Beautiful Girl #2

At 6:29 pm on Wednesday, May 28, Kayden Stephanie Culhane entered the world. For all you stats people, she weighed 8 lbs 7.2 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. That is the exact same length as Keeley was and 3 oz lighter. That 3 oz must make a huge difference because she seems a MILLION times tinier. I suppose this could be because Keeley seems so grown-up now!

Here are some highlights of the event:





Our story if you are interested...it is long but will prevent me from repeating details a million times :-) :

Kelly and I checked into the hospital at 5 am Wednesday morning to have Kayden induced. Everyone said your second labor should go faster. I had high hopes for meeting Kayden by lunch. Unfortunately, she had created quite a swimming pool in me which prevented me from progressing. So, even though I was having contractions 2 minutes apart most of the day, nothing happened until they broke my water. Wednesday was apparently a bad day to be at the L&D ward because there were two code blues, an emergency c-section, and a woman that arrived on an ambulance just about ready to deliver. Needless to say, Kayden and I were a little lower on the priority scale than all those people! My doctor, whom I love, also delivered 4 babies at two different hospitals and had several patients who were being monitored for pre-term labor...all of which delayed meeting my sweet little girl.

Because the anesthesiologist was so busy, my epidural was delayed much longer than I wanted it to be. In the process, the nurse gave me some IV medicine...nubane or something. I only got half the dose but that was all I needed. Drugs are our friends. I quickly fell asleep and slept for a long time!

Finally, at 4:30 (almost 12 hours since we checked in...), the doctor arrived to break my water (a decision that was deemed necessary at 10 that morning). She confirmed that I had a swimming pool that Kayden was enjoying and assured me that things would progress much faster now that she had less room. I asked how much faster and she said that they expect second labors to progress 1 cm an hour. That was NOT what I wanted to hear. I was only at 4cm...I had no desire to spend 6 more hours waiting to meet Kayden!

At 6:15, I called the nurse to tell her I thought it was close. The doctor entered the room and the nurse began to prepare the room for delivery. The actual delivery started about 6:25 and she was here at 6:29. So, I suppose she was even faster than Keeley once she decided to come into the world!

We are all doing quite well - just VERY, very tired. "Sleep when the baby sleeps" only applies to one parent per child. Kelly and I are sneaking naps in while we can. I will update our picasa photo page as we get more pictures.

Last Day

Well, today was Keeley's last day as an only child. I had such great plans in my mind for really enjoying the day and having some special time with her. She, however, had a different plan in mind. Starting at 5:47 when she woke up, she was exceptionally grumpy bordering on inconsolable. I actually took her to the doctor because she was SO clingy and cried SO hard any time I put her down. I thought that she surely had an ear infection or something brewing that I needed to take care of before I was in the hospital.

At the doctor, she was all smiles. Same thing when Kelly got home. Nothing is wrong with her, aside from teething. Apparently, she was just putting on a show for Mom.

I guess, however, that is an accurate representation of our relationship :-) Maybe she just knows what is about to happen and needed to get all the attention she could before her world is turned upside down...

More Oma

Today, Mom came over to help me work on the nursery linens. Yes, I know that Kayden will be here in less than 48 hours. Unfortunately, I really have no excuse as to the lack of completion because I was only left with one piece that I had to do. When I went on bed rest that weekend, my mother in law came over and took all but the bed skirt home to do for me. She finished the bumpers, the crib sheets, the pillow, and is currently working on the quilt. It is all adorable. The only thing left to do now is the bed skirt and the flowers for the bumpers. It will get done...

Anyway, Mom came over for a few hours to help me since I am new to sewing. When she left, Keeley kept reaching for her. My mom carried her all the way to the porch and then handed her over to me. I tried to get Keeley to wave good bye to her Oma but Keeley just kept signing "more" and reaching out for Mom. Mom came and got her for a second, gave her a kiss, and then handed her back to me. Keeley immediately begin to sign "more" again. Mom waved good bye and then got in her car. At this point, Keeley made a very sad, very ugly face and whimpered like she was going to start crying! I couldn't believe it! I was holding her - Mom, her favorite person in the whole world right now and she was sad because Oma was leaving.

When it was clear that Oma really was leaving, Keeley said "down". I set her down and she started to walk toward Oma in her car and wave good bye. It was a very bittersweet moment for me. I thought I had more days as the number one love of her life!

Baby? bench? jungle gym?

Keeley seems to be a bit confused. She loves to lift my shirt up and kiss Kayden while smiling up at me. However, she also thinks that if I'm laying on my side, my belly (which is quite large) serves as a great bench - upon which she can bounce as well as sit.This is not quite so comfortable for me ;-) Lately, she has also decided that the best exercise for her is to scale my tummy while I'm laying down on my side and climb behind me and then back to the front - over and over again. This is also not quite so comfortable and Kayden frequently protests! It will be interesting to see what she makes of my belly once Kayden is actually here.

Just kidding!

Well, apparently Kayden decided to turn around and be positioned the way she is supposed to be. The doctor confirmed, however, that I am huge and it is likely because I'm carrying a very large baby. They estimated that she is already 8 lbs 6 oz. I know that the further along you are the less accurate their measurements are. However, my belly is measuring at 40 weeks (instead of the 38 that I am) and the ultrasound showed a lot of fluid. She said that big babies make a lot of fluid. Also, she said again that second babies tend to be larger than the first ones. Keeley was 8lb 10oz. So, chances are, that 8lb 6 oz estimate might be fairly accurate.

She told me that, at this stage of the game, babies tend to gain about a half a pound a week. That would put Kayden at over 9 lb 6 oz on the scheduled induction date of June 4th. I am not interested in that (plus it is more likely that I would end up in a c-section anyway if she is that huge). I'm going to induce next week sometime if I haven't already had her by then. Just waiting on the nurse to tell me when it is scheduled.

Sweet Girl

Keeley is starting to realize that something is definitely going on with my tummy. As I mentioned in my previous post, my tummy is a little large. Keeley and I have been talking about the fact that Baby Kayden is in there. In fact, if you ask her where Baby Kayden is, she will either pat her tummy or mine. Recently however, she has decided that she needs to see where the baby actually is. She likes to pull up my shirt and pull down the panel on my pants so she can see just tummy. She will then pat my tummy and smile or give it big kisses. At first, she did this just at home. The last week or so though, she's decided that everyone needs to see my tummy exposed. She will do it at Little Gym, restaurants, the grocery store...you name it. Consequently, lots of people have been fortunate enough to see my big tummy - stretch marks and all!

Here are some of the cute pictures my mom got of her this weekend.

Here she is sitting in her tunnel. Do you like her ensemble? She has on her pajama top only, a hat, and is working on shoes. I am confident that I will have little to say soon on what she wears at all. Now, at least, I can usually pick the top and bottom before we go out in public. I'm afraid that time is quickly approaching its end!

Look at that smile!!!

Showing off her mouthful of goldfish. I know you are all jealous that she has goldfish. :-)

Relaxing on the pillow with her snack trap. She thinks the snack trap is the best thing ever and that she is so special for getting to use it. This picture does make me a little sad though because I think she looks awfully grown up and I'm not quite ready for that.

Here she is pushing my exercise ball around the back yard. She is obsessed with that thing.

Please

In an effort to teach Keeley good manners, we have taught her to sign "please". It is so very cute. She doesn't do it when she asks for something yet, but if you ask her to say please, she will do it with a huge grin on her face.

This morning, she made her sign that indicates she's tired. I say her sign because she completely made it up. We know it means she is tired and she will NOT go to sleep unless she does that sign. However, sometimes she'll do the sign and still not go to sleep. Oh well, baby steps. Anyway, today, she made the sign and I asked if she wanted a sleepy time. She looked at me with all seriousness and signed "please". I cannot tell you how happy I was! Maybe, just maybe, I thought to myself, I will stop having to guess when she might go to sleep.

I was wrong. Forty five minutes of playing and talking to herself resulted in pacifier throwing and calls for me to come get her up - no sleep. Oh well. It was still really cute and maybe we are working in the right direction. I've decided not to stress about it because, as Mom pointed out, life is about to get turned upside down for Keeley once Kayden arrives.