Welcome Baby Kaitlyn :)

Well Kaitlyn is over 2 weeks old now! I cannot believe how fast time is going. I already wish it would slow down because she has changed so much in the past two weeks. I thought maybe I should write down her birth story before I forget it all :) Friday the 25th is the day I was hoping would be the day she was born. My mom came into town the night before, and Friday morning I went to see my Dr (Heather Dabling who is the best doctor ever!) and she stripped my membrane hoping to get labor started. Just in case, she scheduled me for an induction the next day when I would be a week overdue. Then I went to the hospital to do a non stress test to make sure fluid levels were safe for the baby and that her heartbeat was ok. They had a monitor on her heart and another one for my contractions, and during the test I started to have contractions! They were actually pretty consistent and the doctor there said I should stay in the hospital but that I could walk around a while before checking in with labor and delivery.

I started to walk around the hospital and the contractions were still pretty regular but not to painful yet. I didn't really want to keep walking around the hospital so I called my doctor and she said I could leave until I thought I was closer. We walked around the mall for a few hours and then ate lunch and hung out at home  until around 4 when I thought the contractions were more painful. We went to the hospital and found out that they were totally full! All 18 labor and delivery rooms were full (go figure since Utah County has the highest birth rate of anywhere!) and so they put me into this tiny room with no windows and monitored me for an hour. I was annoyed to see that my contractions slowed down in frequency, and after an hour the nurse came in and said they were sending me home because I wasn't progressing at all (I think if they hadn't been full they would have kept me and just started me on drugs to get labor really going but they were still super crowded). So they gave me a shot to help with the pain and so I could sleep well and said they would call in the morning. I slept soooo very good that night! Those drugs did their job and the pain eased and I was super woozy and tired.

 We went in the next morning around 8. Here is a picture of me outside the hospital labor and delivery entrance :) Kirsten really wanted a picture of me right before I had the baby and this is it!

 It was a gross morning. Super foggy looking but I know most of the fog was really pollution from the inversion. Yucky!

 They got me all hooked up and started on the pitocin around 9 a.m. They also started me on some saline and a sugar water drip to give me extra calories (it made me think of the gross bug alien on Men in Black who asks his wife for sugar water Haha). I had a lot of great nurses but my favorite was a sweet one named Stephanie Bills. Apparently her husband's family used to be in my stake but I didn't know them. She was so sweet and wrote on the board our two name choices because we hadn't decided on one yet.

 The day went by pretty quickly for me. The contractions started to get a little more intense, especially after they broke my water (which was probably my least favorite part of the whole thing. I hated the feeling of the water coming out). At some point, and I can't remember exactly when, they told me I could get an epidural then or wait 45 minutes to an hour for when the anesthesiologist was available again. I wasn't a fan of the idea of waiting an hour, so I got the epidural then and I was so very glad that I did! It was such a relief to not have to worry about the pain being too intense for me to handle. I hadn't progressed at all until about 4 p.m. when I finally started to dilate. Sometime during the day (I can't remember when) my sister Shayle came down from Brigham City. It was so nice to have my husband, my mom and my big sister there to support and love me :) I was dilated to a 7 around 7 at night, and I was fully dilated around 9. They had me rest and descend for an hour (which is basically sit and wait an hour and try not to push. It helps the baby move down a little and they have seen that it shortens the amount of time spent pushing). I started pushing around 10 with just the nurse there, but the baby was coming out pretty fast so at about a quarter after they had me stop pushing until my Dr got there. I'm not sure exactly when she got there, but she was pretty surprised how close the baby was to coming out, and had to hurry and get all of her gloves and hairnet and whatever else on. I pushed for about 5 more minutes until she came out at 10:38! Later my mom told me that her heart rate dropped significantly in the last few minutes before she came out, but I had no idea! She had the cord around her neck once and so I think that must have been why, and I'm glad she came out quickly so that there weren't any problems.

 Here she is getting weighed! See how open her eyes are? She came out with them open and she was looking all round the room. She is my sweet little baby who was 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long. After a few minutes we decided that she was for sure Kaitlyn Dora, named after me and my Grandma Petersen who passed away last year. I had always planned to pass my middle name on because I loved being her namesake and I wanted it to continue. It meant a lot especially since she had passed, and I felt like she had been blessing me the whole pregnancy from the other side.

 Here Marc is calling his mommy to let her know the good news :) We had kept her updated all day, but every time he called she would ask, "Baby?" and we would laugh and tell her that she hadn't come yet. I bet he was happy to finally be able to tell her that she was here!

My sweet nurse changed the sign so that it had all of the information about Kaitlyn on it. She was the best nurse ever!

 Here is daddy holding his little girl for the first time. He looks so proud :) I have absolutely loved watching him transition into being a father. He is so amazing and just loves both of his girls so much. I am so grateful for how wonderful he is! He is the best daddy and husband ever.

 Here are her cute little feet. We were told that they are pretty big for her size, but she is pretty long and skinny.

 Here she is right after her first bath. I love the purple bow on her head and how alert she is.

 Don't I look tired? I love this picture because after all the months of waiting and all of the work of delivering her, she was finally here. I love this girl so much!

Here is our first official family picture. I think it was taken either on the 27th or 28th, I'm not really sure which day. We are so blessed to have Kaitlyn in our family! She is a really great baby and we can't get enough of her. She was even nice enough to sleep the whole time I wrote this story down! We love her and we are so happy to have our little family of three :)