Day 3 Friday March 7

Kirsten and I came home from the hospital on Friday. My doctor said I was healing great and was in the clear to go home and try the motherhood thing on my own. Kirsten's new pediatrician, after commenting on how beautiful she was, said she was healthy but we would need to have her jaundice checked Sunday and a weight check Monday since she was down to 7 pounds 13 ounces. We were thrilled both of us were healthy and put Kirsten in her prettiest dress to go home. She wasn't so sure about the car ride home, but as soon as we were home she was very happy. Karen and Joriel had our house decorated really cute with "It's a girl" every where. The drive home wore mom and baby out and we immediately went down for a nap. Riley and Crystal left a delicious dinner for us. Everyone has been so great to help us.
Kristy, Camille, and Chelsey drove out from Vernal to meet Kirsten. They agree she definitely looks like her mom.

Day 2 Thursday March 6

Kirsten was in the special care nursery until 1:30 pm. We were so thrilled to have her back in our room with us. We fired pediatrician that day and now have one that doesn't order unnecessary tests on our healthy baby. Kirk changed his first diaper ever, unfortunately it happened in the nursery and I missed the big event of Kirk's life. Kirsten had her first professional pictures taken, by the hospital.
Kirsten met her first cousins, Isaac and Jack. The first thing Isaac said to me was "Dynelle your belly is empty" It is so nice to not be pregnant. I'd rather have a baby than be pregnant any day.

Day 1 Wednesday March 5

Kirsten's first day turned out to be really eventful. The pediatrician took her at 9:00 am to do the usual well baby check. Since Kirsten's right ear is abnormal the doctor decided it would be a good idea to run a few test on her. Within 24 hours of being alive our daughter had a feeding tube, x-ray, ultrasound, echo on her heart, and a couple blood tests. Good thing I was there watching out for her or she would have had an IV too. Kirk spent the whole day with her in the special care nursery. We weren't very impressed with our nurses or doctors, which made a hard day even more difficult. But in the end she is completely healthy. Luckily I was able to make it down to the nursery a couple times a day to feed her.

Kirsten was able to meet Grandpa Brinkerhoff, Aunt Amanda, Nanna (Grandma Howcroft), and Uncle Riley that day. Karen was able to be with Kirk most the day which was so nice. Anytime Kirsten would cry Kirk was able to calm her down immediately. Can we say daddy's girl?

Kirsten is Here!

Kirsten Sue Howcroft finally made her debut on March 4.

Monday March 3
Kirk and I went to my final doctor's appointment. He was surprised we didn't have a baby over the weekend and immediately started talking about an induce date. I told him we were ready to induce the minute he said we could. After making a quick call to the hospital we were set to be induced the next morning. We spent the day making final preparations excited to finally bring our baby home.

Tuesday March 4, 2008. The big day!

8:15 AM
We show up at the hospital and get checked in. We are so excited to finally be at the hospital to have our baby and can't stop smiling.

9:00 AM
The pitocin drip is started. Contractions start registering on the monitor and now knowing what they felt like I realized I had been feeling contractions for the past couple weeks. The pain wasn't bad so we played cards (I always won, something about being in labor with his baby).

12:00 PM
Receiving a full dose of pitocin. Contractions feel about the same.

12:30 PM
Doctor breaks my water. I was surprised how warm it was and really felt like I had peed the bed. Dilated to a 4.

1:00 PM
Baby's heart rate drops really low. They turn off pitocin and make me lay on my side for an hour. (FYI laying on your side during an hour of contractions is not a pretty thing). I also am now receiving oxygen to help the baby.

2:00 PM
Baby has a healthy heartbeat and they turn pitocin up. Things feel great and we play cards again.

2:30 PM
Baby's heart rate drops again, they make me lay on my side, again I get to wear the oxygen mask, and the pitocin is turned down.

3:00 PM
They decide it would be a good idea to replace the amniotic fluid to help out our baby.

4:30 PM
Nurse lets us know doctor will be here in an hour. No progress is being made and I'm still a 4. She recommends trying different positions to encourage dilation. Kirk and the our labor coach help me turn onto my hands and knees (during a contraction!). Keep reminding myself the pain will all be worth it.

5:30 PM
Doctor comes and checks me. I still have not made any progress. He tells me that even though my contractions are intense they are doing nothing to get the baby out. He says he will check back with us in an hour and then we can talk about other possibilities. We try everything from squatting, to rocking chairs, birthing balls etc. and hope for the best.

6:30 PM
Doctor lets us know we have not made progress although he can tell the baby is trying to move down. Kirk and I are given the ultimatum. After realizing we had done everything we could do we decided a c-section would be best. Immediately the nurses start preparing me for surgery. We were both nervous but so anxious to meet our baby girl.

7:33 PM
Kirsten Sue Howcroft was born!
8 pounds 7 ounces 20.5 inches of beautiful baby girl.

Despite the cord being wrapped around her neck and ankle, being blue, and the fluid in her lungs she was healthy and happy to meet us. She was moving right away but it took her a good 5 minutes before she decided to cry. After watching Kirsten pulled out of me, Kirk made sure I'm ok before rushing over to be with our daughter. After seeing her he looked over at me with the proudest look I've ever seen on his face. Standing there in his surgical outfit, beaming like only a new dad can, I fell in love with him all over again.

While the doctors stitched me up I had my head turned to catch a glimpse of our baby. Kirk took pictures and every time he stopped I told him to take more, I didn't want to miss anything. After about 20 minutes they brought her over to meet her mom. Feeling her cheek against mine I was instantly in love.

Every moment of our life since has been centered around our precious daughter. We are so thrilled to have her a part of us. We want her to stay this size forever but can't wait for her to grow up. We have always known we would love being parents, but until we held Kirsten in our arms we never knew how much joy parenthood would bring into our lives. We hate putting her down and think she should be held all the time. We can't believe how lucky we are to have such a beautiful daughter.

Kirk is the most amazing father. Every chance he has he is holding her and playing with her. Kirsten knows her dad too, she always seems to have her eyes open because she knows dad loves the faces she pulls. I always knew Kirk would be a good father, but seeing him with Kirsten makes me love him even more.

Google Sketchup

Since there is absolutely no update when it comes to Kirsten, we've decided to forgo the baby update this time.
Since Kirk isn't busy enough with a couple jobs and school (not to mention the overdue pregnant wife and baby to be) he found an international (he made me put that) competition with Google Sketchup. What he will be doing is building an model of BYU campus to put on Google Earth. He has gotten the Facility Management Department involved and is heading up a group of about 10 that will be working on the project. It's pretty cool because they are modeling the BYU campus on Google Earth so when anyone in the world clicks on BYU (on Google Earth) they will be able to see buildings and do a walk through of campus thanks to Kirk and the BYU team. The head of the Facility Management Department is way excited about it because it will put BYU on the map, therefore BYU will recognize the Facility Management Department making it a win win situation.
I was released from Young Women's today. With a new baby (if she ever comes) it's hard to participate in all the summer activities that are planned. Kirk is still teaching the 11 year olds. I have been going to class with him when the other teacher can't make it. It's really fun to watch all these boys learn about the Book of Mormon.
Hopefully we will have a baby this week. We aren't going to expect anything of her and see if that's the trick to encouraging our sweet baby girl out.

Anxiously Waiting

When I wrote our last blog, I was certain that the next blog I wrote would be telling you all about how Kirsten was born and how adorable she really is. Unfortunately that is not this blog. We thought for sure we would have her over the weekend, but she has yet to make her grand appearance. We tried everything we could think of and spent a good hour on the internet looking for natural ways to induce labor, but our daughter is quiet comfortable where she is and lets us know that she plans to stay there for awhile yet. I guess we can't really complain, we still have 4 days until our due date. I just want her to come sooner than later so she's not a 10 pound baby like her dad was (the drawback of being married to Kirk).
Our Valentines Day wasn't exactly what we had hoped for, we thought maybe my water broke and spent the evening in the hospital missing our dinner reservation. But the hospital trip only confirmed we are paranoid first time parents and only encouraged us to spend more time on walks persuading our daughter to come meet us. Kirk was sweet and brought home roses and chocolates (one box for me and one box for Kirsten). He gave me gift certificate for a professional pregnancy massage which was awesome, I was actually able to lay on my belly! (we also hoped it would start labor, but...) I got him the superman ring he's been dreaming (literally) of. Although it was different than we expected, it was fun to be together (and we figure since we are having kids our holidays will be different than expected from now on so we are trying to get used to it).
Hopefully we'll have pictures of our beautiful baby to show off soon.

Counting Down

Kirk and I are pretty sure that we are finally going to meet Kirsten this week. That is, if she is ready to meet us. If things go as planned we should have a baby by Chelsey's birthday (Feb 15)! It's so exciting and nerve racking to think we could be parents by the end of the week. Whenever I get nervous about labor or delivery I just think that I won't be pregnant this time next week and it makes everything ok!
Kirk's working like crazy to get ahead on all of his homework so he won't have to stress the next couple of weeks. I think that I have everything ready in her room, that is until I go in there and think "I should iron her bed skirt" or "maybe we should put together the bouncer ahead of time." So we are staying plenty busy. Not to mention that it's time to sign rental contracts for our property management job, keeping us on our toes.
We will update as real contractions start! (38 weeks pregnant in the pictures)