Baby Boy is Finally Here!

After nine months of waiting, our baby boy K is finally here. And do we ever love him! Here is his entering the world story some have asked about!

The day after his much anticipated due date, I started having contractions. But they were really random (between 3 and 7 minutes) and nothing I couldn't handle, so Thane and I just enjoyed our Saturday, going for a walk with Daisy, getting Starbucks double chocolate chip drink, and making Christmas Crafts.

 

At about 8:00 the contractions were getting a bit more intense, and between 2 and 6 minutes apart, but I still pretended to not be in labor when I called my mom because I didn't want her to start worrying quite yet. 

Before Epidural

I was about to take a nap, when Thane suggested calling Allison, his sister, to see what she thought about my non-consistent contractions. Well she told me to get my butt to the hospital, so Thane went into action getting our bags together and out to the car... and what do I start doing? Cleaning the bathroom.

Lets just say I was in denial and not quite ready to face the fact that I was in labor quite yet. Finally Thane got me out the door and to the hospital.

After Epidural

Once there they were assessing me and found that I was 3 1/2 centimeters dialated, and they usually keep people at 4 cm. So they were about to send me for a walk to see if I would progress, but just as I got up his heart beat dropped drastically. They called in a team of people quickly and soon got his heartbeat back up, but then I was going nowhere, that baby was coming! For the next 13 hours I labored naturally... by then I was totally exhausted and the pain was really intense... then they told me it would probably be another 4 hours - at that point I realized I was done with this natural birth nonsense and ordered me up an epidural - oh it was wonderful!!!

 They broke my water, gave me pitocin and then I took a much needed nap - did I mention the epidural was wonderful?

After a couple hours they decided to try and turn his head which was slightly the wrong direction. Unfortunately he did not like being touched because his heart rate plummeted again and another team had to be called in. They gave me a shot which got his heart rate back up - but this kid was scaring me to death! He needed to stop doing that!

The doctor came in soon thereafter and said I was ready to push. What?! I just wanted to sleep! Just a little longer! But no time for that! At this point his heartrate dropped slightly with every contraction, so the doctor had to help with the forceps to get him out quickly. Within  a half hour our little man came into the world healthy and strong! Turns out his cord was along side his body and head, so with every contraction his oxygen supply was getting cut off - they said I was lucky because it was almost a c-section. But luckily everything turned out ok!

Time to go home! 

A couple days later we finally got to go home!!

Week 1 - trying to hold his head up by day 3.
First night home was up every 30 minutes, the next day slept for 3 hour periods... the next day 2 hour periods... the rest of the week 1 hour periods (man I miss those three hour sleeps!)
By his appointment at 6 days old he had already passed his birth weight at 6 - 12

Week 2

We had Kael's baby blessing at home while Thane's dad was here to help! It was a very special day!

Took Thane's family to pearl harbor. 

Week 3 

He has really mastered holding his head up this week and loves being held so he can 'stand up'.

I also want to congratulate 2 of my friends that had baby boys within a week and a half of K!  My best friend Kristi had her baby boy the SAME DAY as Kael was born - so he has a twin in Canada. We had always teased that we would have babies at the same time, but never thought it would actually happen... or that it would happen on the same day. 

And my idaho friend Kirsten had her baby boy a little over a week before K. So now he has friends wherever we go! 

Well we sure do love our boy! He makes me laugh with his silly facial expressions, and I love his dimpled cheeks!

The thing I learned from this birth experience - Just take the drugs!