She was born with tons of hair on her head AND all over her body. She has it on her back, from her shoulders all the way down to her bum. She has thick hair on her upper arms to her elbows. The hair on her head couldn't even handle maintaining the boundaries of her scalp and grew from the sides of her scalp straight to her eyebrows, there is a thin layer of dark hair on her forehead, thick enough that there is a almost impossible to see PART on her forehead just over the right eyebrow. AND she has old man hair on her ears, even MORE than Wesley grows on his own ears. :) I have nicknamed her "Hairy Beast" but I'm not sure how dad feels about that.
We love her!
Our kids are currently into the X-Men and it was pretty fun when they came to the hospital yesterday to meet her to be able to compare her to several of their favorite X-Men heroes...The Beast, Wolverine and also Nightcrawler.
So here is the part where I wanted to share a little of the labor and delivery story. You can skip it and just head to the pictures below if you don't want to read all of the "details." I will try not to become too graphic.
I should start with a little history. With the three kids previously I've had to be induced. Except maybe Novalee. I'm not sure what to call that labor because I cheated and took castor oil which put me into labor long enough to get me admitted into the hospital when my contractions slowed down and I THEN had to be induced using Pitocin.
All babies were overdue to some extent with Novalee being the least overcooked at one day and also the smallest baby weighing 7 pounds 5 oz. Jared was 9 days overdue and weighed 9 pounds 6 oz and Sadie was either due on Aug 29 or Sept 8 (depending on which OB/GYN you talk to) and weighed 7 pounds 12 oz. And so my babies range in size and I always wonder HOW long is too long to keep them cooking because I never really want to grow another 9+ pound baby again. :)
This time I really didn't want to be induced. I really just want to go into labor naturally, not have pitocin and not get an epidural (that last part was cr-A-zy).
So I chose I midwife who was ALL about respecting the women's body and it's timing on when it will go into labor.
Well at about 33 weeks I was really starting to wonder if I was going to have Kinsley early or on time. I was having pretty good braxton hicks contractions which was actually really exciting for me since with the other ones they only really started at the very end.
When I was at the point to have the doctor "check" me I was actually progressed further than with any child and the baby was lower.
Oh how I got my hopes up! :)
Then weeks past with no progression AND my braxton hicks contractions started slowing down. And I really started wondering what the heck was wrong with my body.
But I thought for sure at 40 weeks I would hear good news or they would "do" something (strip the membranes) to help the baby more eager to enter the world. But as my sister put it, I kind of shot myself in the foot by choosing a midwife if I was hoping they would help the baby come sooner than 40 weeks.
Finally on May 24th I went in for my 41 week check. I told them what I wanted and got it. Here was my plan. Strip my membrane and give me 24 hours to see if I could go into labor with just that encouragement and also set up an appointment for the following day to be induced if it didn't work. So they did that. I was scheduled for induction the 25th at 1:00pm.
Wes and I prepared that night for heading to the hospital the next day at 1:00pm. I had been cramping since my doctors visit due to their "encouragement" but nothing else. I kind of wondered though if we would make it to 1:00pm (hopeful feelings of the LONG overdue) and felt I needed to have EVERYTHING ready before going to bed.
At 3:15 I woke up having the strongest contraction I had yet had. I thought I just needed to go to the bathroom since that seemed to be the reason for any contractions lately. But was shocked and felt a little out of control when I realized I had a lot more "bloody show" than what I felt was normal after a membrane strip. I'm really going to try and keep the grossness out of this.
I had false labor on Sunday morning due to castor oil (I know, I wanted natural but I got desperate, don't judge me). :) Anyways that I night I gently woke Wesley up and asked if he wanted to drive to my moms and see if my contractions would get stronger, we even hung out for a bit before going which was good since they stopped.
I can't help but feel there was a huge contrast the morning of May 25th. I rushed into our bedroom, flicked on the overhead light (I'm sure Wes loved that) and said we need to go to the hospital NOW! I explained my reasons. There was no hanging out. I kept having contractions which was exciting and also a little scary. We got the kids in the car and started driving to my moms.
About this time Wes notice that EVERYTHING wasn't prepared beforehand and we were super low on gas. Haha! He says that was just classic.
I also started questioning whether or not I really should be heading to the hospital. What if I was over reacting and what if this really wasn't it. But about every four minutes my feelings were reconfirmed. :)
We got the kids to my moms, we were all pretty calm. We decided we needed to get gas or we wouldn't make it.
Labor at the gas station is interesting.
Of course for as long as you can you want to keep your pride and so I tried to be casual through the contractions while the gas station guy was around.
We made it to the hospital and we started walking to the emergency room when Wes thought perhaps we might want to grab the camera. He ran back to the car with me urging him to hurry. He looked all over and then realized that it was probably in one of the bags dropped off with the kids back 20 minutes away from the hospital.
I must have been crazy but I told him we couldn't have the baby without the camera and so we drove back to my moms. :)
When we got to the hospital again of course I'm trying to stay calm. The person at the desk asked, "What can we do for you?" with a knowing smile. I said, "I think I might be in labor."
Up to triage I went. They talked with us for a bit and had me dressed down. I was still bleeding more than I felt was normal. They checked me. No progress from the office visit the night before AND they kept telling me some blood was normal after the membrane strip. (But I still felt it was too much).
They had me on the monitor, I was definitely having contractions. I was pretty discouraged that I they seriously hurt and still it didn't mean anything.
They were in a tricky spot. It was now sometime close to 5am and I was scheduled to be induced at 1pm. What to do with me? So they offered that they could check to see if I could be induced early which I refused.
They then said I could walk for a couple of hours on that floor and be checked again at 7pm.
Wes and I did that. My contractions started getting really, REALLY strong. I hated that part. We didn't know that the triage room was ours and so we were walking the halls with all our stuff. My coat felt like Hell's fire on, carrying my purse was burdensome and all I kept trying to do was time my pace so I could have my contractions somewhere other than in front of the four nurses stations so I didn't embarrass myself too much. Wes kept saying I think you should get checked again, I think you should get checked again... But I was embarrassed that we were even there with no progression. I had never really been in real labor before, what if I was just a wuss and there was again going to be no progression. So I held out as long as possible.
I finally asked if I could use a bathroom and discovered the triage room was ours to use. To our relief we could go back and put our stuff down. I got to privately start crying because I was in so much pain. I did at this point agree to have the nurse come back to check me.
She came and told me that regardless they were just going to keep me. She said I looked to be more uncomfortable than last time she saw me. Perhaps it had to do with me crying during each contraction and rocking on the bed. :) Still unsure of myself, the midwife on duty came in and checked. I had gone from a 2 dilation to 4 or 5 and from 50% effaced to I think she said 80 to 100% effaced.
You think I would have felt relief with that but my contractions didn't really allow for relief. I was just glad to know I could stay. At this point the no epidural option was long gone and I just wanted them to get the "orders" in, get me fluids, get me to my room and get me that epidural!
I was asked if I wanted a wheelchair to get to the room. I refused wanting to keep my pride. I should have accepted the chair I would have saved more of that quickly deteriorating pride. Every few minutes I had to stop and cry and scream and breath through a contraction in the hallway making a huge spectacle of myself.
I kept thinking what a huge wuss I was but it really hurt. And while others can handle labor naturally and while I might be a wuss, I couldn't handle it.
I got my epidural at 8am. HEAVEN! They checked me again. I was at a 6 and 100% effaced. At this point my contractions slowed and became not as strong (a side effect of the epidural) but it was good. They had to give me two doses of antibiotics which needed a four hour gap in between each dose. As it was they were pushing it to the very end and were waiting for the last drop before they would let me push even though I had been feeling like I could for about 30 minutes before they finally let me.
I told them finally I couldn't wait any longer. The midwife told me just to wait long enough for her to put her gown on. With the help of the midwife and the nurse and Wesley (there wasn't time for the rest of the "team" to come in) we had our lovely Kinsley Alice Crockett at 12:08pm!
The midwife told me afterwards that she wasn't sure but there were signs that my placenta had started to detach from the uterus and that would have explained all the blood.
Everything turned out great!
She was healthy and it is always amazing to me how just that first touch of your newborn creates an instant eternal love for them.
Baby's First Photo
All clean
Wesley's first chance to hold her.
Look at her hair!
(Can you see the hair growing to her eyebrow?) :)
It was so good to see our other kids. It felt like it had been forever even though it was only half a day.
Daddy with two of his girls.
The whole fam. Sadie doesn't seem super excited. :)
Kinsley one day old.
If Daddy looks tired it's because he is. He stayed up a lot the first night to help Mommy.
Please cross your fingers that we have a pacifier baby.
After a whole day in the hospital we were both really ready to go.
Just home.
Our girls showing their excitement about the baby.
Headed to church today.
I'm grateful for good timing, healthy babies, understanding children and an amazing husband.
