We were told he was in a c-section at the time and it would be about 9:00 before he could come in. Kayla said okay... but she didn't like it.

9:30 - Kayla was still waiting for the anesthesiologist to come in. Had she not been hooked up to the monitors, she probably would have been climbing the walls.

9:40 - The anesthesiologist shows up. I had just stepped out to grab something to eat. When I came back into the room, the doc and the nurse said I was to sit in the big recliner across the room, rather than stand by Kayla and hold her hand. They didn't want me to hit the floor. I assured them I would not hit the floor since I was a nurse and had seen this all before. They said "famous last words" and told me to sit. So I sat and coached Kayla from across the room and just as I said... I did not hit the floor.

10:00 - Kayla was feeling great. The monitor would show when she was having contractions. Her mom pointed out that one was pretty strong. Kayla just looked at the monitor and said, "Oh really?" The epidural worked.

10:30 - Kayla's doctor came into the room and checked on her. She was dilated to a 5. I asked how long it would approximately take from this point. I was told for first time babies, it would take approximately 1 hour per centimeter. We were looking at about 5 more hours. Kayla's mom told the doctor that this probably wouldn't happen. Her family had a history of delivering quickly. The doc and nurse said they could check her again in a couple of hours.

12:30 - Kayla asked the nurse to check her again to see how much she had progressed. The nurse asked if Kayla was having any pain. She wasn't, just curious to know where she was at. The nurse checked and said, "You are complete. The head is right there. I'll go get the doctor."

1:15 - The doctor came in and checked and sure enough, the head was right there. Kayla pushed through about 3-4 contractions and at 1:39, we had our precious baby girl. She weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 19 3/4" long. Apgars were 9 and 9. Everything was perfect.



Kayla, Kennedi, and I spent the next two nights in the hospital. Our biggest concern was the breastfeeding. With all the nurses we had, we had just as many people giving us different advice on what Kayla should try. By the time Saturday arrived, Kennedi had lost 10 oz and was down to 7 lbs 2 oz. We expected some weight loss but were worried she might lose too much weight and have to supplement with formula. We were fine for now. We'd find out more when we met with our pediatrician on Monday.

Monday - Kennedi went to her first doctor's appt. She still weighed 7 lbs 2 oz, so she had not lost any more weight. Good news. Everything else looked good too. The doc confirmed that Kennedi was perfect. We knew that.

Saturday and Sunday night were really tiring. Kennedi did not want to play along with her schedule. She wanted to eat when she should be sleeping, and sleep when it was time to eat. It made for a couple of sleepless nights. I seemed to get a little more sleep as I cannot help with the feedings so much. I did take kennedi into the living room once each night when she was not wanting to sleep, so that Kayla could get a little sleep. Kennedi and I laid on the couch and became napping buddies! Last night, she learned and followed her schedule a lot better. That was great for both the eating and sleeping... unfortunately I did not get a napping buddy until later in the afternoon.

Our church and family has been awesome during this time. Our grass has been mowed, and we have people bringing meals to us so we don't have to cook. Some of the biggest help has just been watching Kennedi while we try to get caught up on some sleep and other errands.

Monday marked Kayla's and my second anniversary. We spent our first anniversary in our new house. I said I didn't know how we would outdo that anniversary. This year we spent our anniversary in our home... with our sweet baby girl. I can only wonder what our third anniversary might bring... do I hear McDonalds and an early bedtime? Romance is in the air!

Okay, off to do some things around the house. More pics to follow later.