Kaitlin Maya was born on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 11:31am. She weighed 7lbs 11.6oz.
Monday morning I started having contractions around 12am, but they were far apart, like 25-30 minutes. Around 2am, they were getting closer but still only like 15minutes apart. But I figured this was it because they were continually getting closer and stronger. Chris woke at 2am and sat watching me. He wanted to get dress then and leave, but it wasn't even time yet. I called my OB office around 4:30am at this time the contractions were 4-6 minutes apart and very strong. I couldn't talk thru them. They told me to go on into the labor and delivery. We got to the hospital at about 5:15am. I was hooked up to monitors to see how close my contractions were. At this time I was about 2-3 minutes apart and I was dialated to 4-5cm already. So they admitted me. As we walked to my room, the contractions were so strong, I think I took like 5 minutes to walk about 30 feet. I was attempting to delivery without an epidural but at this time I told them I wanted one.I certainly won't get any awards for doing it without meds. Though I did say I wanted a low dose, so that I can still feel the tightening of the contractions and know when to push. I had to wait a little for some labwork to come back. I think that was the longest wait. By the time I got the epi, it was about 7am. My OB was able to make it, but one of the midwives, Grace, was being called to do the delivery. The next time I was checked I was already 7-8cm dialated. By 10am I was fully dialated to 10cm, but one side of my cervix was not totally thinned out. My midwife tried to see if when I push if the baby's head would move it and it did. At 10:30am I started pushing. Around this time my mom and Belle came, but we had them leave the room because Belle was concerned about me and kept saying "mommy ow" meaning I was hurting. Anyway I pushed for about 1/2 hour. They were getting concerned because the baby's heartrate kept dropping. I had to wear an oxygen mask. She said we try for another 1/2 hour, if nothing, then they may need to try a vacuum. I guess that really motivated me because I quickly got the head out and then they noticed merconium, which there was none when they broke my water. So they quickly had me pushed the baby out. She said "Dad, what is it?" and Chris said "It's a girl" We welcome our second baby girl into the world. They placed her on my stomach to quickly wiped her off but then wisked her away to the warming bed to get all the merconium out. I swear these kids like to scare us. Belle had a little trouble breathing when she was born, so both times I'm there looking over from the bed wondering what's happening. Scary.
Belle came back into the room and was very excited. She said the baby had to be wrapped because it was naked. She went home soon after, but came back later that afternoon and loved giving Katie kisses. She was so excited and had a burst of energy as if she really knew what went on.
The next day I learned that Kaitlin had a bit of jaudice. My blood type doesnot agree with hers, so my antibodies were fighting her which caused it. So they were testing her every 12 hours. There was no increase in her levels, so she wasn't put under any lights. I was concerned they might not let her come home. But they did, her levels were around 7.

We went for her 4day day check up today. Everything looks great. She wants to see her back on Tuesday to check on the jaudice.

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