Birth, Prayers and Many Thanks!

(Kailie's first time in carseat) (First bath at home)

This is Gina again, many thanks to Jared for posting while I have been in my delirous state this past week. It has already been one week since little Kailie came to us and I just wanted to share a little about the birth seeing as in my post "Ready or not here she comes" I explained how scared I was of birth.

(leaving the hospital Tuesday night)

The Birth:
It wasn't as bad as I thought and there were even some great surprises. The first surprise was that I still got to be delivered by the mid-wives which was awesome. I had two, Sandy who was with me all Saturday and Dana who was there all night and then for the birth they were both there because I delivered right at shift change.
One of my many concerns was that the baby and my body were not ready for this all of the sudden delivery and the mid-wives felt the same way which is why they wanted to take everything really slow which was great for the baby but not so great for me. They both thought that for sure she would not come until Sunday afternoon or evening so I was in for a 24-48 hour labor. I didn't end up doing it completly natural although nothing of that delivery was natural. I made it 15 hours without any pain relief and next time hopefully I won't have to be induced and things will go along much quicker. I actually look back and think that it was a pretty joyous experience. The two midwives that I worked with were amazing and I am so grateful to them and the 2 nurses that attended me were wonderful and so attentive and then of course there was Jared. He was so great and supportive. The only pain that I had was in my back and every contraction which was pretty much every 2 min. or less I would hit him so he would know to start massaging my lower back.
At about midnight, I decided that continuing with out relief would not be beneficial to me or Jared because the midwives and the nurses thought for sure I wouldn't deliver until late Sunday evening so they wanted me to get some sleep (hence the benadryl). That is when I decided to get an epidural which was put in wrong and went up my body instead of down, therefore my chest and arms were numb but not my lower body. If I hadn't been so out of it thanks to the benadryl I would have probably freaked out since my main concern with getting an epidural was being numb. At 1 am Kailie's heartrate dropped and they told us they were probably going to have to do a c-section.

As I lay there that night I thought about all the people I had talked to since I was put on bedrest and how every single person told me that they were praying for me and the baby and some even fasted in our behalf. . At this point my epidural was turned off since it went to the wrong spot and I was preparing myself for the c-section, I thought about those prayers and how at that moment I could feel the power of the prayers of the people in my behalf. I knew that everything was going to be okay and that the baby would come out healthy and strong because of the faith and belief of all those around me.
At this time I just want to THANK all of you for praying for me and Kailie, your prayers were answered and they definitely helped me make it through that scary time.
At 5:30 her heart rate was steady that they started the pitocin and the epidural again and then SURPRISE she came. I was laying there and all of the sudden felt something big moving down and I told the nurse "um I think the baby is coming out" she of course was like yea right let me check and sure enough she was on her way. 21 hours later she was finally here.
I know that her coming so fast was also thanks to the all the prayers. When everyone expected it to be a long time she came and without any complications. Although I had an epidural, I could still feel everything, which was very important to me.

(Kailie being fed by syringe to make sure she eats enough)

I just wanted you all to know that your prayers worked, I honestly truly felt them and am so grateful to everyone for the love and support you have offered us this past few weeks.
We are so happy to have little Kailie here with us, she is beautiful (even though she looks just like her daddy :), she is healthy and she is such a good baby!

First Days Home

So...it's been about 2 days since our last post. Since that time our little girl Kailie Harbor Theler (Still haven't decided if we're doing with the Hawaiian thing or just going with the Kylie genre) has been doing awesome.

In short, the baby is healthy, stubborn as a mule with feeding (only eats when she wants which is only 2-3 times a day which means we've resorted to syringe feeds most of the rest of the time).

We're exhausted but happy.

Pictures and a video below says more than I can in my delirious state. Who ever invented parenthood must have been hypomanic.

Baby girl and mom doing well. In classic Gina style, we are waiting to give her a name (Gina is usually so decisive?). The final 4 are MaKenna, Kailee, Brinley and Kennedy. Anyone want to vote on it? If I was smart enough i'd figure out a way to make that happen on this blog with some type of poll, but unfortunatly Gina is sleeping after a hard night labor, so ya'll got me (the blogging idiot)!

Baby was born at 6:36 this AM at a whopping 4 lbs and 9 Oz (she must get her size from Jared's side of the family). She healthy and mostly sleeping. She gave us a few scares last night with a possible C section and other fun events thoughout the night; but in the end she was born the old fashion way without any real distress. I'm sure Gina will talk on that later (although she was in an epidural/benadryl storm from around 11pm to around 5:30 am when the active pushing started so I'm not sure what she'll remember).

In any case, I can blabb/blog about this forever, but in the end all anyone wants to see are the pictures anyway...so enjoy. We'll write more after we've slept a few hours.


Baby's first bath by dad.

"chillin" under the warmer
















Mom, Dad and Baby

Gina about 1/2 hour after labor finished while dad was giving baby a bath. You would have thought she was working all night or something?


Check out the size of those hands....I don't care if she's a girl, she's playing wide out at BYU!

Ready or Not Here She Comes!

(a few days ago when I decided to wear Jared's dad shirt from the 70's, it just looked really comfy and it was)

It is official, I am going to be induced tomorrow morning. I can't believe that the time has come to finally give birth. I have feared birth my entire life, whenever I would see pregnant women I would think to myself "oh I am so glad that is not me because inevitable she is going to give birth and that is soooo SCARY!" Now I am that woman and ready or not this is happening! Although I am scared, I feel as though I have prepared myself the best I can with the circumstances and come what may it will all be over soon and hopefully with no complications with me or the baby! My biggest fear is that the baby, who is so little is not ready to come out and all of the sudden she is just going to be forced out into this crazy world. Most importantly, I hope and pray that she is healthy and strong!
Well here it goes, wish me luck and perhaps I can convince Jared to post some pictures so you will all be able to see our baby girl who is still yet to be named.

Precious Moments, Merely Memories

As I was digging through some old photos I found this one of my dog Puttchee when he was just a wee little pup. I have had it sitting on my kitchen table for the past few weeks and every time I saw it I would experience two emotions, the first, happiness at how stinking cute he is and then sadness because I wish so badly that I could go back to that time and hold him, squeeze him, love him and hug him. He was so little and by the far the cutest puppy ever(I might be a little biased but honestly just look at that adorable little face).

As I have been preparing to meet our little baby, I can't help but think about Puttchee and how all of the sudden he is 7 years old and on the downhill side of his short dog life(sadly). 7 years, it has already been 7 years, I am in complete shock and just have this feeling that all to quickly my little baby girl will be 7 years old and all I will have is pictures of her as a wee little babe and will have this wish to go back in time so I can hold her, squeeze her, love her and hug her. So my hope this week is that we all take the time to relish in the moment, take full advantage of the time we have and not waste any minute because before we know it time will have gone by and Precious Moments will have become Merely Memories.
(this post is dedicated to Jared because he loves Puttchee so much)

(Puttchee today)

Be Prepared

From Midwife to High Risk!
Right before I went to California I had this sudden urgency to have everything ready for the baby, get a carseat, crib mattress and everything else that I needed. I just kept having a feeling that the baby was going to come early. Then I would just tell myself that I was just worrying because Jared is gone, but now I have learned that I probably will be delivering next weekend which is 3 weeks early and I feel totally unprepared. Unprepared emotionally, physically and temporally.
Why am I delivering 3 weeks early?
Well, when I went in for my regular appointment I was measuring small which I have been the past two appointments as well, so they sent me to do tests and when they did the growth scan(ultrasound) they discovered that the babies belly is really small basically the equivalent of a 31 week baby and I am 36 weeks. Everything else looks okay but they put me on bedrest and told me to eat lots of foods with higher fat contact like whole milk and cheese and then to come in twice a week to monitor the babies heart rate and then after 2 weeks I would get another growth scan and if she hadn't grown much then they would induce me right then. So I left feeling okay and just planning on eating a ton and resting all day, well Jared of course being away called the doctor to talk to him and the doctor told him that they were going to induce me next weekend and that Jared needed to come home.
When Jared told me this I was like WHAT the doctor never told me anything about doing that so all I know right now is that Jared is trying to get home next Thursday and by this time next week we could have a baby.
I am in shock and am not ready to have this baby. I guess I just thought that I would get to the point of being so uncomfortable that I couldn't wait for her to come but I am not to that point yet and I am not prepared like I should be. I am worried for her, I am worried about the birth and having to be induced and I am worried because I don't really have anything but clothes and a few other items. Not to mention the fact that we don't even have a name picked out! Now that I am on bedrest I can't even go buy all the things that I need and I am so mad at myself because I have gone to so many stores looking at baby stuff but I was in no hurry, I wanted to shop around and compare prices and brands. I have definitely learned my lesson, ALWAYS BE PREPARED!