Introducing Kendall Marie Danielson

Little Baby Danielson is here! We welcomed her in to this world on September 19th, 2012 at 5:43pm. Her labor and birth were a looooooooooong process.

Kendall's Birth story:

My labor with Kendall started on Tuesday September 18th at about 6pm. I was making dinner and kept feeling this cramping in my lower abdomen that was different from the Braxton Hicks contractions I had felt on and off the last half of my pregnancy. However, considering I was already overdue, I didnt want to get my hopes up thinking I really could be in labor. After dinner, David and I took a walk, and the contractions didnt go away. I started timing them (thank you free iPhone app), and when they were five minutes apart, we called my OBGYN, Dr Chan. After talking with the Dr, he thought I should go in to be checked at the hospital to be on the safe side. He didnt think I was in active labor, since I was able to talk to him on the phone, but because I was already at 3cm, it was best to go in. So, off we went to the hospital, arriving at about 10pm. They took us to the triage side of labor and delivery, and checked me, and sure enough I was at 4cm and contracting. We stayed in the triage room most of the night (all the delivery rooms were full- September is the most popular month for babies to be born, something about Christmas and New Years wink wink) and were finally moved in to a delivery room at 5am. I had progressed well all night, and was at 6cm when they moved us in to the delivery room.  Based on my dilating, the Doctor and nurses thought Baby Danielson would arrive between 6:45am and 10:45am. David was in contact with our parents throughout the night, keeping them updated, and by 7:30am, both sets of future grandparents were at the hospital, and my sister and brother in law were on their way in from the bay area.  Up until this point, I had been managing my contractions with slow, rhythmic breathing, and silence in the room.  It was the weirdest thing, any time I felt a contraction coming on, I got into a semi squat position, tightened my muscles and just rocked back and forth. After leaking a little fluid (TMI sorry) they didnt want to check me anymore to avoid introducing an infection if my water had in fact broke.  However, after being at 6cm for 6hrs (yes, 6 hrs!), the Doctor finally checked, and sure enough, my water hadnt broken.  He went ahead and broke my water, and that brought on MAJOR back labor, but no further dilation.  Finally at 1pm, after checking again and seeing that I hadnt reached 7cm yet, I decided to have an epidural. At that point, I had been awake for close to 36 hours, and Little Baby Danielson was showing no signs of arriving any time soon.  I got the epidural and was able to relax a bit, and an hour later, I was at 10cm! Since I hadnt slept, the Doctor had me rest for a few hours, and I started pushing at 4pm.  It was strange pushing while still feeling the effects of the epidural, because it's hard to know if you are pushing the right way. Finally, after almost 2 hours of pushing, Little Baby Danielson arrived, and Daddy David was the one to tell me LBD was a girl. Unfortunately, our joy was short lived, because after they placed her on my chest and David cut her cord, the doctors and nurses had to take her away because she wasnt breathing well or handling the "transition" well. They took her out of the delivery room, and David had to watch while they hooked her up to breathing assistance (a CPAP machine) and they took her to the NICU. I was unaware of what was going on, still in the delivery room. After a while, they told me what was going on, and after getting up to my recovery room, I was finally able to go down and see her in the NICU. It was hard to see her in the NICU, hooked up to the CPAP machine, with IV's in her tiny little hand, but she was so healthy compared to other babies in the NICU. At 8lbs, Kendall was 4x the size of most of the babies in the NICU. 

The next three days were hard on us. We spent all of our time in the NICU, or in the hospital room waiting for her to wake up to feed. We had to leave on Friday night, and Kendall had to stay one more night. Leaving her was one of the hardest things we have had to do, but knew it was for her best interest. We called the NICU the next morning, and she was cleared to come home! We brought her home Saturday morning, and it has been a whirlwind every since! It is hard to imagine what life was like before she was here, she is already so ingrained in our lives. I love my little pal, and girls officially outnumber boys in our house!

Pictures to come, I'm having difficulty uploading right now

Little Baby Danielson is here! We welcomed her in to this world on September 19th, 2012 at 5:43pm. Her labor and birth were a looooooooooong process.

Kendall's Birth story:

My labor with Kendall started on Tuesday September 18th at about 6pm. I was making dinner and kept feeling this cramping in my lower abdomen that was different from the Braxton Hicks contractions I had felt on and off the last half of my pregnancy. However, considering I was already overdue, I didnt want to get my hopes up thinking I really could be in labor. After dinner, David and I took a walk, and the contractions didnt go away. I started timing them (thank you free iPhone app), and when they were five minutes apart, we called my OBGYN, Dr Chan. After talking with the Dr, he thought I should go in to be checked at the hospital to be on the safe side. He didnt think I was in active labor, since I was able to talk to him on the phone, but because I was already at 3cm, it was best to go in. So, off we went to the hospital, arriving at about 10pm. They took us to the triage side of labor and delivery, and checked me, and sure enough I was at 4cm and contracting. We stayed in the triage room most of the night (all the delivery rooms were full- September is the most popular month for babies to be born, something about Christmas and New Years wink wink) and were finally moved in to a delivery room at 5am. I had progressed well all night, and was at 6cm when they moved us in to the delivery room.  Based on my dilating, the Doctor and nurses thought Baby Danielson would arrive between 6:45am and 10:45am. David was in contact with our parents throughout the night, keeping them updated, and by 7:30am, both sets of future grandparents were at the hospital, and my sister and brother in law were on their way in from the bay area.  Up until this point, I had been managing my contractions with slow, rhythmic breathing, and silence in the room.  It was the weirdest thing, any time I felt a contraction coming on, I got into a semi squat position, tightened my muscles and just rocked back and forth. After leaking a little fluid (TMI sorry) they didnt want to check me anymore to avoid introducing an infection if my water had in fact broke.  However, after being at 6cm for 6hrs (yes, 6 hrs!), the Doctor finally checked, and sure enough, my water hadnt broken.  He went ahead and broke my water, and that brought on MAJOR back labor, but no further dilation.  Finally at 1pm, after checking again and seeing that I hadnt reached 7cm yet, I decided to have an epidural. At that point, I had been awake for close to 36 hours, and Little Baby Danielson was showing no signs of arriving any time soon.  I got the epidural and was able to relax a bit, and an hour later, I was at 10cm! Since I hadnt slept, the Doctor had me rest for a few hours, and I started pushing at 4pm.  It was strange pushing while still feeling the effects of the epidural, because it's hard to know if you are pushing the right way. Finally, after almost 2 hours of pushing, Little Baby Danielson arrived, and Daddy David was the one to tell me LBD was a girl. Unfortunately, our joy was short lived, because after they placed her on my chest and David cut her cord, the doctors and nurses had to take her away because she wasnt breathing well or handling the "transition" well. They took her out of the delivery room, and David had to watch while they hooked her up to breathing assistance (a CPAP machine) and they took her to the NICU. I was unaware of what was going on, still in the delivery room. After a while, they told me what was going on, and after getting up to my recovery room, I was finally able to go down and see her in the NICU. It was hard to see her in the NICU, hooked up to the CPAP machine, with IV's in her tiny little hand, but she was so healthy compared to other babies in the NICU. At 8lbs, Kendall was 4x the size of most of the babies in the NICU. 

The next three days were hard on us. We spent all of our time in the NICU, or in the hospital room waiting for her to wake up to feed. We had to leave on Friday night, and Kendall had to stay one more night. Leaving her was one of the hardest things we have had to do, but knew it was for her best interest. We called the NICU the next morning, and she was cleared to come home! We brought her home Saturday morning, and it has been a whirlwind every since! It is hard to imagine what life was like before she was here, she is already so ingrained in our lives. I love my little pal, and girls officially outnumber boys in our house!

Pictures to come, I'm having difficulty uploading right now