Mikey and I are now proud parents of our son Kaiden Michael! He was born Monday, September 7 at 2:49 pm. He's now 5 weeks old two days ago. I can't believe how much he's growing! We absolutely LOVE being parents, despite how tired we are. I honestly never thought I'd enjoy being a mom this much, and my hubby is the BOMB at helping with everything. It's so hard to believe how much love we both have for him!
He was quite the little guy being 6lb 8 oz when he was born. I don't think people are used to seeing a smaller baby because I usually get tons of comments on how little he is! He is a VERY snugly and mostly content little boy. He usually sleeps and eats well and has lots of funny expressions. He is a very strong boy. Every since we brought him home from the hospital, he's been trying to hold his head up. When he gets excited or mad, his little body is quite strong with how tense he gets. We aren't quite sure who he looks the most like. At different moments, he looks like both Mike and I when we were babies . Some people say so far he has Mike's nose and my lips. We both were pretty bald as babies, so I'm quite impressed at how much hair (even though it's not much) he does have.
So the story of my labor was contractions started on Friday, Sept 4 about 20 minutes apart through the day and night til Sunday evening. I was soo glad to make it through teaching that day! I didn't want to scar middle school students I teach by poppin' out a baby in class, plus Mikey was on shift that Friday, and I was by myself at home that night, making us both super nervous :) ... Contractions continued til Sunday, and our midwife suggested Sunday we go to the hospital to get checked to see how far I was dilated. When we went I was a two, but I was 80% effaced. So at least something was happening! Come Sunday night, my contractions were hard and 10 minutes apart, and again Mikey was on shift. By eight that evening, I was in tears from being so uncomfortable and tired from being in pre-labor since Friday morning. So he came home that evening, and around 5 that Monday morning my contractions were 5 minutes apart. After a call to the midwife, that was our ok to head to the hospital!
When we got there they were able to give me some light pain med and, I was dilated to a 5 by nine that morning, which I could then get an epidural... thank God for that!! After the epi, I was able to get some rest which I hadn't been able to do since Friday. Come about one o'clock that afternoon, I was fully dilated and ready to push. They had given me petossin a few hours before that to speed my contractions back up. I was very comfortable compared to what I had been those few days before. So with Mikey, the midwife, and hospital nurse, I started pushing. It was very calm and going smoothly. I was actually looking forward to finally pushing little man out! After pushing for about half an hour, Amy (midwife) said his head wasn't dropping enough and a c-section MIGHT be a possibility but she wanted me to push a bit more and see. So I pushed another half hour and after checking again, my cervix was starting to swell (which could damage future baby Krupas), and his head still wasn't dropping. She said we could still try to push, but she felt things wouldn't change. So we trusted her advice and a
c-section it was.
Talk about a quick switch in thinking! The whole time a last several appointments, Kaiden's head had been down, so we hadn't considered a c-section as a possibility. Of course, we wanted to do what was in his best interest. His heartbeat was fine the whole time, so nothing was emergent. However, I was honestly terrified. I've NEVER liked doctors, needles, or much less a surgery! So after an hour delay (because of someone else needing an emergency c-section-which was a sad story), we were ready to roll. As they prep-ed me, Mikey was in a different room than the OR. I thought I was going to seriously break down I was so scared... the big lights, the thought of a spinal, and seeing the instruments was more than I could handle. The nurse was so sweet ( we have only good things to say about Mercy's birthing center staff!!) and just talked with me as I closed my eyes and let tears softly flow. As soon as the spinal kicked in and I was on the table ready, Mikey came in and was with me-thank God! I remember still feeling terrified I couldn't feel my legs but relieved because I couldn't feel them slicing me open :) When they pulled Kaiden out, and I heard his cry I remember thinking it was the sweetest little cry and more tears came, happy ones. I vaguely remember Mikey bringing Kaiden over to me to kiss him, and he went with the Kaiden and the nurse to the nursery while I went to post-op to recover, which felt like forever because I still hadn't been able to hold my baby boy!
So that's the beginning of our lives as parents! Everything ended up going smoothly in spite of a c-section. I got to spend time with Mike and Kaiden as soon as I got out of post-op, although I was still pretty groggy (photo below). Baby K latched on with b-feeding right away (no photo for that-ha!). More thoughts on that first week of Kaiden being here on another post. This has turned out to be quite lengthy, but I have a LOT to catch up on :)
Hey Stepnanie,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you blogging again. I am so glad Baby Kaiden is here. He is blessed to have such great parents. Keep up the bloging, I love hearing all about those new mommy moments. Sommer