Katlynn's Puppy and Pony

We were really worried about how Molly and Hoss would be with the baby...at least I was. Molly is a spoiled rotten doggie human and I was scared she would be jealous. Boy was I wrong! She LOVES Katlynn. At first she was very protective of her. Anyone, including grandparents, who held her, Molly would be right at their feet until she felt they were safe. Hoss....he couldn't care less! He loves it when she kicks her socks off....he steals them...and ticks me off!

The Delivery

My cervix was hardly open and the baby's head was really high. In OB, we call it -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3, etc. We want the + numbers....Breeze said the baby's head was at -5....uh oh. Everyone, including myself, thought I was "doomed" to a c-section. (First baby, barely dilated, and baby's head up really high, and with magnesium that makes you not contract when they are giving you pitocin to make you contract = low probability of vaginal delivery). The whole pregnancy I said I wanted my epidural right away. Now, I just wanted to sit up so gravity would help bring the baby's head down. It worked!. Breeze broke my water before she left to take North home and wow...the contractions started! Mom helped me breathe through them but then I just couldn't take it anymore. Two epidurals later, John and Candy (my nurse)'s hands, and 2 bedrails later, I was comfy cozy but feeling lots of pressure. I progressed nicely after that. At 11:40 PM I was 10cm. We let nature do it's work. I pushed five times and out came our baby at 12:45 AM on Februrary 12, 2009. The cord was really tight so Breeze had to clamp and cut it before the baby's body was even out. That and being on magnesium (makes baby act sleepy) made the baby blue, blue, blue. The baby didn't want to breathe so they had to give it oxygen with a bag mask twice. We finally said "What is it?". Breeze or Dr. Brister didn't even know as things happened so fast...."IT"S A GIRL!!!!". She eventually came around and did okay-Thank God.

Katlynn Danielle Kiko; February 12, 2009; 6lb 1.75 oz, 19 inches

We cried. She was beautiful! Breeze took LOTS of pictures We kangarooed (cuddled skin to skin) for four hours so her breathing would calm down so she didn't have to go to the NICU. Then it was off to the races....lots of visitors...lots of love

Grasping Mommy's hand for the first time.

Popeye

Sleeping on Mammy's shoulder

The Pregnancy

I loved being pregnant, every minute of it, even until the end. Don't get me wrong, there were times when I was just miserable with round ligament pain or on bedrest, but it was all overall enjoyable. I felt the baby move around 18 weeks...it felt like blowing bubbles into a milkshake. I had my "official" ultrasound at 20 weeks and all was well..."IT" looked perfect. We were driving everyone crazy not finding out was "it" was....especially Grandmas, Aunt Sis, and Alexis! We got 4D ultrasound done on 3 different occasions but the little squirt always had its hands by its face so we couldn't get good pictures. Things were going well. Weight gain wasn't that great until the mid second trimester then I started packing on the weight. I couldn't figure out how I could gain so much weight in a short period of time (OK, I do admit I had an oatmeal cream pie kick there for awhile...but not enough to gain 4 pounds in 2 weeks)....Looking back now, I was really water logged!! Then at 35 weeks, post call, I had protein in my urine and the rest was long and drawn out. I had to collect my urine for 24 hours on several different occasions, take it to L&D triage and wait until my results came back. My first and second one was upper limits of "normal" so I still continued to work. My third one though, I was > 300 and so I got taken off work. This was at 35 1/2 weeks. Talk about boredom....My blood pressures were okay at home but high in the office....until 36 1/2 weeks. My blood pressures at home started creeping up. I had to go to the office to get blood pressure checks after that. Then I got a headache. Not my typical headaches/migraines though. This was different. The at the office my blood pressure was high so I got sent in for induction.

The Surprise of a + Test: June 2008

John went to work early that morning to an auction and then was heading straight to a coon hunt afterwards. He wouldn't be home until about 2 or 3 AM. I was on call the next day, which was a Sunday. I woke up that morning, coughed, and felt a big pain on my right side. I thought to myself, being the dorky ob/gyn that I am, maybe I have a corpus luteum cyst (it's an ovarian cyst that sustains early pregnancies). I didn't think anything else of it. Later that day I went to Walmart to get groceries and bought two pregnancy tests even thought I thought I couldn't have been pregnant. We had been trying for about 15 months at that point. I told John I had started my period in June, but it ended up only being spotting (I never told him that part). I didn't think much of it, despite Breeze telling me I should take a pregnancy test...I told her I had taken tons of tests when that happened and it was never positive. Well, when I got home I took one test, then two, then finally the third before I realized...it was true...I was pregnant. I jumped up and down, ran around then house telling our shih-tzu Molly, "I'm pregnant Molly, I'm pregnant". I was so excited....and John wouldn't be home until early the next morning. I called Breeze. I went to Babies R Us and bought a picture frame that says "I Love Daddy". We went to the hospital and did an ultrasound and saw a tiny little sac we thought might be it! I put the picture in the frame and taped the positive pregnancy test to it. I put it in a gift bag. That night I tried to go to bed, but I just couldn't fall asleep. John finally came home at 2AM. I acted like I was sleeping and just woke up. I told him I had a present for Annie and him (his coon dog, she got show champion that night). He opened it and looked at me like, Huh?. He said "You're pregnant?". I said "yes" and he said......"How did that happen?". I laughed. Now, he's a snart man, despite this comment. What he meant though is that he thought I couldn't be pregnant because I had told him I started my period in June, when in fact, I hadn't! We cried................................................

2nd picture is first u/s picture with a heartbeat...6 weeks and 6 days old.

3rd picture is 20 weeks, baby's foot

4th picture is 20 weeks, baby's profile with thumb by mouth