Welcome to the World, Baby Kahler!

Introducing the newest addition to our family...
Kahler William
(pronounced "Kay-ler")

Date of Birth: Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Time: 4:03 PM
Weight: 8 lbs. 13 0z.
Length: 21.25 inches

He's finally here everyone! And thankfully arrived 8 days early:) He's a handsome little fella and looks a lot like his big brother as a baby. So I'll tell the whole story with how everything went down, so brace yourselves for a rather lengthy post!

Labor & Delivery

*@ around 10 am Wednesday morning I started having rather sharp contractions. But I didn't think they were the real thing considering I wasn't feeling any back labor at all...it was just all directly in the front. So I kept going about my usual business and proceeded to feed Isaac breakfast. That was about when they were getting very consistent every 5 minutes or so. I still wasn't convinced though thinking they were long enough yet. However, poor Isaac only got cheerios and bananas that morning since I couldn't stand up longer than 5 minutes when another one hit. Silly me was still in denial I think!

*So my Grandma came over from next door and had me convinced to make some phone calls cuz she was realizing how much pain I was in. From that point on they got pretty intense. I finally called Brock to warn him and decided to call my midwife, Amy...who luckily was on that day! She told me to call her back if they shortened up at all, but not to wait too long since the second one can have a tendancy to come faster. Brock arrived soon after and started getting our stuff around to go to the hospital. This was it! I "tried" to relax with Isaac on the couch and timing contractions at the same time. I was getting kinda worried cuz Brock was taking his sweet 'ole time and thinking we needed to stay as home as long as possible! I didn't think so!

*We left for the hospital a bit after 1 and arrived close to 1:30 and checked in. Amy checked me as soon as I got there and I was a good 4 cm dialated and almost completely effaced already. So we started getting me hooked up and all that good stuff. Here's a pic of me in the middle of a contraction. (Brock thought it was pretty funny!)

*From that point on my mind went back and forth debating on getting an epidural again. All my pain was in front and I was pretty much getting though the contractions rather well I guess. I was checked again after a bit and dialated to 6 cm, so Amy told me I needed to decide if I was going to do it or not. At that point we got some Nubane (sp) drugs and that definitely relaxed me really well during the contractions. So I made the decision to not do the epidural this time. I couldn't believe it!

*After some intense contractions I dialated really fast. Then she broke my water and everything sped up a lot after that.

*At 3:15 PM I started the pushing. Always an extreme and tiring work out! The main discomfort I was having once he started dropping was this horrible pain in my left side. It was driving me crazy!
*@ 4:03 PM little Kahler made his appearance. And not only that, he was facing my left leg coming out...OOPS! Defintely explained the extreme discomfort I was having there. As soon as she turned him..it was gone and he came out:) WHEW!
(45 min. of pushing was a TON better than 2.5 hours! yeah!)

Here we are...my first time getting to hold him:)

Daddy cutting the cord...

Family photo...I love it how my hubby looks so darn good and I look like a train wreck:P Isn't it nice ladies?:)

*So everything up to that point went great! Probably couldn't have gone any better. I had the chance to nurse him right away and he latched right on. During that time though, things started going down hill for me. So here's more to the story:


Post Delivery
(Warning: for those that do not like "to much detail" you probably don't want to read this part!)

*After the arrival of the baby there's just one more thing you gotta do, and that's pushing the placenta out. Well...that didn't go like it was supposed to. I was nursing Kahler at this point and Amy was having me keep trying to push it out. Well nothing was happening. All that was happening was more bleeding. Normally the delivery of a placent is about 20-25 min after...well we were going on 45 min. and Amy was getting worried. She didn't think it was attached correctly and all it was coming out were membranes.

*Into that I was nursing Kahler and told Brock he had to take the baby cuz I was instantly feeling dizzy and light headed. Things went down hill pretty fast from there. My blood pressure started to drop dramatically. Amy got a hold of a specialist to attempt to get the rest of the placenta out. They gave me more drugs to have me sleep and kind of be out of it. That was the strangest thing. As we were waiting for this doctor I was in and out of sleep and could hear people talking to me and not knowing what the heck was going on. It was awful. Brock gave Kahler to my Mom and he was right beside me the whole time trying to keep me communicating with him.

*Finally the doctor showed up and basically numbed me so I couldn't feel pain. However I could still feel pressure. After several attempts of her trying to get it out, all she was getting were pieces of the placenta. Definitely not good. During that my blood pressure bottomed out at a very frightening 52/23. That was the point my husband said I looked like a ghost and let's just say it was the scariest thing he's ever been through.

*They made a quick decision to put me completely out to remove the rest. This whole thing felt like a huge dream to me. That procedure took 4-5 min. and they got it all out and it was over. Next thing I knew I woke up in the post-partum room. My blood pressure continued to be in critical condition as it was only in the high 50's/ 60's.

*After I woke up and came to, they set up a blood transfusion for me at around 6 pm. I had lost an extreme amount of blood and it took a lot for me to feel back to myself. I wasn't allowed to get out of bed for the longest time.

*I was considered in critical condition until 3 am that morning:/ It was insane.

*Here's a couple pics during that time. Grandma got a lot of bonding with Kahler while we were going through all of that....

Only a couple family members came in that night to see us. Let's just say I wasn't all with it to even be up to talking with anyone.
Here's Grandma Linda...

Finally a picture of Daddy and Kahler. I couldn't do all the usual post-pics that we would normally get.

And finally some bonding time with Mommy. This little guy was the best baby ever for me! He didn't cry once while we stayed at the hospital...no joke! And he even drank a bottle during the night since I wasn't allowed to nurse him:( That was sad for me...but so thankful he was so versitale!

Thursday morning: Getting the little dude dressed up in his football gear for the day!

Checking out his new mommy:)

Yay for Visitors!
Finally on to happier things:)
Thursday afternoon we had a visit from Darcy....

...and little Miss Adie! That's enough right there to brighten your day! (And the fact that Darce made us some AMAZING cookies too!!) Thank u:)

And the highlight of our day...Isaac!! He finally got to come see us Thursday evening. It was so incredibly great to see him...and weird too! My little baby looked like a huge toddler to me!

Giving Isaac his new toy! (No he's not spoiled at all;))

Our 1st family photo of the FOUR of us! How weird! (and I was excited about this pic cuz Isaac is acutally looking at the camera AND smiling:)

The cousins came to visit too! Here's Brady...and new baby cousin, Kloie! (Just 2 days older)...She greeted Kahler with a kiss:) ...or she was hungry! ha ha!

2 peas in a pod:)

Proud Grandparents with #'s 5 & 6! 1 more to go!

Me and my sister, Kristi with our babies

Grandma

*Friday morning: Yeah we had to stay another night considering my condition...which I hated cuz hospitals make me crazy after too long! They were checking me over night again and my blood pressure finally got up to high 90's so they felt better about that and my vitals.

*That morning Kahler got his hospital pictures taken. Daddy came up with the idea of doing a Goshen picture...of course;) They did turn out pretty cute actually...

*After all that and a busy morning, a final decision was made to have another blood transfusion done for me. So that was done at noon that day and ended at 2. We got to start getting things around to go home after that was all done.
Here's Kahler ready for the ride home!

We arrived back at the house close to 5 PM. Our first visitors were Aunt Buff, Lincoln....

...and Uncle Brian. Lincoln definitely is a BIG cousin now!

*Saturday: Daddy and Kahler enjoying some college football on TV:)

And after THREE days away from us...Isaac finally came home to see us and his new baby brother! Let the adventures begin!

All settled in and loving his boppy lounger...the best bought item we ever got for our babies!

And last but not least.....
"Kahler's Korner"
Clever huh?:)
I promised pictures of his finished area in our bedroom. Last Monday I luckily went and bought bedding for him @ Target. I LOVE it!

Stripes and polka dots in brown and blue

And Mr. Kahler enjoying his Colts mobile!

So that's the whole story! Hope you enjoyed our adventure:) Any visitors are welcome at our home!
...and MOTTS mommy readers...hopefully I'll see you all next time! Wished I coulda been there last Thursday, but we were a little occupied:) So we'll see how this week goes and hopefully I can be there...

Many more stories to come of Kahler in the future!