Kirksey's Debut

As I had said in my last post, I had been having contractions for a couple of days. Well, about 2:30 am on Tuesday, November 30, they started getting really painful. I woke Richard up (he almost jumped out of bed because I startled him so badly) and we decided to wait a little while to make sure the contractions didn't stop. We started timing them and they were about 5 minutes apart on average. So, we started to get the last minute things together. We left our house about 4:00 am and after being placed in the exam room at the hospital for a little bit, I was admitted to the L&D unit about 5:00 am (I was about 4 cm). The contractions kept getting stronger (a.k.a. more painful) and closer together. We were told around 6:30 am that I would get an epidural in about 45 min. Between this time and when I actually got the epidural (close to 8:00 am and still 4 cm), I was "hurting" Richard's hand and trying to not completely jump off the bed with each contraction. Finally, the anesthesiologist came to my room and I got the best pain relief ever. For anyone out there who doesn't know, epidurals are WONDERFUL! I was having contraction after contraction and had NO IDEA! Right after I got the epidural, the resident broke my water. This is when Richard said that it all got real to him...we were really about to have a baby. The resident came back in about 11:20 am to check me and told us it was time to push. He told us that since this was my first baby we could expect that I could push for about 3 hours. So, the pushing began. Kirksey started to drop her heartrate a little during this time, so the nurse put an oxygen mask on me. My nurse told us that I was not going to have to push too long since so much progress was being made and they were letting my doctor know. Well, my doctor was stuck in clinic and it looked like she was not going to be able to make it before Kirksey made her grand entrance. The on-call attending came in and decided to put a scalp electrode (to measure the heartrate internally) on Kirksey's head. Two sets of pushes later Kirksey was born at 11:46 am...so much for 3 hours pushing!! She was perfect and even gave us a smile for her first picture.

Richard took this picture inbetween contractions, before I got the epidural

After the epidural

She's here!

She already has daddy wrapped around her finger

Dr. Villers got to our room as soon as she could

This is Olivia, my labor nurse--she was great

Isn't she just PERFECT!

Mimi (we think that will be her name) holding Kirksey for the first time

Papa's first time holding Kirksey

First diaper change

We loved sharing this with our friends

I think she will be able to get whatever she wants!

More friends

Coming home for the first time

Proud daddy!

Kirksey at 1 day old with Panda

Emmy holding Kirksey for the first time

Big Daddy holding Kirksey for the first time

Oh, we just love her so much already!

First bath

Now that wasn't so bad