The Keys...: Welcome Home Baby Kendal!

Our sweet little Angel is finally here! This will be a pretty long post (and detailed - go away now if you don't want to know!)... here's the story!

It all starts Wednesday, February 8th....

I woke up at 4am, you know to get "pretty" for Kendal's arrival! Here we are just before leaving for the hospital!

We got to the hospital a little before 6. Of course they check me when I first get there... and sure enough still dilated to 1cm and not effaced AT ALL. WTF?! So first they start me on some medicine to soften my cervix, they were thinking that they'd start me on pitocin about 4 hours after the giving me the first medicine. They come back to check me at noon... now I'm 25% effaced and still only dilated 2cm. Ugh. they decide to give me a second dose of the medicine to soften my cervix and hold off on the pitocin until I've gotten further along. I don't know why but that second dose somehow kick started my body into labor! An hour or so after getting the second dose my contractions were getting really strong and pretty close together! A few hours later they come back to check me, I was still only dilated to just below 3cm and only 50% effaced. But at this point my contractions were too strong and close together to give me pitocin. Although I was wanting to speed things up a little I was happy about not using pitocin because I've heard that pitocin contractions are pretty rough. Anyway... by this point my contractions were really very strong and I was hurting pretty stinkin' bad. They asked if I was ready for the epidural and I decided not to do it just yet. I was nervous about possibly being in labor for another 24 hours and not able to get up or move my legs. Just as the doctor left the room I had a BIG contraction and sent Cass into the hall to tell the doctor that I changed my mind - I was ready for the epidural! :) Once the epidural was done both Cass & I were able to rest for a few hours. Of course they are in there every 15 minutes messing with me so I didn't really get to "rest." But the pain relief was nice. Anyway... the next few hours were really uneventful. Around 11:30 they came in to check me and finally I was dilated to 8cm! Yay! For some reason the nurse checked me again just 5 minutes later and I'd already gotten to a 9! Woo hoo! She told us we'd better call our family because we'd be having a baby real soon! Yay! After the nurses got the room prepared it was time to push (at about 12:45am). After an 1 1/2 hours of pushing our beautiful baby girl was finally here! Thank God - she was here, beautiful, perfect and healthy!

Weighing in at 8lbs, 9oz and 21 inches long with a beautiful head of hair and the most perfect little face we have ever set our eyes on...

Kendal Grace Key

During labor I ended up with a fever so when Kendal was born she also had a fever so they made us stay in the hospital an extra day. We finally went home on Saturday....