Kay's story...

Well, Kay has continued on her night time party theme. It has been a wild several days and her trend of starting action at 1 am continued last night.

As I left off yesterday I was having contractions pretty much since we were checked in here Sunday at 3 am. Last night before bed they put me on a leg compression machine to make sure I did not get blood clots in my legs from being in bed so long. I laughed when they told me to get rest as I was now hooked up to 1) an IV drip (to help keep me from getting dehydrated to hopefully stop the contractions) 2) a contraction monitor around my belly 3) a fetal heart rate monitor around my belly 3) a pulse/oxygen machine around my toe 4) a blood pressure cuff that went off every hour 5) and leg compression things that pumped up every hour... not exactly in line with my "I want to get up and walk around during labor plan".

About 1 am I could definitely tell something was a little different. The contractions were the same strength, but felt very different. They decided to check and see how dilated I was. They had not checked since I was admitted for fear of infection. Sure enough, I was 9 cm, the doctor was called and alerted and Pitocin was started to speed things along. My contractions did not change too much with the medicine. By about 3:30 am they were telling me to push. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart still, so we had time for me to "rest" between pushes. Kay was born at 4:01 am!!

As soon as she came out she gave a cry to let us know everything was ok. She got a APGAR score of 9 one minute and five minutes after being born. She was stable enough Craig got to help cut the chord and I got to snuggle for about a minute. Craig went with her to the NICU while I was stitched up and repaired.

We then moved to our 4th room since Sunday. We took about an hour nap while we waited for the doctors to tend to Kay. They have been encouraging me to pump until Kay is able to feed.

We were able to see Kay in the NICU. We will be very limited on visitors and she can only be held two times a day. Overall she is doing wonderfully. She is stabilizing her temperature and breathing on her own. Now, we just need her to continue on and "fatten up". Probably easier said than done with her "skinny" jeans from her mom, yes she does have our skinny legs :)

It is very unknown in terms of when she will be coming home. We are praying and keeping our fingers crossed things continue as they are!

We were a little sad to learn that we will be unable to donate the umbilical chord because she was less than 34 weeks. We were really hoping to be able to do so.

She has a sweet quilt over her bed that was donated. We learned we get to take it home. I plan to make one in return for someone else who has an adventure like ours!

Craig and I both got a great nap in this afternoon. I am feeling much better and will let everyone know how he is doing after he wakes up.

Grandma and Grandpa were able to quickly peek in and see their granddaughter. It is very hard not to snuggle and give kisses, but we know that is what is best for Kay right now. We are hoping to make it up to the Special Care Nursery for her next feeding at 5:30 tonight.