Kielle's debut

The picture below reveals all the details, but not the story.

Kielle (key-ell) definitely resembles our other kids, but my pregnancy with her was nothing like my past pregnancies. Which is why I was not surprised that her labor and delivery was anything but routine.

My water broke at 6:25 AM.  I've never had my water break before.  I woke up in bed and remember thinking something felt weird.  I got up to go to the bathroom and realized that I was about to "splash".  My water hadn't broken yet but I knew it was coming.   As I ran into the bathroom, it broke, luckily inside my bathroom (on the tile.)  My labors are normally less than four hours so Jacob and I hurried to get to the hospital thinking we wouldn't have much time.

 

Jacob loves the super bright overhead lights in the delivery rooms (he calls them the "action" lights). In 2006, I had an emergency C-Section when Katanya was born. I really wanted a VBAC  so long as it was safe. The doctor said that as long as my delivery was progressing she would let it go for 24 hours before we would have to go the C-Section route. My labor was slow and for the most part fairly mild. I progressed so slowly. My labor ended up being 15 minutes shy of 15 hours. 

For the first time since McKay, my epidural worked.  The anesthesiologist was amazing.  He said he had a hand full of techniques he would try if it didn't work and he seemed to know what he was doing.  It worked right away.  Because we weren't sure if it was going to work, they put the epidural in around 10 AM.  I was comfortable and not in pain for most of the labor.

Finally at 9 pm, I was fully dilated and ready to deliver.  The delivery was my easiest yet.  It is true when they say "good things come to those who wait."  I truly believe that a slow and patient labor probably helped with my chance of a successful VBAC. 

Kielle honestly came out wanting to eat and smacking her lips.  I wonder sometimes if she is going to grow as fast as Kirsten did.

Our friends that were staying with the kids that night brought the kids over to meet their sister. 

We had picked her first name a few weeks ago were no where near being able to agree on middle names. The long labor gave us time to talk about names.  Kielle came from a list of names I came across 3 weeks ago.  Its origin is Hawaiian.  Athena came from the goddess.  Kirsten had been reading Percy Jackson the night before so at the hospital I went over a list of complete (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Celtic) goddesses and really liked Athena.  After all she is the goddess of wisdom so how could Jacob not like it?  Magdalena came from Jacob.  He had heard the shortened name Magda and looked up the long name - Magdalena.  He also liked the fact that it was an Eastern European name.  I wasn't ever worried about not having a name nor agreeing on anything beforehand.  Life always works itself out.  We are so blessed to have little Kielle join our family.  I already can't imagine life without her.