Keslee Gillian

On the 12th of April, my Kessie-Boo turned 7. I can't believe she is already seven years old. My own birthdays don't make me feel near as old as my kid's birthdays do! So almost 8 years ago, I was pregnant with my second baby. Kenyon was almost 4 years old and ALL boy. That kid never stopped and was into (and on top of) EVERYTHING! That is why it took me sooo long to decide I was ready for another baby. I wanted a baby girl so bad. I just knew this time had to be a girl. When I was only about 11 or 12 weeks pregnant, the doctor was concerned about the place the placenta was attached so he ordered an ultrasound. This was a MAJOR bummer for me! Maybe I have mentioned before but I have a high tendency to be a control freak. I like to plan. I need a plan!! How could I PLAN on having this baby without knowing the sex!? You know insurance companies only pay for 1 ultrasound and 11 weeks was too early to tell much about the baby(well except for hearts beating and major organs all where there should be but that stuff I already knew! I needed to know-BOY OR GIRL!) I was also planning on have a v-back. I had a c-section with Kenyon and really did not want to do that again. I wanted to do it the normal way. Well my doctor was not really big on that idea. He did not like to take the chance. He explained that there is about a 1% chance of the uterus rupturing and although that seems so minimal now, while I had a baby growing inside of me depending on me to get it here safely-1% all of a sudden sounded like a HUGE risk that I did not want to take with my baby so I agreed to another c-section. This pregnancy was not going as PLANNED (and of course my next one was even MORE off the plan!). I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy for the most part. I wasn't sick like I had been with Kenyon. I felt good most of the time until the third trimester and then she was laying in a way that really KILLED my hips! I couldn't sit, stand or even lay comfortably for long. One of my favorite memories of being pregnant with Kes was at about 8 months along during a thunderstorm. I was laying in bed when a HUGE thunder crashed. You know the kind that shakes the house and feels like the cloud is about 2 feet over your roof when it hits? Well my sleeping baby awoke and JUMPED about a foot inside my belly. It was the strangest but most awesome feeling! We definitely knew there was nothing wrong with this babies hearing! Well since God new about my need to know things so I can plan accordingly-the company I worked for changed insurance companies in the middle of the year. Whatta ya know! New insurance company=1 paid ultrasound! I had the next ultrasound at about 37 weeks and it was very clear that YES! it was a baby girl. A baby girl with big chubby cheeks and big enough to see EXACTLY what she looked like on the fuzzy ultrasound. It was the most awesome sight! Ultrasounds are just really cool anyway-getting to see a developing baby months before you would ever meet them but to see one the size of a newborn and big enough to see every detail of their little face-AWESOME! The test also estimated her to already be over 8 pounds so we scheduled her delivery for the next week. There is something to say about having a baby with no labor and really no pain. I went into the hospital that morning and my doctor came during lunch and we had a baby in a matter of minutes-12:21pm only weighing 7lbs and 7 ounces and GORGEOUS! I got to be awake this time and Monty was in the delivery room with me. I got to hear her cry and Monty got to be with her as they did her apgar tests and then she was handed straight to me. I got to hold her as I was wheeled back to my room. It was so peaceful and calm and not anything like the emergency c-section I had with Kenyon. Since my muscles had not been contracting at all before the surgery and the epidural had a 24 hour pain block in it-I literally had NO pain! A few hours after she was born I was sitting indian style in the bed and never felt uncomfortable at all.(also I had stitches this time where as I had staples the 1st time. If you ever have abdominal surgery-request stitches! I believe they made a world of difference!!) Keslee likes to hear the story of how I had her and never had pain but with Kenyon and Kalysa I was in pain for hours. Keslee was an easy pregnancy, an easy birth and has really always been my easiest child-so tender hearted and loving where the other 2 have a definite stubborn streak!

Well now my baby is SEVEN! My how the time flies! This year, since the month has been so busy anyway and her birthday was on Easter day, we just had some cupcakes at home with the family after church and gave her the one present she had wanted since the 1st time she saw it(about 4 years ago!)....

BABY ALIVE! (which I found on sale for about $20 off the regular price;)) She named her Kate.

Of course after being in that box for so long she must have been hungry and being the good little mama that Keslee is-she had that baby eating within 2.3 seconds of getting everything out of the box!!

Kenyon Gregory

Well it was eleven years ago today that Monty and I welcomed the first addition to our family. I was 40 weeks pregnant. At my doctor appointment on the 30th, my blood pressure was high and I had the beginning signs of preclampsia. Since our son was showing no immediate signs of vacating the cozy home he had occupied for for 9 months, my doctor decided to induce before things got any worse. I was told to go home and get plenty of sleep and then be at the hospital at 5am on the 31st. Well it is hard enough to rest when you know you could go into labor with your first child at any time, hard enough to stop thinking "am I ready? Do we have everything we need? Are the baby things clean enough? Is this house clean enough to bring a newborn child into? etc. etc. etc" Just try resting while you count down the HOURS until you know it is gonna happen. I did my best to sleep and got to the hospital right on time. After filling out paper work, hooking up to a fetal monitor, and starting my IV, the medicine to induce labor was finally started at about 7am. Daddy watched cartoons as I tried to rest. Around 930am the doctor broke my water and by noon the contractions were coming pretty strong and I was using the breathing techniques we had learned in our child birth class. I thought I was doing just fine and was handling the labor well but the nurse kept explaining that things were not moving very fast and finally talked me into taking some pain medicine in the IV to "take the edge off". It really did the trick. I could still feel all of the contractions but was in a place that I did not care-the pain was not bothering me. I relaxed. I mean REALLY relaxed. When I was having a contraction I would sit up and breath through it but as soon as it ended my body would relax soooo much that I forgot to breath. Mom kept having to remind me to breath between contractions so often that they finally but an oxygen mask on me. Around 4pm, the nurse again was explaining to me that the process was not going very fast and it was a lot for my body to handle and tried to talk me into getting an epidural. I did not want it and did not feel like I needed it. We seem to think that experts know best and I really wish I would have stuck to my guns but she finally convinced me. I was in pretty hard labor and as soon as the epidural was in place I felt instant relief. The anesthesiologist said it did not look quite right but I told him it felt great so he left it alone. If only he would have stuck to his guns and fixed it then, things may have turned out differently. I felt good and the pain was gone and I slept for a few hours. I woke up realizing that the epidural was working fine for the left side of my body but not at all on the right side. I was in excruciating pain on one side and felt nothing on the other. Several attempts to adjust the medicine did nothing to help. The right side of my body was taking ALL the pain and stress of full blown labor. I was dilated to a 9 for 2 hours until the right side started working against the left side and started to tighten up. All I could do was cry in agony and the babies heart rate was starting to be negatively affected. I was then given the option of taking out the epidural and putting it back in correctly. With contractions 30 seconds apart, I knew there was no way I could have stayed still through that process. At 9:30, the decision was made that the baby was not handling thing well and I was knocked out for and emergency c-section. I remember seeing the gas mask beside me and begging the doctor to put it on me before the next contraction hit. He put his hand on my throat and I was out. I never saw the mask come any closer to my face and later told my mom that I thought he had choked me until I passed out because all I remembered was his hand on my throat. At 9:45 Kenyon was finally born. I was out from the surgery for awhile and got to stop by the nursery window to see my baby in the "baby cooker" on my way back to my room around midnight. Finally at about 2 am he was done cooking and they brought him to my room and I got to meet my son. He was gorgeous!!! He was also asleep and stayed that way until about 8 am. I guess it had been a pretty long night for him as well. I hate that I did not get to hear my son's first cry. I was not the first person he saw or that got to hold him. I did not even get to meet him until he was about 4 hours old and he did not see me until he was about 10 hours old. I wish that we would have had those special first moments of bonding but I do know that with or without that-nothing could have made me love that little baby any more than I did. I can not believe that it has been 11 years since that night. There are so many memories that are as fresh as if they had just happened and I am sure some that I have forgotten but one thing will never change...I get that same feeling I felt when he was first placed in my arms every time he holds my hand or (tries) to climb up on my lap for a little bit of mama's cuddly love time. MY SON! I LOVE THAT BOY!

Kalysa Glori

Well it was 6 years ago, January 24th 2003, I was home and had been trying to clean house all day. I was 26 weeks pregnant with my 3rd baby. All day long I just did not feel right. I kept trying to clean to take my mind off of things but it was not working. I just did not think the baby was moving around as much as normal. Things just felt weird. I had bladder infections and vaginal infections and yeast infections and kidney infections all through out the pregnancy-that is the only time I have ever had them-so I thought that had to be the reason I didn't feel right. Every hour or so I would go and lay down kinda on my side kinda on my stomach just to make this tiny baby mad so that she would move around in protest to my position and in turn reassure her mama that she was doing ok. I had not had any pains but I knew something was not exactly as it should be. Then around 8pm I started having contractions and the feeling that something was not right left me. NOW I KNEW FOR SURE! I did not know what to think! I had gotten pregnant when my baby-this babies BIG sister-was only 3 months old. I was not ready to have another baby! It would rob Keslee of her own babyhood. Monty and I had taken steps to prevent getting pregnant again. We had decided that our family was complete with one daddy one mama one son and one daughter. I was not happy and excited the day I found out I was pregnant but I had changed my mind. I loved my baby and knew Keslee would be a great big sister at 1 year old, but now, 26 weeks into it, I thought I was about to be punished for seeing the blessing that God was giving us as a burden instead. I called mom and she came right over to take me to the hospital. The ride takes about 30 minutes and by the time we arrived the pains had gotten pretty bad. The hospital I was planning on delivering at was not equipped to deal with a 14 week premature baby but they did do a stress test and a few other things. The baby looked good-her heart rate was strong-she was strong-she was moving all around even though I could not always tell it. I had another bladder infection. That must be what was causing the pain. I needed antibiotics, lots of water and some rest. On our way home we stopped to get the medicine filled and I did not think I was gonna make it! The pains were getting worse. We stopped and got a hamburger because I had not eaten all day(I just had not felt like eating at all) and a jug of water. Before we got home I had to have mom pull over so that I could throw up the hamburger. It never dawned on me that is a sign of active labor!?! I finally got home, Kenyon was staying the night with John(my brother) and Keslee was already asleep so I settled in to get the prescribed rest. About midnight, after tossing and turning and not sleeping but not having as much pain, I went to the bathroom and that is when I saw small spots of blood. I called mom and she rushed back over. Monty was still at work but I called him and gave him an update and let him know we were heading back to the hospital. He was gonna meet us there this time. This time the nurses checked me and I was dilated to about a 3. They hooked up an IV with the proper medicine to stop pre-term labor and sent me by ambulance to Mercy hospital with a full NICU unit. The pains had stopped for a while but by the time I got to the other hospital(around 3am), they were back. I was taken directly to a room and I don't know how many nurses started to work. I had shots to stop the labor, shots of steroids for the baby in case they could not stop it, the foot of the bed was raised so gravity would be on our side and not against us and the on call doctor was called in. around 6am I was dilated to an 8 and the doctor told me we could either keep doing what we were doing and she would probably be born within the hour or we could go ahead with a c-section that was safer on a pre-mature babies tiny soft skull. We opted for the c-section and around 7:20 am on January 25th 2003, our 2 pound 4 ounce 13 inch long baby girl made the tiniest squeaking cry that sounded like a newborn kitten. The NICU team started working on her right away and I was taken back to my room to pray and call everyone I knew and wait. By noon God had let me know everything was gonna be alright, even though the doctors had not told me anything. I was at peace and knew that God was taking care of everything and I was ready to see my baby. Of course c-sections moms never make it all the way down to the NICU the first day or two after surgery but I had made the nurse that was with me all morning promise to take me before her shift ended. She did not believe it would happen but I kept hounding her and around 3 pm I climbed into a wheelchair and went down the long hall to see my baby. She was stabilized and on a ventilator and the tiniest little thing I had ever seen. Pictures can not do justice to how tiny she really was. I talked to her and held her little hand and sat with her for a while until the nurse made me go back to my room. That evening I made that long trip down the hall again for the second time within 12 hours of having major surgery but there was nothing that could have kept me from her. My baby girl-born just 9 months and 2 weeks after my first baby girl. Today my girls are the best of friends and are now both 6 years old(the same age for 2 1/2 months) and that 2 pound baby is riding her new 2 wheel bike(with training wheels) all through my house because it is icy and too cold to go outside and telling me she had now practiced for 2 days and is sure she is ready to take the training wheels off and ride like Keslee does. She never was one for waiting!!!