Bringing Home Baby

Our baby is home!

Just last week, I was starting my week 40 post.  Baby still wasn't here and the doctor was setting an induction date for either today, or yesterday.  It seemed this little girl was not going to come on her own terms!  In fact, when I woke up the morning of my due date, there still was no baby.  My phone was buzzing as friends checked in to see if anything had happened and all I could say was, "think we're getting induced!"

I had been working all week and when I woke up that Halloween morning, my pajamas felt sooooooooo good.  And on a lame note, it felt kinda nice to have a "slow" morning in bed with the dog.  I decided to work from home that day and boy, am I glad I did!

Just before noon, I decided to heat up some lunch.  When I opened our fridge, I realized how badly it needed cleaned out.  We had so many leftovers that had been in there way too long, so I decided I'd spend my lunch hour emptying out the Pyrex dishes.  I started pulling all the bowls, containers, etc and sorting them on the counter when all of a sudden, it hit me.

My lower back instantly started hurting.  And hurting like a son of a gun.  My pelvic area started cramping like nobody's business and I had sharp, shooting pains running through my hips and down my thighs.  Something was up.  This was NOT a normal physical response to cleaning out the fridge!

I called Justin to see where he was working and fortunately, they were working on our side of town.  I told him I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was experiencing pain like never before and I was thinking I may be in labor.  Because we were totally expecting to be induced, his response was, "Are you serious?!"  Again, not knowing if I was in labor or not, I told him just to stay near his phone and if I needed him, I'd call back.

I spent the next hour trying to putter around the house.  The pain was very consistent, but about every 5 minutes or so, it would flare up.  Within about 50 minutes, the pain and pressure was so bad that I couldn't stand up.  I still wasn't sure what was going on, so I called Justin and told him to come home.

By 1:35, we were at the hospital and the nurses were checking me.  Sure enough, there had been a change in dilation (from where I'd been at my last doctor appointment) so they decided to keep me for another check in an hour's time.  2:45pm rolled around, nurses came back in and sure enough, I was in labor!  Our "Halloween" baby was on her way!

Long story short, things didn't go quickly enough to have a Halloween baby--instead, we had an All Saint's Day baby!  After 14 hours of labor, trying every single possible option and eventually having to do a C-section, our baby girl was here!!!  And she was healthy!!!

At 2:41am on November 1st, we welcomed Miss Akinya Kate!  She weighed 8lb 3oz (more than we expected!) and measured 20" long...and she had a full head of hair!  And it was long--a good inch to inch and a half!

Her first name is pronounced uh-Kenya and yes, we kinda made it up!  We were going through a list one night and saw the name Kenya--the name Kenya in itself didn't do anything for me, but when Justin suggested adding "uh" to it, I loved it!  And after a little research, we discovered there's a Nigerian village named Akinya...kinda neat considering it takes a village to raise a child!  The middle name, Kate, is a family name for both of us.  Well, on my side of the family, it's Catherine but we decided that since we'll most likely end up shortening it to Kate, we'd just go ahead and do it now.  And with that, we FINALLY had a name!

The past couple of days have been a whirlwind!  We've had a nice, steady pace of visitors coming to meet baby Akinya and drop off meals...we've been trying to catch some sleep between feedings and I've been trying to spend some time up on my feet, without being too active.  That in itself is a HARD balance for me!  Justin took this week off from work and it's been great having the three of us home together to bond.  This little girl is pretty precious and has definitely stolen our hearts!

1 day old! 

Leaving the hospital--the nurses made she sure went home in a VERY appropriately adorned cap! 

And we're HOME!!!

Daddy and his little girl!  Didn't take long to wrap him around her little finger!