Meeting Katelyn

Meet Katelyn Rose Keele

To say that we are in love with this little girl is a serious misunderstanding. She is just absolutely perfect. In case you didn't see the birth video on Facebook here it is again. (Side note: first video I've ever made and pretty proud of it. I think I'll go through and make one for the Little Guy as well)

Now the actual birth story... as told in story form.

As much I was SO DONE being pregnant and ready for the baby to be born, I really can not say anything against being induced. The convenience of it is unmatched. We were able to plan everything, have everything ready and just be able to relax (as much as we could relax with the impending ordeal). On Monday we got a call from the hospital to get pre-admitted and were told that they wanted us there at 6:15 AM but we were supposed to call first before we left our house (just in case they got a lot of people during the night). Mark and Julie picked up the Little Guy around 6 and then Spencer and I went to dinner at Red Lobster (I seriously do not remember the last time we had gone on a date). It is always pretty fun to say "We are having a baby tomorrow" people are always surprised and happy for us. When we got back home, I went through everything in the hospital bag again, took a shower and settled down ready for bed; we had a problem though, our little girl was going to be born the next day and we still didn't have a name! So we stared going through all the lists, all of the possibilities and, long story short, we were up until 3:30 AM still talking names (in hindsight, only getting two hours of sleep the night before I was supposed to deliver a baby was probably not the best idea)

Sure we were exhausted the next morning, but also ready for the baby

^^I know I was measuring small, but I felt like I was a lot bigger this pregnancy^^

^^Bye bye pregnant belly^^

Let's talk about labor and delivery... it was AWESOME! (bet you never though you would read that coming from me). They stared Pitocin at 8 AM and things stared progressing really quickly. I had the epidural around 10:30 before the doctor came to break my water (learned that lesson from last time) and it was great. The epidural worked so good this time, I was in no pain. The only scary moment we had was around noon, something happened and the baby's heartbeat just dropped like crazy, and then so did mine. Out of nowhere I just felt super tired and dizzy and just about passed out. They put me on oxygen and stared turning me back and forth to see if there was a position where things would get better. They did. My nurse turned me again and out of nowhere the baby was fine and so was I. She thinks that the baby had fallen on top of the chord and was pressing on it so hard it was impeding both of our circulations. They left me on oxygen for about 15 more minutes to make sure, but we were fine at that point. I was exhausted from the ordeal though so I tried to take a nap although I never actually slept. Around 1:10 I suddenly felt like I got hit by a truck. I felt so sick, everything about me felt wrong and I stared throwing up (oh yeah, I forgot to mention it but I had actually not even thrown up until this point. That's how good things were going). Spencer called the nurse since I was doing so bad and she came in and said "I just think you are ready". The first thing I thought was "Ready for what? Certainly not to deliver, she's crazy" (I had been in labor with the Little Guy for 15 1/2 hours and it had only been 5 hours at this point). Turns out Spencer was thinking the same thing. But she checked me, and sure enough... I was ready so she went to call Dr. McBride. He actually came in the room right as she left as he happened to be watching my strip and everything got set up for delivery. Spencer called Julie, my parents and Laura who were having lunch and let them know that it was time (yeah, they couldn't believe it either).

TMI alert. Skip over this next part if you want....

Dr. McBride went over the entire pushing procedure again and we got stared. I actually had a hard time with pushing this time. The problem was that I just didn't get it. It's like you are trying to push something with no resistance. About 5 contractions in (I would push three times per contraction), I was pushing so hard and had so much adrenaline running through me that I just stared throwing up. Ironically enough, throwing up moved and squeezed my body to push the baby out. Isn't that the most beautiful irony you have ever heard off?! I threw up so much and was so sick the entire pregnancy and in the end that is what got the baby out! I only had to push a tiny bit after that and it was all over. She was born at 1:45 PM only 5 1/2 hours of labor later! I didn't even tear so no stitches!

^^the clock in the background shows her exact time of birth^^

^^ 6.5 lbs and 20 inches^^

^^I don't know how I missed this picture and left it off the video. I love it so much^^

With the Little Guy going straight to the NICU, I didn't really see him until he had gone to the nursery and had been bathed so this was actually my first time seeing a newborn baby right when she was born. It was weird, she was super wrinkly and covered in a white stuff. 

^^Our first picture together. I also didn't get to do skin to skin with the Little Guy, it is greatest thing ever!^^

Everyone left the room so that I could feed her as I got cleaned up and our nurse (her name was Alicia by the way) took some pictures for us. That's how awesome this labor was that we actually got to know our nurse. We had three different nurses with the Little Guy since it was so long. I don't remember any names or even what they looked like. I already had the epidural off at this point and was feeling great. All of the hardships of the pregnancy becoming a distant memory

We then let everyone came back in and see her

^^Ready to head to our room^^

They are doing a new thing at Utah Valley in which they actually let the parents go into the nursery and see the babies being bathed and measured etc, so of course we wanted to do that. Funny fact about Katelyn... she screamed bloody murder when they bathed and her measured her head size but was perfectly still without so much as a peep when the nurse pricked her foot to draw blood.  

She did not weigh enough for how many weeks she was so for the next 24 hours they had to take her to measure her blood sugar levels before I fed her to make sure that she was okay... she always was. Had she been low, we might had had to supplement breast milk with formula but that was never the case. Hopefully everything will still be okay when we go in for her two week appointment.

We got settled into the room and Spencer went to get some dinner for himself. Let me just say, that having a baby during the day, is way better than late at night. The people from house keeping and room service all come in right away so within a matter of minutes I was all set up and doing great. And I was really doing great!!!! As well as I did after the Little Guy was born it was nothing compared to how great I did after Katelyn was born. I changed my clothes and just got to hold her until people came to visit.

Julie brought the Little Guy over around 7 (after making sure he had taken a good nap). The first thing he did when he was saw her was give her the bear he had made for her and then try to ignore her the rest of the time.

^^He was running around all over the room so we finally gave him my phone so he could watch videos on YouTube^^

Of course, after spending the time and effort to make this shirt for the Little Guy and making sure that he wore it to the hospital, he would not pose for a picture with it... isn't that how things go

Adam and Alaynah came around 9:30 and my parents came with Ariel shortly after that. My mom had already been there with Veronica, Stefani and Maddy but my dad had stayed behind at home so he wanted to come back before the night was done.

Adam took some awesome pictures while he was there and then we spent the rest of the visit talking names. As we were still not decided at this point

Spencer went home to sleep because he was super tired so Katelyn and I spent the night alone and the next morning getting to know each other. It was so nice to spend that quality time with my daughter. We really had the whole morning. It was just lovely. The only time we were separated was when they would take her to get her blood sugar tested before I would feed her and when she had to have her hearing test. Dr. McBride came in around 6 AM to check on us and look at everything. He said that everything was great and depending on her newborn screenings that would take place around 2 PM we could go home that day if we wanted to. Which I definitely did.  Here are some photos around the room

^^The roses and balloons were from my parents and the Gerber daisy and the teddy below were from Maddy^^

I spoke with Spencer before he left the night before about the name again and he said that we should just go with Katelyn since it was the one that we kept going back to. At that point, I was against it because I didn't want it feel like we had settled on the name, I wanted to be the right name; but when the new nurse came in early morning and asked me her name I said Katelyn and that was that. Word got around with the nurses and her name tag was made. It was all over at that point, I finished filling out her birth certificate (as I had everything filled except her name) and she was Katelyn Rose Keele.

Everything was great with the newborn screening so we were set to be discharged at 8.

At Utah Valley, you get one meal for a guest as part of their room service so we decided to make it our dinner before we were discharged. Spencer went with the tried and true cheeseburger and I did the pizza (as I had the burger the night before). I should point out that I ate so much when I was at the hospital... it was wonderful, nothing have me heartburn or a hint of nausea. Life was good. 

^^Dressed and ready to go home^^

I honestly could not have asked for a better hospital experience. Everything was perfect and the staff was amazing! Seriously, I recommend Utah Valley to everyone it is the best. 

We got home around nine ready to being our new challenge of being parents to two kids... how are we doing with it?... I guess only time will tell.

We love you sweet Katelyn. Welcome to our family