Here she is!

Kennedy Ann Neva Born Friday May 25th at 11:47 a.m. 6 lbs 12 oz 19 1/2 inches I went for my weekly doctor appointment on Thursday and everything looked really good. I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. He tried to stimulate everything the best he could so I would hopefully go into labor soon. If I started having contractions he told me to go to the hospital. I fell asleep really early that night and woke up the next morning at 4:30 having contractions with some pretty good pain. I could tell that these contractions were very different than any I had felt before so I knew that this could be it. I began timing them to see how far apart they were and if they were constant and regular. They were all about 5 minutes apart so I decided to get up, shower, and get ready just in case I needed to go the hospital. At 5:30 Kyle woke up and I told him that I think we needed to go the hospital. We got to the hospital at 6:30 and I was dilated to a 5 and 100% effaced. A few hours later the doctor came and broke my water. I struggled all morning with the decision to get the epidural or not, but when the contractions started getting harder I decided I just wanted to enjoy the process and not have to deal with the pain. I wish I could've sucked it up and toughed it out, but it was nice being able to talk and be with everyone that was in the delivery room. After my water broke and I had my epidural it was a waiting game. My contractions were not very consistent and the strength varied. The baby's heart beat also started to get a little low so they kept having me move around to see if the baby's heart beat would increase. I told Kyle that I felt like I was going to throw up so he needed to go ask the nurse for a bag in case I did. Apparently since I felt like I was going to throw up that meant I was ready to deliver the baby. My contractions were pretty far apart so we had to wait awhile until I could push. I pushed through three contractions and then they realized the cord was wrapped around her neck. The nurse told me they were going to call the NICU. I wasn't really worried and didn't really know what was going on. Kyle's sister told me everything was fine so I stayed pretty calm. Since my contractions were so far apart and her heartbeat was dropping the doctor had to cut me open and suck her out with the vacuum. I was really glad I had the epidural then because I would have really been in pain. Apparently she was pretty blue in color when she came out and it took her a few seconds before she started to cry. Everything turned out great though and everyone couldn't be happier. This first week having her home has been a whirlwind of emotions for me. For the first few days everything was fun and exciting. She slept quite a bit and the nights were pretty easy. I was loving being a mom and taking care of my baby. Since the novelty has started to wear off and the nights aren't that easy anymore I have began to realize that my life really has been changed forever. I am still loving being a mom and am so grateful that I get this opportunity. I know all these emotions are mostly just my hormones being out of sync and things will soon be back to normal. I know it won't always be easy being a mom but it will be worth it.