The Greatest of Days

 Kaia baby,

I'm glad Aunt T did an update the day of, it's been a bit hectic ever since and I'm sure I'd have forgotten things. I suppose we'll start at the beginning (that is usually the best place to start afterall).

We got to the hospital at 6 am (Aunt T and I) and hauled our massive amount of stuff up to the second floor where we were assigned to room 1.

Arriving at the hospital

We met your nurses and heard the run down for the day....start with the inducement drug, when it gets painful I can get the epidural and we'd go from there. They also broke some unexpected news to me, since I was being induced and would potentially need a C-Section I would not be eating anything other than popcicles, ice, and some juice until after you were born. Nurse Jaime did become my hero when she looked the other way while I downed a couple cups of jello. Since I had planned on eating at the hospital, it looked like it was going to be another long hungry day at Skyridge.

After all the vital sign checks, discussions, etc. we finally started the drug at 8:30 on June 24th. It really didn't start getting rough for a few more hours, and at about 12:30 Dr. Stallworth came by to break my water so that we could speed things up as we hadn't made much progress. Aunt T and I watched the Town and What to Expect When You're Expecting.It was a pretty boring morning. Things started to get more intense, and since I was sort of confined to the bed anyway (when you're induced they do a lot of monitoring that keeps you pretty confined where you are, we decided to do the epidural. It was pretty quick and easy and I immediately felt a trillion times better. 

Post-epidural

Your Dad came by to join the birth team and we all just hung out, watched Oz, and joked around. When I started to worry about everything your Dad reminded me that everything was going to be ok, that it'd all turn out perfectly, and at the end of the day I'd have a new little baby friend to play with.

We continued to watch movies the rest of the afternoon and were making very slow progress. At about 6 Dr. Stallworth came by for another check, we  still weren't making very much progress so he told us we could be in for as much as 9 more hours of labor. We braced ourselves for a very long night. Throughout the day your heart rate kept taking random dips which the doctors were monitoring closely. At one point they decided they needed to test your alertness to make sure you were still doing alright...they went in to touch your head and your heart rate spiked. It was exactly what we needed you to do, and it put us all at ease.

At around 9 Dr. Stallworth came back and we finally got some good news, things had sped up substantially. At 10 we'd dialated another 2 cm and only had 1 to go...things were looking great! But, in typical Kaia fashion you had no interest in being predictable. Despite our high hopes, it took another 3 long hours to knock out that final cm. Uncle Dobby (sorry Bran, that name is still your own fault) and crew came by and entertained us. Brandon and Taryn tried to rock their chairs to the beat of your heart (which was very fast), it was highly amusing. We also built a motivation wall complete with your super cute clothing and a slice of pizza to keep me motivated for the duration of the labor/delivery. 

The motivation wall..complete with going home outfit and slice of pizza

My contractions were starting to hurt, but the nurses thought it had something to do with the way I was positioned so we just kept the show on the road.

At around 2 AM the nurses and Dr. Choo (Dr. Stallworth had to leave at 10pm) came by to check the progress. I wasn't quite there, but they thought that whatever little part we were still waiting on would maybe be ok depending on what happened when I pushed. So we did a practice push, and then another, and then...kind of out of nowhere, it appeared we were just going to get you out of there. T and your Dad sprung into action, and for 20 extremely painful and dramatic minutes I pushed as hard as I could to get you out of there. Your Dad made the unfortunate decision to take a  look at the process and immediately needed to sit down for a bit, it may be a miracle, but it's a very rough looking one.

And then, at 2:23AM on June 25th, out you came. I got to hold you immediately, and while you weren't looking your best, I could not take my eyes off of you. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't hurting, I was just staring at you...and you were very much staring back. Your Dad cut the cord and they took you to the side of the room to clean you up. I sat and watched as you got cleaned up, weighed, measured and poked and then I finally got you back for a little bit. You were 6lbs 2oz, and 19inches long. That's pretty little, but it felt plenty big to me. It was funny watching you make the motions on the outside that you've been doing inside of me for the past few weeks, you tend to sit like a frog, so for now one of your many nicknames is tadpole. 

Little Frog

The status board

When they came to take out my epidural they finally figured out that it had come halfway out, thus the massive amount of pain I felt the last few hours. Gonna have to watch how much squirming I do next time. By the time we were both taken care of it was about 3:30 and you needed to go get bathed. Your Dad went with you for your first bath while T and I went and settled ourselves in the post natal care room. You're just a lil one so you're always cold, the heat lamp has become your all time favorite thing. 

The little sunbather

T went and got me some pizza that your Grandma brought me, and at 4AM I finally got to eat.

At about 4:30 you came back and we all settled into the room for our very first night (or at least the very minor amount left of it). I got about an hour of sleep between holding you and being checked by doctors, but the adrenaline must have been flowing because I wasn't particularly tired.

I'll do another update in the near future about the next few days we spent in the hospital, but for the time being I think that's plenty. Thank you to everyone who came by that day to help pass the time, bring us food, nail polish, company, candy, etc. I love you all.

Kaia's Maybe Birthday!

Kaia,

We're getting very excited to see you and are so close! Kelly and I have been at the hospital for 10 hours now. Things are moving along well, although slowly, but everyone got a lot happier when your mom got the epidural. 

The contractions were getting pretty bad for a bit, but Nurse Julie got someone in right away and I didn't have to use any of my planned strategies of getting the epidural guy in the room. Googling the epidural guy and getting to know his likes/dislikes so I could lure him into Kelly's room was one of them, glad I didn't have to use that one since Kelly is the real professional googler. Since then, it's just been watching some movies and feeding Kelly jello, popsicles and ice because contrary to what we thought when we bought her all the candy, she isn't allowed to eat anything. Nurse Julie pretended not to notice the jello since that's technically not a clear liquid, so she got on our good side pretty quickly. 

Well, we may have a long day ahead of us still, but from the looks of the contractions it looks like progress is being made and I'm glad Kelly can't feel them anymore because they are literally off the charts. We can't wait to see you baby girl!

Love,

Aunt T

False alarm

Kai,

The doctor was concerned for no reason, you are growing like a weed (6lbs 8 oz is the latest estimate). You look completely healthy so we'll proceed as planned and we'll be inducing on Monday. See you soon!!

Like mother like daughter

Baby girl,



 

You don't know my history yet, but you will soon enoguh. The past 2 times I've been admitted to a hospital it was directly from a doctors appointment. Going into the appointment today I was a little convinced you'd keep the trend alive and decide to come while I was there. While you didn't do that, you are making my prediction a very real possibility.

 

The doctors appointment today showed I had lost 4 1/2 pounds in the last 2 weeks, while everything else looks pretty good the doctor is a bit concerned you've stopped growing. I looked this up (you will also likely become a professional googler when the time comes) and it sounds like it might be an issue with the placenta. I'm scheduled to get an ultrasound at 3:30 this afternoon so that we can see how much you've grown since your last ultrasound. If it doesn't look like you've done much, we will be walking across the street and checking into the hospital for your grand arrival. We'll still be inducing, so at least at this point the C-section is not on the table, so you could come on the day I've predicted from the start (June 21st). If you look good and this weight loss is something else, we'll go ahead as planned and induce on Monday morning. I'll post an update as soon as I can following the appointment this afternoon.

 

 

Fortunately, we finished your nursery last night. Your Dad and I did some construction (and I got to use my new power drill), and your Aunt T helped to set up the massive amount of stuff you've already acquired. Some of our assembly was tougher than others (it did in fact take me as long to make your swing as it took your Dad to build your entire bed), but in the end, everyone contributed to the cause. Below are some pictures of the effort:

 

 

 

 

Anyway Kaia, I just need you to come out healthy, so if that means today instead of Monday let's roll.

 

Trouble Maker

One week baby girl! To be honest, right now that terrifies me. Don't get me wrong, I cannot wait for you to get here, but you're about to change my entire world and I can't even begin to imagine life with you. Plus, as much as I know everything will be fine and I've likely been through worse, the whole mechanics of you getting out of there is slightly frightening on it's own.

So, now that it's passed I can tell you (although I think you already knew), that this weekend was the forbidden weekend. You were not to be born this weekend under any circumstances as a huge chunk of the family (including our birthing coach Taryn) was 4 hours away in Aspen at Aunt Angie's wedding. The ceremony was at 12, so in typical trouble maker fashion, you decided to start my contractions at 10. Now we've had this little scare before, so you needed to make sure this was believeable...so the contractions continued...all day long. They weren't consistent enough to call the doctor for most of the day, so we went about business as usual. Your Dad found it hilarious and texted Aunt T all day with various statements about how soon you'd be here, and how she better be ready to leave at a moment's notice. I did finally call the doctor at the end of the day to make sure it was something I could ignore and to see what I needed to do about my heparin shot for the night. She confirmed what I thought, until they got consistent I really didn't need to go to the hospital, but just in case, we skipped the shot. The contractions were gone all day yesterday so I think we're back in the clear. For the record, even though I won this round, I think you're going to make an appearance before the inducement. I'm predicting Friday, but we'll see, you do seem to like doing things on your own schedule.

Your brothers are getting excited to meet you. Noah has a lot of requests for the gift you're going to give him at the hospital...they range from a monster truck, to a worm, to a real life octopus. We'll try and nail him down on a day when is request is a bit more doable, I'm not sure where we'd find an octopus that was hospital friendly. He did tell me that he'll take care of you, so you hold him to that. Caleb is still trying to figure out the mechanics of all of this, he asked if he could go in my stomach after you come out, probably not an option.

Anyway baby girl, this is my last Kaia free Monday (we hope, if you keep this process going all day Monday and into Tuesday I will not be pleased). See you soon!!

One to go...

Little one,

We had another one of the weekly appointments today, it was pretty non-eventful. As usual, you're healthy, I'm healthy, and you're a bit on the small side. We're 1/2 cm farther along, so keep up the good work, if you could just find a way to be born without me ever being in labor that would really be something worth bragging about. It looks like we're still on track for a 6/24 birthday, you're still banned from making an early appearance for now, I'll let you know when you have the all clear and then you can do as you'd like.

We will take charge of your nursery starting tomorrow night, so hopefully by Sunday we have a home all ready for you. I can't wait to get everything in there, right now the stacks of baby gear/clothes are more daunting than exciting. We did finally agree on your middle name...Sari (pronounced like Marie with an S). It's Hebrew for princess which your Dad likes, and it rhymes with Marie which is Aunt T's middle name, which I like. It's a very unique name baby girl, I'm pretty sure there aren't a lot of Kaia Sari's out there.

We have one more appointment next Thursday, and we'll find out for sure whether we're going to proceed with the plan to induce on 6/24. Hopefully we have a post on your nursery before we get to that point. 13 more days!!

The Big Day...maybe

Kaia,

We met with Dr. Stallworth yesterday (with any luck he'll be delivering you) for what is going to be a very short lived series of weekly appointments. You were being a bit of a pain about letting them listen for your heart beat, I'm not sure where you were or what you were doing, but we could barely hear it. They didn't seem concerned, apparently they could hear it well enough to know you were fine and you're still constantly in motion, but I wasn't a fan. Keep it up kid and you'll find yourself in timeout over by my kidney. Anyway, as seems to be the common comment, you're on the small side of normal but appear to be perfectly healthy.

In more exciting news...we picked the date we're going to induce. This is not a 100% guarantee that we'll induce that day, I have to be showing signs of being close anyway, but assuming it all goes according to plan your birthday will be June 24th. Right now I have a bit of a head start, I'm already 1 cm dilated, which I'm loving. Getting through labor without being in labor seems like a perfect way to do this whole ordeal. Hopefully it keeps up and I can be halfway there without ever feeling any of it :). If the 24th doesn't work out, it'll likely be the next Monday (July 1st). Apparently they don't want me going past my due date on these blood thinners, so we'll have you in the very near future one way or the other. There's also the possibility that in typical Watson fashion you will scrap this whole being told when to be born business and come earlier than that by your own accord. You have a few dates to avoid (which I'm not sharing with you in case you feel the need to be a giant pain and make your appearance on one of those dates just to be spiteful), but otherwise if you're feeling fully cooked I'd be happy to have you earlier.

We still need to get your nursery together, next Wednesday is the day we can start working on that, so we'll scramble to get it in order before you get here. Fortunately, you do have a cradle (thanks to some negotiating skills by your Dad), so if you make an unexpected appearance we have somewhere for you to sleep.

It's coming extremely quickly now baby. If it all goes according to plan I have 3 more weekends before you become my permanent weekend plan. I can't wait!

Not so little pea

Baby girl,

We met with the high risk doctor today, he wanted to get a read on your size so we did what I'm assuming will be your last ultrasound. Elliot and your brothers came, they were very excited to see "Baby Kaia on TV", but were pretty disappointed when you were far to big to look even remotely baby like. Caleb was pretty convinced you weren't in there, though your constant foot jabs in my ribs were proving otherwise. Here is the best we got from your final internal photo shoot:

And one more of the boys watching you intently on the TV:

The doctor said you look fantastic, everything is as it should be, and while still on the small side..you're within the normal range. Right now you're about 5lbs 13 oz, so you're doing great. You're facing the right direction as well, and I can't imagine you have the room to flip, so I think we're in the clear. We have another appointment tomorrow with our delivering doctor who will be a lot more specific on what the plan for delivery is, but according to this doctor he'd like us to induce the week before our due date (so sometime the week of June 23rd). If it's up to me we'll aim for June 26th, but I'll have to see what the doctor will allow tomorrow. There was talk of your size being an issue (if you're too big, I'm too small) and I would think we'd maybe have a talk about inducing earlier. That information will all come tomorrow.

Otherwise, everything is normal. You give me massive heartburn, and there's very little room for my stomach, so I'm doing my best to force feed myself..but it's not been very fun. You still love frozen yogurt and lately you've been craving peaches, but that's about it.

We did our hospital tour and birthing class last weekend, Aunt Taryn and I learned a lot. It was a great class, but made me even more anxious for you to be here. T's got plans for various popsicles, music, and alcoholic beverages to make their way into the hospital bag...she's going to be a fantastic coach. We're still working to get your nursery wrapped up and get everything else ready, can't wait for you to get here!