Hello Cruel World Take 2

Here is a last minute huge Angela shot at 40 weeks.

And here is a picture from when I was in labor, before Sam went to school.

And now, Zoey's birth story.  I had been getting pretty painful Braxton Hicks at night, waking me up and getting more intense as days went by.  So when I had some about 5 minutes apart at 2:30 Thursday morning, I was not sure.  I got up and tried drinking water and sitting in my chair and they stayed.  Nick and I watched some tv.  I did try to sleep again, but they were worse when I was lying down.  So, I stayed up the rest of the night and they progressed to 3 minutes apart.  I called the doula, Casey, at 7 and she headed over a little after.  It was raining, but we decided a walk might help move things along.  So Nick, Casey and I walked with umbrellas.  We still got pretty wet and miserable in the 20 minute walk, so we went in.  I did not want a cold for sure.  But sitting stalled labor some.  So we decided to head to the mall.  Nick, Mom, Casey and I walked the mall for about 2 hours.  The contractions got a lot more intense, to where I had to stop, but no closer.  We decided to head home.  I did some time on the birth ball and swaying.  After a bit, they were pretty intense, so given the single umbilical artery we decided to head on to the hospital even though my water had not broken.  So we left our house at about 1 pm.  The lady at check in seemed to think I did not need to be there, but when they checked my cervix (while I was on the phone since they lost my pre-registration), I was 8 cm.  So they said we need to get her to labor and delivery NOW.  My Ob was on surgery duty that day, but he had a break and came by to see.  He said if we broke my water, we would have a baby soon.  So I got hooked up to monitor and he broke my water.  More questions while having contractions.  Nick and Casey helped by providing hip counterpressure.  My doctor had to leave for a bit and when he got back I was at 9 1/2 cm, so my doctor helped me push past it.  Not even sure what all the manipulations were, but in the end I pushed for only about 20 minutes and Zoey Elizabeth Kelling was born at 3:05 pm.  I was pretty astonished it was only 3 given how long it felt.  Definitely a very intense hour of my life.  They put her in a blanket on my chest right away and did not even tell us gender.  Nick and Casey were rubbing her as we let the cord pulse before cutting it.  Nick finally asked and they told him he was right there, so he got to be the first to know.  I also got to feed her right away and she took right to it once I was able to sit up.  Feeding her has been so different from Sam who had such bad jaundice and was so lethargic.  Plus I am sure experience helps.  

Zoey means life in Greek and is a name we both liked.  Elizabeth is a name significant to both sides of our family, my grandmother and Nick's great-grandmother and aunt, among others.  I never really had a true feeling of what we were having.  Single umbilical artery is slight more prevalent in girls, so statistics were slightly on that side.  Sam really wanted a sister.  But most everyone who gave an opinion said boy, maybe because it seems more balanced.  I really did not care as long as the baby was healthy.  We did not, however, finalize a boys name.  We had it down to a very short list, but Zoey was the only girls name on the list.  She is a truly amazing baby and such a blessing of course.  She reminds me so much of Samantha when she was a newborn.  I know babies all look a bit alike and I do see some differences in facial structure, but the resemblance is definitely there.  She even does some of the same movements and facial expressions, definitely deja vu.

Zoey's jaundice is stabilizing, so she has to stay on the bilibed a bit longer, but it should be all done soon.

And some pictures...

Quick picture

We have a bunch of photos, but our drive is not working right now, so I cannot download everything.  But here is a picture Nick took with his phone. I will post more photos and her birth story later :)

We are all doing very well.  Nick and I got almost no sleep in the hospital, as expected.  My mom and Nick were so wonderful and took shifts last night to allow me to sleep when I was not feeding Zoey.  I feel human again after getting so little sleep for days.  But I do have to say the recovery this time was much easier.  I was up walking very quickly and am already in better shape than the last week of pregnancy :)

Zoey is eating like a champ and has stabilized on her weight.  She does have a touch of jaundice, which we thought we had avoided by great early numbers.  So she is on a billibed for the afternoon and overnight.  We go back for another blood test in the morning and hopefully will have beaten it.  She is not too elevated, in fact just enough to qualify for the light bed, but given Sam's history they recommended just getting the lights to be on the safe side.  It is still like night and day from Sam's first few days of total lethargy and struggling to feed with us having to supplement with formula and me pumping milk.  We do not have to struggle to wake Zoey up to feed.  :)  I remember all too well having to torture Sam to try and get her to eat.  We had to undress her and rub her back with cold cloths and things like that.  Zoey demands to be fed every hour and a half to two hours and then sometimes takes a short break and comes back for dessert.

It's a ..........

The Southern Kellings are the very proud parents of Zoey Elizabeth Kelling. An 8 lb 6 oz, 21 in bubbly baby girl. Both mom and baby are doing fantastic even soon after the 3:05 pm arrival time yesterday. Will post more in the upcoming days.

Sunshine State of Mind!

We have a big announcement.  Not baby related though.  We will be moving to Florida.  Nick got a great offer from University of South Florida Polytechnic.  They are a spin off of USF that will be moving from a finishing school to a full 4 year school.  He will teach, do research, and be partially running their new Human Factors undergraduate program.  So he will be busy.  It also has more opportunities for me.  I will be adjunct, but I will also be able to do research at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa.  The college is located on Lakeland, FL; which is in between Tampa and Orlando.  We may live a little towards Tampa in Plant City.  We still have to figure all that out.  Nick has to start in August, but our lease here ends at the end of June, so we may move by then if we can figure out our Atlanta house and such.  We are super excited by this opportunity and expect a lot of visitors to our better location.  We will not be that far from Disney!

Messages for Munchkin

Well, my due date has now come and past.  I did get checked yesterday.  The babies heart rate was good.  I am 2 cm dilated, partially effaced and my cervix is very soft.  My ob assures me once I really start, it will be easy.  We shall see.  He also said it might jinx it, but he did not think I would be pregnant next Monday.  So we are hopeful that we can get this show on the road soon.  Munchkin likes to push his/her back and bottom to one side and his/her foot to the other.  My message to Munchkin is, "You have run out of expansion room.  Please stop trying to add a wing to my already expanded belly.  Please head towards the exit."  Love, Your mother who would like to meet you.

Sam also recorded a message for Munchkin.

And here are some recent pictures.

Nick likes to teach in a t-shirt and professor jacket, so I often check goodwill for a good one.  I found this one for him for Valentine's day.  It is gray and has the leather elbow patches.

We had seen this ski mask on a kid and thought it was too funny, so when I saw one on clearance I could not pass it up.  Hopefully he will not need it much since we seem to be getting mostly nicer weather and he should not need to shovel snow anytime soon, but it is stylish :)

Here is Sam with her valentines goodies.

Sam and I also went to the Highlands Museum in Ashland, Ky.  Not quite the level of Houston or Boston, but Sam had a good time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sam has been doing great and having a lot of fun lately.  Naps have been a bit rough, she is trying to skip them some.  But hopefully it was just an exciting week and things will get back to normal.  She definitely needs a nap still.    

Sam likes to pretend to box at our punching bag.  She was being silly and wanted a picture taken.

I am still doing pretty well, just getting pretty huge.  Not sleeping much, but that is to be expected at 39 weeks pregnant.  I am super glad I made it this far given that we were told early labor might be a possibility with the single umbilical artery.  Making the official full term date is such a relief.  Now if only I could predict exactly when the blessed event would happen, I would be even happier.  Any day now!  I am having Braxton-Hicks contractions and am pretty sure the baby has dropped at least some.  I did have some nausea this weekend, but I am pretty sensitive to hormone levels, so still not predictive of anything other than late pregnancy.  We are super excited to meet Munchkin.

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day.  Sam was super excited about the day.  She is having a party at school and was happy to take in her cards for her friends.  She even took in her Fancy Nancy Valentine book to share with her class.  Drop off went the best it has gone in months.  Hopefully she will have a day that lives up to expectations.

Stats on Sam!

We had another busy week.  Sam and I went to storytime at the library for the first time in a while.  It had gotten too crazy, but it is a bit better with the cold weather.  We also had 2 birthday parties at inflatable places this weekend.  Sam had a ball.  Nick is a little worse for the wear because of a mis-step, but he was a trooper and took her the next morning, too.

Sam also had her well check.  She is 27.5 pounds (25th percentile) and 36.75 inches tall (50th percentile).  I am not convinced that she was quite standing as tall as she could have, so I think she deserves the quarter inch.  But the pediatrician was pleased.  She stayed in the same percentiles and grew almost 3 inches and just over 3 pounds.  She was impressed with all Sam could do; counting, colors, etc.  

Some of Sam's favorite things...

Colors....pink and purple, depends on the day

Treat....fruit snacks

Food....edemame, broccoli, french fries and then classic kid stuff like mac n cheese and chicken nuggets

Activity...."reading", dress up, drawing

Show....Go, Diego, Go!

Outfit....Dress, any dress

She is such an amazing child and we are very thankful she is ours.  Here are some recent pictures.

My parents brought her a "snow" shovel to help Nick when he makes a snowman.  She has enjoyed using it inside and always wants me to take her picture.

She even does it dressed as Barbie.

Tuesday at school was sports team t-shirt day.  Sam has outgrown a lot of her t-shirts, so she wore her GT cheer leading outfit.  She was so excited.

 Some birthday presents got here a bit late, so we got to spread out the opening.  My cousin Linda and her family sent a cute backpack that she insists on wearing and plans to take to school,  It is almost as big as her, so it is a bit comical.  Aunt Robyn, Uncle Jon, Isabelle, and Luke sent a dress, which she immediately said she would wear to school.  They also sent a new snap and style doll, which evidently Sam had been dreaming about.  She is so funny when she opens presents.