Our little bundle of joy has finally arrived and I realize I am extremely late in posting this. Things have been extremely crazy to say the least. Ironically enough, my water broke about 2 hours after my last blog on June 16th. It's quite the story.
I had been outside reading most of the the day on the 16th. It was a gorgeous day outside and I wanted to have the dogs out as much as possible because the next morning I was scheduled to be induced. Kyle called on his way home from work and asked me to make him a sandwich because he hadn't had lunch yet. I got up and heard something make somewhat of a popping sound, but didn't think anything of it. By the time I got to the door going into the house from the garage I had my first contraction-though I wasn't sure at the time. I made it into the house and was able to get the bread and peanut butter out for Kyle's PB&J, but when I bent over in the fridge to get the jelly, my water broke-kinda. It was only a little bit, so I wasn't really sure if that's what it was although I did know I didn't have an "accident". At exactly that time Kyle was walking into the house from the garage. I looked up at him and told him that I thought my water had just broke. The look on his face was priceless. He asked me if we needed to go "like right now". Haha-I had to laugh. I told him to go ahead and take a shower and get something to eat really quick because I wasn't 100% sure and wanted to see if it happened again. Well it did, but still not a lot so I called the doctor's office and they told me to come in and the doctor would check me. Thank goodness I had finished packing my hospital bag the day before because once the doctor laid me down and checked me my water completely broke in his office! We were having a baby!
To make an extremely long story shorter, I'll skip to the happy news! Kayleigh Marie Withers was born on Friday, June 17th, 2011 at 4:22 a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. And for the time being that was about the only good news. Apparently I was running a fever during labor which put a lot of stress on her and made her run a fever as well and also caused her heart rate to sky rocket into the 200s. Our baby girl was having a tough time breathing when she was born so they had a NICU nurse come look her over. The nurse told us that they were going to have to take her to the NICU for more observation. Mind you, neither Kyle or I had held her at this time. They let me hold her for 10 seconds and they took her. I told Kyle to go with her so he knew what was going on because I obviously wasn't going anywhere. They told Kyle that she was going to have to stay there for 48 hours because she had to be on oxygen and was being fed through a feeding tube. We later found out that she had some sort of infection and would have to stay in the NICU for 7 days while she received antibiotics. We were crushed to say the least. Luckily she was off the oxygen within a couple of hours that first morning and was off the feeding tube the next day. We knew this was what was best for her and I definitely wanted her coming home healthy, but this was definitely not how Kyle and I envisioned welcoming our first child.
Sunday night was the hardest night of all. I got discharged to go home. I made it right outside the hospital doors and saw Kyle waiting in the truck for me to go home and I lost it. It hurt me so much to know that I was leaving the hospital without my daughter. I felt guilty and horrible even though I knew it was better for her and there was nothing that I could do. Kyle and I spent the next 4 days in the NICU with Kayleigh. I was able to nurse her which was nice despite everything. Luckily she had no problems whatsoever latching on or the process in general so that made things nicer.
Kayleigh finally got to come home Thursday night after her last antibiotic treatment. Words cannot begin to describe how nice it was to bring her home and to see her not hooked up to any cords or wires. Her daddy could finally hold her and not be paranoid or worried that he was going to hurt her. As hard as this whole process was, I think it was the hardest on Kyle. He had never been exposed to anything like what we went through with Kayleigh and he was petrified the whole time we were in the NICU with her. He definitely did not like seeing his baby girl the way she was, but once we got her home he scooped her up and cuddled forever with her.
Here are some pictures from that first week.
I had been outside reading most of the the day on the 16th. It was a gorgeous day outside and I wanted to have the dogs out as much as possible because the next morning I was scheduled to be induced. Kyle called on his way home from work and asked me to make him a sandwich because he hadn't had lunch yet. I got up and heard something make somewhat of a popping sound, but didn't think anything of it. By the time I got to the door going into the house from the garage I had my first contraction-though I wasn't sure at the time. I made it into the house and was able to get the bread and peanut butter out for Kyle's PB&J, but when I bent over in the fridge to get the jelly, my water broke-kinda. It was only a little bit, so I wasn't really sure if that's what it was although I did know I didn't have an "accident". At exactly that time Kyle was walking into the house from the garage. I looked up at him and told him that I thought my water had just broke. The look on his face was priceless. He asked me if we needed to go "like right now". Haha-I had to laugh. I told him to go ahead and take a shower and get something to eat really quick because I wasn't 100% sure and wanted to see if it happened again. Well it did, but still not a lot so I called the doctor's office and they told me to come in and the doctor would check me. Thank goodness I had finished packing my hospital bag the day before because once the doctor laid me down and checked me my water completely broke in his office! We were having a baby!
To make an extremely long story shorter, I'll skip to the happy news! Kayleigh Marie Withers was born on Friday, June 17th, 2011 at 4:22 a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. And for the time being that was about the only good news. Apparently I was running a fever during labor which put a lot of stress on her and made her run a fever as well and also caused her heart rate to sky rocket into the 200s. Our baby girl was having a tough time breathing when she was born so they had a NICU nurse come look her over. The nurse told us that they were going to have to take her to the NICU for more observation. Mind you, neither Kyle or I had held her at this time. They let me hold her for 10 seconds and they took her. I told Kyle to go with her so he knew what was going on because I obviously wasn't going anywhere. They told Kyle that she was going to have to stay there for 48 hours because she had to be on oxygen and was being fed through a feeding tube. We later found out that she had some sort of infection and would have to stay in the NICU for 7 days while she received antibiotics. We were crushed to say the least. Luckily she was off the oxygen within a couple of hours that first morning and was off the feeding tube the next day. We knew this was what was best for her and I definitely wanted her coming home healthy, but this was definitely not how Kyle and I envisioned welcoming our first child.
Sunday night was the hardest night of all. I got discharged to go home. I made it right outside the hospital doors and saw Kyle waiting in the truck for me to go home and I lost it. It hurt me so much to know that I was leaving the hospital without my daughter. I felt guilty and horrible even though I knew it was better for her and there was nothing that I could do. Kyle and I spent the next 4 days in the NICU with Kayleigh. I was able to nurse her which was nice despite everything. Luckily she had no problems whatsoever latching on or the process in general so that made things nicer.
Kayleigh finally got to come home Thursday night after her last antibiotic treatment. Words cannot begin to describe how nice it was to bring her home and to see her not hooked up to any cords or wires. Her daddy could finally hold her and not be paranoid or worried that he was going to hurt her. As hard as this whole process was, I think it was the hardest on Kyle. He had never been exposed to anything like what we went through with Kayleigh and he was petrified the whole time we were in the NICU with her. He definitely did not like seeing his baby girl the way she was, but once we got her home he scooped her up and cuddled forever with her.
Here are some pictures from that first week.
Her first picture-a little pale
All hooked up in the NICU
Getting to hold her for the first time in the NICU
All buckled up in her car seat to come home...FINALLY!
