Newborn photos of Kaia

Here are some of my favorite shots of Kaia in the hospital and also her newborn photo shoot at 8 days old.

 Dane adores his little sister.

 Look at how tiny our peanut is.

 So blessed to have my parent live close to come visit. And to watch Dane. Love you mom and dad.

Baby Kaia arrived... 5 months ago

I'm super slacktasic. I need to start blogging more consistently. So much has happened since my last blog when we left Brazil. The most important of which was on March 7, 2012. We experienced a miracle in our family. The birth of our baby girl, Kaia Hope Barlow. She was 5lbs 14oz, 18.5 inches long and came 3 weeks early. Her arrival was much like that of Dane’s. Down to the day of the week too (both were born on a Wednesday morning).

Labor & Delivery Story: (Don’t read if you don’t want details…)

Tuesday, March 6 I woke up and went to the bathroom about 6am. I noticed a decent amount of bloody show. I’d had my 37 week exam 4 days before so I knew this wasn’t aftermath of that. I called the dr that morning and they said to stay home and rest all day. So I laid in bed and worked. I thought of a million other things I needed to do to get ready for the baby in the next couple weeks but I tried to take it easy.

I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions but no pain and it didn’t seem very consistent. A storm was rolling in that night so I don’t know if the change in barometric pressure changed things. Paul got home from his meeting that night and as I laid down to go to bed, I felt like the contractions were a little more intense. So for the first time all day I decided to time them. They were consistently about 6 minutes apart and lasting for 30 seconds each time.

I debated for about an hour, then finally at 11:15, I called my parents and asked them to come down to the house to watch Dane so we could go to the hospital. I was still in denial that I was in labor. But just in case, I got the car seat out of the box, finished packing my hospital bag, etc. I couldn’t sleep. At about 330 I told Paul I wanted to go to the hospital. I wasn’t really having ‘painful’ contractions but I wanted to get an epidural so I could get some sleep. I know, pretty lame excuse. On the drive over we were joking around and it totally didn’t even feel like I was in labor or having a baby. I was in denial that she was coming already. I was only 37 weeks.

After checking in about 345, they measured me and I was at a 3.5 dialation (same as my last dr apt. So they monitored me for an hour. No change. At 5, they said I could walk the halls for an hour to see if they were a change. Checked again about 6 – still no change. Paul and I talked about it and we were going to go home so we could tell Dane what was going on since he was asleep when we left. I was a little nervous though because my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart by now and 45 seconds to 1 minute long. If we went home, how would I know when to come back?

Well, the dr on call wanted me to stay one more hour since I was still having bloody show. So Paul stayed in the room and I went to walk for 30 more minutes. It didn’t hurt as bad while walking. Except I had 3 major contractions that felt totally different than I had been feeling. So I asked to be checked again. If nothing happened, I was going to ask for some pain meds at this point.

Progress! I went from a 3.5 to 5. J The nurse said “Let’s get you admitted. You’re gonna have a baby.” I looked at Paul and it finally became real. That’s when I started to cry. By now it was about 645am. I asked for the epidural as soon as possible because it was getting pretty intense. While in the delivery room, I started to feel nauseated and puked a few times. I think the lack of sleep coupled with the quick, intense pain brought it on. About 730 the anesthesiologist came in and started the epidural. By 8am I didn’t feel anything.

I had told my nurse that my first baby came pretty quick so she started to get the room ready just in case. By this time I was about an 8 dialated. Then I felt some pretty intense pressure. I had the nurse recheck me and I was at a10. At 6am I was still at a 3.5. At 845 I was at a 10. So that’s about 7 centimeters in less than 3 hours. My body works fast.

The nurse went to find the doctor. He came in and got me all ready and by 9 I was ready to start pushing. I pushed through 3 contractions and Kaia Hope Barlow was born at 9:11am March 7, 2012. She was 5lbs 14oz and 18.5 inches. Her original due date was March 25.

We love our little angel from heaven. Thank you, Heavenly Father for allowing us to be her earthly parents. We promise to take good care of her and love her unconditionally.