Going to the Hospital
Labor for this one was long and sucked. I started having real contractions a good two weeks earlier. They were infrequent and irregular but hurt something fierce when they did hit. Lemme tell ya, working through them was a whole load of fun.
February 15 I was at a 4 and the Dr said she'd come any minute and it'd probably be fast so don't delay getting to the hospital. I contracted A L L D A Y L O N G! They hovered between 6 and 8 minutes apart. I had to hit 5 minutes apart for an hour to go in. We watched Contagion that night to kill some time while we waited for them to get to 5 minutes apart. THEY NEVER DID!! We gave up and went to bed at midnight. I was so seriously cranky and irritated that I'd been dealing with contractions for weeks and they wouldn't have the decency to get close enough so I could have an epidural. I woke back up at 2:00 am to really painful ones. I timed them again...6 to 8 minutes apart...STILL. At 3:30 am I woke Stephen up and said, "We're going in. These are real and hurt like mad. If I'm not progressing something's wrong. I'm ready for the epidural. I don't care what the count is." I was so done. We got there and discovered I was still at a 4. After all that I hadn't changed a bit. I burst into tears because my body was obviously broken and I was supposed to have a fast labor not one slowly setting in for weeks leading up to days of no change. I had to sit there in triage for a flippin hour dealing with the stinkin horrendous contractions I was sick of feeling. Someone must have clued my body in and told it I might sell it to the Gypsies if it didn't get it's act together because I was at a 6 after the hour.
They sent me to a room and I finally got my epidural. There's a special place in heaven for epidural givers. The Dr got there around 8:20 ish and got everything ready. He looked at Stephen and said, "You want to deliver?" Stephen didn't care but I think it's cool that Dad gets to be that involved so I said, "Yes he would." ;-D The Dr was there and talked Stephen through what to do, made sure she was coming out right, took care of the initial baby nose sucking and stuff, talked me through when to push less and made sure Stephen didn't do anything wrong. At 8:36 am she entered the world weighing 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long.
Remember that ultrasound I had 2 days before she was born and they said she was 7 lbs 3 oz? Yeah, I think they were wrong. I doubt she gained a pound in 2 days.
Brand New and Super Red/Pink
She started trying to cry the second her head was out. The Dr said, "Wow it's gotta be hard to cry when your lungs aren't even inflated yet." He's a funny guy, I think I have a great Dr.
First Bath
She's by far the reddest baby we've had. It was crazy! During the bath she really changed colors.
I don't think she was a fan of the bath.
Under the Heater
Her coloring got a little more normal. Those hands of hers went straight to her mouth any chance she got and still do. We'll be using a pacifier with her.
(Pacifiers can disappear at an appropriate age...hands, fingers and thumbs...not so much)
All of Her Fuzzy Black Hair
She was also born with the most hair of any of them.
I LOVE the girl hats the nurses make.
Then it was time to meet the family...
He was pretty into her.
Can you see how giddy this boy is to meet and hold her? He can hardly contain himself around her, always wants to kiss her and touch her head.
He was surprisingly gentle and good at holding her.
He now refers to her as "The Kenzie" or "The Baby Kenzie"
You see how she's almost recoiling away from her? Yeah, that about sums up her feelings on the matter.
I promise we still love you too! We're currently working on "gentle gentle" stroking rather than patting the baby.
"Nice baby. Can we play Angry Birds?"
She was such a red color I told Gabriel we were going to name her Tiger Lily from Peter Pan. He kinda smiled, then very gently explained that probably wasn't a good idea because it was too long.
Wrastlin'
She's still a little young for Angry Birds.
Eyes!
Her eyes were open for a very few minutes. Her poor face was really puffy (no idea why) her eyes barely showed.
"Sprout"
The Mob
I'm pretty sure the nurses and other patients were glad when the noise exited the building.
During the intermittent times Stephen was able to be there we worked on the name. It was hard with the whole alphabet available and no middle name settled on to work with. We made our lists and crossed out what we didn't like. Stephen said, "Kenzie is the only one that's really been sticking with me since we started." So the first name was settled. I pointed out that my cousin already has a Kenzie, spelled the same I believe, and that would make two in the family. Stephen assured me it's ok to rip off other family members names. :) Now for the middle name. There's pressure now you know. I'm not going to have babies for the rest of my life to make sure all the family members are represented in the middle name. Kenzie Mae was SUPER cute but Kenzie Annemarie honored several family members.
What to do? What to do?
We went with Kenzie Annemarie.
Going Home Outfit
After she was born the Dr came in and said, "You know you can stay for a full 48 hours. A lot of people leave after 24 but you don't have to. It would give you an extra day of rest and bonding." He looked a little relieved when I told him I was planning on the full 48 hours. They put me at the very end of the hall where it was little quieter. The nurses are supposed to do rounds every hour, but they were really fabulous about not making a sound or waking me if I was asleep. This is seriously the most rested I've EVER come home after a baby. They now have the same person doing baby and mommy vitals at the same time, brilliant. That's something I've thought needed to happen since Gabriel was born. All of the techs were able to take her vitals, in the dark, and not wake her up once. They seriously deserve an award for that. I SO SO SO appreciate all the effort they made to keep me comfortable and just let me sleep and sleep...which I was more than happy to oblige them in.
At one point the nurse going off shift was briefing (whatever it's called) the nurse coming on shift. This is kinda how it went...
"Here in 107 you have Mariah ______. She's really easy; she just sleeps all day."
Hilarious! I seriously did sleep all day and all night. They will never know how much I treasure that 48 hours.
Home
We made it home just in time to get ready for Lincoln's 3rd Birthday Party at 5:00. I'd like to say we'll have pictures of that coming soon, but in all reality I seriously doubt it. ;-)
He had fun with his cousins and was excited about the balloon theme we planned for him. His real birthday is later this week. If you ask him how old he is he ALWAYS says 7. Lucky number for him I guess.
Sunday after everything had "settled" down I started thinking. My thinking is ALWAYS a bad thing, it leads to no good.
After Stephen's church meeting finished and he got home we were all trying to lay down and rest.
I couldn't sleep.
I finally woke him up and asked if we'd chosen the wrong middle name because Kenzie Mae really is so darn cute. He said it didn't matter because it was too late. Oh, but it wasn't too late because we did the birth certificate paperwork on a Saturday. I could simply call Monday first thing, ask her to hold it and go down to change it.
Poor Stephen.
He assured me that despite Kenzie Mae being a really cute name that what we had was fine. But, I was thinking, I could still change it if he thought the other way was better. "No her name is set."
Names are too hard! Kids need to be like cabbage patch dolls and come with their name tattooed on their butt!!
