Sweet Karoline

I had a baby.  A new member has joined our family.  Woah, sometimes it's still a little surreal.  I would love to give all the fantastic details in a beautiful birth story, but our movers come in 2 days and I seem to have a panic attack every 5 minutes, so this will be short(er) and sweet.

 

Tuesday, June 24th at 5:30 am found Ed, Kassie and I in the hospital getting ready to be induced.  Kassie watched me get hooked up to some things and answer a million questions, chatted with the nurses, saw Dr. Chang break my water, then left with Ed for a ride to the babysitters.  By the time Ed got back I was talking to the anesthesiologist and getting prepped for an epidural.

 

Ed told me I looked way too happy in this picture to be in labor.  I sure love me an epidural.

I do not labor quickly.  This always seems to surprise people, especially nurses who watch me be induced.  At 11:00 I was dilated to a 5 (I started at 1 1/2) and hadn't thinned out very much, but my nurse was really pushing for a noon delivery.  To her dismay (and no surprise to me) I was only at 6 at noon.  And at 1:00 too.  She was so disappointed.  I thought I was making pretty good progress, and assured her that once I got past 6 things would go faster.

Around 2:00 I was finally at a 7.  At 2:25 Ed told the nurse I was ready.  They checked me, called Dr. Chang and started setting up.  At 2:32 he told me "When you have your next contraction..." and I said, "Like now?"  At 2:33, halfway through my first half-hearted effort of a push, out came this beautiful, perfect little creature.  She cried right away and so did I.  I couldn't see her, so I asked if she was really a girl, and Dr. Chang held her upside down for me to see that indeed she was.

6 lbs. 12 oz, 19 3/4 inches long.

I wish I had a picture of Ed holding her.   Sweetest thing ever.

So, we had a couple different names we were considering.  People have made it their personal mission to help us figure out what to call her, and all my sweet nurses were no exception.  Every time they'd come in the room they had a new name for us to consider.  Our top pick was Khloe Adaline (Adaline is a great-great-great grandmother of Ed's with an amazing story), and I still love that name...but she came out and was NOT a Khloe!  Ed said Karoline and it just fit.  Our sweet Karoline.  We couldn't do Karoline Adaline, so after MUCH deliberation, we finally settled on Karoline Kaye (Ed's grandpa was Kay).

Lucky Kassie got to be Karoline's first visitor.

Karoline and I came home Wednesday and the older girls came home from Branson (they'd been playing with Grandma and Bonka) on Friday.  Everyone is in love with our little sweetheart. 

She has been calm and precious and perfect.  I feel so blessed.  Welcome, welcome sweet Karoline.