Kahlan Elizabeth Brown

Born January 20th 2011 at 12:32 pm, 6.6 lbs and 18 1/2 " long.  My doctor finally decided it was time to get the baby out on the 39th week.  We knew it was going to happen that week but didn't have a date set up yet so that was driving me crazy.  We wanted the baby to be OK, with all the complications I felt she had a better chance being out than staying in my tummy.  It is really scary when you are considered high risk and wonder at every moment if the baby is doing OK.  After having to go through a tough week of painful contractions I finally made it to the hospital last Thursday at 7 am, we were schedule for induction at that time and were told that they were going to break my water around 12 pm.  We dropped the kids off at Steven's house early and then drove to the hospital, we were both very excited and could not wait any longer, of course it seemed to me like they were taking for ever.  When they checked me I was already 3' dilated and 50 % effaced, I guess those painful contractions were doing something after all.  They hooked me to the IV and started the Potocin right away and as soon as that started the contractions got painful but manageable.  The doctor came in at 10 am to check on things and before we knew it she was braking my water, they asked if I wanted my epidural right then but thinking that I could handle it I said no but 5 minutes later the contractions got really really intense and I told them to go ahead and get me the epidural.  It took for ever to get that done and Dan's hand got squeezed really hard every time.  The nurses said that they couldn't tell if I was having contractions because I was so quiet... I hate screaming :)  The anesthesiologist finally came in and I have to say that it was the most horrible experience I have had getting the epidural, I was supposed to get numbed but could feel the entire thing and for that I did some screaming, it was so painful and I had to tell the guy to stop because it was hurting me, so he started all over again.  He said my back is crooked and that is why he could not find the right spot... I have had 3 epidurals in the past and was never told about this problem, oh well.  The epidural was not working at all and I could still feel everything pretty much, specially when they had me laying on my side, I kept pumping that stuff every ten minutes to make the pain go away but there was no success, so finally around 11:30 the guy came back and gave some other pain medication through the IV and like half an hour later it finally worked.  By the time they were going to check me to see how far along I was the nurse didn't even get to do it because she said her head was right there, so they called the doctor and I started praying that she could make it there on time, it was happening way too fast.
The doctor got in the room and 5 minutes later they told me to push, I did just once and they told me to stop, I did but Kahlan did not want to wait and came out all on her own, they put her on my tummy right away and I can not tell you what a sight of relief it was to see her those first few minutes.  She was perfect, she was crying and moving her arms and legs.  I can't explain how I felt at that moment but I know Dan felt the same way because neither one of us could talk to each other, tears were coming out of my eyes and whenever I wanted to talk to Dan tell him she was OK I just kept crying.  The nurses probably thought we were weird for crying so much, but my doctor knew and I think I saw her eyes get teary at some point.  When you are told there might be something wrong with your baby, even that 1% chance, it changes everything, I am just so grateful that she is here, that she is perfect in every way and that my Heavenly Father knew that I was willing to accept what ever he wanted for us at the end of this pregnancy.  Dan told me a couple of days after she was born that maybe it was a test to see if we would accept the challenge, I believe we passed it :)
She has been a good baby so far, she pretty much sleeps, eats and poops like any other baby, she is loved by everyone in the house and hardly ever on her own, yes we are spoiling this baby to no end.  Shayna has been a little sick so she can't really kiss her for now and she is suffering but at the very beginning she was just enjoying her self holding her sister whenever she could.
Dan was able to stay this entire week and was able to bond with Kahlan a lot, he is in love with her, he keeps telling me I did a good job with her.  I honestly think she looks just like Shayna did when she was first born, tiny and beautiful.

 The day we left the hospital

 6 days old

 On the way home from the hospital.



So here we are, enjoying the first few days of the newborn stage, loving every second of it and I still have not had a meltdown, ask me next week when Dan is not here anymore and that might be a different story :)  I am just so glad to be done with the issues of my pregnancy, to be able to eat again and not worry about the insulin anymore.  Also in this entire week I lost all of my pregnancy weight and 3 more extra pounds, I don't know why is going away so fast but I am grateful for it too, if only this could have happened with the other pregnancies I could be one of those skinny moms out there :) 
Thanks to everyone for their concern and prayers I know we were blessed because of it too.
Pictures soon :)

Getting closer...

The end is almost near, ahhh what a relief it will be when all is over.  This weekend was particularly hard for me because I was having contractions like crazy Saturday night, I mean real painful to the point when tears were coming out... I started to get ready finally packing my bag to take to the hospital and doing some last minute preparations when the contractions stopped.  Dan was so excited thinking that it was going to happen that night.  The contractions came and went Sunday as well, so it was kind of frustrating.
I had a major meltdown Saturday morning too when I was injecting myself insulin.  I have a problem with needles big time, when I was a kid (a very sick kid most of the time) they had to give me daily shots for whatever sickness I had and I hated it, I did OK until the last day when I just did not want that needle close to my butt, I was making it really hard for my aunt to inject me that the needle broke in half leaving the other half in my butt... everyone started to run and went to find a nice old lady to help me out.  In the end the needle came out, the shot was given and I was done but left a permanent scar in my brain and I think that is why I hate needles.  The thing is that it is  ME the one that is doing these injections this time, it feels wrong to be poking myself so many times during the day not only on my fingers to check my blood but also my tummy (who is now sporting a new look of purple bruises every where), thighs and arms....  and all for the love of a child.
I know I have complained so much during this pregnancy, I promise it is almost done and I really rather deal with the sleepless nights than with all this crazy poking.  I am having a hard time not over eating, do you know how hard it is for a pregnant mom to avoid eating at all times of the day?  Well it is very very hard, measuring the food and eating only at certain times is crazy. 

I don't regret making the decision to have another baby, never for a minute have I thought that it was a crazy idea or that it is not worth all the trouble, to the contrary I feel so blessed to be able to have one more baby, she has made me appreciate life so much more already.  I have taken things for granted but I am looking at things in a new and positive way, I feel that I am getting stronger spiritually and getting closer to my Heavenly Father through my prayers.  Some times all we need is to deal with the hard times right?

On a side note, our master bathroom started leaking a few months ago and it made a spot on our ceiling.  We stopped using our shower for a while but then once we started using it again the spot got bigger and bigger.  It was so embarrassing to look at it and when ever people came over it made think that is all they were looking at.  Being sick and pregnant made it hard for me to get somebody to come over a fix it, mainly because I didn't want anybody going into my bedroom that was real messy and I had no energy to clean it up either.  So finally last week I cleaned up my room and called a handyman I found and he came over the next day, he seemed very honest and the price he quoted was just right for us.  So came Saturday to start working on it and fixed our leak, today he came over to finish the job and it has the texture and everything.  I told him that we would take care of the painting since I am not sure when the baby will come and don't want to start something we can't finish all the way, so even though we will have a white spot on the ceiling now it is much better than a black and orange moldy spot right?
My main concern was to bring our baby home to safe environment and now I feel better about it, plus my room looks great and now we have a handyman we can call for our little projects I want to work on this year :)

Shayna's Birthday and New Year!!!

So our little tiny baby kept growing and growing and 11 years later here she is.  We just can't get over the fact that she is so grown up now and this will be her last year in primary.  She is so excited about growing up but at the same time as time goes by and she gets to have more responsibilities she tells me she does not like growing up that much either.  I just miss my little baby you know, since she was my first baby and we had so much fun together from the beginning it is really hard to think she will only keep growing.  At the same time she has grown into a beautiful young little woman and has been learning so much, we have fun in the kitchen cooking together and she is a great helper when she wants to be :)  She does great at school and it doesn't seem like she has a hard time doing that.  For Christmas she got a sewing machine and all it took was one lesson and she has taken off.  She already made herself some flannel pants and barbie clothes, she also tried making a cover for her sewing machine but still has to finish it.  I think she will have lots of fun with that machine. 

So for her birthday she requested a shopping spree and Joan's to go get everything she need to get started with her sewing machine.  So we went shopping just the two of us and now she has her own tools and tool case to keep everything organized and on the plus size she wont be touching my tools :)  On her actual birthday she wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese since they sent her a coupon for 20 free tokens and wanted to take advantage of it. We invited her best friend from school to come with us and she had lots of fun.  We got lots more tokens too for all 5 kids so there was plenty for everybody.  We had requested a chocolate cake for Shayna and that was the only annoying thing, they said it would be brought to our table at 7 pm but they had so much people that night that it took them almost half an hour to bring it over, we had the kids waiting for over 20 minutes and then when we finally decided to let them go back the play the "rat" as Dan calls it,

comes to the table with the cake and the candles all ready to sing to Shayna and the kids were not there... go figure.  We finally got everybody back and sang to her and had some cake.  It was fun after all.
On New Years eve we just wanted to stay home and relax again, so we made no plans on going anywhere or having anybody over, it was just us and our PJ's :)  I got some munchies for the family and had a great dinner thanks to Subway... my favorite!!!  We watched a movie and then played Rock Band with the kids for a long time.  The kids made it until midnight and then we sent them to bed, they were so tired by then.  Of course we all had our traditional 12 grapes at midnight and made lots of wishes for the New Year.
I slept in the next day until 10 am and that was just lovely.  In the evening I was ready to get out of the house for a couple of hours and went shopping all by myself, didn't think I would find stores open but they were.  I was able to find a couple of good deals at my favorite clothing store and then at Joan's I got fabric to make my baby a dress for the baby blessing which I hope to finish some time this week.