Welcome to the world Kinsey Sloane

I know many of you have already heard Kinsey's birth story but here it is just in case you missed it! On Oct. 13 we went to the OB. He said I wasn't dilated really and wasn't effaced. He said he'd see me next Wednesday the 19th for our scheduled c-section. We were super excited when we heard we needed to be there at 5:30 am. Yuck! We had promised Ashlyn we would have mommy's birthday, go apple picking, and get pumpkins before he sister would come... Well mommy's birthday had passed, we had a pumpkin for each member of the family (including Kinsey), but we had yet to pick apples. We knew the 14th would be our only chance. The weather was nice (low 60's but windy) for apple picking so we planned to head to Royal Oaks Farm in Harvard, IL. I had a really rough night the night before. I was in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable. Also I felt like Kinsey had to have dropped because I was feeling so much pressure. I asked my mom "Will I know if we need to head to the hospital?" She laughed at me and said you are fine! We made the hour and a half drive to the apple orchard and started picking. As we were walking I noticed that the crampy feeling had increased and was getting painful. I checked the time and noticed they were about 15 min. apart. No big deal so we kept picking. We got a nice full bag of apples and discussed how good the apple pie was going to be that night. Ashlyn was a little freaked out by the smashed rotten apples on the ground but other than that it was a lot of fun. My discomfort continued to increase and after a few breaks to sit I decided we should head on out instead of doing the carousel and train rides. A field trip had just arrived and I didn't want to deal with the crowd of kids. As we were driving we decided to go by Buy Buy Baby because it was on the way home and had a cheaper tax rate so we could make our big stroller purchase a little cheaper. The pain increased and was coming about every 8 minutes and then pretty quickly it switched to every 6. Soon I wasn't sure when it stopped and ended. I decided to call the doctors office because for some reason (denial) I wasn't sure I was in labor. They told me go ahead and come right to the hospital. The only problem was we were still an hour away. Of course this is when Erik tells me he is about to run out of gas and Ashlyn starts screaming that she needs to go potty. We finally find a gas station, get gas, and attempt to convince Ashlyn to go potty. Right as we got to the hospital Ashlyn fell asleep which was good because we didn't want her to worry why we were at the hospital. They put me in a room in labor and delivery but decided I might be dehydrated and started an IV. The contractions were 3 minutes apart and at times 2 minutes apart. By the 3rd bag of IV fluid they were spacing out somewhat to between 3-4 minutes apart. We started freaking out that they were going to send us home which seemed ridiculous since we would be back in 5 days and on Sunday she would be 39 weeks. Finally the nurse came in at about 6 pm (we got there around 3) and said we were going to have a baby and the doctor would be there in 40 min.. We both teared up! We started making calls. My sister had to come all the way up from the city to watch Ashlyn so that mom could get to the hospital. Kate got stuck in traffic (6 pm on Friday night coming out of Chicago) but fortunately the doctor must have too because she didn't get there until well after 7. We met the team that would be delivering our baby. Of course it was now Friday night at 7 which means shift change so everyone we met was going home. As I am sitting in the OR a parade of people that were my NEW delivery team walked in. I met new nurses and a new anesthesiologist. The first one had wanted to do a TAP Block instead of morphine after the delivery. With Ashlyn's birth I was in a fog for days and didn't remember anyone coming to visit from the Morphine so the idea of this TAP Block sounded pretty good. The theory behind it is that they inject anesthesia between the muscle layers at the incision site and then all the incisional pain is gone and the rest of the pain can be treated with Ibuprofen. Sounds good right? Yeah... should have been... The new anesthesiologist said since I'd signed the release we would do the TAP Block but I could tell he doesn't typically do them. I should have spoken up right then but just wanted to meet my baby. Everything went great this time, they didn't forget to get Erik, the doctor didn't call me an annoying nickname... We happened to have our big new DSLR camera with us because we were apple picking and were going to just take pics on our phones but the anesthesiologist had the exact same camera, and not only did he take our pictures for us but fixed all the settings so that Erik didn't have to figure out how to use it for the first time on the most important day it will ever take pictures! We were expecting her to be maybe at 7 lbs. Ashlyn was 6 lbs 10 oz and Kinsey made it a few weeks longer so we were thinking maybe 7- 7 1/2 lbs. We heard the doctor say "You didn't order hair for this one did you?" The anesthesiologist translated that for us since he could see over the curtain that the head was out. Then we didn't hear anything for a long time. No cry, no the rest of the baby is out, no it's a girl. I started to get really worried. It ends up she was a much bigger baby than we thought and the incision from her 6 lb 10 oz sister wasn't quite big enough for all 8 lbs 3 oz. of Kinsey so it took them a little longer to get her out. Finally we heard the "It's a girl" and the unmistaken newborn cry... She had a lot of fluid in her lungs (remember they pumped me full of 3 extra bags of IV fluids prior to delivery) but she got a perfect review and was handed into our arms. We were so shocked to hear she was 8 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/2 inches! Daddy went with her to the nursery and I went to recovery. The nurse was teasing me that most people are passed out in recovery but I was on such a high I just kept watching the clock tick down until I could see my baby. Erik kept going between Kinsey in the nursery and checking on me. We were on two different floors but he was so excited I picture him floating between them :o) My mom wasn't allowed in recovery so she stood at the nursery window and watched the baby and reported back to Erik when he was with me. He rushed back up to help with the baby's first bath. After 2 hours I was finally allowed back to my room. I was feeling amazing and couldn't wait to see my baby! They wheeled me up and I could see my mom waiting anxiously in the hall. Finally they brought Kinsey in! She was so sweet (and big!) it was almost 1/2 an additional baby than I was used to! This stay was a little different. They woke me up at 2 am (OK I wasn't sleeping I was staring at my beautiful baby) and told me I needed to sit up on the side of my bed. After I did that they said you did so well lets walk to the bathroom. This was about the point I realized my TAP block was not working and that I felt good earlier from the epidural not the TAP Block. I walked to the bathroom and back and thought I was going to die. Literally! It wasn't until sometime the next day that we got the pain somewhat managed alternating between Norco and Ibuprofen. I was really missing my Morphine drip from my first delivery! One good thing though is they said by getting moving sooner and using the TAP block I would have an easier recovery. I thought I recovered well hte first time but this time really wasn't bad as long as I had some pain medicine. By the next day I was able to go to the bathroom on my own and after we left the hospital we were out and about right away (We still had to buy that stroller). We went to Kinsch's Autumn Fest and Brookfield Zoo just a week after she was born. We did discover she was allergic to Pampers just like her big sister was. She broke out in horrible red blisters but they cleared up as soon as we switched to Huggies. She is like her sister in alot of other ways too. She is very attached. She only wants to sleep if she's held especially by mommy. She's very very sweet and snugly. She is a very good eater which is a new experience from her sister and we hope carries on as she grows up. Ashlyn has adjusted so well. I am totally shocked how well she is doing. She wants to help when she can but the biggest help is how much she is doing on her own. She has been playing so nicely and I can really tell how she's grown up. There's nothing like bringing home a new baby to make your first look bigger. She has been refusing to sleep in her bed saying she is scared. She has hit a stage where lots of things are scary and unfortunately it coincides perfectly with Halloween so there are lots of things out there to scare her. It doesn't help that the night we brought Kinsey home it got into the 30's and our heater broke! We started a fire in the fireplace and had a space heater in the bedroom. All of us snuggled up in our queen size bed which was fun :o) Somehow my incredibly light sleeper has only been woken up twice by her sister's cries despite her being right there on my other side. So without further ado let me introduce Kinsey Sloane Poyer born 10/14/11 at 7:56 pm 8 lbs 3 oz. 20 1/2 inches.