Introducing Kinley Elaine Borders

I was scheduled to be induced Thursday morning at 6am, Kinley had other plans though. 

I went to bed around 11pm Wednesday night, but I didn't sleep well. I woke up around 12:30am with some pelvic pressure. I slept off and on until about 2:10am. At 2:20am I felt like Kinley punched me "down there", at that point, the pelvic pressure got even worse. I got up to use the bathroom. When I came out, Jeff had woken up and asked if I was okay. I felt really weird and when I tried to answer Jeff's question, all I could say was, "uh....I don't know, I think so, uh.... maybe not, I don't know." Truly , I was just mumbling. I don't think anything I said came out clear. Jeff asked me if we needed to go to the hospital. More mumbling and nonsense. Then I had a contraction. Not just a contraction, but a contraction that, if I were at the hospital, I would have asked for an epidural after that one. (When I am in labor, I like to go though as much of my labor and contractions without an epidural, only getting one when I feel like I can't handle any more pain.) I then had another contraction that was so painful, I couldn't hold myself up. I told Jeff I wanted to take a shower before going. He laughed at me, told me "No, we're going now", and insisted on me getting dressed and going.

We were in the car on the way to the hospital by about 2:35am. The whole way there, I had more strong contractions, really close together, lasting for over a minute each. We got to labor and delivery at 3:00am. They took me right back to the triage area. "Really, you're going to triage me?", I asked the nurse, annoyed. "Yup, we triage everyone", she said. Once in the triage room, I had a few more contractions while trying to get undressed, so the nurse could check my cervix. As I was getting on the bed, my water broke (at 3:10am) and when the nurse checked me I was dilated 6cm. Not a surprise, with the contractions I'd been having.

I was then rushed off to a delivery room. At this point, the contractions were almost unbearably painful. I was grunting, saying oh my gosh, oh frick, this hurts, grunting, saying oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh frick, this hurts, this hurts, over and over again. The nurse in L&D tried unsuccessfully to get an IV started in one arm, so she moved onto the other arm. I asked for an epidural. Jeff laughed at me. (rude) "Uh, I don't think you're getting one", he said. My contractions were so close together, and so painful that I couldn't hold my arm still long enough for the nurse to get an IV started. Jeff had to help hold down my arm, while I basically held him in a choke hold to help deal with the pain. squeezing his arm or hand just wasn't cutting it. Once the IV was in place, I felt like I needed to push. My nurse checked my cervix and I was at 9.5cm, so after getting through one more painful contraction I was allowed to push. Sometime during the blur of it all, my Doctor arrived. Luckily, he was already at the hospital delivering another baby. I pushed one time. Kinley's cord was wrapped around her neck. Once my Doctor freed the cord from around her neck, I pushed one more time and Kinley was all the way out. 

Her stats were: 

Born at 3:31am on Thursday August 23rd.

Weighing 7 lbs 2 ozs.

20 inches long.

Head circumference of 14 inches.

I have always wondered what it would be like to have a "natural" birth, but I've never been brave enough to do it. I don't think I could have done it if my labor was much longer than it was. It was probably the most intense hour and ten minutes of my life. I feel so blessed to have a perfect and healthy baby girl to snuggle and love.

Kinley with Dr. Richards

Papa Borders

Grandma Borders

Grandma Meador

Two proud big brothers and a not so sure big sister.

Papa Meador

The Snell Family

Ready to go home.

Baby check up x 4

This week has been a crazy one!

Monday morning, at 12:30am, I woke to some pretty strong contractions coming every 3-5 minutes. After and hour and a half of that, we decided to go to the hospital. They monitored my contractions for another hour or so. The contractions stayed the same. I then got to walk around the hospital for an hour to see if that would help the contractions get stronger. They didn't. So I was sent home because the contractions I was having wasn't dilating my cervix any more than it already was (4cm). While at the hospital my blood pressure was higher than it has been, so my Dr. wanted to see me in the office later that morning for that and also to re-check my cervix. At his office, my blood pressure was still high and my cervix was still dilated 4cm. If I was dilated 5cm, my doctor could have had me admitted and broke my water. Dumb hospital rules. If my blood pressure wasn't as high as it was, I'm sure breaking my water wouldn't have been a topic of discussion.

Tuesday morning, around 1am, I again woke to some more strong contractions coming every 5-7 minutes. After an hour and a half I got up and walked two miles on our elliptical. The entire time I didn't have one single contraction. Nor did I have any the rest of the morning. Lame. Tuesday afternoon I called my doctors office to chat about the contractions I had had that morning. I was concerned that they may have dilated my cervix more. If my cervix was dilated more, I knew that once I went into labor, I would progress really fast and deliver fast too, so I just wanted to be prepared and know how long I should stay home once the strong contractions began. The ARNP I talked to wanted me to come in to be checked. I was still at 4cm and my blood pressure was still really high. My doctor was at the hospital delivering a baby, so when he got back to the office, he said he wanted me to come in the next morning to run some tests.

Wednesday morning I went in. They drew blood and gave me all the necessary supplies and instructions to collect my urine for the next 24 hours. (FUN!)

Thursday morning I went back in for my regularly scheduled appointment. They put a rush on all my lab work. I'm not sure what they were checking from my blood, but I do know they wanted to count the amount of protein in my urine. If the protein count was about 300, that would mean I had preeclampsia and would need to be induced that day or the next. My count was at 165 (150 is normal). So no preeclampsia for me and no induction.

My stats from this visit were:

100% effaced.
4 cm dilated.
Measuring 38 weeks.
Baby's heartbeat 156 bpm.
Gained a total of 31 lbs.
38 weeks, 1 day pregnant.

Because of my higher than normal blood pressure, but lack of protein in my urine, I have been diagnosed with gestational hypertension. If I do not go into labor on my own, I will be induced later next week.

Also, because of my high blood pressure, I get to go back in Monday morning to have that checked. Hopefully this next week will not consist of an OB appointment every. single. day.!

Testosterone X 5 update

The other night, after Cooper's birthday party, the Snell's were still at our house. All five of our boys we lined up on the couch together. It brought back memories for four years prior, actually just two weeks shy of four years. My heart just melts. I love each of them so much! These five guys are some of my most favorite guys in the world.

 August 10, 2012 

Mason, Cooper, Connor, Zachary, Benjamin

August 27, 2008 

Mason, Connor, Benjamin, Cooper, Zachary

Here is the link to the original blog post I did about these guys in 2008 http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=111480048598582867#editor/target=post;postID=6355737111718869351

Cooper is FIVE!

 This little man is FIVE! I can't believe it. He has brought so much joy into our lives. He has a great personality. He has a way about him that just makes people around him smile. Just being himself is all it takes, one smile, one laugh, and he's got others around him smiling. 

With the few peanut scares he has had has made me realize more and more how precious his is. How precious all our children are. If he doesn't receive proper treatment, quickly, we could loose our little man. That scares me more than I can express. On the other hand, it makes me that much more grateful for each day I get to spend with him.

We love you Cooper!

Birth

 One Year

 Two years

 Three Years

 Four Years

Five Years

Cooper's 5th birthday party

This year Cooper wanted a camouflage birthday party. For the games I put Jeff in charge. Two hours before the party, I asked him if he was ready. "No". OK then, you better get on it. He went right to work putting together an obstacle course for the kids a long with a few other activities.

This was the scene as Jeff put together a tunnel out of scrap wood we had laying around (literally laying around the back yard from the awning project the week before). So cute.

All the kids lined up for their turn at the obstacle course.

The birthday boy completing the course.

Opening presents....

Love this girl!

Onto the cupcakes. I got this idea from my sister in law Tricia, who makes tie-die cupcakes with her girls. I figured I could just change the colors and make camouflage once instead.

The end result

 

On Cooper's actual birthday (today) we had both sets of grandparents over for brownies and ice cream. He also got to open his presents from them.

Station 95 Open House

 This past Saturday, Station 95, where Jeff volunteers had their annual open house. Even though the boys get to see the fire trucks quite often, they always enjoy going and hanging out with all the firefighters.

 Engine 95 and Brush 95

 Shiloh in Brush 95

 The real treat for the boys was seeing the MedStar helicopter land.