Keeping up with the Kuehnholds: Baby K's arrival - 1/11/2013

The day we meet baby K #2 is finally here. I have been anticipating this day for months. We are so excited to finally meet baby K and to find out if we're having a baby boy or a baby girl. The night before i was so restless. I barely slept just because i was so excited/nervous about my c-section the next day and the whole outcome of the day. There were so many things going through my mind that my mind wouldn't shut off for me to actually fall asleep...and to top it off....Easton had started running a fever...the last thing we needed since he "HAD" to go to daycare because we had no back up plan for him. Thankfully in the morning he was feeling better and he was able to go to daycare.

I woke up exceptionally early this morning just because i was so excited/anxious/nervous. I actually knew the day my baby was coming. I had the opportunity to actually get ready and to look presentable and refreshed coming into the hospital. According to the c-section regulations you're not suppose to wear make up or nail polish. I decided to break those rules and went ahead and got a pedicure and actually did my hair and make up for the birth of our child. With Easton I endured 24 hours of hard labor before he actually arrived so I definitely didn't look the greatest when he came into the world. Since I knew when baby K was making his debut i at least wanted to look half way cute......little did i know.......

Jesse and I arrived at the hospital right at 8:30 for check in. After filling out several sheets of paperwork we were escorted to our room. It was just our initial room where they monitored me and got me ready for the c-section. Our c-section was scheduled for 10:30. There was a lot of waiting and anticipation while waiting for our 10:30 scheduled time. I was having slight contractions that I was unaware of. Our nurses that we had were very nice and helpful. As the time got closer I got more nervous...nervous of not only the major surgery but nervous of the actual spinal tap that I was going to have to undergo. Horrible flash backs of having to have 3 epidurals with Easton entered my mind and just freaked me out even more. I wish my body was more suseptable to pain medication. After waiting in our little room what seemed hours the time had finally come. Jesse was all dressed and ready for surgery and i was all prepped, blood drawn, shots given, iv entered, fluids flowing and machines beeping. Dr Makappati came in and told me that it was time for the spinal tap. Jesse wasn't allowed in the surgical room until after that was administered. This was the exact moment I had been dreading this whole time. I was hoping this time things would be better and my body would respond more quicklier to the drugs....unfortunately that was not the case. What should of taken 5 minutes for the anistecialogist to adminsiter the spinal tap it actually took almost an hour. He poked and proded and dug in my back for what seemed like forever. I literally was squeezing my Dr's hand to pieces and crying uncontrollably. It hurt so bad...just writing this brings back painful memories and my exact emotions while going through it. My nurse and Dr Makappati were trying their best to comfort me.....nothing was working. It was so painful and to be so pregnant and having them tell me i need to bend over more so the dr could try once again to get the spinal tap in just wasn't working. The anistecialogist almost gave up and was going to have to actually put me under. That was the last thing that i was wanting. I wanted to be alert and awake when my baby entered this world. I told them to just keep trying. What was I thinking......finally........the Dr had actually found the right spot and the medicine started working. I couldn't of been more relieved. My surgery should of been over by now but it was just starting.........

Jesse was finally able to enter the surgical room. He was wondering what was taking so long to just do the spinal tap.....the thought of me actually looking decent after giving birth went out the window. I looked horrible after 45 minutes of going through that whole ordeal and crying my eyes out....so much for the pretty hair and make up that I had spent an hour doing.....According to the Dr who administered my pain mendication...the reason why i have such a hard time with spinal taps and epidurals is because i'm small framed. Apparently when you are shorter they have a smaller opening between the vertibre's to actually find the right spot to adminster the medicine. Good to know i guess.

The surgery went smooth after that. The medicine was working...Jesse was by my side and we were about to find out what our sex of the baby was going to be. After feeling tons of pressure and tugging in my lower abdomen and hearing the nurses and my Dr talk.....the time was finally here. Dr Makappati finally yelled out.... "JENNIFER, IT'S A BOY"......the anticipation was finally over. Even though i was a little disappointed that it wasn't a girl I was overwhelmed with joy that we had a healthy baby boy. After Dr Makappati showed us our little boy they wheeled him over to the nurses and pediatrics doctors to look him over. Apparently they discovered that he had a little heart murmer. It wasn't something to worry about just yet. It's normal they said and they would keep checking it to see if it went away. I was exhausted. Even though I didn't go through 24 hours of hard labor before hand...I was still exhausted. Dr Makappati stitched me up and then Jesse and I were wheeled to our recovery room. I remember with Easton after surgery I was in so much pain...Jesse couldn't even stay in the same room as me...this time Dr Makappati assured me that stronger drugs and medication were administered and that I'd actually have my own pain pump to push every 6 minutes if pain medication was needed. This c-section was completely different. The pain medication actually kept my pain in check and I was able to endure being in the recovery room. The hospitals new policy is if the newborn is healthy they are able to be in the recovery room with you. Luckily baby K was able to be in the recovery room with us and I was actually able to nurse him for the first time rather then him receiving formula as his first meal. Lactation nurses were at my side as well making sure everything was going smoothly and that the baby was latching and nursing correctly. That was such a relief. Nursing went great...baby K latched on great and nursed just like he was suppose to. I was really hoping this time nursing would go more smoothly and that i would produce more milk this second time around. After being in the recovery room for several hours due to no beds available.....Jesse and I were able to move down to our actual room. Unfortunately with the flu being so bad the hospital passed the policy the night before that no one under 18 could visit patients in the hospital and that there could only be two visitors at a time and Jesse was considered a visitor...so really only one visitor and every one that visited had to have a flu shot or wear a mask. It was so disappointing that Easton couldn't come up and visit us or meet his little baby brother while we were in the hospital. Luckily we had Johan and Julie watching him the first night and then Grandma Brenda coming for the weekend to watch after him.

Since we didn't know what we were having we didn't really have a baby boy's name picked out. Our little girls name was always going to be Kenly Brenelle. We struggled with boys names. Jesse never wanted to discuss seriously when I asked him what names he liked. Poor baby K didn't have a name. He was just being referred to as "Baby K".

Our first day in the hospital was pretty good. Baby K was able to stay in the room with me as much as I wanted. Jesse was able to leave for a while to go and get Easton from daycare, I had a couple of visitors stop by....Pastor Steve, Mindy, and Jill, the food wasn't that bad, the nurses were great and my pain was under control. Our first night in the hopsital went smoothly. Jesse spent the night but didn't get much sleep. He'd wake every time the nurses came in to adminsiter my pain medication or when they brought in baby K to nurse. I actually was able to get a couple of hours of sleep the first night and Baby K did great at nursing.

Saturday my sister was able to stop by for a couple of hours, my photography friend Laura was working for Bella Babies so she was able to take baby K's first pictures while in the hospital. Since she knew me she worked extra long and took more pictures for us than her normal routine. We ended up getting some really cute pictures. I actually ended up buying the CD when i told myself that i wasn't going to. There were just too many good pictures to choose from. My good friends Steph Ritchhart and Jill Dettbarn were able to stop by and visit as well. Baby K had his first bath given to him from the nurse. He definitely didn't not enjoy that too much. Over all was a good day. We were told today that Baby K failed his hearing test. It's something that is I guess normal with c-sections and they told us that they would test it again tomorrow to see if the results were different. That night Jill stayed a while with me since Jesse wasn't staying the night. He'd rather sleep in his own bed and actually get some sleep than stay at the hospital with me and get no sleep..plus his mom and her boyfriend were in town to watch Easton so he wanted to spend a little time with them as well. After all my visitors left, the night was actually kind of lonely. I wasn't able to have baby K in the room when i was the only person in the room. That was hard. I wanted to be with baby K at all times...I loved snuggling with him and just enjoying my time with him.

Sunday....baby K still did not have a name. Every day I kept asking Jesse what he thought about a name. He joked a little and then asked me about the name ACE. I didn't like it at first because it sounded too much like Jace (my sisters little boy). I was set on Kessler, Riggs or Knox. No one really liked Knox...I was in love with Kessler but Jesse was dead set against it. He didn't want his son named after a Whiskey....how many people even knew that Kessler was a Whiskey...I sure didn't. We were just at a stand still. It was so frustrating that my baby didn't have a name yet. I guess this is common among couples that don't have a name picked out at first before they come to the hospital. My sister came up Sunday night while Ben and the boys were keeping Jesse company at home. She stayed for a couple of hours. We made a trip to Mcdonalds and sat in my bed for over an hour trying to brainstorm on names for the poor little guy. Prior to that, Sunday afternoon Jesse was searching the internet for names. Jesse was still kind of stuck on Ace. I still hadn't really come to terms with that name. He then came across the name Oliver. Ace Oliver...hmm....i suggested Oakley...he didn't like that as much. It wasn't 100% but we kind of both agreed on the name ACE OLIVER. I have always loved the name Oliver just because I could call him Ollie.....After Steph left I again was lonely but this time baby K was actually able to come into the room with me since i was up and moving around. This time getting up for the first time was actually a lot better. I remember being in so much pain the first time getting out of bed when I had Easton..this time...it actually wasn't as difficult and I was moving around pretty smoothly and was actually able to go to and from the nursery and also take some showers which felt amazing. The Dr did tell me today that if i was up to it I could leave a day early. I told them that I would prefer staying the whole time just so I could have a little more down time. I did however miss Easton immensly. Luckily we were able to Tango while Jesse was at home. It was hard Tango'ing just because I don't think Easton really knew what was going on. It brought me to tears talking to him and not being able to see him for days since he wasn't able to come up to the hospital.

Monday came and around noon we were to be discharged. I was finally able to fill out baby K's birth certificate as ACE OLIVER KUEHNHOLD...what a good feeling and a sense of relief since we finally both agreed on a name for the little guy. The morning went quick. I showered..packed everything up...got the car seat ready. The nurse came in and we asked her if Ace had passed his hearing test.....no one had told us if he had and I wanted to know for sure. Luckily Ace passed with flying colors. I was so relieved. I didn't need that stress of him not passing. During our stay Ace had kept on losing weight. Babies normally lose weight from the time of their birth to the time they go home. It becomes a concern when the baby loses more than 10% of their body weight. At the time of our dischard Ace had lost 9% of his body weight. The Dr's were a little concerned but not totally. They did want me to have Ace weighed a couple days after we were released just to make sure he was gaining weight with me only nursing.

We finally got the ok from the Dr that it was ok to release me. I was so ready to go home and actually see my little Easton.

Over all my stay at Mercy went well. The surgery went well, all the nurses and Dr's were exceptionally helpful and nice. They took great care of me and I had no complaints over the course of my stay and care. I had some great nurses that actually cared. My sister on the other hand 3 months prior with Dax didn't have the same experience with Mercy unfortunately. I was fortunate to have a great experience with no complaints.

Jesse and I's lives are about to change completely now having two children. Poor Easton is going to have some adjusting to do as well since he's been the only child for 2 years. I hope he adjusts well and he realizes how much fun having a little brother will be.