Isn't he the best?

A lot of things have been happening around here lately.

1. Arizona is finally having some weather to report. I think the meteorologists around here are really have to dig deep into the dark recesses of their minds where anything they've learned about the weather other than, "It's going to be another sunny day!" has been stored. Rain and snow like crazy! (Of course no snow here in the Valley of the Sun, but in the higher elevations... Look out!)

2. One of my best friends, whom I've known forever, had a baby shower this weekend. The shower took place in Prescott, which is about an hour and a half north of Phoenix. And I got to go! Hooray!

3. Kadri still isn't sleeping through the night, which means I'm not sleeping through the night, and I'm utterly perplexed as to how Tim always seems to manage to sleep through her fussing. I thought he was the light sleeper of the two of us!

Anyway, the culmination of all these happenings is that I was a little nervous about driving to Prescott all by me onesie for the baby shower, given that the weather could be ugly, and I could be very tired. Tim wasn't available to come with me, so I called my sister to see if she wanted to go. She couldn't. But she provided me with the next best thing other than company. The prayers of her seven year old son.

She called last night to say she couldn't accompany me and told me that my nephew, included me when he was saying their family prayer. It apparently went something like this: Please bless that Kira will be safe if she goes to the baby WASH. Ba ha ha!

Thank goodness for the prayers and faith of seven-year-old boys! I made it to the baby wash entirely without incident! He really is the best!

The prettiest baby!

She was so little! She still is, but now she's up to 9 pounds, and she just seems so much bigger to me! I can't even believe that some babies are that big at birth!

Can you see why there was some confusion when I told a man who came into the office yesterday (sadly I am back at work! Six weeks went way too fast!) that I had a girl? I'm in a blue shirt, the bedsheets were blue and Kadri's blanket was blue also. Maybe I should put that blanket aside for when we someday have a little boy! Hopefully!

What a cute family! Howie is getting used to having Kadri around. I still get the cold shoulder from him occasionally, when he feels I've paid too much attention to Kadri though.

When I pick Howie up after we'd just come home from the hospital - two days after Kadri was born! An obnoxious story - I told him that he was a monster! Before Kadri was born I had always thought Howie was a little dog. After holding Kadri for two days and then picking up Howie who was twice her weight at that point, I changed my mind. Kadri is going to outweigh him soon enough though and then I'll go back to thinking he is a little dog!

I didn't get to go home the day after Kadri was born because I didn't sleep the night she was born, or the night before when I was in labor either, and I had a little emotional breakdown when the PA from the doctor's office came to check on me. I was pretty ticked that my doctor wouldn't just let me go home. It was nice that she wanted me to get some sleep, but I would much rather have slept in my own bed.

I blame some of my exhaustion on the incessant "visitors" I had at the hospital as well. Good grief! Not only were there nurses in and out all day and all night, but I was putting up with a zillion other people as well. There was the lady who did Kadri's first hearing check, who can be forgiven for her visit. There was the pediatrician, who can also be forgiven for his visit. I had someone from the cafeteria coming in two hours before every meal, then bringing my meals and taking my dishes away after meals. I did get hungry so they were appreciated visits, but still obnoxious! I had two visits from the lady who collected the information for the birth certificate, whose visit was necessary as well. The worst were the visits from the many community organizations established for the benefit of children - nothing against the organizations, just the visitors to my hospital room - who outstayed their welcome telling me things I already knew or had already been reading about taking care of a baby and oohing and ahhing about how comfortable Kadri and I seemed with each other. You think? We'd been pretty inseparably connected for nine months prior to Kadri's birth, and it wasn't the first time in my life I'd held a baby!

Anyway, I didn't even have a chance to take a nap during the day, hence my emotional breakdown over the fact that I was so tired, and then my doctor wouldn't release me from the hospital until Saturday. Annoying!

To finish on a happy note, here's another picture of my pretty girl!

Welcome to the World, Kadri Sanne!

Now that Kadri is five and a half weeks old, I suppose it's time to update my blog with some information about how I went from looking like this:

To having this little bundle of joy:


The Reader's Digest version:

At 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 3, 2009 I woke up from having fallen asleep on the couch with pain in my uterus, which was something like unto menstrual cramps. Twelve hours and twenty minutes later, at 12:50 p.m., after approximately 30-40 minutes of pushing, Kadri was born. Hooray!

The longer, more gory version:

So, I woke up at 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 3, with what felt like unto menstrual cramps. I think that was my first true labor contraction, although, technically you could probably say I'd been in labor for at least six weeks, since I'd been dilating and my cervix had been shortening for that time. Anyway, I got up to use the facilities because that usually made any sensations even remotely like unto menstrual cramps go away. I must have lost my mucous plug at that point, although I didn't think at the time that it was my mucous plug. From everything that I'd read I wasn't prepared for it to seem that I'd started my period. So I went and consulted my What to Expect When Expecting book, and then called the hospital, because the didn't reassure that I had lost my plug. They said to come in and they'd check me, so I had Tim drive me to the hospital, and they monitored me for contractions and monitored Baby's heartbeat for a little while, and checked me for dilations, etc. Then they sent me home with an Ambien to help me sleep and said that my doctor would see me at my next appointment, on the following Monday. Ha ha!

So, the Ambien was a joke. It didn't help me to sleep at all! I started having real labor contractions by the time we got home from the short trip to the hospital at 3:00 a.m. After trying to sleep for several hours I took a bath and shaved my legs, because my sister-in-law had said a bath helps to relax her when she's in labor. At this point I wasn't 100% sure I was in labor, but I thought I must be. Unlike the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been having for months, these contractions hurt! Anyway, the bath didn't help me to feel any better. I got up to take the bath at about 6:30 a.m.

Then I puttered around and got "ready" for the day really slowly because I was doubled over in pain a lot and not really able to move quickly. I called the office and told them that if I was in at all that day, I was going to be late because I was having really painful contractions. Not super regularly at that point, but regular enough - sometimes 10 minutes between contractions, sometimes 5, or 7 or 3. That was sometime between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m.

At around 9:00 a.m. or shortly thereafter, I was timing my contractions at about five minutes apart, so I called my mom to ask her what "real labor" felt like. I was not about to go to the hospital and have them turn me away because of false labor. I talked to her for a few minutes and she timed my contractions - about three minutes apart - and told me to go to the hospital. So away Tim and I went.

I will admit that I swore one time on the way to the hospital because a traffic light turned red. I was already in more pain than I'd ever experienced in my life and the accelaration of the car was uncomfortable, not to mention that sitting down in the car made the contractions hurt more and on top of that the light turned red! How dare it! Anyway, I'd warned Tim it might happen, and since I know he didn't appreciate it, I just covered my eyes for the rest of the trip to the hospital.

We were at the hospital by 10:00 a.m. Tim dropped me off and I went and checked myself in while he parked the car. They took me into triage, checked me - I was dilated to 7 cm - and hooked me up to monitor my contractions and Baby's heartrate again and I complained a little bit about having to lay in the hospital bed because the contractions hurt more laying down. They also stuck me in four different places trying to get the IV needle in. (I had some pretty good bruises for a couple weeks after Kadri was born thanks to my rotten veins!) Not long after I complained about laying down, they checked me again and I was between 8-9 cm, so off we went to the delivery room.

At this point, I lost all concept of time and I don't know how long anything took, or what time it was, etc. I had opted for an epidural so at some point the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. It only worked half-way. Next time I may not even bother with it. I didn't feel too much on the right side of my body, but on the left side, I felt everything!

Shortly after the epidural my doctor arrived and it was time to start pushing.

Poor Tim didn't realize that Baby was coming TODAY at the time we left for the hospital. He hadn't brought in the hospital bag or the camera after he parked the car, so my doctor gave him two minutes to grab it before she had me push. As soon as he got back, he got another surprise! He was hoping to just be able to stay near my head and hold my hand for the delivery. No such luck! The nurse gave him the assignment of helping to hold one of my legs, so he got to see the whole show! The episiotomy (sp?), Kadri's head making it's debut and her turning her head from one side to another and looking around, and then the delivery of the rest of Kadri and the placenta all at once.

I was a little surprised that I didn't have to wait for another contraction and another push to deliver the placenta. The doctor was stitching me back together and I was wondering about it and then the doctor was off to deliver another baby. I asked the nurse about it and she said it all came with the second half of Kadri. It didn't really have any other option. The umbilical cord was only 12 inches long. Short cord. The placenta was also relatively small apparently. She was a small girl though. What can I say?

According to Tim I was only pushing for 30-40 minutes. Not too bad compared to the nightmare pushing experiences people had been sharing with me for weeks! I sure didn't want to push for seven hours!

Anyway, Kadri Sanne was born at 12:50 p.m. on December 3. She was 20 inches long and weighed 6 lbs. 4.8 oz. and she was perfect!

More to come later on my hospital stay, and as requested by my sister Courtney, more photos as well!