Labor and Delivery!

Ok, finally I am caught up (kind of) and can start posting some pictures of Gracie! :) For several weeks before I went into labor I had been having contractions and she had dropped very low. At my 36 week appt my doctor was a little concerned that she was measuring so small so she had me go in for an ultrasound. I was very nervous that they were going to slip up and tell me the sex, but the lady was great - but right away she kept saying "NOT a small baby, definitely NOT" At 36 weeks the average baby weighs just under 6 pounds, she was supposedly measuring 7 pounds 4 ounces and had a 40 week sized head! The measuring big part made me feel better because I had been telling my doctor that I felt like this baby was bigger than Bradley, and I was right. BUT the 40 week head part SCARED ME! Even the ultrasound tech said that we needed to keep an eye on it because if it got much bigger they might want to induce me to make sure I can still push it out, so that worried me a little. At my 37 week appt I was measuring 1 cm, then the 38 week appt I only progressed to 1 1/2, so I was a little sad it wasn't more progress. Then my contractions seemed to be slowing down. I had been feeling like it was going to be any day for weeks and then that Saturday I was telling Tammy maybe I wasn't even close. Then Sunday I was having lots of contractions again. I even kept telling Kevin all day on Sunday "We have to take another picture of the belly, it's been a while" then going to sleep that night I reminded him that we forgot again and he said "oh well, we have time" Then I woke up at 3:47 with a hard contraction. They had never woken me up before, not even with Bradley. I was able to get back to sleep in between several hard contractions, but I definitely thought it might be something. My alarm went off at 5:45 to go to work and I sat there debating what to do. I decided to take a shower to see if they got worse (like they did with Bradley) but they didn't, they just stayed the same, so I started to think it was nothing serious and went about getting ready for work. When I went downstairs at 6:30 to eat breakfast I decided to start timing them and they were already 5 minutes apart lasting 45-60 seconds each, very consistently. So I called work and left a message saying I was going to be late, I was having contractions, but I might be in later. I went upstairs and layed in bed next to a sleeping Kevin and kept timing them. At about 7:30 Kevin rolled over, noticed me laying there staring at him, realized the time and that I wasn't at work and was confused. He said "What are you doing here" and I said "Trying to decide if I'm going into labor" and he was like "Why didn't you wake me!!?" :) I was confused because the contractions were consistent and spaced like when they tell you to go to the hospital but they weren't THAT bad yet, so I didn't feel like they were real labor. But I called the Dr to ask them what I should do and when I told them how long I'd been having them that far apart she said definitely go to the hospital. So when I was packing my bag and faxing over my pre-registration (things I meant to do weeks ago), they started to get worse! We waited for Bill to come watch Bradley and took off. We got to the hospital around 9, got checked in, and I let them know right away I wanted an epidural ASAP. She checked me at about 9:30 and I was 3 1/2 so she said as soon as she heard from my Dr they could give it to me - which took FOREVER! Finally at 11:30 the epidural guy came and I was SO excited I was a handful of contractions away from being free from pain - or so I thought! He did the whole epidural, they got me all settled, but the pain was not going away. He kept saying "That's weird, it went in fine" and "This has never happened to me in 5 years!" which didn't make me feel any better. He put a TON of medicine in and still nothing was happening. I kept saying "Just do it over!" but he wanted to make absolute sure that it wasn't working before he stuck me again, but finally he decided to take it out and start all over. After an hour of this he finally got the new one in and it started to work around 12:30 and they checked me again and I was 5 1/2. A little bit later we all noticed that Baby's heart rate was too high, it went above the line and was not coming down and the nurses kept coming in and watching it. It freaked me out! After 20 minutes of it not coming down they called the Dr in and she broke my water to see if that would help - luckily it did - RIGHT away! The heart rate came down and stayed normal after that. Then everything progressed really well. My only complaint is that about 8 cm the epidural started to wear off and I could feel everything! We called the guy back up to give me more meds but it wasn't helping and he said I was too close to pushing to do anything about it. So unfortunately, I was stuck with the pain. However, I do think that it helped me with the pushing because it went really fast, I only pushed for 12 minutes and "IT'S A GIRL!" She is simply amazing. She was born at 4:50 pm, weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces, 19 inches long - and she had HAIR! Well, not compared to some other babies, but compared to Bradley and what I was expecting - she definitely had hair! :) She was so amazing, as soon as they layed her on me she had big eyes, wide open, and she just stared at me the whole time. And Bradley is such a sweetheart - no surprise there! He LOVES her. He wanted to kiss her and cuddle her from the beginning. Here are some pictures as we were coming home from the hospital. Other than the heart rate being too high for that short period of time, and the epidural problems this time :) I still think it went great! Thank God! :) And now we're so blessed to have this beautiful baby girl, Gracelyn Olivia Kerr, in our lives!!!

Maternity Pics

My good friend Johnna just started her own photography business "Picturesque Memories" and she wanted some maternity pics for her portfolio and I was the lucky one who got to help her out :) She really did me a favor, I'd never gotten pictures like this taken before and was really excited about having them done, and I think they turned out great! She's a great photographer! Here are some of my favorites, these are the last pictures I have of me pregnant with Gracie, I think they were done a couple weeks before I went into labor.

Exploring the pee-pee :)

He has been sticking his hand down his diaper lately SO MUCH. This is right when he started doing that and I thought, "ok - maybe you just want a new diaper" so I started to change him and as soon as I got the diaper off he sat up and started playing :) and just kept whispering "pee-pee" to himself over and over and laughing :) then he got up, started walking around and kept looking down at it to make sure it was still there. Then he'd go sit on a chair and look down and say "pee-pee chair" and then he sat on his bike, "pee-pee bike". After a while I figured I should probably put his diaper back on and man he put up a fight! After I got it on, he stood up really fast and starting crying and crying when he couldn't see it anymore - I just ruined all the fun! :) I have a really cute video of all of it but I think there's too much pee-pee showing to post it :) What's that saying? "... where the sun don't shine!"

Random again

Here's just some of my favorite pics from January. I think I must have complained to Kevin that I always have the camera and there are no pictures of me with my baby boy :) so here's one :) Doesn't he look like a little dinosaur T-rex in this? This is his "tickle tickle" walk :) With his cousins that he loves so much! My pretty puppies - I promise I didn't just beat Carmel, doesn't he look so sad? He sure has that face down pat! Playing with stickers. Lovin' Uncle Rick, he sure took to him right away! Fun in the bath.

Big Boy Room

We decided we're going to move Bradley's room down the hallway to the spare bedroom when Gracie is ready to go into the nursery, so we painted, removed furniture, bought some cheap dressers from our neighbor and found a toddler bed on craigslist.As of now he is still in the nursery for another month or so until we decide to tackle the big boy bed. He moved from the bassinet in our room to the crib when he was about 7 months old which is what I'm expecting us to do with Gracie as well, so I figure that gives me a couple more months to start the switch, since I don't want to do it at the same time and make Bradley feel like she's stealing his bed :) So as of now, the room stays empty and he goes in there and plays. We set up the nice new tent that Tammy and Craig got him for Christmas and put all the ball pit balls in there and he loves to go in there and play.

My big baby

As soon as we started getting all the old baby stuff back Bradley ran to it like he'd been looking for it for months. Even now that I write this and Gracie's almost 2 months old, he still likes to take turns in the swing and bouncy seat, he is SO good at sharing! :)

Playing Games

I think we played games almost every single night that Uncle Rick was here - I love it! I could never get tired of playing games with family and friends, I think it's my all time favorite thing to do. Here is Bradley and his Sis Sis is not who you're thinking it is :) For some unknown reason, Bradley calls Drew "Sis" :) It started out as Sissy and changed to Sis for short. He CAN say Drew when you ask him to say it really slow, but he calls him Sis and is always asking for "Katie and Sis". Here was Bradley mid getting ready for bed - hence the naked-ness :)

Balls!

Tammy and Craig got Bradley lots of ball pit balls for Christmas and he just loves them. Kevin had the good idea to put them all in his crib and he ran back and forth forever! Simple pleasures :)

New Years

We had a few people over to celebrate New Years like we always do - fun, food, and games! We all had a blast. Mindy and family were missed because of colds, and JK was missed because of the joys of early pregnancy :) We had a wonderful 2009 and I'm sure 2010 is going to be even better, they seem to be getting better year after year, which I am SO thankful for!! :) This picture was our favorite silly picture :)