She's Here!

I apologize for being a blog slacker the last week…we’ve been kinda busy because Little Miss Kendall decided to make her arrival! Here’s how it all went down…

After my appointment last Tuesday where my membranes were stripped I had a lot of cramping, but decided to go for a walk that evening. It was the last thing I felt like doing but I thought that if I ever had a chance of making something happen that would be the day. So Ella and I headed out with the jogging stroller and I made it about a mile while some of my neighbors looked at me and my big belly like I was crazy.

About 9:30 p.m. that evening I started having stronger, more regular contractions so I began timing them. I’ll mention that I was 100% engaged in Lost when this started. Let’s face it, if any TV show could make me go into labor, Lost would be it! From 10:30-11:30 p.m. the contractions were regular enough that I could have gone to the hospital – I had them every 5 minutes for an hour. But, I still didn’t feel like they were strong enough and I didn't want to make the trip and then be sent back home. So I decided to sit down, prop my feet up, drink some water and see what happened. The contractions actually got stronger but they were spaced out farther…so then I didn’t know what to do. It was about midnight by then and Ronnie was getting ready to leave work. Fortunately for me my husband is in the medical field and brought home a pair of sterile gloves so that he could check me and see if I had made any progress since my appointment that morning when I was 4 cm dilated. He got home around 12:30 a.m. and by that time I was in more pain but the timing was still inconsistent. He checked me (after I made him promise that he would NOT break my water – as much as I was ready for this kiddo to come I didn’t want to intervene that much) and thought I was around 5 cm dilated. Instead of going to the hospital, I decided to try to go to sleep. I thought that if I could sleep then I probably wasn’t in labor. I definitely couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs to the couch and watched TV with a pen and paper to time the contractions. By 2 a.m. I was really hurting. The contractions kept getting stronger but they were 6-8 minutes apart rather than 5 minutes. But I was in a lot of pain so I decided to call the doctor’s office. The doctor on call called me back and as soon as I told her what was going on she said, “Honey, go to the hospital you are in labor.” So then, as much as I hated to do it, I called my “babysitter on-call”, Aunt Laura, at 2 a.m. and told her that we needed to go to the hospital. We are so thankful that she was ready and willing to come stay with Ella! By the time she arrived we had our bags ready to go and I was in a lot of pain and wondering why I had been so stubborn and hadn’t gone to the hospital an hour before.

We got to Norton Suburban Hospital around 3 a.m. and I felt like a pregnant lady on TV. Every time I had a contraction I was frozen in the hallway, pushing against a wall and moaning. We got checked in at labor and delivery (by the same woman who checked us in when Ella was born) and around 3:30 a.m. we were in triage in labor and delivery. The lady asked me why I was there and I guess my glare led her to say, “oh, contractions.” So I put on a gown and they checked me and determined that I was about 6 cm dilated. Then came my favorite part, the IV. Yuck. After asking me every possible question about my family medical history they rolled me away to labor and delivery. It was about 4 a.m. by that point and once I arrived in labor and delivery I thought I might be dying. My contractions were on top of each other and, though I had just said that I wanted to wait a little bit longer for the epidural, I decided that I wanted it immediately. They had to wait for a bag of fluids to get in my system before they could give it to me so as soon as the nurse walked out Ronnie started doing his doctor thing and put pressure on the fluid bag so it would flow faster. Then I got a contraction and felt an insanely strong urge to push. I said, “ummmmm, she is like RIGHT THERE.” About that time the anesthesiologist walked in (praise the Lord!) and the nurse told him that she wanted to check me first. Her eyes widened and she said, “She’s at 9!” I panicked, thinking that they wouldn’t give me the epidural, but thankfully the doctor said I was fine and he began throwing me all over the bed to get me in position for the epidural. About 20 minutes later all was good in the world. At that point I was ready to push but my doctor was delivering a baby in the room next to ours so we waited and listened to the cheers as the neighbor baby made its arrival. Around 5:15 a.m. Dr. Cawthon came in to chat and Ronnie asked if he could help deliver. She was more than happy to let him and was actually willing to let him do more than we expected. She seemed as excited as we were! At 5:29 a.m. I began pushing and at 5:51 a.m. on Wednesday, April 7 Kendall Brooke made her arrival and was delivered by her Daddy. She weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and was 20.25 inches long. We had a couple of surprises at that point. 1. She was so chunky! Well, that wasn’t too much of a surprise since we knew from my ultrasounds that she would be big. But still, seeing all those cute chubby rolls and chubby cheeks was still a surprise that we were so excited about! 2. She has BROWN HAIR! People don’t understand why we were so surprised about this since Ronnie and I both have brown hair. But Ronnie, myself and Ella all followed identical patterns…born completely bald and eventually grew blonde, blonde, blonde hair. We never thought we would have a newborn with brown hair but we love it!

Kendall is beautiful and healthy and we can’t put into words how blessed we feel to have two wonderful little girls. Ella has adjusted very, very well and loves giving Kendall kisses. She was so excited when she came to the hospital and yes, she did hand Snuggles the puppy over to Kendall. She was extremely concerned about her “ouchie” on her belly button and the band-aids on her feet, but thankfully all ouchies have healed now! At one point Kendall started crying and Ella said, “Don’t cry baby Kendall…crying’s for babies.” :)

Here are a few pictures from the hospital:
 
Fresh from the womb!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dr. Cawthon, Daddy & Kendall

Pretty girl...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The whole family

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ella crashed in Daddy's bed at the hospital!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Daddy & Kendall

Mommy & Kendall

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So peaceful...

 
 

Brown hair!

Ready to go home!