It’s been one hell of a crazy ride

It’s been one hell of a crazy ride. 

A ride that was worth every second because at 10:31am, Kennedy officially came into our world!!! 💕

Crazy long story if anyone wants to see how our day(s) have been: 

My regular 45-60 minute monitoring Thursday was almost complete and my nurse, Kathy, was about to remove my monitor when she noticed the beginning of a contraction. It ended up being 5 minutes long and Kennedy’s heart rate plummeted. 2 minutes earlier and it wouldn’t have been caught. That prompted an extended (3 hour) observation. 2 hours in, another plummeting episode. Scary shit when one minute you’re fine and the next you have literally 6 nurses and an OB all working on you at once in a 250sq ft room. They stabilized her and informed me I needed to be admitted and monitored for 24 hours. That if it happened again to that degree, it might be an emergency c-section. Scary! I called Dan at that point to come to the hospital, just in case. He got there, once we were fairly settled down, he ran to the house for our bags & ended up getting pulled over on his way back. The officer ended up giving him an escort the rest of the way to the hospital. 🙌🏼

No major scary plummets over night, but a good series of painful, long (5-7 minutes each) contractions and mild drops. Not good, as she was clearly under too much stress. On call OB this morning looked at the scans from overnight, spoke to Daniel and I, called my OB and all together we decided that the best and safest course of action was to schedule an urgent c-section instead of waiting for her to be in an emergency situation. 2 hours later we were all prepped and in the OR. 31 minutes after that, we heard a couple whimpers and then a nice, big, loud cry. Dans eyes got huge (he stood to see over the drape) and I just started crying. They cleaned her up with Dan and then brought her over to me, where she instantly quieted down. 

I’ve never experienced such absolutely pure and unconditional love until that moment. 

She’s 4lbs and 13oz of beauty and unfortunately, that lands her in the NICU (standard for babies under 5lbs). However, this is the safer course than keeping her in my belly longer where she was in duress. The nurses here in charge of her care (and mine) have been simply amazing so far - so I know she’s in good hands while I’m down the hall. I do get to get up every couple of hours to hold her, which is what I’m constantly looking forward to. 

Thank you to everyone who we were able to let know ahead of time (we didn’t have much notice!) for your well wishes, positive thoughts, and prayers. 

Holy shit guys, I’m officially a mom. This is hands down the best thing that’s ever happened to me. ♥️