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Kenley - One Month

As always, time is just flying and our sweet Kenley, or "Little Sweets" as I am calling her these days, is already one month old. She is your typical 1 month old - eating, sleeping and pooping :) She has been sleeping a solid 6 hour stretch the last couple nights and then another 4 hours after being changed and fed. She was diagnosed with reflux so unfortunately she isn't the happiest of babies, but we'll keep her ;) She is about 21.5 inches and according to the oh so accurate way of weighing myself with and without her she is between 9.5-10lbs. Same length and about a pound more than her sister at that age - and so the comparing begins...I'll try not to make that a habit.

I have more pictures to post from the last month, including Kenley's newborn photo shoot, but nap time is only so long and Mama also has a big "3" year old's party to prepare for this weekend!

It's a Girl! Kenley Faith's Birth Story

Sunday June 17th we had gone to a history making Twins & Brewers game – the game went into 15 innings, the longest game yet at Target Field. I started getting contractions in the 10th inning but nothing regular and there had been a lot of pressure sitting that day. Sunday night my contractions became regular at 9:30pm, 2-3 minutes apart, lasting 45 sec – one minute so I waited it out all night since they weren't getting any stronger, but weren't going away and were too strong to sleep through. We dropped Alexa off at daycare at 7:30am and headed to the hospital. I was monitored and the nurse made it sound like with the contractions I was having we were staying and either going for a VBAC if I was progressing and baby had flipped or would be having a repeat c-section. Then she checked my cervix and I was still the same as I had been on Friday - 1.5cm, 60% effaced, so I was sent home because I wasn't dilating. They said baby was head down now, but blottable (head not engaged, when they poke on it, it bounces up). The contractions eventually went away that day so I got some rest. I was shocked that they went away with how regular they were. 

I had 4-5 what I thought were “back spasms” over the next two days and bad constant back pain, and I realized on Thursday that the back pain was actually my kidney. I was in quite a bit of pain at work of varying degrees that day and at about 7pm that night I had to go lay down it was getting so bad, I was just hoping to get through the night and call the doctor in the morning. The pain progressively got worse and contractions began around 10pm. I laid in bed for a awhile until the pain was so bad that I got up to let Eric get some sleep around 1am. I went downstairs and attempted to time the contractions, but combined with the kidney pain it was too unbearable to even time, I went and woke up Eric at 1:30am and told him we have to go NOW.

Luckily my hospital bag was mostly packed from the other day because there was no time to do anything, we grabbed that and Alexa and left for the hospital. Eric asked me if he wanted me to blow the lights to which I yelled “yes.” I didn’t think the baby was coming anytime soon, but the kidney pain was unbearable. We checked into triage and it took forever for the on-call doctor to come down from “upstairs.” The nurse checked my cervix and I was still only 1.5cm dilated. At this point I wasn’t even thinking about being in labor even with contractions 2 minutes apart, I was too concerned with the kidney pain and getting that figured out. I thought I probably had a kidney infection or kidney stones but my urine culture came back negative. By the time the doctor finally came down, I was nearly passing out from the pain and put on oxygen and the nurse was hooking up an IV. It was the one doctor in my huge practice that we didn’t like. We had just met her a couple weeks prior and neither of us were fans, nor was the amazing triage nurse we had. The doctor ordered an oral pain med (which I don’t remember what it was) and said she would come back in an hour. The pain med made me sleepy for about 5-10 minutes but didn’t even touch the pain, I think it only relaxed my body enough for the pain to worsen (probably make the contractions stronger) because by now I couldn’t bare it anymore. The baby’s heart rate was also going from the 170’s-90’s and back during this time. The nurse checked my cervix again at this point, I think with the pain increasing so much we were both hoping that my cervix had done its job and that I was in the transition phase of labor, only to find that I was still at 1.5cm due to the blottable head.

The doctor finally came back in, and at this point I am now throwing up from the pain. She said she thought that my kidney was backed up with fluid from the pregnancy and the only way to correct it was to have the baby. Eric rushed Alexa off to daycare, luckily only 5 minutes away, and I was given a dose of fentanyl to relieve some of the pain until we got into surgery, which started to wear off quickly. I never thought I would be so relieved to get a spinal in my life, but it felt amazing for the pain to be gone. I was so warm and comfortable I just wanted to take a nap, but there was a baby to be delivered! At 8:32am Kenley Faith come into the world with Eric announcing that, “Alexa has a baby sister!”

Everyone in the OR kept commenting on her size so I was expecting to hear that she was just huge, but she was completely normal at 7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long. Then came the comments about how much water there was. Turns out I had undiagnosed Polyhydramnios, excessive amniotic fluid, which occurs in 1% of pregnancies, and was the likely cause of the kidney issue because I was carrying around so much extra water. Kenley was basically swimming in my belly and would have never engaged in the birth canal, which is why after so many contractions I still hadn’t dilated past 1.5cm. They measured over 5 quarts of amniotic fluid from me, and a normal amount is 1-2 quarts. My belly had felt so differently with this pregnancy and so much bigger that I had a feeling something wasn’t right for a while. I had thought that they would maybe discover a fibroid or an unusually large placenta or something of that sort, so it is interesting that mother’s intuition was right and that there was something wrong. Had it been detected earlier that probably would have performed the c-section a couple weeks earlier to avoid potential complications like cord prolapse and placental abruption. A lot of things could have happened so I am thanking my lucky stars for a healthy baby and healthy delivery. At this point the main concerns regarding the Polyhydramnios is to watch for digestive issues in Kenley and her skull not being very fused, which will change in time. Delivering cured my kidney problem, thank god. I was worried that I would have this beautiful newborn and still have this pain to sort out. I was so bitter for a very long time after I had to have a c-section with Alexa, but I think I can honestly say there is no bitterness this time, I am just so blessed that everything turned out ok. 

Our happy family of four

 

Tuesday's To-Do's

Since baby will be here at the latest a week from today, this will be my last time posting my to-do list! Looks like I better finish up huh?
To-do:

 - Sew crib skirt - Done 

 - Sew curtains - Done 

 - Sew bunting decorations - Done 

 - Hang paper lanterns - Done  

 - Pre-register with the hospital - Done 

 - Touch up chair railing - Done 

 - Sew changing table pad covers- Done 

 - Paint 2 bird cages for on shelves - Done 
 - Sew pillow for glider - Done 
 - Sort through baby clothing separating gender neutral and girl items - Done
 - Wash baby clothing, towels & sheets - Done
 - Install carseat base
 - Pack hospital bag - packed just have to throw in the few things that I use daily 
 - Freezer meals - lets face it, those aren't gonna happen ;)

To purchase:

 - Double jogging stroller - Done 

 - Crib sheets - Done  

 - Night light - Done  

 - Mattress - Done

 - Sleep Giraffe - Done

 - Baby Book - Done
 - Diaper Genie refills - Done
 - New pump parts - Done
 - Big Sister gift for Alexa - Done, thanks for the rec Nicole!
 - Rock n' Play - Done
 - Car seat protector - Done
 - 2 fabric drawers - Done
 - Diapers - I guess at this point I can just order them from Amazon when I am in the hospital to see what size we'll need. Since everyone is convinced this is going to be a 12lb baby I may need to bypass a jumbo box of newborn size. Crazy since even Alexa at 7lbs 4oz wore preemie diapers in the hospital. 

Run, Walk, Hope 5K

Eric, Alexa and I jogged the Liz Logelin Run, Walk, Hope 5K this past weekend. I am using the term "jogging" loosely ;) We had a good time despite it being 80* already when the run started at 9am, but we met the "goal" time I had in mind for being 37 weeks pregnant. Everyone gave me crap that the baby would come, but here we are on Monday - no baby, just as I expected ;) Our neighbor Cassie has been running it the last two years as well so she brought the family along and very randomly I ran into a girl I went to high school with that I haven't seen in over 10 years at the 5k as well. Small world, considering I went to high school in a different state :)

 Our neighbors - we are truly blessed in the neighbor department

Walking the cake walk with Maddy Logelin (the book Two Kisses for Maddy's namesake). Alexa won us a $25 Home Depot gift-card, SCORE!

 Alexa's neighbor pals

 And Eric's bump photography while I wasn't paying attention