home.sweet.hustad: June 2012

our sweet baby keller is three weeks old already! we are so in love with her! she has the most content and laid back temperament. she has helped make parenting two kiddos so much easier!

we went to visit our pediatrician today and over the past 3 weeks...

• keller is now 8 lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long. somewhere between the 10-20th percentile.
• she is very alert and aware of her surroundings during her wake times. she is starting to focus on mommy's face and different objects.
• keller really enjoys hearing evie's voice and will focus on evie's face when laying on a blanket next to her sister.
• she is sleeping 3-5 hour stretches at night.
• her neck is growing stronger everyday.
• she usually eats every 3 hours during the day and takes 2 long daytime naps (with several catnaps in between).
• keller loves her swing and loves being swaddled.
• she is able to tell mommy’s voice & will follow it across a room.
• keller is still in newborn diapers and clothes. 0-3 month is still quite big.
• she refuses, just like evie did, to take a pacifier however she did take a bottle really well.
• keller made her first trip to target when she was 4 days old. we are training her right.
• her nicknames are sweets, k.g., and miss k.

***please understand that the title of this post is an accurate description of the events that took place on may 22-23. read only if you are interested in the details of keller's birth story.

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on tuesday evening, may 22nd, i said goodnight to my mom. i bitterly told her "see you tomorrow when i'm still pregnant." errr...just a short time later...around 9:40pm, i noticed that my contractions were coming quite often although they weren't very intense. they were 2-4 minutes apart and about 40 seconds long. that first hour went quickly but the pressure and intensity started to pick up. around 11pm, i encouraged erik to go take a shower. i did the same. after that, i noticed that the time between contractions slowed down, but the intensity continued to strengthen.

by 1am, i thought i should call the hospital to check in with them. they told me to listen to my body and come in when i was ready. erik fell asleep and so i was timing my contractions using our ipad. i was unable to sleep and kicked erik every time he would snore (which felt like i was kicking him every five seconds) out of bitterness and frustration due to my current state. i was able to ease the pain by walking around but by 4am i was in a pretty significant amount of pain during each contraction. so i woke erik up (i may or may not have hit him...i'm certain he was snoring) informed my parents, and then we were off to the hospital.

when i got to the hospital around 4:30am, i was scared to death. when i was in labor with evie, the hospital sent me home the first time we went because i hadn't progressed. so it was a huge relief (aka excruciating pain) when the nurse checked me and i was already dilated 4 cm. my contractions continued to strengthen and at one point, one left me in tears. at around 615 my nurse, christina, came in to check me again. eeeeek! why doesn't anyone warn women that having your cervix checked is awful!?! i hadn't progressed much (uber disappointing considering how much pain i was in) and christina warned me that the anesthesiologist had a scheduled c-section at 7:30. if i didn't get an epidural now, i'd have to wait until after that c-section. it didn't take me long to do the math to figure out i would have well over 60 contractions if i waited until after the anesthesiologist returned from surgery. so, at 7am dr. roberts (angel of the hour) gave me the drugs. amen.

just before 8am, my new nurse julie, started pitocin. although i couldn't feel the pain, i felt the pressure and could see the monitor...the pitocin appeared to be working because i was having contractions 1-2 minutes apart and the were very strong. i was so excited, i couldn't sleep let alone rest my eyes. so i spent the next hour texting most of my family and close friends keeping them updated on what was going on. erik was able to get a little bit of rest...and was once again snoring.

just after 9am i felt a really weird sensation and a TON of pressure. i knew i had either pee'd my pants, or my water had broken. sure enough, when julie responded to my call, she discovered that my water had broken and that i was completely dilated. in her words "whoa! baby is ready! she's right there!"

i hollered over to wake erik up and i frantically called ashley to let her know that i was complete and about to start pushing soon! we weren't expecting a baby until the afternoon, so ashley had to rush rush rush. julie had me give a quick "practice push" to see where we were at. she abruptly stopped me from pushing because the baby was immediately crowning. she called dr. placek and i sat there...with my legs in stirrups...NOT pushing. that was surreal. waiting for the doctor, feeling no pain but lots of pressure, legs up in the air...just waiting. julie and i got in some good laughs.

ashley bolted in the room at 9:35am. a few minutes later, at 9:41am, dr. placek arrived. after gowning up and getting ready, dr. placek sat down in front of me and instructed me to push. not even 5 seconds later, with a big smile on her face, she told me to stop and said "well that was the hardest thing you've ever done, right?" i looked down and there she was...keller grace was here!

keller grace hustad

may 23, 2012

9:44am

7lbs 4oz

20 inches